SearchReview of Tomb of Annihilation
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Blurb from the publisher: 'Welcome to the jungle!
A death curse has befallen everyone who's been raised from the dead. Its victims are rotting away, and all efforts to reverse the decay have failed.
The souls of the dead are being stolen one by one and trapped inside a necromantic artifact. Only its destruction will free the trapped spirits and allow the dead to be raised once more.
All paths lead to Chult, a mysterious land of volcanoes, jungles, and the ruins of fallen kingdoms. Below them all awaits a deadly tomb. The trap is set. Will you take the bait?'
What you get: Your USD 49,95 or equivalent will buy you Tomb Of Annihilation, a 256-page full-colour hardcover adventure for the Dungeons and Dragons (fifth edition) game line.
Tomb Of Annihilation is partially based on two different adventures: the 1978's Tomb Of Horrors, one of the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons adventures ever devised, as well as the 1981 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, the adventure that introduced snake-men to D&D under the premise of the yuan-ti. It is not however a retelling of those adventures. The first has been updated and published for 5e inside the Tales From The Yawning Portal adventure anthology. In addition, the background that leads to the culmination of these two dungeons are new ideas.
As with almost all D&D fifth edition products, Tomb Of Annihilation as is does not currently have a pdf version. In other words, this review relates exclusively to the print edition.
Spoiler warning: As much as I am not going to describe, let alone detail the adventure, parts of the scenario might be revealed while discussing its strong and less strong points. If you intend to enjoy it as a player, stop reading now.
Contents: The adventure takes place in the Forgotten Realms, D&D's default setting, and in particular the peninsula of Chult. Alternative locales are suggested, like Oerth's Amedio Jungle, or Mystara's Savage Coast. It is divided in 5 chapters, ranging in size from 10 to 65 pages. A chapter might have set encounters, different locations to explore, side quests, things to do in the city etc.
The crux of the adventure is between levels 1-11. In contrast to previous adventures, there is no level-jumping. There is no milestone-based level progression or suggestions either. Characters will have to actually progress from one level to the other, in order to be able to successfully confront Acererak the archlich, the adventure's celebrity antagonist of Tomb of Horrors fame. Each of the five different locales gets a different level range that will make the fight fair for the PCs. Do not venture to the final locale, the Tomb of the Nine Gods, before reaching level 9.
Plot-wise, the heroes will arrive in Nyanzaru, a bustling, African-like port. After acquainting themselves with the city and following certain leads, they will explore the African-inspired peninsula of Chult. They will visit the allegedly uninhabited Forbidden City of Omu before tackling the adventure's two dungeon crawls: the Fane of the Night Serpent, and the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Only there will they find the object of their quest: the soul-trapping Soulmonger, property of the infamous Acererak. The adventure is on an internal timer. The more in-game time passes, the more those already raised from the dead will waste away, the souls of those dying will be trapped inside the device, and spells like resurrection will simply not work for anybody in the world.
The book ends with six appendices. Character Backgrounds is about customizing characters in order to better insert them into the adventure. It features the Anthropologist and the Archaeologist. Random Encounters is the second appendix. Expect tables on encounters, caches and treasure drops, and even previous dead explorers. Appendix C, Discoveries, covers the flora and fauna of Chult which may be used for adventuring purposes, as well as magical items like the Ghsot Lanern or the Mask of the Beast. The fourth appendix is Monsters and NPCs. It fully references all the monsters encountered in this adventure, unless they were included in the Monster Manual. Thus, all the monsters that this adventure borrowed from Volo's Guide to Monsters are listed in the book once again. Expect Albino Dwarves, the Assassin Vine, dinosaurs, the frog-like Grungs and unique adversaries like the Atropal. Appendix E contains 24 handouts for the players, while appendix F lists the nine trickster gods of Omu with their Power and their Flaw.
The book also contains a 74 x 53 cm double-faced map. Both sides depict Chult. Yet on one side the map is fully visible, while on the other only the coastal areas are defined. Only hexes are depicted in the interior which awaits to be discovered.
