Tomb of Annihilation

Dungeons & Dragons, 5th Edition

by Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle (Contributor), Steve Winter (Contributor)

Dare to defy death in this adventure
for the world's greatest roleplaying game
The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who's ever been raised from the dead. Victims grow thinner and weaker each day, slowly but steadily sliding toward the death they once denied.

When they finally succumb, they can't be raised-and neither can anyone else, regardless of whether they've ever received that miracle in the past. Temples and scholars of divine magic are at a loss to explain a curse that has affected the entire region, and possibly the entire world.

The cause is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger, which is located somewhere in Chult, a mysterious peninsula far to the south, ringed with mountains and choked with rain forests.

- An adventure for characters of levels 1 - 11, Tomb of Annihilation provides the Dungeon Master with the core adventure needed to create an exciting and memorable play experience.
- Expands on the Forgotten Realms setting of Chult, providing extensive detail on the hidden peninsula, and includes a large pull-out map of the region.
- Fans of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS(R) Roleplaying Game can expand and enhance their experience by participating in the D&D Adventurers LeagueTM organized play program while playing this adventure.
- Adventure design by Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, and Steve Winter, with additional design by Adam Lee.
- Story consulting by the award-winning creator of Adventure Time, Pendleton Ward.

The leader in providing contemporary fantasy entertainment, Dungeons & Dragons is the wellspring for the entire modern game industry, digital as well as analog. This newest edition draws from every prior edition to create a universally compelling play experience, and exemplifies the true spirit of a game that holds captive the hearts and minds of millions of players worldwide.

Genres: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Gaming, Forgotten Realms, Reference, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2017

About the author

Chris Perkins is a Canadian American game designer and editor who is known for his work on Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, currently as the senior story designer.

Reviews

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long time D&D player, I love when newer products are able to tap into the cultural history of the game. This module incorporates many previous modiles, with a focus on The Forbidden City (1E Module I1- Dwellers of the Forbidden Ciy) and the Tomb. of Horrors (1E Module S1).

Like most 5E modules, this is written as a sandboxy module (with a focus on hex crawling) until the near-end when it becomes a dungeon crawl. (My personal inkling is that it would be very hard for an inexperiened DM to take this and easily run with it easily.)

Of course it's all in the gameplay: some modules read better than they play and vice-versa. I just started DM'ing this, so we will see! (Our site is on Obsidian Portal, so feel free to seek it out and follow along if you like, see how it goes!)

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so this is a well-done adventure, but really not one I'd choose to run myself. The amount of ways player characters can die in this is truly, terrifyingly, high. Every location in the jungle has at least four ways players can die, at LEAST, and that's not even including the random encounter tables, which when they're not ways to die, are reminders of the fact that other people have died recently. It's a ticking time bomb of a game that is also a meat grinder. I was reading a lot of this going "ahhh who would want to play this, this is an ENTIRELY different style of play that I'm used to" until I got to the temples at the end, that are full of traps and puzzles, and it finally clicked. "ooooo, this is an Indiana Jones-Style adventure, racing to save the day despite horrible peril". And then I read the final dungeon, where my face did this the whole time.

Let me just say, that I've read the descriptions of some pretty gothic horror type dungeons, creeping dread, etc. Those are bad. This one seemed to be pulled directly from some back corner of my nightmares? Just so many terrifying things, so many ways to die, so many ways to be reminded of everyone who died before you.

So yeah, if you're more of an AD&D player, really interested in the overall puzzle of the adventure, you really want to feel like you survived your DM throwing EVERYTHING at you, you have no issues with dungeons designed as actual nightmare fuel— this may be a great game for you! I'd be really interested in hearing the story of how your story went! If you're really attached to your characters, or want to feel like you have a fighting chance with most challenges you face (cause a lot of these there's just like, so many ways to insta-die of poison, or fall damage, or torture), this may not be the best game for you.

[Iain]

The Adventure Path / Setting

The adventure path can be cleanly divided into two halves. Chapters 1-3 are the exploration half, and chapters 4-5 are pure dungeon crawling.

The first half takes the players through 1st level to 7th level (or thereabouts) and revolves around the PCs first finding and then unlocking the titular tomb. This half of the adventure is very freeform, and very sandbox, though it has the ticking clock element that is needed to bring focus back to the main plot when needed. Players are going to have a blast riding/fighting dinosaurs, solving frog politics with fake gods, battling fire newts above lava gorges, and generally surviving the adventures they stumble across in this richly populated world.

Then we get to the second half, which goes from level 8th level to 12th level (or thereabouts) and it switches into some of the hardest, grindiest dungeon crawling I’ve ever seen. It starts at the snake cult and only gets harder from there as players endure an onslaught of difficult combat, potentially TPKing traps, and try to survive a dungeon literally created for killing adventurers. The first half of the adventure is at a high difficulty already and the second half will be a complete meat grinder for newer players.

