Dark Continent sticks with an extremely basic core mechanic: a roll-under system using 1d10. The system includes criticals and fumbles, but avoids the pitfall some systems face in such a small scale by simply setting a critical at 1 and a fumble at 10. Instead, rolls of 1 or 10 require a roll using the Luck attribute. A successful Luck check after a 1 indicates a critical, and a failed Luck check after a 10 indicates a fumble. When it comes to competing rolls, the system follows in the path of games like Pendragon in which the opponent with the highest successful roll wins. A critical trumps an ordinary success, and the highest Luck level wins in the event of two criticals. In another welcome option, the system allows for scores in excess of 10 by increasing the critical range by one for every attribute point above 10 (i.e., a character using a skill ranked 11 would roll Luck to determine a critical on a roll of 1-2).

Given the game’s obvious usefulness in Victorian-era Call of Cthulhu campaigns, the book wisely includes the option to multiply all target numbers and modifiers by 10 to get percentile scores. In this case, Luck remains at its original scale, and actions become percentile rolls. A roll below the Luck score is a critical, and a roll higher than 90+Luck is a failure.

Character Creation

Players first choose from ten occupations:

• Adventurer
• Explorer
• Jungle Lord
• Missionary
• Officer
• Scholar
• Shootist
• Trader
• Wangwana
• Warrior

Occupation choice determines the possible application of 10 Skill points, the occasional perk, and (in a few specific cases) how the character gains Renown (experience). Each Occupation includes a ready-made sample character, many of whom pay tribute to famous African-themed characters from the Victorian or pulp eras: the likes of Rick “The Mummy” O’Connell, Allan Quatermain, and even Humphrey Bogart’s Charlie “The African Queen” Allnut. In addition, most entries include two sets of recommended tweaks to these archetypes in order to make still more classic characters – the traditional American cowboy, Tarzan, Indiana Jones, and even the Phantom, to name just a few.

The player’s choice of nationality and gender add a few surprisingly stereotypical perks and penalties; e.g., the French can eat basically anything without getting sick, the British gain +1 Willpower for that “stiff upper lip,” and the Irish become luckier when drunk. Likewise, as an optional rule, women may suffer penalties to Strength and Leadership in exchange for bonuses to Empathy or Willpower.

Players next receive six points to spend on Backgrounds. These offer thematic perks and (in some instances) drawbacks, although they all end up as a net positive. Some offer skills to which the character wouldn’t have access through his Occupation, but all help flesh out the character’s past and motivations in entertaining ways. For example, a character may be lovelorn (and hence more empathetic and poetic), may own a share of a gold mine, or may (like Tarzan) be a “perfect physical specimen.” The section includes the background options appropriate to various historical explorers for comparison.

Characters possess seven Attributes, six of which the system pairs off for the purpose of character creation. Players divide 12 points each between Strength and Agility, Perception and Endurance, and Willpower and Empathy. The seventh attribute, Luck, begins at 6 by default but can be adjusted up or down by 2 points at the expense of other Attributes. In any case, no Attribute can be lower than 3 or higher than 9. (Prior to adjustment for Nationality and/or Background, that is. In that case, the max becomes 10, with excess points first flowing to Luck, then to additional Background points.)

Strength, Willpower, and Endurance give the character his starting levels of Wounds, Sanity, and Stun, respectively.

In what I consider a stark improvement over the game’s close cousin, Call of Cthulhu, Attributes include Skill modifiers for scores below 3 or above 7. While this amounts to range of only -2 to +3, at least the logical connection is there.

Of course, just because the existence of the links makes sense doesn’t mean the actual links themselves will. For example, the system goes out of its way to spread out combat Skills among as many Attributes as possible: Agility for Archery and Fisticuffs, Endurance for Heavy Weapons, Perception for Long Arms, Strength for Melee Combat, and Luck for Pistol. Being in good shape makes you a better shot with a cannon, and naturally good shots with pistols are just lucky? Really?

The Skill system itself proves to be pretty generous. While the Skill scores might seem pretty low at first, every skill roll adds 4 to Skill level plus Attribute bonus, meaning that even minimally-competent characters will have a 50/50 chance of success. Further, the system treats Melee Combat, Athletics, Fisticuffs, Long Arms, Performance, Leadership, Pistol, and Trading as “universal skills,” meaning that anyone can use them at a score of 4 + Attribute bonus.

Which is not to say that defaulting in that manner gets the same benefits as a skilled character with the same net score. At each level of skill, characters pick up “Competences” – more specific skill applications, or, in some cases, special abilities related to the skill that don’t directly use the skill at all. For example, Competences falling under Long Arms include the ability to use assorted weapons of this type, but also includes the ability to lug guns over long distances. The Animal Lore skill moves even further afield, covering not only knowledge of animals, but also the ability to grab an animal before it can deliver a venomous bite or to have a built-up tolerance to the venom in question. At the farthest end of the scale, the Faith skill includes Competences like Exorcism, Faith Healing, and Witch Smelling that cross the line into the realm of the supernatural. I like the way this system allows for character customization without the use of “Feats,” and the manner in which it makes characters with identical skill levels potentially distinct.