The strong points: The basic premise behind Tomb of Annihilation is rather simple. Take a well-known scenario and antagonist, say Tomb of Horrors and the dreaded Acererak... or rather let's make them two, to involve an interesting D&D proprietary monster. Create a metaplot and evil plan that will potentially affect everybody who matters in the world if it comes to fruition. Place the final confrontation in a hard-to-find, lost-in-the-jungle tomb. Place the said jungle into an African-style peninsula, away from the well-known locales of the Sword Coast. Improve on the approach towards an ethnic pastiche, and add an irrelevant element to stir things up, like dinosaurs. Serve warm and humid.
The result is good, I must say.
The adventure is varied. Its last two parts are intelligent yet deadly dungeon crawls, the first parts however are nowhere near dungeon crawls. There is both urban and jungle exploration, as well as an impressive cast of NPCs which are there to help or hinder the heroes. I am counting around 50 (!) on the list provided already at the adventure's introduction in alphabetical order. That's mighty helpful for the overworked DM, and especially seeing how not only the name, the description and pronunciation (!) are listed, but also the page in which the entry appears.
Chult is interesting. It is still an ethnic pastiche, but it is definitely an improvement over pastiches of previous editions and times. Including dinosaurs and finally moving away from loincloth-wearing tribes are both positive steps. The former gives the continent a lost worlds vibe, even though the deadly prehistoric monsters are used in many aspects of Chultan life, including war and even racing. Once the players see the impressive map they might feel that it is a hex-crawl adventure. The vast majority of the map is uncharted, waiting for the players to sort things out. As expected, their final destination is quite far away from their starting point; expect a lot of random encounters that will rely on one of the system's and stories basic premise: try to wear the characters down. Seeing how the Soulmonger works, the characters don't want to stall their searches too much, lest they fail the parameters of their quest.
Both dungeons are respectful to the premise of the original subject matter, while at the same time they are reimagined for the requirements of 5e. They are not simplistic; there are factions in the Forbidden City, some of which might even become the groups new allies. They do not however diverge from what is expected from them. In fact, I could describe the Tomb of the Nine Gods with one phrase only: a trap and puzzle fiesta. If you can think of it, it's there: floating platforms (like in old-style arcade games!), a wind tunnel with a few sharp extras, self-mutilation to solve a puzzle, pantomimes to solve puzzles, and many, many more. It clearly has the quirkiness of the initial publication in ways both old and new. Undead dwarf tomb cleane- sorry, custodians, are a great idea for a tomb like this, not to mention the newest interpretation of the phrase 'skeleton keys': the skulls of a number of animated human skeletons; just snap the skulls from their spine at the appropriate moment and use at will. The pi�ce de r�sistance however must be the nine trickster gods fighting to inhabit the bodies of the adventurers, providing a critical bonus and a flaw at crucial times. As expected, neither are created equal.
The adventure has numerous very good ideas and encounters which can be used elsewhere without too much work. Some are more extended than others, yet their diversity is what won me over. In addition to re-encountering the yuan-ti, a fan favourite that brings out strong flavours of sword and sorcery, expect a pirate island, a friendly lich, an undead dinosaur that pukes zombies, goblins fighting on top of one another, even a fort with colonial mercenaries, if colonialism in the Realms makes any sense.
The book's production values are of a very high standard. The paper is glossy. The cover is engaging, harkening back to the beginnings of our hobby for those who recognize the horned head's open mouth and its dreaded content. The interior art is extremely colourful, at times bordering on zany, with masterpieces like the zombie tyrannosaurus chase, the ultra cute (and nowhere near lovable) Grungs, and the almost funny scene of the Stone Juggernaut chasing the adventurers. The iconic green horned, bearded, open-mouthed head makes yet another appearance in the interior art, this time spewing abominations. The maps are beautifully illustrated, even though they are not immediately usable from the players' side. Keep on reading.
The adventure is than well-supported. Gale Force Nine has already published a four-map set, a dedicated Dungeon Master's Screen for this adventure only, as well as five Collector's Series miniature sets. Even WotC has put out luxurious, Tomb of Annihilation dice. Such combo approaches add a lot of value.
The weak points: I don't mind deadly adventures. Yet, this is an adventure that relies on rolls and saving throws for pretty much everything, including contracting diseases for which no explanation about how they are contracted or how to get rid of them is included. For a thinking man's dungeon, the Tomb of the Nine Gods has a lot of combat. The combination all these elements can be extremely frustrating, and lead to TPKs more easily than you think.