Now it might sound like I didn’t like the second half, but I did, I adore the classical high stakes of this no-holds barred dungeon crawl. I especially loved the “god” spirits that can inhabit the players and the ingenuity of the traps. It just needs to be stated how different these halves feel to play and depending on your playgroup one of the halves can be more suitable than the other. These two styles of gameplay have such a clear dividing line within the adventure path, many groups will just get turned off by one half or the other.

If you’re a newer group, I feel like you’ll enjoy the first half and despise the second. I recommend that newer playgroups plan this out ahead of time and write out the titular “Tomb” entirely. Instead of the lich’s machinations, make the serpent cult the primary antagonists. It’ll take a bit of reworking, but you can easily place a vault of treasures in place of the tomb and play up the yuan-ti’s threat to the surrounding area. Chapter 3 ends with a climactic fight (and a pretty nasty dungeon as it is) and you can simply plan on ending the adventure at 8th level.

If your group loves a good dungeon crawl, I feel like you’ll adore the second half and get a bit scattered in the first. You can easily skip all the lead-up to the titular “Tomb” and start the adventure off with the PCs delving through its many traps and tribulations. The numerous Tomb of Annihilation maps are filled with goodies and encounters that will challenge and thrill the most jaded D&D veterans. Simply hand-wave away how the PCs actually got to the tomb and go on from there.

Now, if your group loves the sandbox style games, and also loves lengthy super-dungeons, then this will be perfect, I just don’t know how often that Venn-diagram is going to line up correctly.
2 New Character Backgrounds

So that you can live out your fantasy of becoming Indiana Jones, we get in this book the Anthropologist and Archeologist backgrounds. More than just flavor wins (which they are), they also fill some needed niches that were missed before and can find their place in any adventure. The anthropologist background’s ability “Adept Linguist” is an absolute godsend for this adventure. Language barriers are a major issue in Tomb of Annihilation and having an anthropologist in the party solves SO many problems. I highly recommend that you keep this in mind when the party is coming together.
15 New Magic Items / Consumables

These cover a wide range including magical monkey fruit that makes you dance to unholy artifacts crafted by an archlich. Several of these are quest items, but I really appreciated the addition of the flora/fauna consumables the PCs might stumble across in the jungles. It’s a type of element I often include in my own games and I plan on stealing these for future campaigns.
59 New Monsters/NPCs

This number is slightly inflated since a few have since been reprinted in other books, but it’s still a whopping number of unique stat-blocks. They range from innocent monsters like an undead T-rex, to the insidious horror of the Zorbo, a small koala-like creature that I REFUSE to throw at a party… It’s just too mean. With all that said I was a little sad that we didn’t get player race stats for several creatures here, like the grungs or the pterafolk, but c'est la vie.
26 Maps / Handouts

The map exploration was key here, and I really appreciated the detailed maps. I hadn’t expected the trove of other handouts though, even including some visuals for the trickiest of the traps. An early encounter involves the important decision of what guide to hire and I loved the ability to hand out pictures of all the guides with all their shifty mannerisms.

[Addie Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I DMed this module for some friends and it was amazing throughout. In the first part it was the most fun I've had in a long time. We laughed, we made jokes, they killed the bad guys. Then my players went into the tomb of the nine gods. I killed 11 player characters. That is not a typo. I felt bad. They loved it.

11/10 would scar my table again.

[Chris Philbrook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I expected, but still not quite good enough for 5 stars.

Chult was done well, as far as a setting goes, and the dungeon itself was rather sinister and I can see it being very challenging. I also think the adventure has almost zero closure if completed, and was essentially chock full of opportunities to annoy players.

I would not run this for a campaign, but I will certainly cherry pick encounters and use some of the monsters.

Also, the culture of the Chult people was uninspired. Generically "African" without enough fantasy uniqueness or integration.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomb of Annihilation was a great read! Sometimes reading through adventure modules can dissuade you from running them since the process of preparation (reading the modules) can sometimes get boring. Tomb of Annihilation fixes that by giving everything life and a story of its own. Interesting locations and NPCs all work together with a solid foundation to make a fantastic adventure!

Hope I get to run this one day!

[Ian James · Rating 5 out of 5]

can't wait to run this

[Rauno Kinkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great adventure with lots of second-tier literature and expansions on DM's Guild.

[Marcus Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written adventure - I look forward to running it!

[Brandon Bowling · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Dull and Uninspired Slog

After reading so many positive reviews for this, I'm shocked at how awful it turned out to be. I suspect a lot of people are caught up in the same CHULT plus TOMB of HORRORS equals AWESOME!!! attitude that pulled me in initially.

This is as much a rant as a review and there's spoilers ahead so quit reading now if you don't want to know . . .

