Thutmose's Night
Adventure for Chill

Game Review

Reviewed by Rick Swan


Written by Jon Brunelle
Pacesetter Limited P.O. Box 451, Delavan, WI 53115
Released. April, 1985
Catalog No: 2009
Price: $6.00
Complexity: Beginner
Solitaire Suitability: Low
**

More scary stuff for Pacesetter Ltd.'s horror role-playing system Chill. Thutmose's Night begins on an appropriately horrible note as the players are summoned to investigate a series of grisly murders in which the victims were discovered drained of their bone marrow while at home asleep. All the murders took place in cities that were visited by a traveling museum exhibit from Egypt--could that be the key?

The cover painting of a mad mummy bursting from his glass display case pretty much sets the stage, although interestingly enough, the bystanders don't appear to be particularly upset about it. The 32 pages of the module include a general introduction, statistics for non-player characters and pregenerated player characters, several maps, and a few assorted player aids. What's in short supply are text pagesthe actual adventure covers barely half the module, hardly a bargain at six dollars.

The page count wouldn't be so bothersome if the module were better, but it's nothing special. The story line is run-of-the- mill, the bad guys are thoroughly predictable (see the cover), and the climax is little more than a tedious chase at the site of an Egyptian pyramid. There's an attempt at maintaining an eerie atmosphere with some ominous dreaming and a lot of late night skulking, but the mood is continually disrupted by a seemingly endless series of slugfests with various thugs and creeps. What's more, the best encounters (a man with the head of a crocodile, a living dinosaur skeleton) turn out to be illusions or dreams.

If the players are especially smart or especially lucky, a good portion of Thutmose's Night can be bypassed entirely. These sections could conceivably be used in other adventures, giving the module some measures of usefulness beyond the scenario presented here. However, take note that there isn't all that much here to begin with-an experienced Chill group should be able to knock off the whole thing in less than three hours.

The text is easy to follow and well presented, with one notable exception. For some reason, the designers have decided to do away with the little black and white dots used to separate the players' information from the referee's information in other Chill modules. Although the information in Thutmose's Night is differentiated by dividing lines, I miss the dots; not only were they easier to follow, they added a nice distinctive touch. Maps are provided for nearly every major location, but I could have used a lot more detail, especially in the Egyptian settings. The player aids, two letters to the players from SAVE headquarters and a page from the museum guidebook, contain redundant information from the text and take up pages that could have been used for a longer adventure.

Players would he well advised to choose characters who rate high in the muscle department, for it takes strength and not smarts to succeed ~ere. in fact, there are several particularly dangerous points where a weak group has little chance of survival. And that illustrates a basic problem of the module: if the characters need to be stronger than average just to get through it, then what's there to be afraid of? And if there's little to be afraid of, what's the point of playing Chill?

Finally, designer Jon Brunelle seems to have a real problem providing the details necessary to establish a vivid setting. The museum is one of the emptiest I've ever been in, and the Egyptian scenes are sketchy and vague.

Ironically, the less familiar a player is with horror films and books, the more likely he is to enjoy Thutmose's Night. Pacesetter Ltd. could stand to put a little more faith in the imaginations of their designers; the closer they stick to conventional monsters like Dracula and the Mummy, the weaker the resulting modules tend to be. Thutmose's Night isn't really bad, it's just hopelessly average. Give us the real thing next time!

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© Copyright 1985 by Dana Lombardy.
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