DARK CONTINENT: INTRODUCTION

Now available: Dark Continent Redux.  This adventure redone with Fantasy Core stats and maps.
 

This adventure setting was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppala’s Apocalypse Now. (Dante’s Inferno gave some inspiration to them both). The Japanese anime classic Ninja Scroll inspired the main villains.

The colony herein is based on the old Belgian Congo in Africa, currently Zaire. The adventure follows the Congo River inland. The characters will going up river into the jungle colony to find and eliminate, err… terminate with extreme prejudice, an insane wizard, Kurtz.

I won’t be providing any stats, as I do not have a preferred system at the moment. I will also be skimping on naming names for the most part. There will be no maps or keyed encounter guides. I will be describing the path and major set pieces on the way. On the plus side, potential DM’s will be able to customize this extensively, and potential players won’t have all of the action spoiled for them.

The human (and demi-human, as you will) inhabitants of the continent will be clearly, physically differentiated between colonists and natives. The differences are up to the group to decide upon. The morality of conditions in the colony are likewise up to group to exploit or ignore. There are situations and events in the adventure for the players to react to, but there is little narrative judgment on them.

By the end of these adventures, the players may wish to “go native” and lead the rebellion. Or, they may want to enter into the struggle for power in the colonial government. Or, they may have completely different objectives. These choices will be beyond the scope of this adventure. Regardless of any side the players choose, the group should have ample motivation to go after Kurtz. They will learn that he is a deadly threat to both sides and everyone in the country.

This adventure derives some inspiration from The Mountain Witch RPG, as well as an inspired account of a game using Apocalypse Now as the setting. Putting a snitch, loyalty officer, foreign operative, native sympathizer, rival colonial political agent, and even a member loyal to Kurtz could make for an interesting game, depending on the party. If I were running the game, I’d play it straight. The group is likely to have enough problems without fratricide being one of them.