Tomb | BoardGameGeek

Thread: Tomb: Cryptmaster:: General:: When is the release date

whipko — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:17:39 +0000

by whipko

When is the release date?

Thread: Tomb:: News:: Curses!

AEGBrent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:44:35 +0000

by AEGBrent

Previews for a new card type are now on the Tomb site!

Thread: Tomb: Cryptmaster:: News:: Curses!

AEGBrent — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:42:58 +0000

by AEGBrent

Previews for a new card type are now online!

Review: Tomb:: Tomb, a great game

jeff ven — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:44:37 +0000

by jeff ven

Im going to do a review on tomb, i hope you will enjoy it and for anyone that dosent know the game i hope it will shed some light on what it's all about.

Theme
Tomb is a dungeon crawler in every aspect, but unlike other dungeon crawlers, dilivers a fast set up and resonable gameplay time (about 60 to 80 min).
recruit a party, kill the monsters. take there stuff, thats what it says on the box and thats just what tomb dilivers.

Components
Let me tell you tomb is a heavy box, and when i say heavy i really mean HEAVY especially considering the size of the box.
Once you open the box you will see that it is packed full with goodies.
In the box there are 1 board (double sided),the inn board,a bag to put all your characters in (wich i think is a nice touch),a character poster, 6 adventuring party markers,84 characters,40 characer stands,25 spell deck cards,25 prayer deck cards,25 item deck cards,25 tactic deck cards,200 cript deck cards, 21 tomb dice (7 green, 7 bleu and 7 red) and 48 wound/tomb tokens.
The only thing i think is a little disapointing is the fact that the characters are not moddels but cardboard prints (but then again i just love miniatures.)
All the components are of exelent quallity, printed on nice (real) thick cardboard.
The artwork i verry nice, and the bag to put your characters in deservess a + for the effort.