Many things about the backstory either don't make any sense or are trite as concepts. Acererak in 5e gets diminished to a lich who doesn't want to achieve godhood, but instead prefers building tombs in different worlds (!). He continues to hail from Greyhawk's Oerth, yet he made a tomb in the Forgotten Realms as well, just to torment adventurers. What a ludicrously bad, anti-thematic and anti-climactic idea!
The plot hook doesn't make that much sense either. If a powerful NPC needs to deal with a serious problem, he will probably acquire other powerful NPCs for the job; not some totally unknown 1st level noobs who have no particular stake in this. Are resurrections so common nowadays in the Forgotten Realms for somebody to haul ass and go to an unexplored peninsula just because they will disappear? Down with the system, I say. I understand the appeal that such stories have when seen post-factum. They feel 'epic', a rags-to-riches concept within a very concise arc. It'd better make sense however, and here, it simply doesn't. The first parts of this adventure, namely up to level 5-6, have such a distinctively different flow to the rest that they jeopardize the overall pacing. The DM should better find ways to keep the players interested and the characters personally engaged to the quest if he wants this to stick.
If Chult was a true hex-crawl, it would have failed. The jungle is bland, practically uniform in all its extent, and we are talking about thousands of square kilometres. The majority of the random encounters are combat-oriented without providing alternatives. Taking the distances into account, they are bound to become repetitive no matter the length of the encounter lists. Besides, taking the lethality of the adventure into account, the DM should better have some planning and foresight in order not to exhaust the characters (or bore the players) before they reach the most interesting parts of the adventure. I opted for fluff first, and by providing options to avoid the fights if the players didn't wish to engage in them. This of course means that you will have to also think about XP allocations.
The support that the present adventure provides to the DM is not what I convincingly call adequate. There's railroading (especially in the adventure's first chapters), innovation-stoppers ('you cannot reach the final location of the adventure by air, just because'), over-reliance on rolls (why one would need to roll to spot fairly obvious clues is beyond me), limited high-quality and immediately usable fluff and descriptions (Port Nyanzaru is particularly offending), as well as very few information on things that really matter, like how to play the 'political' game with the different factions within the Forbidden City in order for them to do the job of the characters. The adventure hints towards that possibility, and then takes it violently away by not providing enough meat to run with it.
The maps are stylish and inspiring, yet they simply can't be used as is. The ones in the book are too small. Would it be that much of a stretch to print each of the dungeon maps on an A3 paper instead of an A4, in other words, in two pages instead of one? How is it remotely possible to for the DM to use the printed map, from the DM's side, behind his screen? If he has the map turned to the players' side, how can he consult his side to state the results of the exploration? In a rather astonishing lack of foresight, the map on appendix E is the players' map and not the DM's map. Needless to say, it is extremely small to be of any use. To add insult to injury, the handouts are not provided by Wizards of the Coast on the product's webpage, something that was the case with Curse of Strahd. I don't get any of this.
I won't stop complaining about Wizards of the Coast policy of not producing the pdfs of the current edition's materials. This is patently unhelpful. I prepare with the printed edition, while during the session the pdf is open on my pc to readily find information on the spot. I am extremely dissatisfied for not being able to do so here. Clearly, WotC have done their number crunching before proceeding with such a decision. From my side however, no pdfs mean a rather serious hassle while running the game. Having the handouts in pdf form is only the tip of the iceberg; what am I supposed to do here, find a scanner, a photocopier or take pics with my smartphone? Seeing how this adventure doesn't have an index yet again, I need the pdf for quick reference. Let's see if and when this policy will change.
There are a couple of typos in the product. A pity, really.
Conclusion: I am very happy to see two of the very first D&D adventures being treated to 5e through a cohesive re-imagining as opposed to a simple rules translation. Tomb Of Annihilation will ultimately provide memorable results in the hands of a DM that cares and is willing to invest time and energy. One should not however overlook its flaws, some of them poignant, and the very real work that the DM should put in it. If you are just starting with D&D, irrespective of whether you are a DM or a player, you might want to gather some gaming experience before tackling this one.
For more info on Tomb Of Annihilation and Wizards of the Coast, visit its website at http://dnd.wizards.com.
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