Tomb of Annihilation is Wizards of the Coast's latest adventure tome. I rather enjoy the 250+ page adventure book format that WizBros has been publishing since the advent of 5th Edition. More than mere adventure modules, they are really campaigns. Tomb of Annihilation (ToA), like Curse of Strahd and Storm King's Thunder, is a re-imagining of material first published for use with prior editions of the game. Tomb of annihilation draws upon he classic S1 Tomb of Horrors and X1 Isle of Dread for inspiration.
ToA is a referee play aid that takes adventurers from level 1 to level 11. The premise for the adventure is that Acererak, the lich from Tomb of Horrors, is now a multi-dimensional traveler who has devised a tomb in WizBros Realms setting with the express purpose of luring adventurers to their death and capturing their souls along with the souls of everyone else who dies on the planet in order to feed a developing god embryo he hopes to awaken (and turn loose on the world). The side effect of all this soul stealing is anyone who has been resurrected/raised from the dead is now also dying - slowly.
The player characters start their adventure by exploring an exotic trade city on a jungle coast that is heavy with "pulp" flavor. The setting of this adventure feels a lot like an Indiana Jones story (there are even two new backgrounds, anthropologist and archaeologist) complete with a cast of very interesting NPCs. The jungle itself is inhabited by frog-folk, dinosaurs and undead and constitutes a sandbox with a number of side quests and points of interest for the PCs to "cut their teeth on". The tomb proper is designed for higher level PCs (6+) and the original Tomb Of Horrors is called to mind in several encounters. Those who have played in S1 will recognize the big green devil face on a wall with open mouth, the four-armed gargoyle and magic mirror as well as other signature items from Acererak's arsenal of tricks and traps. Each of the "oldies" has a new twist (so be careful!) and there are also several new traps, puzzles and challenges to keep Tomb of Annihilation from being a simple rewrite. ToA seems to have a lot more critter inhabitants and therefore more combat than I recall being in S1, but perhaps that makes it a more balanced challenge? (gone are a lot of the "death traps" and "dead ends")
ToA can be played straight-up as written and I think it is the best WizBros play-aid to date, but as a referee I ask myself "what fun is that?" If I actually use this at the table, there are some inevitable tweaks I see myself making, however I found ToA is an entertaining read even if it is never played. The "hook" in the book is a (very interesting) dying patron who is suffering from the resurrection sickness who engages the PCs to stop the soul-stealing madness and once they agree, teleports them to the jungle city. I think a much more interesting twist would be the PC's deities are sending them visions, dreams, etc that souls are not reaching the afterlife. Instead the souls seem to head south to the jungle and disappear there. Sailing for the jungle port following this lead, they have a chance to meet the patron (she's too good not to use), but she just tells them about her wasting disease which represents a count-down to death (loss of a hit point a day) and gives them Acererak's name. Once they make landfall, the investigation heats up as the full nature of the "ticking time bomb" Acererak has devised is uncovered (remember that evil god he is creating!).
Physically all the 5th Edition books are very nice hardbacks with illustrations that inspire and help us visualize the game. ToA is no exception. Atmosphere is very well developed in ToA. The port city seems alive with intrigue, dinosaur races and well developed NPCs. ToA is loaded with memorable NPCs from the patron mage who is dying of resurrection fever to Nanny Pu'Pu, a hag who can raise dead PCs as intelligent zombies (normal raise dead doesn't work because of Acererak and his soul-sucking plot), the Sewn Sisters, more hags, and an undead T-Rex who vomits zombies. The jungle is pretty much an NPC itself and plays a big part in the campaign. It has "personality", is threatening (can be deadly), holds secrets the PCs will need to discover and has a history that is fun to read (and possibly reveal during play). The tomb itself is "lost" and its location discovered on a blank hex map reminding me of the old hex-crawl adventures. Various local guides can be hired, but some of them have their own agenda and can be less than helpful. Welcome to the Jungle!
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