From: Saunders Alan <ASAUNDERS@DSL.UK.IBM.COM>
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.
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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 <ASAUNDERS@DSL.UK.IBM.COM>
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
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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.