| Game Type: Trading Board Game
Author: Raven c.s. McCracken
Publisher: Line of Sight Games
Medium: Starter Boxes and Booster Packs
Price: $12.95 for a starter & $3.95 per booster Crypt: The Pharaoh's Curse is a trading board game. Odd, isn't it? Well, the theory is that if you can trade cards, you can trade small board sections just as easily. The game is a dungeon crawl through ancient Egyptian tombs, players competing to raid the place and get out before someone else steals the glory.
The starter set comes with a thorough instruction book, five hexagon shaped board pieces, three six sided dice, one key, three character cards and thirty-four action cards.
Board sections are full-color hexes with names, descriptions and conditions printed clearly on the front. Each represents a room or area (mostly tombs and crypts) that characters must pass through on their way to the exit and victory. Blanks are included for the creation of unique dungeon rooms and each card is graced with a spot for the owner's mark or initials so tiles don't get mixed up. Action Pieces (actually cards) represent a variety of things such as weapons, spells and keys.
Characters include the engineer (a Lara Croft kind of girl), the magician, the warlord and the spellmancer. Each different character is allowed access to certain levels of skill in the use of weapons, spells and technology.
The sixty-page rulebook is about the size of the board tiles and includes all the information needed to play in a well-organized manner. It also includes rules for solitaire games, which has the ability to help new players learn the ropes.
While this game is well presented, it is cumbersome in play and storage. The boxes hold all the bits well enough, they are loose and the box itself is pretty flimsy. The game seems to me like a more complex variant of your run-of-the-mill trading card game and the rules are far too complex for casual players. The game does offer all the variety of the collectible game genre, but is not likely to leap headlong off the shelves. Playability 
Game Mechanics
Magic/Tech System
Character Creation & Advancement
Setting
Presentation Logan L. Masterson, 3/5/03 | |