Mechanics
Tomb is a rather easy game to learn, and compared to most dungeon crawlers not overly complicated.
As an example im going to take a 2 player game, it dosent differ that much from a 6 player game but its easyer and shorter to explain.
At the start of the game everyone rolls all 7 bleu dice, the one with the most hits (axe simbols) wins, play then passes to the left.
The first thing you do is draw 5 random characters from the character pool (indeed the nice bag they added ).
Then you get to choose one and the rest is placed in the inn for later recruiting.
If you chose a wizard you get to draw 1 spell card from the spell deck, if you chose a cleric you get to draw 1 prayer card from the prayer deck.
If you chose a multi classed character lets say wizard/cleric, you get to draw both 1 spell card and 1 prayer card.
This rule applys every time you recruit a new character in the inn.
Once everybody made there pick of there first character,by drwing the 5 random characters and placing the remaining ones in the in, its time to set up the board.
The board setup is rather easy, the player who got to go first draws 3 card from the cript deck, then the second player draws 3 cards and so on.
Then the first player gets to put one card in one of the cripts and draws a new one.
There can only be a certain nummber of cards in a cript at the same time, as indicated at the entrance of the cript.
Then the second player puts a card in a cript and draws a new one, and so on untill all the cripts are filled.
The remaining cards go into the cript cards discard pile.
Now you are ready to play, play starts now with the second player getting the first turn.
During your turn you can do a couple of things, when at the inn you can recruit a character, or draw 2 cards of your will at any order.
Also when you bigin your turn at the inn, all wounds dealt to you are imediatly heald.
So probably the first couple of rounds you will recruit some members to your party, and try to load them up with gear and spells.
To go into the dungeon cost you your turn as well, just a small detail.
When in the dungeon you can move (up to 10 spaces) per turn.
You can also try to pickpocket one of the characters of a oposing party, if they are within moving range (10 spaces) for that turn and you have a rough character on your party.
To pickpocket someone of a oposing party first declaer ho it is you are going to steal from.
Then tell them what you are going to steal, then you should make a skill roll with your rough.
Then the oposing player gets to roll a skill check ith any character on his party (his choice), the one with the greater amount of victorys wins.
In case the attacker wins he gets to steal the loot, i case the other player wins he "catches" the thief and gets 1 attack against him.
Another thing you can do is heal your characters, only a cleric on your party can do this.
He makes a holiness roll and heals that meany wounds to your party (your choise), thiis also takes a complete round to do.
Then the most important part of the game, the cripts.
Lets say you would end on the sqaure of a cript door and you still have movement left, thats to bad you will have to wait until your next turn to enter because you allready got your action (moving).
When you enter a cript the player to your left or right, as indicated on the board takes the cards.
First you encounter the traps, lets just say there is one trap.
The card will tell the cm (cript master) how meany characters can try to disarm it, what roll needs to be made, the tn (target number) that needs to be beaten and the effects the trap will have when it gos off.
The cm tell the player the name of the trap, how meany characters he can juse and what to juse (skill, attack, magic, holyness) and thats it.
Lets say the tn (target number) is skill 5 and 1 character, that means your best chanse is to take a rough because most of the time they have a better skill.
You roll and beat the number, now the cm gives the trap card to you and you get to bank it for xp (ill explain this later).
Then after the traps are resolved battle begins, the cm always gos first.
Lets say battle is about to begin, but one of your characters has a react ability that says, when monsters are reveald you get to attack first whit your skill, this counts as your turn for this round.
This means your character gets to go first, and attack with his or her skill dice instead of attack dice.
But later in this round this character will nt get to attack because the card said it counted as your turn for this round.
Lets say you fighting 2 badguys, one you allready killed jusing the react skill.
Now the other monster is going to attack, you chose a character that is going to defend against the incomming blow.
But before the monster attacks your wizard plays a spell card that reads, react: when a monster is about to act you may juse this card to disable him for the rest of this round, thus canceling the attack.
Now you chose your warrior to diliver that fatal blow, he rolls with his attack dice (lets say 1 green 2 bleu and 1 red) and adds up any bonusses he gains.
He rolls 3 successes, the enemy has 5 hp (Hit points) so he still has 2 remaining.
But your warrior is equipt with a blade that kills a monsters if it suffers more then 2 wounds from 1 hit, thus killing it.
If a character of yours would die in combat you must put it in the dead pool, and draw a new character that you put in the inn for later recruiting.
All the item cards and other cards that where attached to this character are also discarted.
You get the monsters you have slain and get to bank them right away.
Then you get the remaining tresure from the crypt, you get to chose if you bank it right aay or equip it.
If you equip a item and want to bank it later on you need to go to the inn to do this.
The game ends when all crypts have been raided and there are no more cards left.
Then you total up all the xp you have bankt and the one with the highest amount wins.

Conclusion
Well my conclusion about Tomb is that its a great dungeon crawler i will be enjoying for meany years to come.
Because there are so meany cards and characters, no 2 games will be allike.
The art is bautifull, and components of very good quality.
The only down side to the game is the manual, wich is very poorly written.
But if you just go to the tomb website and download the faq all the answers you might have are solved wright away.
Just a great game

Thread: Tomb: Cryptmaster:: News:: Cryptmaster previews

AEGBrent — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:50:45 +0000

by AEGBrent

There are new monster previews up on the Cryptmaster site!

Thread: Tomb:: News:: New Monster previews!

AEGBrent — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:47:52 +0000

by AEGBrent

There are new monster previews up on the Cryptmaster site!

Thread: Tomb: Cryptmaster:: Rules:: Nice Improvement!

adamw — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:43:45 +0000

by adamw

I downloaded the Cryptmaster rules and they are much improved. Good work, AEG! Tomb still gets pulled out by my family on occasion and it'd be great to have a stack of new cards and two new boards. I'm anxiously looking forward to picking this up at Gencon!

New Image for Tomb: Cryptmaster

AEGBrent — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:08:05 +0000

by AEGBrent

Cryptmaster cover

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New Image for Tomb: Cryptmaster

AEGBrent — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:59:45 +0000

by AEGBrent

Black Sun Vaults Printer Proof

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Thread: Tomb:: General:: Tomb: Cryptmaster

AEGBrent — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:18:15 +0000

by AEGBrent

Greetings, all!

I wanted to let you all know two bits of news.

