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Anyways, Death in Luxor was pretty cool. I asked the players what they thought of the scenario after running it and they told me it was "good". Now, my rating is based on a few factors. One, I love almost anything having to do with Lovecraft. Two, I love Egyptian stuff. Three, new Call scenarios, as I already mentioned, are hard to come by.
So, if you're a Keeper of Arcane Lore with a different bias, then subtract a point from my Style and Substance ratings. Below are the spoilers and where I get into the heart of the review.
The Awesome
Percentage bonuses and penalties. This could definitely be incorporated into more Call adventures. Sometimes it should be more difficult to find a clue or catch a whiff of shoggoth. And occasionally it should be easier. A couple times I saw plus or minus 5% which made me wonder, "why bother?" I ignored stuff like that. Frequently, it was plus or minus something like 25% which is significant enough to take notice of.
Death in Luxor uses ordinary human failings alongside eldritch horror from beyond. This reminded me of Masks of Nyarlathotep which basically means it reminded me of God. That's right, in my reality Masks can do no wrong... another bias for you to keep in mind.
The scenario text included suggested lines of questioning aimed at NPCs, as well as, scripted answers. Wow, that helped! It made negotiating one's way through NPC encounters a lot easier. More adventures should do this.
The Not Awesome
There are Sea People who are sort of friendly and occasionally antagonistic to the Deep Ones. Both come from or live in the sea. Both probably connected to the Star Spawn. Yeah... confusing. If the author(s) wanted to make a scenario based on watery competition between races, that's one thing, but in this case the entities are more or less arbitrary. To fix the confusion, i changed Sea People to Star People which worked out great especially since the newly named Star People are supposed to be connected with the Star Spawn.
Rushed setup/intro. This is pretty much how Death in Luxor starts... "Hey, you get a telegram and a letter from the Luxor dig. Investigators, tell me how you know this major NPC. Ok, you're landing in Egypt". This annoyed me and just felt wrong. So, I took some time and created a better opening which also tied in with where my players had left off. Bolacher was leaving his investigator friends and Boston University colleagues for Chicago University and their promising Egyptian archaeology studies. I created a going away dinner party held at Bolacher and Rose's house before the scenario proper began. I thought it worked well.
One of the main Death in Luxor NPCs is named Carlisle. Say what?!? Can any seasoned Keeper of Arcane lore not think about the Carlisle expedition from Masks of Nyarlathotep when they read that name? Especially one that is set in 1920's Egypt? I found this a bit more annoying than the scenario's slapdash setup. Again, I made do by changing her name to Carmine.
Scene 1b. This is the alternative to scene 1a. 1a is like watching your favorite episode of your favorite tv show. 1b is like missing it but then hearing all about it from one of your friends. Yeah, pretty lame in comparison. Any Keeper that allows the investigators to look at chalk outlines in the daylight instead of corpses in the dark is not the guy who should be running the game!
Scenario length. Luxor is just a little too long for a single session, yet much too brief for even a short campaign. Sure, a group can finish it in one night if rushed; however, that leaves precious little time to savor the locations and characters. The Keeper would have to add considerable padding for the scenario to last three full sessions. At 48 pages, Luxor teeters on the precipice of being a tightly scripted one-off and a collection of interlocking sessions that investigators can really sink their teeth into.
The ending! Great adventures need a great ending, and Luxor's ending needs work. Wood? Frankincense? Myrrh? Is this what the author believed would bring down a spawn of the Old Ones? Not only did this come across as unbelievable, it seemed to rob the entire piece of cosmic horror. How and why would a Star Spawn be denounced by such pedestrian means? Let me guess, water was taken? As you can imagine, I changed this too. Couldn't think of anything too elaborate on the fly, so I came up with some sorcerer's wand thingy. It did the trick.
The Summary
Ok, there you have it. A decent scenario with a few major problems which, thankfully, can be rectified by a diligent Keeper of Arcane Lore. Ideally, Death in Luxor would be polished up, shortened just a bit, and included in a book containing a dozen such adventures for $25.
Oh yeah, the artwork, handouts, and layout were above average. Thanks for reading my review.
ia ia,
Venger As'Nas Satanis
Cult of Cthulhu High Priest
www.CultofCthulhu.net
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