Right from the start, with the adventure hook presented, things begin poorly. Having some random merchant send the PCs off like this is the most overused plot device in gaming. The players have no real reason to care about the quest giver at all. Let's take a minute to think about this. Something is making it so that people can no longer be resurrected, and anyone who has been resurrected before is slowly wasting away. This is a potentially world-shattering development. The most powerful people on the planet would likely be seeking to solve this issue. Why a bunch of level 1 nobodies would be recruited by an equally unimpressive merchant and sent off to complete a quest they almost certainly can't survive is beyond me. There are so many better ways the players could have been pulled in. This is just lazy writing.

It gets no better after this. When the players arrive in Part 1: Port Nyanzaru they are basically told to fend for themselves and left by the merchant quest giver, who offers no help whatsoever from this point on and barely offers up enough money for the group to properly outfit itself for a journey into the jungle (50gp each. To put this in perspective, a canoe costs 50gp). Permanent death be damned, the merchant is going to sulk in a friend's house and let the players sort this mess out. The city is moderately interesting, though too much effort was spent fleshing out people the characters will almost certainly never meet, rather than ones they will. And do we really need a layout of a merchant prince's house? There's a few hints for side quests, but overall there really isn't much to do here, aside from betting on gladiator fight and dinosaur races. DINOSAUR RACES! I hear you say. Yes, it certainly should be cool, except that, if the PCs plan on saving the merchant before she wastes away, they'll have no time to muck about in town. They need to get going, like, right now!

Here we get to what should have been the real meat of the book, Chapter 2: the Land of Chult. However, as it turns out, nobody really knows how to get anywhere or where anything is in Chult. Apparently the proscribed method of finding things is to wander aimlessly over a hex map and hope for the best. There are a number of potentially interesting locations described here, but many are so woefully lacking in meaningful PC interactions that they aren't worth visiting. The rest are just standard hack and slash affairs.
- Camp Vengeance has nothing to do. It's built on the edge of a swamp on low ground that constantly backfloods the latrine trenches into the camp. Nobody is smart enough to point out that setting up camp on higher ground away from the disease ridden swamp might be a smart play. The NPCs here are so poorly developed it's difficult to even imagine interacting with them.
- Firefinger is just horrible. Some pterafolk build a hideout in a big spire of rock with four levels on it. Each level is basically a single cave, connected to the level above by a ladder ascending through a hole or the side of the rock spire itself. The first two levels have giant spiders and stirges inhabiting them. This makes the pterafolk the closest food source, and the holes allow direct access for these killer creatures to the pterafolk. Apparently no one thought to block up the holes, break the ladders or, you know, clear out the deadly monsters from their own home before settling there.
- Heart of Ubtao is so very blah. Pretty much inaccessible unless the local lich lets them in.
- Jahaka Anchorage could be a cool place, except the PCs will likely never find it. It's specifically written to be pretty much impossible to spot and there's little chance of bumping into pirates since the players will almost always be traipsing around the jungle, not riding boats around the shore. And, again, even if they are in a boat riding around the shore, the book tells you it is impossible to spot unless you know exactly where it is. Admittedly, if the players find it, it could be fun, though it seems more likely to devolve into one of the endless hack and slash fests prevalent throughout the book.
- Kir Sabal is the biggest failure in the entire book. This should have been a major feature of the plot. Instead it's utterly forgettable. Why bother setting up a side-plot involving the last surviving royalty of Omu when this sub-plot, as written, can not have any meaningful affect on the game. AT ALL. The closest the characters can come to interaction here is the short note that the princess might develop a romantic attachment to one of the characters. This could be interesting, except the characters will come here, visit the place once and then never return. There is no reason to help re-establish the royal line, no plot-hooks, no development, nothing. So much potential here is wasted.
- Mbala, I'm not even sure why this is in the book. It's a whole lot of build up to . . . nothing.
- Nangalore has potential, but again, as written, it is just a hack and slash fest.
- Wreck of the Star Goddess offers up some NPCs and then just moves on. Why even bother?
- Yellark, oh great gods of Chult, why? A bunch of goblins build their village on a giant net, attached to a giant bent over tree. If danger comes along, they cut the lines and fling their village through the air to "safety." This is the kind of Saturday morning cartoon nonsense that doesn't need to be in this book. There's a page and a half dedicated to this. Mezro gets a few paragraphs. Hisari, a ruined yuanti-ti city gets only two paragraphs. Neither one of them has a map, but this high flying goblin city gets a page and a half and map all its own?

Many simple things could have been done to make the NPCs in this part of the book more engaging and fix the lack of depth these locations present. Perhaps flesh out the pterafolk more, then, when the PCs visit Kir Sabal, why not have the pterafolk attack and capture the princess. The PCs would have the choice of moving on or spending time helping the princess, time which they do not have if they plan to save the merchant before she wastes away. After clearing out the pterafolk and rescuing the princess, the pterafolk's old haunt could then be offered up to the people at Camp Vengeance as a new base of operations, one less prone to disease, flooding and latrine overflow. With just a little thought, some of these locations could have been truly inspired places, with NPCs that feel like real people. They could have been made into important places to visit. Instead the writers waste space on flying goblin villages.

