ASC3 Review - Patracleo’s Peregrinating Pyramid of Peril

Adventure Site Contest 3 review

This adventure was submitted for consideration in Adventure Site Contest 3 being run by Ben Gibson at Coldlight Press. It has been or will be reviewed by the official judges, who will be selecting the eight winning adventures. This is an unofficial review, which was written prior to reading (or watching) any of the official judges’ reviews. I will do my best to link to the official reviews at the bottom of the review.

I will use a five-star scale, based on both playability and interest:
*          Failing grade. The adventure doesn’t meet minimum standards of playability.
**         I could see running this, but it fails to inspire me or has significant playability issues.
***       I would consider running this.
****     I am considering running this.
*****   I want to run this. Now.

Patracleo’s Peregrinating Pyramid of Peril
By Matthew Lake
For Seven Voyages of Zylarthen
Levels 5-6 (3-6 characters)

Time to grok the adventure: 25 minutes (plus some questions to the author)

Set-up:

A spellcasting mummy princess roams the lands in a flying pyramid. The pyramid contains a gauntlet of deadly challenges. She is looking for adventurers to entertain her.

Things I like:

A flying pyramid with traps, tricks, riddles, changing gravity, and an arena. This is good gonzo.

The pyramid takes off once the party is on board. This is a timer of sorts, as it gets colder and harder to breathe the longer the party spends. 

Things to note: 

There are a couple of rooms that are particularly hard to grok, namely, the sideways temple and the arena. While I’d love to see a second version of the adventure that took the time to make things clear, as with anything, the GM will need to decide how things work and run with it.

“P” denotes “portal” in rooms 17 and 18. Presumably, it is a teleportation gate. 

Some GMs might object to an intelligent, spellcasting mummy. They may prefer Patracleo to be some unclassified undead.

The GM will need to track turns in order to track altitude and its negative effects. 

Rating:
****  An adventure worth the challenge to the GM to run 

Links to official judges’ review:
(forthcoming)