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Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (board game)
Encyclopedia
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb was a boardgame for 1-4 players, published by Games Workshop
and designed by Stephen Hand. It featured a three dimensional board, representing an Egyptian pyramid
, with two consecutively smaller playing areas above the bottom board.
The aim of the game was to reach the top of the fictional Pyramid of Khonsu, accessible only from the top tiered board, complete the tasks within and obtain the mythical Elixir of Life
.
In addition to traps, creatures and treasures found by exploring the board, there was the Mummy
itself, which moved around the board. The Mummy's movement was controlled by the players, by a bidding system.
Encountering the Mummy was generally detrimental to the player's chances of winning the game.
After rolling a 12 sided die
to determine who started the game, play began with moving the Mummy.
Players secretly bids any number of Tana Leaves - the winner of the bid could move the Mummy one space. In the event of a tie, the Mummy is not moved.
The Mummy starts in one of four fixed locations on the bottom board. If the Mummy entered a space containing a character's piece, the controlling player chooses whether to inflict damage to the character or steal a Discovery. After this, the Mummy restarted play from one of its starting locations.
On a player's turn, they had one of three choices: Pass, Heal or Move.
Passing allowed the player to discard any number of cards in his hand for the listed number of Tana Leaves on the discarded cards. The player then redrew up to his hand of five cards.
Healing swaps ten Tana Leaves for regaining one Life, up to a maximum of three.
Movement allowed the character to move. They played a movement card from their hand, then moved the character in one of the permitted compass
directions or ascend/descend a board level according to the movement card. Each other player then was permitted to a play a movement card and move the active player's character one space in the permitted direction.
Ascending the pyramid was only possible if the appropriate square existed on the board above the piece's current location.
Players could not move into spaces containing other players or the Mummy.
After Movement, the player then explored his current location. Some board spaces had numbers printed on them, indicating the number of encounters faced. Each player was then allowed to play a Hazard, a Creature or Discovery card from their hand, until the number of encounters was reached, or a maximum of one card of each type, whichever was lower.
Hazards represented traps or other devices intended to protect the pyramid from intruders. These usually required testing a character's ability score.
Testing a character's attribute was done by rolling the die then comparing to the character's listed attribute. If the die roll was equal to or lower than the attribute, the test was successful.
Creatures represented the pyramid's guardians or other (hostile) treasure hunters. The player had a choice of how to deal with the creature, Attacking, Trickery or Retreating. Each option involved rolling the die and adding the appropriate attribute score, then comparing to the creature's relevant attribute plus a die roll.
A successful Attack defeated the creature, while a Retreat moved the character back a number of squares. Trickery had a graded success level - just beating the creature caused it to be discarded, while beating the creature by a large margin allowed the player to use the creature as a single use bodyguard against other creatures.
Discoveries are useful items that have been found. These can range from items that add to the character's attributes, or ways of defeating Hazards and Creatures.
After the player's action, each player then redrew cards to return their hand to five, then play passed clockwise. Once all players had a turn, the Mummy was moved and play resumed from the first player.
and test three character specific attributes.
If all three tests were passed, then the player won the game.
The Chamber of Osiris was only accessible from specific locations on the top tiered board and the character had to be in possession of the special Key of Osiris Discovery.
, strength
and fortune
, to represent their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, each character had 4 lives, which could be removed by Hazards, Creatures or the Mummy. Loss of all 4 lives resulted in the player being eliminated from the game.
Each character had an illustration and some flavour text on their sheets, explaining their motivations:
Marlow Hammett - It all started back in San Francisco with a stolen black bird and a dame in trouble. Since then it's been getting weirder by the day. All this stuff about pyramids and eternal life is just so much mumbo-jumbo in his book, but Hammett was hired to get the Elixir, and Hammett always delivers...
Rev Luther Kirkegard - Kirkegard has travelled to Egypt
to defend the divine and natural laws of life and death. The Elixir must be destroyed and the forbidden knowledge of the ancients must be prevented from corrupting the living!
Professor Nayland Cushing - Cushing is a world-famous explorer whose journeys into the unknown have enthralled newspaper readers for over twenty years. Now, at the pinnacle of his career, he faces his greatest challenge. He must find the Elixir and preserve it for scientific study. It must not fall into evil hands!
Lt-Gen
The Earl
of Carmarthen
- The Earl has fought everywhere from Africa to India, and has seen things that would send a lesser man mad. Now retired from the army, he travels in search of the mysterious and unusual - like the Elixir. If he could get it, his idiot of a son wouldn't get the title and estates for a long, long time...
White Dwarf
published a number of additional characters in issue 102.
The victory and loss conditions remained the same.
Games Workshop
Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
and designed by Stephen Hand. It featured a three dimensional board, representing an Egyptian pyramid
Pyramid
A pyramid is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a single point. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilateral, or any polygon shape, meaning that a pyramid has at least three triangular surfaces...
, with two consecutively smaller playing areas above the bottom board.
The aim of the game was to reach the top of the fictional Pyramid of Khonsu, accessible only from the top tiered board, complete the tasks within and obtain the mythical Elixir of Life
Elixir of life
The elixir of life, also known as the elixir of immortality and sometimes equated with the philosopher's stone, is a legendary potion, or drink, that grants the drinker eternal life and or eternal youth. Many practitioners of alchemy pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create...