After all this, we get to Chapter 3: Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Here the players have to wander about a huge city, hoping to find nine small temples that hold nine puzzle cubes needed to open the Tomb of the Nine Gods. I'm still a little hazy as to how the players are even supposed to learn that the Tomb of the Nine Gods is the source of the problem and the place they need to be going to. Assuming they figure that out, the city has an interesting looking map (there are lots and lots of maps in this book), but I found the whole idea of getting all nine puzzle cubes to be somewhat tedious. After bumbling through a jungle hex map, seeking the hidden city, the players now have to bumble through another map, seeking a bunch of cubes. It gets a little old.

Chapter 4: Fane of the Night Serpent seems to me as if it should have been cut from the book entirely. It serves no purpose in the story and its inclusion feels terrible forced. Really, there had to be another, better way to include Ras Nsi in the storyline. Even his previous lord of the undead bit was more impressive than his new "I was bad, and I failed, so I decided to be more bad" shtick. This whole area is yet another hack and slash dungeon that really, really isn't needed, considering the players are likely about to enter the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Also, whoever thought up the layout for the Fane of the Night Serpent was just utterly lazy. The slave pens are located directly beside an exit. Why in the world would you put the people most likely to want to get away next to the easiest place to enable that? The armoury is also right by the front door to the dungeon, apparently so that if it is attacked the people inside will be cut off from their armaments immediately. The biggest threat, the water-dwelling hydra, is as far away from the front entrance as possible, thus offering no threat to invaders. It seems no thought was put into this place at all. It's just another bunch of numbers on a map.

Chapter 5: Tomb of the Nine Gods. Finally. We get to the main dungeon. And what a dungeon! It's obscenely, unnecessarily, ridiculously long. Roughly 175 pages of this book are dedicated to the adventure itself, and 65 of them are taken up by just this one dungeon. If you had all of Chult to explore, and wanted to give players a great feel for the jungles and hidden cities and all the cool stuff on offer here, don't you think maybe you'd want to spend a little more of your page count on that, and a little less on the giant dungeon that follows the other dungeon that follows the city (which is essentially an outdoor dungeon, except it has nine miniature dungeons scattered throughout it)? The original Tomb of Horrors is 13 pages long, including the map. It's almost like the writers here had something to prove. Cutting three or four of the six level to the final dungeon might have given them the page count to expand upon some of the previous material that really needed a little help to come to life. This adventure is so full to the brim with dungeon slogging that by the end it really doesn't feel all that interesting or special anymore.

The final appendices are filled out with random encounters, player handouts and new monster entries, that, quite frankly, were more promising than the rest of the book.

The book itself has potential, the writers just missed the mark. There isn't an iota of character development to be found here. As a DM, the amount of work this would require to "fix" is more than it would take to just come up with something all my own. There's a few potentially useful bits scattered about, but hardly enough to justify the purchase.

If jungle adventuring is your thing, there are books out there that do it far better than this. If you're fascinated by this new Tomb of Horros, don't be. It's just a big deadly dungeon like thousands of other big deadly dungeons out there, this one just takes up a higher page count. If you're into dinosaurs, there's a number of other adventures that include them that are far more coherent than this one.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book for beginners (both DM & players) and easily malleable to the needs of one-shot, short or eon-long campaigns. It can be simple and kooky or complicated and cerebral, according to your desires. Wildly imaginative, unbelievably intricate, and brimming with gritty adventure. (Warning: High potential for overtly deadly meat-grinder mode.)

[Rob Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible adventure to read...punishingly dangerous and capricious while at the same time an exciting adventure and incredible setting. Hope I will get the chance to run someday.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than people give it credit for, but the initial hook is weak, and all the way through requires extra work by the DM to scaffold the story and clues in a way that will make sense for the party. Individual locations are great, especially the tomb itself. Not as well written as Curse of Strahd, but better than others

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great adventure. Explores themes of death and life. Might be a bit tough on brand new players, but it's fun, nonetheless.

[Edward Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qualifier: I have been playing RPGs since the early '80s, starting out with the original D&D Grey Box, and working my way up and beyond D&D 5th Edition, so I can say I am a little biased towards the older versions vs. the retreads which Wizards of the Coast (I will refer to them as WotC for the rest of my reviews) had many.

TL/DR version: If you like the original Tomb of Horrors, go with the Tales of the Yawning Portal version. If you want something that is only in spirit (and a few name drops) a continuation of the originals, then this is for you. Now the painfully long review of what has become my favorite mythology.

