From: Saunders Alan Subject: Source of the Nile Variant (Long) Regarding 'Source of the Nile' variants Dave Wessman wrote: >Hi Alan, >Could you post your variations and the issue # of the General you >mentioned? None of these variants were in electronic format, so I've taken this chance to type them all up. This is Part 1. Sometime soon I will produce Part 2 and there may be a Part 3. If you don't play 'Source of the Nile' then delete this now or go to the next message. Alan Saunders asaunders@dsl.uk.ibm.com Last Three Games Played 3 games of Hordes of the Things, 2 of Age of Rifles, 1 of A House Divided. All on the same day. ************************************************************************ *************************************** Pith Helmet Optional +Source Of The Nile+ Explorers Expanded These rules are designed to give a little more spice and personality to explorers in +Source of the Nile+. They are designed to be used in conjunction with the article +Sources of Strength+ in The General, Vol 21, No 3. Indeed a lot of the changes will not make sense without this article ! Explorer Generation The player+s explorer is now randomly generated. Determine the explorer+s sex. Roll 2D6. On a 2 or 12 the explorer is a Lady, otherwise a Gentleman. Determine the explorer+s speciality. Roll 2D6: ROLL GENTLEMAN LADY 2 Missionary Journalist 3 Ethnologist Doctor 4 Doctor Geologist 5 Zoologist Botanist 6 Journalist Journalist 7 Explorer Missionary 8 Missionary Explorer 9 Botanist Zoologist 10 Geologist Missionary 11 Explorer Ethnologist 12 Journalist Explorer Determine the explorer+s leadership rating (LR). A Gentleman has a rating of 2-6. Roll 1D6 and reroll a +1+. A Lady has a rating of 3-6. Roll 1D6+2, treat +7+ and +8+ as +6+. Missionaries use the same leadership rules as other explorers. Ignore the special rules in +Sources of Strength+. Determine the explorer+s other talents. The number of talents is equal to the explorer+s LR-1 (ie a LR of 4 means 3 talents). GENTLEMAN 2nd Die 1st Die 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Hunter Hunter Hunter Hunter Hunter Hunter 2 Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor Botanist Botanist 3 Soldier Soldier Soldier Soldier Geologist Geologist 4 Luck Luck Luck Luck Luck Luck 5 Luck Luck Luck Know Know Know 6 Know Know Know Know Know Know LADY 2nd Die 1st Die 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Hunter Hunter Hunter Hunter Geologist Geologist 2 Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor Doctor 3 Botanist Botanist Botanist Botanist Botanist Botanist 4 Luck Luck Luck Luck Luck Luck 5 Luck Luck Luck Know Know Know 6 Know Know Know Know Know Know Explanation of Talents Hunter - The explorer kills dangerous animals on a 5-6 and counts as two askaris for hunting purposes. Soldier - The explorer may re-roll the result for the Charge and Ambush table but must abide by the new result (unless there is a Mercenary soldier in the party of course). Botanist, Doctor, Geologist - The explorer counts as having this speciality for the purposes of avoiding disaster only. If any of the above talents are rolled more than once check the second die. If it is odd then treat the roll as +Luck+ otherwise as +Know+. Luck - The explorer is fortunate. Each level of Luck allows the explorer to, once per expedition (not game) reroll any die or dice roll. They must abide by the new result, unless they wish to spend more luck. Know - The explorer has prior knowledge of where they are going. For each level of Know the explorer may, once per expedition (not game) redraw the terrain cards when checking for the following: type of terrain, presence or course of river, presence of oasis or cataracts, presence of natives. Lady Explorers The following special rules apply to Lady Explorers. Their carrying capacity is 8 rather than 10. They automatically have 1 level of Luck. When rolling on the Native Attitude Table, roll twice, then roll a single D6. If the D6 roll is odd take the worst of the two results obtained, otherwise take the best. For this purpose (N) is the best result, (C) the next best and (A) the worst. Leadership Checks (This is directly from Sources of Strength but included here for information purposes). An Explorer uses their LR to do the following: Prevent a guide from deserting if the expedition becomes lost. Prevent askaris deserting when the explorer does bearer work. To deal with Arab askaris (See +Sources of Strength+) To incite native tribes to attack each other (See +Sources of Strength+) To stop Boers from antagonising natives (See +Sources of Strength+ and below). A Leadership check is performed by rolling 1D6. If the roll is less than the LR it fails. +1+ is an automatic failure, +6+ an automatic success. Other Changes Boers The rules for these are in +Sources of Strength+ but they seem to be very unbalanced. Try the following changes: Boers cost $110 rather than $75. If there are Boers in the expedition the explorer must make a Leadership check when dealing with natives. If it fails he rolls twice on the Native Attitude Table and must take the worst result. Lady explorers roll 3 times, discard the best result and then check which of the other two applies to them (not as complex as it sounds). Bearer Chiefs An explorer who purchases 5 or more bearers may nominate one of them as a chief. Chiefs cost an extra $10 and there may only be one in an expedition. In addition to functioning as bearers they have the following abilities: He may save any bearer from disaster on a roll of 1-2 as long as the disaster specifically names Bearers as the recipient. If the disaster is such that the chief must be one of the affected bearers then he does not get to roll. The exception to this is the +Bearers Refuse To Leave Camp+ disaster where he may roll success indicating that they will all leave camp after all. He will not desert the explorer for any reason although he can be dismissed. For each bearer killed by combat or disaster roll 2D6. On a 12 the chief is killed. Askari Sergeants These are the Askari equivalent of the Bearer Chief. The same rules apply to them; just apply them to Askaris instead. In addition: The Sergeant may roll to prevent Askaris deserting when the