 Goto [ Index ] |
But can Fantasy Flight Entertainment craft a book worthy of the Valley of the Kings?
Treasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is a 128-page, perfect bound soft-cover book. The cover itself features the image of an Egyptian pharaoh statue on FFE’s distinctive grainy-red background. Its actually rather haunting, a perfect complement to subject matter. Interior illustrations are black and white, but none look to be original pieces. Most are culled from public domain sources and are average at best. At least, in most cases, the style is evocative of the books Ancient Egypt-feel.
The maps, so important when bringing a tomb of other dungeon to life, manage to more than adequately perform their task. This is a notable improvement for FFE, as early products were undermined by horrible cartography. The maps here are simple, but effective. I can live with that. Little details, like scales and bearings, are not omitted.
Another improvement is seen in text density and editing. Again, these undermined earlier efforts and Tombs of Ra continues a trend that sees FFE becoming increasing more polished and professional.
The general theme of the encounters is a lot more focused than in the first Treasure Quests book, thanks largely to a back story that brings it all together. In the earliest days of man, the gods of good and evil warred with one another. While the deities battled and attrited one another, a mere mortal achieved divine status. This new god wanted nothing less than to usurp the throne of heaven, but his coup failed and the old gods smacked him down like the upstart whelp he was.
As punishment, he was imprisoned in a crypt in the Valley of the Kings and those items that might release him were similarly interred in tombs and heavily warded with traps and guardians. Over time, the gods forgot about the entombed entity and indeed about the significance of the mysterious valley altogether. Thus the stage is set for some good old-fashioned tomb raiding fun.
As the name implies, Tombs of Ra has a strong Egyptian feel that is only occasionally undermined by tombs that are anachronistic (most noticeably a crypt of a Norse storm giant!). The utility of the book is clear, since short “dungeons” that can be completed in 2-3 hours are in great demand. In that light there’s some 40 mini-adventures here. That’s good value. Unfortunately, there’s also very little variation on the theme, so a GM will likely want to use these crypts sparingly to maintain interest among the gaming group. This lack of variation is felt most by parties that lack rogues, since all are so heavily dependant upon traps.
The Valley of the Kings is divided into three sections: the lower valley, the side valley, and the upper valley. This is a convenient way of dividing the tombs into those suitable for low, medium, and high-level characters. Encounter tables for all three valleys, complete with stat blocks, are included.
Rounding out the book are several useful resources, such as the tomb finder prestige class and six new monsters. The most notable are the smoke serpent, perfect either as a minor tomb guardian or a wizard’s familiar, and the astral asp, a huge serpent not of this plane that feeds by draining intelligence from a beings “astral form”.
The best thing about this book is that its applicable to so many genres. High fantasy, check. Green Ronin's Testament rpg, sure. Victorian or pulp adventures? Absolutely. And you can add Call of Cthulhu while you're at it. The list goes on....
Tombs of Ra is a solid sourcebook. It’s the kind of resource that may sit on the shelf for a while, but when demonstrates its utility when a GM suddenly finds himself in need of quick night’s filler or a sample tomb for an adventure he’s writing. Competently written and with production values vastly improved over many of FFE’s early releases, it shows the company is able and willing to assume a spot among the top tier of the d20 publishing world.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
