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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010113" data-attributes="member: 1129">Crypts & Tombs is similar to the first Enchanted Locations product.  It presents a group of treasures, maps, and the monsters to go with it.Unlike the first book however, this one tries to do things a little differently.See, the treasures are broken up into groups of magic items based on either class or race.  Take for example the Elf Artifacts.  There is a one page map of the ‘Elf Lands’ with twenty numbered and named areas.  The artifacts are named, The Ring of the Dark Forest, the Bow of Adrian the Mighty, the Longsword of Avoral the High King, and the Elf Sphere of Ardolwasanth the Life Giver.  The good thing here is that unlike the various books of Power, the items are not given pages of background, but a paragraph or two, meaning we get a lot of items. The legends are laid out and presented with information given on first use, reactions from friends, and strangers, and what happens when the same user has more than one of the items.    Now that last bit is an interesting twist, reminding me a little of some of the properties from the Dark Nebula book, Materia Magica where combinations of magic items are greater than their individual components.  The items are then laid out with their initial power, reaction of the user, the effects it has, how to activate, and what the hidden powers are, and what additional powers are gained when the user has more than one item.  Note, these additional powers are different than what happens when the user has more than one item.  For example, for the Elf artifacts, if he has two, plants grow faster.  If he has three, treants begin reproducing in the forests and if he has four, the elves themselves reproduce faster.  Now right away, I’m seeing some potential uses for this type of device.  Imagine using something like this in the Scarred Lands where the elves are in dire need of some type of miracle.The bad news is that if you’re campaign levels don’t have a lot of high magic for you, much of this book is lost.  With the combination of core class items, fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard, and racial combinations, elf, dwarf, orc artifacts, there is a lot of space taken up by items that may not be for your campaign.  One or two of these items may make its way into your campaign and if you’re looking for ideas on how to give extra powers to items when they’re brought together, this can act as a good blueprint for that but if you have a low powered campaign, this probably isn’t the book for you.After the stats are broken down with their powers, the maps start.  Unfortunately, these are the same types of maps that FFE has used all along, grayscale computer generated maps where the scale is sometimes difficult to determine.  I wish that this company would take a look at Necromancer’s Book of Taverns or the Foul Locals series from Mystic Eye Games to see how some of these maps could be done.The maps have twenty locations with some of the inhabitants written up.  The strange thing is that there are creatures drawn from the Monster Manual II here.  You’ve got Dragonflesh Golems, Gravecrawlers, Pulverizers and other creatures reproduced with a reference of MMII to indicate that it came from that book.  One of the things that prevents this book from being more than just a collection of lairs is that the material isn’t laid out in any real order.  It’s just map, monster.  This isn’t an ideal combination as almost anyone whose been behind the screen could whip out some type of map and lay out some encounters.  If the pages could’ve been beefed up and each listing given some details, then the product would shine a little more than just a collection of artifacts and monster encounters.The art in the book looks to be taken from old public sources ala Dover Publications or other achieved art depots.  This is a shame since the cover art by Elmore is so visually striking.  Layout is standard two columns and text use is fair. The price, $24.95 for 128 pages in a hardback is fair, but a little more expensive than other hardbacks that tend to have more pages.Crypts & Tombs can provide the layout and source for many nights of adventuring but Game Masters should be ready for the high-powered items and either make changes before hand or accept the book for what it is and use it as such.</blockquote>

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