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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010452" data-attributes="member: 18387">Gary Gygax's NECROPOLISCAVEATSThis is not a playtest review. There are fairly extensive spoilers.OVERVIEWThis is a 288-page hardbound Egyptian-style adventure and accessory set in the land of Khemit. This accessory was originally published as part of Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys game system, but has been expanded, edited, and updated to Third Edition D&D.The bulk of this book is devoted to the adventure, which involves a quest by the PCs to find and explore the lost tomb of Set-Rahotep, though simply reaching it will be a major challenge in and of itself. They will need to secure a home base at a local town, travel to the Gorge of Osiris, make their way past a temple blocking their access, including exploring its underworld, then pass through the gorge itself. Though the overall thrust of the adventure is linear, many of the stops along the way are full-sized dungeons in their own right, with several avenues of exploration available. The adventure culminates in the deadly tomb of Rahotep. In addition to the adventure, a large section near the back contains dozens of new Egyptian style monsters, a rundown of the many deities of Khemit, and a very brief overview of Khemit itself. Formatting and font are a bit of a departure for Necromancer Games, without the usual sidebars, and while the space is used well and the appearance is slick, it also feels more impersonal than a standard Necromancer Games product. POSITIVES1. There is a vast wealth of information here, both in the adventure itself and in the appendices at the back of the book. I found the section on Khemitian deities particularly interesting. The many monsters provided are useful for an Egyptian campaign, but the vast majority are "animal part" style abominations-crocodile-headed camel, multi-snake-headed crocodile, etc.-along with various types of mummy or desert undead. 2. The adventure is huge and deadly, and should provide both DM and players with many great gaming moments over a long span of time. There are numerous impressive sites (and sights) to fill the PCs with awe and terror, and the areas themselves, written by Gygax, definitely have that old-school lethality, though it has been tempered somewhat with the inclusion of deity-specific figurines. 3. The figurine system is another of my favorite parts of this adventure. Each character can acquire one early on, and depending on which you have in your possession, you may gain insights or protection from that deity to help you in certain encounters. This is a great way to work the Khemitian gods into the game as well as alleviate the sometimes nearly arbitrary lethality of the adventure.NEGATIVES1. My biggest complaint with this book is its relative lack of organization; while I understand this is a pretty traditional style for Mr. Gygax, due to the sheer size of this tome and the wealth of information it provides, a more aggressive editing and organization of the material would have greatly facilitated its usefulness.A few examples: First, in the Temple of Osiris, there is a boat that is activated by not one, but several keylike components, and the locations of these defies my understanding; one component is located within a construct that the PCs must destroy to retrieve, and I wonder how the locals manage to make use of the boat without needing to kill it. In the same section, a room has an alarm trigger that causes "the employment of magical forces outside [the room] to change the hue of the lighting in the chamber within and also make a plangent sound emanate from the gong in the library (Area 10)." Yet there is no mention of a gong anywhere in the description of Area 10.Another example of lack of organization: The term "Duat" (the Khemitian heaven/afterlife) is mentioned early in the book, but not explained as to what it is until later. Necropolis would have been well-served with a comprehensive glossary of terminology used, as well as more specific information of the Khemitian pantheon overall in relation to the afterlife. In addition, there are a number of evil artifacts the PCs must collect, but there is no specific location where they are all described and their abilities listed.Related to the issue of disorganization, many parts of the overall adventure can be quite complex to run. For example, in the final tomb of Set-Rahotep, as you progress you may activate certain curses whose effects will vary depending upon whether or not you possess evil items from earlier in the adventure; you actually want to be holding these to stave off the ill effects. Keeping track of who has what items, and how the PCs are influenced by the curses, is challenging due to the lack of an easy-to-follow overview of this.Another facet of this problem: Most of the maps appear in the body of the adventure and are collected at the back of the book, but a few only appear at the back (notably the regional map), while others only appear in the body of the adventure (notably the Gorge of Osiris map). 2. While the maps look quite nice, they show almost no interior detail, and I would have liked to have seen a more significant indication of the furnishings in various rooms to make reading the map easier. And while area keying overall is decent, there is a significant keying error in the Gorge of Osiris; individual areas within the Gorge on the maps each have lettered headings beginning with "A", but the text starts with A and does not restart with each new area, so "N" in the description might correspond to "A" of some area deep within the gorge on the maps. 3. Though it is vintage "first edition feel", I thought some of the encounters were bordering on outright unfair in the arbitrary nature of the consequences of not performing the right action. For example, a statue of Set might pose a riddle, and PCs need to be smart enough to somehow realize that they should deliberately not give the right answer (since it is an evil deity posing the question). Fortunately, the inclusion of the deity figurines as mentioned above helps to alleviate this problem somewhat and keep it under control. 4. Another minor but nagging problem: Near the beginning, the book advises visiting the Necromancer Games website for a download adventure that will help you bring characters from a non-Egyptian campaign setting to Khemit. Despite the fact that nearly a year has passed, and the fact that I know that such a download has been written, it has yet to appear on their website. RECOMMENDATIONSDespite its long-winded narrations, seemingly needless overcomplexity, and lack of organization, there is a terrific, old-school adventure to be found here in Necropolis, and enough material for many further adventures in the land of Khemit. I would recommend this book to experienced DMs and players. The DM should be willing to invest enough time and effort to fully absorb the material in the book, and how the statuettes, evil items, curses, etc. work. If you are pressed for time or looking for something light and breezy to run, this is not the book for you.</blockquote>

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