Source of the Nile

Designed to be an educational and challenging game in which players compete primarily with Nature and with each other, luck tends to be an element in the game, but can be overcome by careful play. Because the situation is forever changing, there is no single best strategy; however, players must weigh risks against gains with every decision they make and good judgment will pay off.

The game is played on a mapboard showing Africa from Khartoum to Capetown and Lagos to Mombasa. The periphery of this map, showing the territory known ca. 1820, is filled-in; the center is blank. A hexagonal grid is superimposed on the map to regulate movement and to delimit territory explored. In the course of play, each player moves a token (representing his explorer) from explored hexagons to blank hexagons one at a time.; terrain, native tribes and other discoveries within the hexagons are then semi-randomly determined, with allowance made for previous discoveries in adjacent hexagons. The player interacts with the discoveries (e.g. negotiates with new natives for guides) and records them on the mapboard using wax crayons. The mapboard surface is erasable. If the explorer dies before returning to Europe to publish his discoveries, all hexagons which only he has explored will be erased and "subsequent explorers will find that his discoveries were only rumors"; i.e., when other players explore the erased hexagons later they will have to generate new discoveries there.