First, the Tomb web site has been updated with information about Cryptmaster, a sequel and expansion to Tomb. It can be played as a stand-alone game, or mixed in with the boards, cards, and characters from the original tomb. If you look in the "Expansions" section (up above), you will find a link for Cryptmaster's BGG page as well.

Second, the site now has the rulebook for Tomb: Cryptmaster downloadable. (There will be links to it on both this page and the Cryptmaster page once the site admin gives them the OK.) This is intended to replace the original rule book, and will work with either game alone or both put together.

Enjoy!

Thread: Tomb:: General:: Team vs. One Descent-Style Tomb

boricua1111 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:36:19 +0000

by boricua1111

Hello all,

Has anyone tried to play a descent style where one person controls the crypt and is the permanent CM and one person controls the parties?

Maybe the CM can start with 5 cards and attach them to any monster he wishes. If a monster allows a card to be attached from it's ability, you can draw that from the inn cards.

The CM does not draw a card until a party member is killed. For each killed party member the CM draws a card.

The CM can use a wandering monster who moves around the board via roll and move to try and chase the players down.

The CM sets up the tomb themselves (using homebrew variants as well) and if they want to create a quest type scenario, they can look at the cards and make something up like find X artifact, kill Y monster(s), survive the tomb for Z turns, add additional wandering monsters and use minis and move via roll and move (as stated above)

How does this sound?

Thread: Tomb:: General:: Replacement dice

boricua1111 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:24:05 +0000

by boricua1111

anyone know how I can order replacement dice? I lost 3 of each color :(

Thread: Tomb:: News:: Expansion is coming!!!

boricua1111 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:05:19 +0000

by boricua1111

Tomb: Cryptmaster
A new rulebook, finally. Nuff said.
Aparently this is used to focus on the CM turns.
http://www.tombthegame.com/

New Image for Tomb: Cryptmaster

AEGBrent — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:29:25 +0000

by AEGBrent

Cryptmaster box top

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New Image for Tomb: Cryptmaster

Surya — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:35:54 +0000

by Surya

Box front

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Thread: Tomb:: Rules:: Couple of questions:

philmcd — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:46:05 +0000

by philmcd

1. What are the axe markers on the reverse side of the wound markers used for?

2. If a monster has joined your party, does he qualify for the descrption of "character" when referred to by cards etc?

3. If a monster has joined your party and survives until the end of the game, is his XP value added to your score, as with eqipped treasure cards?

Thanks

Review: Tomb:: Reviews:: Broken beyond all belief

Sirocco34 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:56:36 +0000

by Sirocco34

I'm going to state for the record that this is by far the worst board game I've ever been subjected to. As a life-long gamer , board gamer, and RPG fanatic I've had a ton of exhilarating experiences, just not with this particular game. Don't buy this game. That's a pretty bold statement, but it's okay because I'm fully prepared to back it up.

The Good:

Looks nice. The overall graphic presentation is appreciable if somewhat inconsistent. The cards and board pieces are well made and look to be very durable. They were also exceptionally well printed and didn't feature any blemishes or marks. The board is reversible, featuring two completely different boards with slightly different style of play. This would allow you to graduate to a more advanced version of this game should you desire.

The Bad:

The rule book is incomplete and insufficient given the numerous play mechanics and rules that need to be mastered. There are a plethora of gaps in the rules which will leave players scratching their heads at least once a game. Numerous "house rules" will need to be crafted in order to make this game even remotely playable, which is a dire shame. With complexity comes responsibility, and someone dropped the ball here. Scratch that, someone never had the ball to begin with. I've visited forums where people have suggested downloading a supplementary rule set, but even that is incomplete, and one should not be expected to replace a set of broken rules with another set of sloppy house rules.

The color choices for the game's cards and markers are extremely poor, featuring pieces that are chromatically similar to the point of confusion. The tomb, item, and tactic cards are all very similar to one another when placed face down, and the player markers are difficult to distinguish except for the somewhat fiery orange/red one. Colors need to be distinct and bold to keep confusion at bay, and this fails miserably in that regard. Also, while I like the idea of having red, blue and green dice, when the blue and green dice look very similar in color it doesn't help.