Background from Wikipedia: Tomb of Horrors is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game. It was originally written for and used at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax designed the adventure both to challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign and to test players who boasted of having mighty player characters able to best any challenge. The module, coded S1, was the first in the S-series, or special series of modules. Several versions of the adventure have been published, the first in 1978, and the most recent, for the fifth edition of D&D, in 2017 as one of the included adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal. Also, see my review of "Tales from the Yawning Portal" here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Okay, back to my review! We have Acererak: the immortal lich (a powerful evil undead wizard) and eventual demi-lich (an even more powerful version of a lich) setting up what is considered to be the first "meat grinder" of a dungeon (colloquially called "The Tomb of Horrors") that was more meant to humble and punish higher level players than to be conquered (or even fun) as per Gary Gygax himself. Let's just say that the three times I played this modual, I have never made it too far as we have all died or gave up in short order.

After this, there was the a great follow-up called (aptly) "The Return to the Tomb of Horrors" where we get the unnescissary backstory of Acererak (a bullied 1/2 demon called a cambion) and his reasons for building the dungeon tomb. It also detales how he because a demi-lich and took over a city where he ruled as a despot before it was torn from the material plane into the demi-plane of shadows and negative energy. The original Tomb is the starting point for the return and it's not as hard to get through as they really want you to go through the other portions as well. This is where this should end as the story is complete, well written, and makes the most sense as you truely have defeated Acererak and destroyed his phylactery, giving the foe a final send off into the dark abyss he deserved.

We then have the 3rd edition of D&D and 3.5 version that are just revisions with the new rule sets added. There is a Tomb of Horrors board game for 4th edition and then we get to the Tales of the Yawning Portal, which then re-rerevises the original with 5th edition rules (and one of the things I hate the most about 5th edition: the "refer to this book" vs. the older ones that gave you stat blocks to assist with the flow of the game and limited what you had to buy from the game company)

Then we get to this version: the re-re-revision of the original Tomb of Horrors that has been retitled and reworked to be "The Tomb of Annialation" in which Acererak, now fully worshipped as a deity (something that was hinted upon in the Return) but not caring about his flock (unlike Return) and is working on his next evil project: the resurrection of an aborted evil deity and the suffering of all around him. The plot moves the Tomb to the Forgotten Realms from Greyhawk (a property that WotC does not own) and adds flavor sections of Chuult (a dense jungle setting) with Harpers (the good guys of the FR) The Red Wizards of Thay (evil group bent on world subjgation) and others in a new location (the TOH v6.5) and removes the original ToH needed to complete the game. This is where I am pretty much checked out as it is just not what I hoped it would be.

After this long review, I want to say that I did like the idea of all of this, but again it's just a money grabbing retread of older and frankly better created content. Screw the dinosaur riding, the catfolk creatures, the incessant need to keep telling us how the people of Chuult (mostly based on West African cultures) have been slaves of dozens of cultures and then saved by their now absent Deus ex Machina god Ubtao who literally leaves them because he is tired of them not saving themselves...

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beginning can seem a bit grinding and annoying to players who don't like random encounters with no real purpose, however, if planned correctly the realistic approach to adventuring can be quite refreshing for adventure teams. Once the players hit the city, the real story begins. I found this to be as exciting for me as a DM as the players found exciting. It has something for every type of adventurer. Role players, puzzle solvers, and battle lovers will all love this adventure.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a ok book, but not a reader if you know what I mean.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought the hardback copy of this early 5e campaign mainly to reread it as I had an electronic version (on Roll20) that I played as a solo variant. So some of this I was very familiar with but nonetheless it was good to have a copy to actually read. My plan was to upgrade the level of it to fit my current campaign (it'll be levels 11 to 14).

The book is well set out with initial campaign premise, then introduction to the base city (Nyanzaru) with plenty of detail about NPCs, factions, plot hooks, guides, and things to do. The authors detail guides, many who have hidden motives, and then a rumour table which nudges towards key locations to visit.

The next section is a massive sandbox for Chult with a mix of side quests and locations relevant to the key goal-- locating the hidden city of Omu, where the big bad has hidden his crazy soul drinking device. It's a great section with potential for many sessions, especially with random encounters (many of which are great) but not very balanced for the levels in which you'd explore. That's not a huge deal, as PCs running away should always be a viable option (as it is in Rime and Storm King Thunder sandbox). Love this section, as it really brings Chult to the fore as a campaign setting.

When they reach Omu they get another exploration section now with an added fetch quest (similar to the Octad in Rime). There's some Red Wizards also on the hunt and also some Yuan Ti bizarrely led by Ras Nsi, a character from old editions about Chult. He is a cool villain even if the transformation is strange, and he feels a little shoehorned in (as does the Ring of Winter and Artus).

