09
Dungeon Module C1
The Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan
(1980)
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by Harold Johnson and Jeff R. Leason |
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Able Assistance: |
Dave Cook and |
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Editor: |
Harold Johnson |
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Editing and Production: |
Dave Cook, Jeff R. Leason, |
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Illustrations: |
Erol Otus, Jeff Dee, Gregory K. Fleming, David S. LaForce, David
C. Sutherland III |
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A
perrennial favorite, The Hidden Shrine draws on a decidedly Aztec nature so
cleverly intermixed with fantasy that a wholly believeable culture is revealed
before the eyes of the PCs. Unfortunately, circumstances are arranged to allow
very little sight-seeing, making the first half of the adventure rather
frenetic. A great weekender for a campaign or a nostalgic pick-up game.
Realm Rating: 4/5
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Game09
- Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan (rating: 5.5)
Eep!
This must be the first in gaming history to have Iron Butterfly's
'In-a-gadda-da-vida' as the opening soundtrack. I'm not sure if that was
actually a good first impression on the game. It's a bit too long for UA, as
well. Didn't crash my system, but bits and pieces of the tune chirped in
occasionally.
Also,
without actually starting to play, the color for highlighted font is not the
best possible. The normal color is good, but the highlight is a bit too dark.
The
story has the party trapped inside a large temple, and their goal is to escape
that temple. The idea itself is not very thrilling, but in this design, a good
use of art hacks made it a lot more interesting. I usually don't look into the
art gallery before I've played the game at least a bit, so some of the
surprises were quite effective.
Combats
were not the main concern in the game. The always occurring damage events were.
In fact, if the player creates characters in the game, I doubt it is possible
to even finish the game, since those damage events eat away the hit points the
1st level characters have very very quickly. I found no resting areas inside
the temple (which made perfect sense). No area view available, but it really
didn't matter, since there usually was only one direction to go, which was
'forward'.
I
think I finished it. There was no 'defined' ending I could see, but I got out
of the temple and was indirectly told that the game was over. So I -assume- I
finished it.
Harri
Polsa
Review of game09 - The Hidden
Shrine of Tomoachan
Another excellent entry in the
Realm series.
This is a faithful adaptation
of the tournament module. The first level can be quite deadly - which is
exactly how it's supposed to be. The best way to get through this design is to
save the game, explore a little, and then return to your saved game once you
know the safest route forward. If you follow the safest route through the
Shrine, you will have a better chance of survival, but you will still want to
go back and explore what lies down all the side corridors.
The art and hacks are
strongpoints of this design, as they seem to be for all the Realm games I have
played. The Shrine of Tomoachan has a lot of art for a short design, because of
the booklet of drawings which came with the original pen & paper module.
The only bugs which I
encountered were: a graphics display problem when a big pic is followed by a
sprite and a few spelling mistakes.
PLOT: 8 ART: 9 HACKS: 8 BUGS: 9
OVERALL RATING: 8.5
I highly recommend this module
for everyone.
Nol