It can take quite a while to get a game going, with significant time spent by players choosing their party members and outfitting them for their first journey into the crypts. This is exacerbated by the game's nigh indescribable character attrition rate. Characters routinely die every few turns, and often lose your hard earned possessions in the process. It becomes tiresome to recruit and carefully equip a character, only to see them perish a turn later.

The game makes a feeble attempt at a difficulty scale by gradually increasing the number of randomly selected "crypt cards" that appear in each crypt, the further you get into the board. The problem is that there is no mechanism to balance which cards appear in a crypt, so it's entirely possible to stumble upon three traps, no monsters, and no treasure. It is also very likely to wander into a tomb that has several insanely dangerous monsters right off the bat, wiping out your entire party before you've even begun to get started. The traps one encounters in the various crypts are all highly dangerous, and will usually result in the death of one or more characters should a saving throw not be made. Mostly these saving throws are of the skill variety, meaning you need a rogue in your party. Or else. It's incredibly unfair to watch a fellow player with a skilled-out rogue breeze through the game while you slog through an endless sea of traps, losing character after character, all due to the "luck of the draw"... or worse.

The Intolerable:

Most characters have events that occur in reaction to other events (reacts), such as when monsters appear, or the player is a "CM". Monsters also frequently have their own set of potentially complicated reacts, followed by player items with reacts of their own! As if that weren't complicated enough, players can opt to further agitate others by drawing tactic cards that give them even more reacts that must be taken into account when the game is in progress! This quickly devolves into a nightmarish mess as players wrangle their stats, bonuses, actions, and reactions, and even "traits" with the CM during each battle. To say this is cumbersome is an understatement. It's completely convoluted. Many combinations of events lead to off-kilter balancing that can (and will) totally ruin the game, leaving players exasperated as one guy happens upon an item/tactic combo that renders them virtually impervious to trap or battle damage for a slew of turns.

Balancing is utterly nonexistent. This is a totally random experience that will frustrate you to no end as you struggle to keep a working party for more than a few rounds. You'll marvel as a random player manages to assemble an unstoppable character that cannot be defeated in battle, or fall to any trap, while you are incapable of doing the same given the same setup... all thanks to unbalanced randomization. Parties that do not have a powerful rogue are ultimately ineffective, leaving the player unable to safely penetrate the game's crypts, or defend one's self from others who pickpocket constantly enough as to ruin the game entirely.

The bottom line is that this product feels like an unfinished work. In software development we'd call this a pre-alpha build, because it isn't ready for prime time, and it certainly isn't worth the $40-50 price tag. There are far better fantasy board games available that offer the same concept at 1/2 the price and a 1/10th the confusion.

Thread: Tomb:: Rules:: combat

Khandrogos — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:12:18 +0000

by Khandrogos

Ok, we are confused. Someone please explain this scenario for example: 2 monsters vs. 4 characters. We don't understand how the battle works.

Review: Tomb:: Reviews:: Another thread called "Why I love this game..."

havoc110 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:18:14 +0000

by havoc110

I wouldn't necessarily call the game "balanced", but to me the greatest point is that the game is balanced when it needs to be, and then it puts in an element of dread that is what makes the game.

Case in point a game just completed today...

3 players, and we had some powerful groups. Part of the greatness of the game is building killer characters with killer combo effects. But what's even greater is that sometimes it just doesn't matter.

When seeding the Tomb, I guess we all group-thinked alike and put REALLY NASTY traps and monsters in the farthest row. Both 5 card tombs were both unbeatable by the first party in, and all those parties were really strong. The first guy ran into stirges with 2 added red dice, which took a heavy toll on all parties. He was TPKed soon thereafter.

And that is where the design shines (if you read other posts, the rulebook is not where it shines...but it is well worth it if you just get over that and play). The game really shines when you pick up a set of cards in a crypt, look at them as the CM, and know that your opponent's party, who's been clearing crypts practically uncontested for the last 45 minutes, doesn't have a prayer. Even better is when you lay the monsters out on the table, and he realizes the same thing that you already know, that his super party is about to be ground into dust, and that he's going to be dust before he even gets a player action to run away...

Then people come in later into these crypts with hastily built parties to come and chip away at the crypts, banking what little XPs they can claim before they, too, get TPKed.