.
In addition to traps, creatures and treasures found by exploring the board, there was the Mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
itself, which moved around the board. The Mummy's movement was controlled by the players, by a bidding system.
Encountering the Mummy was generally detrimental to the player's chances of winning the game.
Gameplay
In games with more than one player, each player initially drew five cards from a universal deck and six points of Tana Leaf counters. The deck contained a variety of movement cards, Monsters, Hazards and Discoveries.After rolling a 12 sided die
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
to determine who started the game, play began with moving the Mummy.
Players secretly bids any number of Tana Leaves - the winner of the bid could move the Mummy one space. In the event of a tie, the Mummy is not moved.
The Mummy starts in one of four fixed locations on the bottom board. If the Mummy entered a space containing a character's piece, the controlling player chooses whether to inflict damage to the character or steal a Discovery. After this, the Mummy restarted play from one of its starting locations.
On a player's turn, they had one of three choices: Pass, Heal or Move.
Passing allowed the player to discard any number of cards in his hand for the listed number of Tana Leaves on the discarded cards. The player then redrew up to his hand of five cards.
Healing swaps ten Tana Leaves for regaining one Life, up to a maximum of three.
Movement allowed the character to move. They played a movement card from their hand, then moved the character in one of the permitted compass
Compass
A compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
directions or ascend/descend a board level according to the movement card. Each other player then was permitted to a play a movement card and move the active player's character one space in the permitted direction.
Ascending the pyramid was only possible if the appropriate square existed on the board above the piece's current location.
Players could not move into spaces containing other players or the Mummy.
After Movement, the player then explored his current location. Some board spaces had numbers printed on them, indicating the number of encounters faced. Each player was then allowed to play a Hazard, a Creature or Discovery card from their hand, until the number of encounters was reached, or a maximum of one card of each type, whichever was lower.
Hazards represented traps or other devices intended to protect the pyramid from intruders. These usually required testing a character's ability score.
Testing a character's attribute was done by rolling the die then comparing to the character's listed attribute. If the die roll was equal to or lower than the attribute, the test was successful.
Creatures represented the pyramid's guardians or other (hostile) treasure hunters. The player had a choice of how to deal with the creature, Attacking, Trickery or Retreating. Each option involved rolling the die and adding the appropriate attribute score, then comparing to the creature's relevant attribute plus a die roll.
A successful Attack defeated the creature, while a Retreat moved the character back a number of squares. Trickery had a graded success level - just beating the creature caused it to be discarded, while beating the creature by a large margin allowed the player to use the creature as a single use bodyguard against other creatures.
Discoveries are useful items that have been found. These can range from items that add to the character's attributes, or ways of defeating Hazards and Creatures.
After the player's action, each player then redrew cards to return their hand to five, then play passed clockwise. Once all players had a turn, the Mummy was moved and play resumed from the first player.
Victory
To win, a player had to enter the Chamber of OsirisOsiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
and test three character specific attributes.
If all three tests were passed, then the player won the game.
The Chamber of Osiris was only accessible from specific locations on the top tiered board and the character had to be in possession of the special Key of Osiris Discovery.
Characters
Each of the four characters included in the game had different attributes, such as EgyptologyEgyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
, strength
Physical strength
Physical strength is the ability of a person or animal to exert force on physical objects using muscles. Increasing physical strength is the goal of strength training.-Overview:...
and fortune
Luck
Luck or fortuity is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense...
, to represent their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, each character had 4 lives, which could be removed by Hazards, Creatures or the Mummy. Loss of all 4 lives resulted in the player being eliminated from the game.
Each character had an illustration and some flavour text on their sheets, explaining their motivations:
Marlow Hammett - It all started back in San Francisco with a stolen black bird and a dame in trouble. Since then it's been getting weirder by the day. All this stuff about pyramids and eternal life is just so much mumbo-jumbo in his book, but Hammett was hired to get the Elixir, and Hammett always delivers...
Rev Luther Kirkegard - Kirkegard has travelled to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
to defend the divine and natural laws of life and death. The Elixir must be destroyed and the forbidden knowledge of the ancients must be prevented from corrupting the living!
Professor Nayland Cushing - Cushing is a world-famous explorer whose journeys into the unknown have enthralled newspaper readers for over twenty years. Now, at the pinnacle of his career, he faces his greatest challenge. He must find the Elixir and preserve it for scientific study. It must not fall into evil hands!
Lt-Gen
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
The Earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
of Carmarthen
Carmarthen
Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....
- The Earl has fought everywhere from Africa to India, and has seen things that would send a lesser man mad. Now retired from the army, he travels in search of the mysterious and unusual - like the Elixir. If he could get it, his idiot of a son wouldn't get the title and estates for a long, long time...
White Dwarf
White dwarf
A white dwarf, also called a degenerate dwarf, is a small star composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. They are very dense; a white dwarf's mass is comparable to that of the Sun and its volume is comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored...
published a number of additional characters in issue 102.
Solo rules
The game also included solo rules. Playing this way involved rolling the die for the Mummy's movement and the separation of the playing deck into separate movement and Hazard/Creature/Discovery cards.The victory and loss conditions remained the same.