I love Omu. The whole vibe is great, and unlike some reviewers I like the Fane although forcing PCs there to get the last cubes may not go down well with some groups. Omu is heavily based on I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and indeed they used a similar design style with the city map, this time using an inverted UK map for the rough layout.

Finally we come to the Tomb. At times it feels like an utterly separate adventure to the prior chapters, almost grafted on. Yet as the focus of the adventure, and an emulation of S1 The Tomb of Horrors, it warrants further consideration. All together it's a lot of fun. Multiple levels of tricks and traps, moderate amount of combat, and some amusing running 'skeleton keys' to collect. (I wonder if the Adventure Time guy who was one of the contributers came up with that idea. There's so much here it's difficult to comment in detail, but certainly some traps and rooms work well whereas others are just OTT. Despite my own Old School nostalgia, 5e players don't deal well with traps with little logical escape options; and some solutions are utterly random. There are a few encounters which border on unbeatable, almost like the old save or die ones. Not for me.

The lower levels of the Tomb bring in some focus towards the endpoint, with some great set pieces: hag coven, then a giant floating dark foetus, then Ace. Potentially lethal with the absence of resurrection, and raise dead, but if they destroy the Soul Monger then a nice DM will let them bring the dead characters back.

Overall it's a great varied adventure that mixes sandbox exploration with a range of dungeon sizes and a large trap-ridden dungeon at the end. It's certainly up there with Curse of Strahd as one of the tougher 5e offerings. Hope whatever is coming in 5.5e is to a similar standard.

[Jeremy Blum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tomb of Annihilation's a campaign that sees heroes adventuring to the jungle country of Chult to stop a lich named Acererak, who’s made a device that’s emanating a Death Curse and screwing up the world’s resurrection magic. It’s also a spiritual successor to Tomb of Horrors, one of the classic dungeons of tabletop RPG history that came about because D&D creator Gary Gygax wanted to give his players the ultimate challenge.

I ran it a modified version of this for about a year, combining it with a lot of my own homebrew material. It's a fine adventure overall, but has quirks and isn't recommended for beginning DMs. First off, it's largely composed of a really long hexcrawl. D&D 5e’s hexcrawl exploration and survival rules are lacking, in my opinion, and the rules in the book expect you to roll LOTS of random encounters and deal with stuff like inclement weather, mosquito attacks, hunting, getting lost, etc. I incorporated some of this stuff (the hunting, since we had two rangers in the party), but I pre-rolled all of the random encounters and potential locations the party could go ahead of time, getting rid of some of the ones I didn’t like, and largely handwaved stuff like getting hopelessly lost. Reddit explorations have revealed that by far and large, everyone running this campaign does the same thing - particularly for higher level players trying to get through the jungle without feeling like they’re wasting time.

The other half of the campaign is Acererak's titular tomb, which is full of lots of "GOTCHA" moments that are designed to screw players over in that old school Tomb of Horrors style. Some groups will love this, but I knew it wasn't appropriate for my players, who were more keen on a good story than a long dungeon crawl. So I skimmed through the entire tomb's bajillion floors (which could take an average group months to get through) in favor of using the rooms that I liked the most. Your mileage may vary, but be aware that there's a lot of nutty stuff in the dungeon that isn’t my cup of tea for D&D, including one trap that can get characters stuck in real-world Victorian London.

There are a few other quibbles - the yuan-ti warlord Ras Nsi is a big antagonist who gets surprisingly little development throughout the book, ultimately becoming something like a Darth Maul-type bad guy who just looks cool. The yuan-ti themselves are stereotypically evil and could use fleshing out (though that's more of a complaint of how D&D relies on tired Conan serpentfolk tropes for their overall characterization), and there's been much written online (look up POCGamer's blog) on how Chult stumbles at portraying a fantasy Africa, largely by depicting the characters as foreign saviors and the Chultans as relatively helpless.

But these issues aside, if you're looking for a jungle romp in a setting that feels different from the other Sword Coast-centric D&D 5e hardcovers - as well as one that has DINOSAUR RACING - then the Tomb of Annihilation is certainly worthy of a deep dive.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious adventure that mostly succeeds at what it was trying to do: mash together the exploration aspects of adventures like Isle of Dread with the danger factor of the infamously lethal Tomb of Horrors. However, there are some flaws that keep it from being among the best adventures in D&D 5th Edition.

The first part of the book establishes the goals and stakes of the adventure, as well as detailing our heroes' base of operations, Port Nyanzaru in the land of Chult. Port Nyanzaru is thoroughly described, with locations, NPCs, and adventure hooks-a-plenty. There are decently interesting factions and fun bits like dinosaur racing. However, the default assumption here - that the PCs will be outlander heroes exploring this "exotic" land - means there's no support for playing native Chultan PC, which is a real missed opportunity. I also hear the criticisms about Chult being painted as a post-colonial region. (There are a few other tone-deaf bits here and there, as well.)