explorer does bearer work. He cannot affect Boers, Mercenaries or Arabs. He costs $20 extra over the normal cost of an askari. Victory Levels The above rules make the explorer+s chance of survival a lot better than before. To offset the explorer only receives one card for every 5VP published rather than for ever 4VP. Enforced Retirement No explorer lasts forever, which may be an advantage if the dice have been cruel. Whenever an explorer returns to Europe roll 1D6. If the score is equal to or less than the number of expeditions the explorer has completed then he is retired (ill health or a desire to write memoirs). Any donation he would receive are passed on to his successor who is determined by rolling a new explorer as described above. Any unpublished discoveries are lost. From: Saunders Alan Subject: Source of the Nile - Part 2 (Long) This post continues my house rules and variants for 'Source of the Nile'. These suggestions will work without the ones in yesterday's post and don't require 'Sources of Strength' either. They cover the mapping of lakes and rivers, musket armed men, journalistic victory points, water consumption and cautious exploration. There is one more set of extras to come, to do with spicing up the bonus discovery counters (you too can actually recruit Dr Livingston into your expedition !), but some of my handwritten notes on them are missing at present so it may be some time before I can type them up. The non-Source of the Nile playing list members breathe a sigh of relief ... Enjoy Alan Saunders asaunders@dsl.uk.ibm.com ************************************************************************ ************************************************* Ex Africa Semper Aliquid Novi Further Exploration of +Source of the Nile+ Lakes Expeditions other than canoe expeditions may fully map lake hexes. This is achieved by the explorer half-exploring opposite shores of the lake, by attempting to enter them from adjacent hexes. Once two opposite shores are mapped then the lake is considered fully mapped. The expedition may still not enter the hex of course, unless it uses canoes, so does not get to check for natives or bonus discoveries in it. The explorer does check for extra mileage though. Half explored lake hexes may be published, but points are not scored for them until they are fully mapped. Unpublished half explored lakes are erased if the explorer dies or is forcibly retired. Rivers (1) When determining the direction of a river, look at both numbers on the card rather than just the first. If the river can continue in both of the directions given then it continues to the one that will take it to a the hexside furthest away from the hexside by which it entered the hex. If both hexsides are equidistant then take the first. If the river can only continue in the direction of the first number, or there is only one number on the card then it goes that way. If the river cannot continue in either direction on the card treat as +River Ends+, but see the main rules for what happens if the river hasn+t fulfilled it drainage basin requirements. Rivers (2) If the only way a river can continue, either to fulfil its drainage basin requirements or to meet a mouth, is out of one or more lake or swamp hexes then a default point of exit is determined. Count the number of possible hexes that the river could continue into. If this number is six or less, use a die roll to determine which hex is the default exit point and mark it as such on the map. From then on, any explorer checking for rivers in that hex counts it as having a river flowing into it from the adjacent lake or swamp, whether one does or not, and uses the +River A+ section of the terrain card. If another lake or swamp hex is added to the complex, and no continuation of the river system has been mapped then erase the default. If there are still six or less available hexes for the river to continue into then determine a new default. If the default is lost for some reason, either because the river achieves its requirement through some other route or a river is mapped elsewhere from the lake/swamp complex then erase the default. Muskets All armed men carry a musket, whether it is paid for or not. Normally these are not counted as part or portage as bearers do not have to carry them. However, their weight does become important if the man possessing the musket is on a horse or in a canoe or being carried when sick. therefore treat each armed man as having a weight of 16 rather than 15. Journalists Journalists do not receive points for other explorers battles with natives, only their own. However they do receive points for any disasters that affect their own expedition. For each disaster in which men and/or animals are killed, fall sick, are attacked either by natives or wildlife or in which a natural disaster is suffered the journalist receives 2VP. Water An expedition will consume water at a rate proportional to the amount of time it spends in the desert not following a river. The amount of water consumed by a man is given in the following table: MP Available 1 2 3 4 Desert 1/2 2 1 1/2 1/3 Hexes Crossed 1 4 2 1 2/3 Animals consume water at double the above rates. camels can ignore water consumption for one turn but must make up any shortfall on the following turn before any movement commences and cannot ignore water consumption at all on that turn. The above rates assume that the expedition is entering a known hex at a cost of 1MP. If they are exploring at a cost of 2MP then double the above rates. Cautious Exploration Expeditions with only 1MP remaining at the end of a turn (or 1MP available altogether) may partially explore hexes. Choose the hex you wish to enter and make the lost roll as usual. If the expedition does not become lost mark the hex with a blank counter and end movement for that turn. The expedition stays where it is for the moment. On the next turn the expedition may enter the marked hex at a cost of 1MP with no lost roll required and proceed to map it. They must however spend the first available MP of the turn to do this otherwise the partial entry is lost. This rule enables cautious foot expeditions and canoe expeditions with an odd number of MPs to explore effectively.