Renown

In Dark Continent, Renown serves as the coin of the realm. Gained in ways appropriate to the character as well as for reaching benchmarks of success on a given expedition, Renown functions as experience points for character improvement, resource points to outfit expeditions, and as a measure of the total fame the character has achieved. I particularly like the awards for scientific discoveries, since these make knowledge-oriented characters more than simple libraries of information to help get the gunbunnies to the next fight – to the contrary, their discoveries may well be the entire point of the expedition. What’s more, discoveries returned to a museum or the like earn the entire party Renown, making scientific types all the more valuable. Then, of course, there’s the fact that characters have the chance to beat historical figures to the punch with their discoveries, thus becoming historical figures themselves.

Expeditions

As mentioned above, characters may spend points of Renown to outfit their expeditions. Expedition sponsors provide further points of Renown meant explicitly for that purpose as well (i.e., they cannot be used as experience points). Due to the nature of the game, these points are absolutely critical, because in Dark Continent, the expedition itself becomes a living, breathing character, complete with its own equivalent to PC attributes. And it’s here that the game really shines. As befits a game of African exploration, getting there really is half the fun. In addition to the challenges facing the PCs as individuals, the game accounts for the obstacles to entire expeditions, from hazardous weather to treacherous geography. That includes mass battles with hostile natives as well, but I’ll cover that in just a moment.

Combat

At its most basic, physical conflicts in Dark Continent is no different than any other skill roll with damage from a success lumped on top. Unfortunately, the modifiers are many, specific, and not all found in one convenient place.

Characters with appropriate Competencies can subtract their skill levels from their opponents’ attack rolls; other Competencies allow for an active defense roll, which sacrifices an action unless performed with a shield. Any character can attempt an active Dodge using straight Agility and a full action, unless the character possesses the Dodge Competency from Athletics or Fisticuffs, in which case the Dodge is a simple action.

Unarmed, melee, and ranged attacks all have their own damage mechanics, all of which require too many rolls for my taste. Unarmed combat causes 1 point of Stun damage plus the character’s Strength bonus, but melee combat causes random Wound damage based upon weapon type, with the Strength bonus serving as minimum damage. Ranged weapons cause purely random Wound damage, and firearms (realistically enough, I suppose) cause an equal amount of Wound and Stun damage. (Well, unless you’re talking about artillery, in which case a random number of people die in the effect area if they fail their Luck rolls.) Even a single point of Stun requires an Endurance roll to keep from losing all actions that round; likewise, even a single point of Wound damage requires a Strength check to avoid being knocked down. Hence, any damage from firearms requires both an Endurance and a Strength roll.

Then there’s the matter of random hit location, which can affect the amount of damage done (but not consistently across unarmed, melee, and ranged attacks), as well as the end results of that damage (which, granted, makes sense). Furthermore, a melee blow to the head requires still another roll to determine whether the character is knocked out. And armor requires a roll as well, determining how much Wound damage is converted to Stun damage. (There’s no word on whether armor does any good against Stun damage.) Critical hits add 2 points of Wound damage, unless the blow was to the head, in which case the attack causes double damage, and the victim must make a Luck check to avoid an additional gruesome and Attribute-lowering effect.

So… for a typical blow resulting in damage, we’re looking at a minimum of 4 rolls for the hit, the hit location, the damage, and the roll to prevent a stun or knockdown result. That becomes 5 if the target was on active defense, 6 if the target was wearing armor, 7 if the target took a shot to the head, 8 if the damage was both Wound and Stun, 9 if the attack was a critical…

Damn. Granted, the odds of all of that happening are slim, but still… damn. I don’t even want to spend the time figuring out if I need to make all those rolls.

Speaking of mechanics with which I’m not thrilled: by default, the PCs always take minimum damage from attacks. While I can see the rationale for this, as the system appears quite deadly, I think a “Drama Point” mechanic of some sort would have been a better choice – especially given the realistic (i.e., long) healing times to be expected for wounds suffered in the middle of an expedition and the unlikelihood of non-native PCs showing up to replace casualties.

Mass Combat

Because PCs will be traveling in expeditions – sane PCs, anyway – it only makes sense for the game to include rules for mass combat. This it does, and does it well. In fact, the mass combat rules end up simpler than the rules for individual combat. Fundamentally, it’s just a roll of the opposing sides’ expedition STR scores, factoring in logical modifiers for superior/inferior weapons, elevation, etc. On a success, one side inflicts its STR in damage upon the other, and when a side takes its STR in damage, its STR score drops by one. (PCs on a side taking damage must make a Luck roll or suffer a Wound.)

Ah, but there’s a catch: the Leadership score of a unit’s commander limits its base offensive STR before other modifiers factor in, any remaining STR only serving as “hit points.” Furthermore, sides can divide into smaller units in order to take advantage of multiple commanders and get the most out of their overall STR. This has two major implications for the game: a smaller, well-disciplined force can massacre a less organized enemy relying on superior numbers, and the Leadership skill is therefore no waste of points in this game. Dark Continent deserves high praise for including such a simple mechanic to simulate mass combat – especially the sort of mass combat seen in such movies as Zulu (1964) and Zulu Dawn (1979).

Lest you think that Leadership’s all that counts from the PCs in mass combat, I should mention that characters helping with the fighting rather than the commanding can add a point to the damage inflicted on the enemy with a successful attack roll. (That’s unless they’re manning machine guns or artillery, in which case they’ll dish out considerably more carnage.)