After this is the meat of the adventure. The strongest section is the trip through the jungles of Chult, which combines solidly useful hexcrawl exploration rules with a lot of interesting scenery and sidequests. They even include encounters purely for flavor, which is nice. Next is the forbidden city of Omu, which is fine, but ultimately feels a bit overdeveloped for the purposes of this adventure; in particular, there are so many traps and puzzles that it can feel like padding. (As for the puzzles themselves, they represent a range from the fun and clever, to being a little much for any but the cleverest players.) The last segment, and ostensible highlight, is the Tomb of the Nine Gods, which is basically a deluxe version of the Tomb of Horrors. There are many entertaining and clever sections of this megadungeon (as well as the mean traps you'd expect)... but it might stretch on a little too long, and the final boss fight could really use more spice. Trimming a level or two (and that weird after-area) probably would have helped. Be warned that there are also some particularly dark bits here and there.

The appendices include two new backgrounds, anthropologist (which was well-intentioned) and archaeologist (unabashedly Indiana Jones). There's also an excellent section of additional random encounters, a handful of new magic items, and a wonderfully retro monster/NPC section that features the return of some obscure 1st Edition favorites (particularly the Fiend Folio).

All in all, Tomb of Annihilation is a solid adventure, though there was room for improvement. It's probably worth picking up just for the exploration material, especially if you ever plan to run your own hexcrawl campaign. (B+)

[Sadattine Kandur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the Indiana Jones escque part of this adventure and look forward to have my players explore the detailed and lush jungles of Chult with all its interesting plant- and wildlife. The adventure is very well thought out and the book is well organized. The dungeon-crawl at the end is highly deadly so I will definitely have my players make backup-characters before entering it.
Unfortunately some of the encounters draw on inspiration from Jule's Verne's 'two weeks in a balloon' and similar racist stories, and has some racist connotations because of it. It tries to compensate for this by showing how the black community in Port Nyanzaru is very advanced culturally, well off financially and is a powerful merchant force, etc. However a some of the monster-encounters and NPCs found in Chult enforce racist stereotypes of African cultures in my opinion. The book just calls them batiri goblins, grungs, yuan-ti, etc. so then it must be ok to use stereotypes of 'wild savages' right? >.>
One example is the tribe in Dungrunglung which is ruled by a crazy king who is obsessed with summoning a goddess and mating with her. The heroes must help the 'grung wildling' second in command to fool the king into thinking he has succeeded in summoning the goddess. If the trickery is discovered the king orders his underlings to attack. This seems dangerously close to the "european discoverer descends to some native tribe who worships them as gods until they figure out they are false gods"-narrative.
In this way some of the stories in this book can come off a little as dog whistling and I would not recommend it for people who might be sensitive to such stories.

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been making my way through some 5e books since last summer when I got to play with Brandon Crilly, Evan May, Marie Bilodeau and Kevin Hearne as the party sailor/cleric in a Saltmarsh campaign, and I'm hoping to return the favour to DM so the wonderful Brandon can play a character.

I'm really liking the flow of 5e, and the simplifications from 3.5e (I skipped 4e after one session); as a player, it felt way more streamlined toward role-playing, but without turning the crunch into feeling like a tabletop version of a video game (ahem, 4e).

I'm definitely going to stick with something pre-published, rather than home-brewing, but this one, which is aimed at middle-to-higher-level characters, has a lot going on, and I think I'll tuck it aside for when I'm more comfortable with the mechanics. It didn't read as accessibly as Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been out of the RPG scene for several decades and took a quick look at the D&D 5e rules, too many rules! But I also wanted to see what kind of supplements were out there.

This is a mini-campaign that is used by a GM to run a D&D game for players, only the GM should see it. This reminds me a bit of a generic Hyborean state ala Howard's Conan and others. This is also reflected a bit in the artwork and it doesn't age well.

There is a large number of illustrations, but they are mostly of the monster mugshot variety and are not that useful IMHO. A bunny with a unicorn horn? Nice monster, but why draw it? The maps are also like this, they are pretty looking but you can't show these to the players, it would better to have two sets, the GM map and a game prop for the players that's all vague with "here thar be treasure". There is one large map like this, but it's awkward to use since the GM's version is on the back of the player's map.

The actual gaming content seems decent, you could run something fun with this. There's a lot of detail here though, unless you want to constantly flipping pages (not a good look) you will need to do some reading and prep work.

I have a large amount of material on hand that is more to my taste and if I were to run a game, easier to use. It's a brick at 250+ pages. You could take a peek, but I'm not sure if it would be a good beginner GM's module.

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomb of Annihilation functions as an "antidote" to the uber-heroic style of play that normally characterizes D&D. D&D as a game is really an engine for players to explore power fantasy stories within diverse and exciting fantasy worlds. There's nothing wrong with that either - that's why it's so fun! But what if that same engine met a different engine, going the other way, with sawblades attached to the front, skulls dangling from the sides, and an immortal, insane demilich riding atop it, cackling all the while?

