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Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent (for the Indiana Jones D6 System) is my first review and read of a West End Games D6 adventure product. Up until now, I have been spoiled by the likes of Chaosium, Steve Jackson Games, and Manticore. This book does not stand up to the rigorous standards I have for supplements. I expected quite a bit out of this book, expecting it to be akin to a GURPS African Magic if you will, when actually it is more of an African Magic according to West End Games. The back of the book promises rules on how to bring three different types of magic into the game (Indiana Jones D6 System), and it delivers on this, however the delivery falls short of being anything more than mediocre.

To start off, I was surprised by the lack of actual background material to explain the additional rules and ideas they were adding to the game. There was precious little explanation of the African mythology and mysticism used in the book. While there were definitions for the three main types of magic, they were more game oriented than they should have been.

A chronic lack of atmosphere pervades this book making it almost a clinical read with the exception of the flavor text at the beginning and end of each chapter. The author does nothing to draw the players and GM into the mystic world of African magic, instead only providing the necessary stats for the abilities and spells for the game system.

There are a couple of adventure seeds at the end of each chapter on the different forms of magic. These adventures are usually pretty worthless, and for the most part can be ignored. The adventure included at the end of the book "The Wrath of the Yantai" is pretty well done with few exceptions. The adventure does tie directly into the story that forms in the first part of the book, thereby answering at least the GM's questions about some of the missing pieces of the framing story.

As always, the last page of the book has rules for converting from Masterbook to the D6 System. Which is something I do not understand. The original game is released as a Masterbook game, while almost all of the supplements are released in the D6 System style. Making it a slight pain to convert everything in the book to the Masterbook system before being usable.

Overall this book for the Indiana Jones D6 System may be worthwhile for players of the D6 system, however for everyone else, I would recommend waiting until there is an African Magic book for either GURPS or Call of Cthulhu, you'll be much happier with the result, and so will your players.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent
Author: Lee Garvin Category: game Company/Publisher: West End Games Cost: $15.00 Page count: 96 ISBN: 0-87431-438-0 Capsule Review by Paul Franklin on 10/20/98. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Historical	Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent (for the Indiana Jones D6 System) is my first review and read of a West End Games D6 adventure product. Up until now, I have been spoiled by the likes of Chaosium, Steve Jackson Games, and Manticore. This book does not stand up to the rigorous standards I have for supplements. I expected quite a bit out of this book, expecting it to be akin to a GURPS African Magic if you will, when actually it is more of an African Magic according to West End Games. The back of the book promises rules on how to bring three different types of magic into the game (Indiana Jones D6 System), and it delivers on this, however the delivery falls short of being anything more than mediocre. To start off, I was surprised by the lack of actual background material to explain the additional rules and ideas they were adding to the game. There was precious little explanation of the African mythology and mysticism used in the book. While there were definitions for the three main types of magic, they were more game oriented than they should have been. A chronic lack of atmosphere pervades this book making it almost a clinical read with the exception of the flavor text at the beginning and end of each chapter. The author does nothing to draw the players and GM into the mystic world of African magic, instead only providing the necessary stats for the abilities and spells for the game system. There are a couple of adventure seeds at the end of each chapter on the different forms of magic. These adventures are usually pretty worthless, and for the most part can be ignored. The adventure included at the end of the book "The Wrath of the Yantai" is pretty well done with few exceptions. The adventure does tie directly into the story that forms in the first part of the book, thereby answering at least the GM's questions about some of the missing pieces of the framing story. As always, the last page of the book has rules for converting from Masterbook to the D6 System. Which is something I do not understand. The original game is released as a Masterbook game, while almost all of the supplements are released in the D6 System style. Making it a slight pain to convert everything in the book to the Masterbook system before being usable. Overall this book for the Indiana Jones D6 System may be worthwhile for players of the D6 system, however for everyone else, I would recommend waiting until there is an African Magic book for either GURPS or Call of Cthulhu, you'll be much happier with the result, and so will your players. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)