With the combinatory effects, if you take the lynchpin monster out of a crypt, for example, the monster giving the stirges the 2 red dice, then a crypt can become very simple, gleaning lots of XPs for the next party in.

Eventually the game ended, but for a time there, the TOMB was winning, there was a revolving door on the inn, and it was a heck of a fun time.

Review: Tomb:: Reviews:: Beautiful and Broken, a TOMB review.

PantsuPanic — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:51:33 +0000

by PantsuPanic

TOMB is an embodiment of the best and worst things you could want in a dungeon raiding board game. Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly about this product...

The Good
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TOMB has some truly fantastic ideas within its bowels... mainly the intense randomization that is the core functionality of the experience. The layout of the crypts, the monsters and traps you encounter, the treasure you find, the characters you play as, the equipment you gain... all of these things are totally random which adds seemingly limitless replay possibilities. Tomb also has FANTASTIC artwork throughout all of its components, absolutely beautiful incorporated paintings from a large variety of artists adorn and abound the TOMB experience. Also, TOMB's combat system is really fun, randomly letting one player control monsters while another their own characters whenever the situation presents itself.

The Bad
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TOMB has easily the WORST INSTRUCTION MANUAL I've ever encountered in any board game I've ever owned. It is TERRIBLE. The layout of the instruction manual makes absolutely no sense from a chronological, logical, or functional standpoint. Worse yet, the manual doesn't even begin to address the dozens upon dozens of exceptions, loopholes, and sheer conundrums that will creep their way into your first few gaming sessions with reckless abandon. You will spend your first few hours with this game completely confused and befuddled, afterwards you will simply make up your own rules to duct-tape the gaping holes left behind in the haphazard design. Not to mention all of the disassociated nomenclature that permeates the hundreds of card descriptions... such as referring to an "Item" card as a "Blacksmith" card, or a "Crypt" as a "Tomb"... there's a whole lot of confusing misnaming going on in many instances. Often TOMB seems to go out of its way to create strange complexities... such as do there really need to be "traits" as well as "reacts"? Does there really need to be so many different triggers to invoke reacts? Do character reacts go before monster traits even though a react might be triggered by a monster's reveal initially? Would it of been so hard to simply say how many spell cards a wizard can have? Do bows count as weapons or are they their own category because they only affect attributes and skill? The lack of forethought and clarification is often retarded. Also TOMB is a bit too dice heavy, there are a ton of dice to deal with and it would of been a lot easier to simply have a 1d20, a 1d8, and a 1d6 to toss about instead of 20 or so multi-colored die. Lastly, there are five different card types to deal with, and that's fine, but the only way to differentiate between the cards from the top view is by what color the card is... AEG should of gave each card type its own symbolic icon on the topside so that color blind folks could actually play this game. Even the dice are hard to tell apart from a chromatic standpoint without extremely good lighting.

The Ugly
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The endless discussions, debates, and dire confusion you and your friends will encounter during your first few gaming sessions with TOMB while trying to understand the "rules". Do not play this game with anyone who doesn't have a big bucket of patience and a willingness to compromise for the greater good of the whole experience together. It is extremely easy to misinterpret situations and end up in a huge argument with your fellow dungeoneers thusly ruining what should of been a great Saturday night gaming session, thanks to TOMB's complete lack of distinctly and logically explaining its own rules and endless extraneous circumstantial moments bursting forth from half-thought out crypt cards.

The Bottom Line
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TOMB is a GREAT IDEA, but it needs a SERIOUS reworking of the card rules, nomenclature, and entire user manual to be worthy of recommendation. Nothing saps the fun out of a situation like random confusion, and there's just too much of it going on with this game. Here's hoping AEG does a complete revision of the instructional documentation and fixes the typos on the cards, and then releases a TOMB 2.0. Maybe then it'd be worth your hard earned cash and the patience of your dorketh breathen. As it stands now however, if you have a saint's patience and some good strong friendships; once you persevere through the confusion you will find an interesting and unique game at the end of the long distorted tunnel that is TOMB. It's just painfully obvious that the "thousands of test sessions" claimed by AEG during this game's development must of been spent coming up with layers upon layers of wacky ideas, without ever securing the initial foundation to hold them all in the first place.