Tomb of Annihilation is naturally the result - it seems to necessitate cautious play and management of resources, yet it encourages a sense of natural wonder and exploration regarding the world. Every boon and every curse could spell victory or defeat - the adventure is designed to push the adventurers to the brink. It has dinosaur races; it also has ancient evils crawling from the corners of dank, foreboding lairs in ways that, if done well, will make your players remember the adventure forever.

I plan to use this module as the capstone on one of my homebrew worlds. Wish me luck!

[Brian Moakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is ... okay. This is an homage to Tomb of Horrors. It really leans into the survival exploration bit, except 5E rules aren't really well suited for it. The module sets up a "death curse" that prevents people from being resurrected. You are commissioned to seek out the source of the issue in the jungles of Chult.

The gameplay of the module starts with some urban adventures in the main city, and then it's into the jungle. You're supposed to track things like food and water, but it turned out to be bookkeeping instead. This adventure is best used in a system like Shadowdark whereas 5E is a pretty forgiving system.

The path ultimately leads to a large jungle crawl and finally, a battle with the famous Lich, Acererak. The module features A TON of puzzles. Some were okay, but I'm not puzzle fan in RPGs.

The actual flavor text, background, and lore is quite extensive. So while the whole of the adventure wasn't my "jam", the actual production quality is pretty high. If you intend to run this, address some of the 5E rules such as weight, encumbrance, and general class mechanics to add some tension. Again, this would be an excellent module for Shadowdark.

[Steve Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come the next session, my group shall finish the Tomb and go on to screw their lives up through homebrew. This was an enjoyable campaign but the ending needed heavy editing for my personal style of DMing. For those playing and not wanting to spoil, why are you reading this?!

Acererak turning up at the end is a big thing. It’s understandable but it’s a big middle finger to the players and the encounter is very much for the DM. I am aware the gain the benefits of Trickster Gods and such but you are at max Level 11 and just had to spend a good few hits against the Soulmonger and it’s freakish God Baby and then a potential end of Level 20 boss turns up as you’re half spent and tries to kill you. Further still, you’ve survived all this horror and the rooms to get out do 10d10 damage and such which is a lot of hit points after a Lich and a Death God have fought you. Give some reward!

And I’m aware that the tomb is designed to kill so yes, the Gliphs and stuff after the boss is understandably placed so Acererak (or the DM) has the last laugh, but come on?!

[Louis Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This campaign/adventure has some real highlights but also a fair number of "misses". It would require significant work by the DM to make this come to life as an enjoyable adventure, but there is a lot of potential within. There are essentially 2 parts, a wilderness "hexcrawl" and a set of dangerous dungeons at the end. I agree with other reviewers that believe players will either enjoy the first part or the second but not both (as presented); the play styles and lethality levels are wildly different. The Tomb, in particular, features a mix of traps that are deadly but fair and others that are almost entirely arbitrary with no obvious way for players or PCs to figure out the expected workaround. Overall I enjoyed the book and some of the setting, but the amount of work needed to turn this into a playable campaign is daunting. For experienced DMs only.

[Pádraic]

Turns out not all of the Forgotten Realms are generic fantasy tedium. This is pretty good actually! Obviously there are the usual fantasy racism problems, the death curse hinders rather than helps the story, and the final tomb itself is tonally jarring, immense and horrific, a real sadistic bit of dungeon design. But these problems can be fixed, and if they were, you'd have an epic adventure with some imaginative and stunning encounters.

Highlights include dinosaur races, minecart shenanigans, goblins flinging their entire village across the jungle, and generally being just one group of many racing to uncover a lost city and the secrets beneath it. Solid Indiana Jones vibes, in other words, but perhaps as with every module, it'd all be in the execution.

[Mj · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun campaign. I’m relatively new to this hobby, and ToA is the first official Wizards of the Coast campaign that I’ve read, but the amount of puzzles, traps, and connective tissue in here is amazing. I can’t wait to take a table through this game and personalize it for them. As simply a book that tells a story, I’m immediately drawn into Chult and the history it has. As a DM/player, I am admittedly nervous about running such a big dungeon as it has. There is potentially a lot of moving parts to keep track of.

Either way, this is a fun book and has the potential to inspired countless hours at the table.

[Dan Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really sure if I can call this one "read" because I was just a player and the campaign died (like so many others) before completion. Maybe we'll pick it back up again some day.

Big fan of the classic Tomb of Horrors, though not a fan of D&D always throwing dinosaurs into the mix. I guess that's supposed to appeal to the subset of gaming nerds that also love dinosaurs.

In any case, promising setting though the adventure hook was pretty forced and I dislike throwing newbie PCs onto a quest that would obviously draw epic level heroes immediately.