Sunken Pyramid Review Raging Swan Press

by Matthew Paluch

Let's start with the basics – while I do not know the specific background's of those involved, this product smacks of professional Printing experience. It is beautifully laid out and organized, not just focusing on art and frilly logos to impress.

The document is expertly divided into Chapters, and even has Appendices you will actually use, not skip! The table of Contents is thorough and specific, not just a few cursory entries to fulfill minimum requirements. In a nutshell, this Product is built from the ground up to be used on the fly at an actual game – the author's clearly know what it is like to GM and have to find information on the fly!

It also has something I had not seen before, but proved invaluable in a few key moments – right at the front of the book is a single page, summarizing, in order of difficulty, the CR of every encounter. It took me a moment to wonder when I'd need this, but it was indeed useful!

Another novel concept – a concise, two-page Glossary, before the main body. I had never seen a Glossary anywhere except at the end (where everyone ignores it), and I also didn't think it was a necessary feature, until I read over it. It was indeed a valuable tool, and goes back to the point I made earlier – this product was written by battle-hardened veterans, who understand that the flow of a game is vital. Information is placed right where you need it, when you need it. Without listing off all the items, let me just say the listings are actually more of the 'HMM' type situational stuff that might arise, as well as issues that clearly arose during play testing and required them to take a break to bust out books, ruining the flow. They learned from experience and now it's at your fingertips, right in the heart of the meat of the book, not stuck at the end as an after-thought (similar to their expert use of actually valuable Appendices).

While this Product advertises itself as a 7th Level adventure, I think they are selling it short. I would definitely build an entire campaign around this product. Trying to avoid spoilers, they went into great detail about the Ecology of the current residents – Sociology, Ecology, even Religion and common names! Before I even got to the rooms and descriptions, I was rooting for the monsters haha! There is plenty of material here to build a campaign. The major monsters are all given names and some background material, not just 'Orc Lieutenant' for example. PCs going through this will realize this is a personal war they are waging against an enemy's home with a name and a face, and stories to tell.

In addition, the locale has a back story that pre-dates the current residents. Much could be made of those folks returning to reclaim their Pyramid, possibly as a follow up if the PCs clear it and somehow activate a beacon to its ancient masters, or perhaps even a three-way battle for it, with the players having to use diplomacy or risk their enemies cooperating! There is a ton of room for a clever GM to tying this product to a whole additional level than a simple 'Level 7 module'.

The environment – under water – and the carefully laid out rules for adventuring within it had me tense and nervous from the start. Dark water, no use of torches, having to breath and live and rest underwater... dark, black, water, reeking of evil... The author's do not overlook the dramatic value of their environment and play it to the hilt. Your Players should be nervous before they take their first step inside!

Much appreciated as a GM, and once again showing the clear experience at Gming of the writers, a wide variety of adventure hooks are provided to get the ball rolling. There is no 'You are all broke in a tavern and see a help wanted poster that you are forced to accept.' like many hackneyed products. I found myself liking more than one and having a debate about how to even start this. Excellent.

THANK GOD! This module earned major points for this next feature – a Timeline. Events will transpire, mostly without the PCs knowledge, according to a chart and timeline. If they choose to waste two weeks traveling to a nearby town to rest or pick up items.... the Pyramid is not idle and time-bubbled whilst they dally. As a GM myself I feel this is essential to PC immersion; players must know their actions, or lack of action, has a direct effect on the campaign. A dungeon is not just a series of rooms on graph paper with a number in the middle of it, waiting for them to kick open a door. This feature, well executed, was a major contributor to my classifying this as a campaign over a module.

Each encounter has a simple yet creative set of scaling the difficulty up or down slightly based on party power. Refreshingly, it sometimes isn't just removing or adding one more guard. Often bells, whistles, or more intelligent suggestions are made instead of a mindless addition or removal. Very cool.

Now comes the source of frustration for so many Gms around the world – the tactics sections for each encounter. I am happy to report that this product nails it – smart, yet flexible, you will not be asking "Who on Earth wrote this?!? These tactics make no sense.” , as so often happens when less experienced folk try to write scenarios.

I almost skipped over the pre-gen characters at the end, but I am glad I did not – they are fun to read and very interesting! More importantly, playable. Another nice bonus on an already well-rounded product.

I recommend this product as highly as I can. Build a full campaign around it... maybe starting when players are lvl 5 or so and exploring the detailed local area, then having solid community ties by the time they are ready to enter the Pyramid. Then throw in the original owners of the Pyramid at the end, and flip the tables – now the Players are on the defensive!

Or just run it as a solid, detailed, spooky Sunken Pyramid, written by clearly experienced Gms who have gone to great lengths to make your play experience as enjoyable as possible. This has my highest recommendation.

Matthew Paluch gedanken@egdeoftheworld.us