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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010745" data-attributes="member: 172">Treasure Quests: Tombs of RaTreasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is a collection of small encounter areas similar to the original Treasure Quests book. Like the original book, there is a unifying backstory, in this case, all areas are separate tombs in a legendary valley. Treasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is published by Fast Forward Entertainment, with writing contributions by Herbert Beas, Jarad Fennell, Jason Hardy, Kurt Hausheer, Fred Jandt, MK McArtor, Gary McBride, W. Jason Peck, Geoff Skellams, George Strayton, and Christopher Trossen.A First LookTreasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at 24.99. This is a slightly above average price for a d20 System book of this size and format.The cover of the book has the FFE signature red-grainy background. The front bears a depiction of an ancient Egyptian style carving of a pharaoh-like man. The cover illustration is by William W. Connors.The interior is black-and-white. There are no interior artists credited. Many of the interior illustrations are decent quality depictions of ancient Egyptian scenes, some of which have appeared in previous FFE books. Other illustrations, less Egyptian in style, also seem familiar from other products, but are not as good in quality.The maps are computer generated, similar to most FFE products. The maps do seem better in quality that earlier products, having a slicker look and have scales. For the most part, the maps are simple, but in a few cases where there are unusual features, a small key is added to the map defining the feature (like a false door.)The interior body text is dense, generally better than the early FFE products. Paragraphs and lines are single spaces, making good use of page real estate. The editing is generally good, but I notices a few errors in labeling. For example, one tomb had an outer and inner part, but both parts were labeled outer on the page. In another instance, the numbers corresponding to the keyed locations on the map were omitted.A Deeper LookTreasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is a book in the same vein as the original Treasure Quests book by FFE: a collection of small locations for use with d20 System fantasy games. The backstory is both more extensive and players a bigger role in defining the nature of the area. There is less variety in the encounter locations as most are some sort of final resting place of royalty.In summary, the backstory is that in ancient times, the gods of good and evil warred on one another. While they had their backs figuratively turned, a mortal grew in power and was able to attain godhood. This new god started his own assualt on the heavens, along with his followers.He was defeated and punished for his offenses against the gods. Instead of being destroyed, this new deity (by the time frame of the book is called "the old god") was imprisoned in a legendary valley that was used as a burial place for kings called the Valley of the Kings. Several items that were instrumental to his release were scattered about other tombs in the valley, and the gods placed wards and protections on them.Many years have passed at the time of this book, and most of the gods who were concerned about the entombed god have long since forgotten their concerns in the Valley of the Kings.While a fundamentally satisfactory backstory, I am bothered by little logical holes in stories like this. In this case, the two that occur to me is: how did the old god manage to attain godhood without the assistance of other deities (an inconsiderable task is most d20 Fantasy campaign settings), and more importantly, if the gods were so concerned that the old god remain imprisoned, why did they put the keys in the valley near the god's tomb? Why not scatter them across the universe? I'm sure there are a variety of suitable explanations for either that a good GM could offer, but taking a hack at either one of these pivotal points would have been preferable.As this backstory implied, the general theme of the encounter areas in Treasure Quests: Tombs of Ra is a lot tighter than the original Treasure Quests. Most areas are tombs or similar concepts. This may make the areas a bit more redundant than the original Treasure Quests perhaps giving it a bit less utility.Though the book implies a strong Egyptian theme, some of the individual tombs are not strongly Egyptian in trapping of feel. For example, one tomb was that of a storm giant with a nordic name.The tombs themselves are a bit heavier on traps compared to the previous voluem, making an expedition into one without a rogue (or two) unwise.The valley of the kings itself is split into three sections: the lower valley, the side valley, and the upper valley. These three valleys correspond to low, medium, and high level characters, making it easy to pick a section of the book and run characters through a section of tombs appropriate to their levels.In addition to the tombs themselves, the book provides some supporting features including encounter tables for the three valleys (complete with statistics blocks), new creatures (mainly outsiders such as new demons and devils an the "astral asp" and constructs), and a new prestige class, the tomb finder.Mechanically, the book lacks many of the problems that plagued earlier FFE books. The tomb finder prestige class seems reasonably balanced and interesting, and uses standard progressions. The creature statistics seem solid and have reasonable CRs for the portrayed abilities. The creature and character stat blocks look like they have few errors; in most cases what deviations from the rules do exist can be attributed to designer license (like giants using templates not normally available to them.)The old god himself is an unusual case. He is actually statted out in a format that looks very much like that of the Deities & Demigods book, but lacks any of the signature Deity & Demigods mechanics. The one thing that really strikes me as odd is his skills; he does only does not have any of the skills commensurate to his classes and levels, the basic physical skills he does have are not in line with his impressive stats.ConclusionOverall, my impression of Treasure Quests: Tombs of Ra was fairly positive. As there is less variety in the types of encounter areas, it doesn't have quire the universal utility as a source of quick drop-in encounter areas as Treasure Quests does, but it has fewer mechanical issues, and playing the tombs as a combined campaign is a little more compelling. You might also find the tombs to be a useful addition to an Egyptian themed campaign, such as that of the Necropolis adventure by necromancer game.Overall Grade: C+-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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