Secrets of the Lost Tomb Core Board Game 2nd Edition

This is really a fun game. Takes quite a while to set up and go through all the rules but it's pretty easy to understand. It will take a few hours to play so plan your time accordingly. You also need a lot of room to spread out all the pieces and cards and to build. We had a ton of fun playing this game. It makes everyone work together and figure out strategies for each person on how to contribute to the success of the group. Very well done.

Kickstarter rip off. They took the mechanics of popular games and slopped them together into a mess. Mind numbingly boring and tedious.

Just recently heard about this game, grabbed a copy and love it. Very story driven, thematic dungeon crawler with a huge amount of game play included. Nice components (except for some pesky pegs that are just a bit too big for the holes they are supposed to go in...easily fixed but I'd drop a 1/2 Star if I could). Nice game mechanics for changing difficulty levels of the play throughs add to replayability (and I'm ordering expansions now as the game is that good).

A fantastically enjoyable game.Scales very well for 1-4 or more players.Immersive storyline gameplay that is also highly replayable. Exciting and epic with many variables. Quite a few goid expansions also.Quite easy to learn but with a surprising depth and strategic requirements. Highly recommended.

Terrific game.The gameplay is diversified.

Before video games, there were board games and Dungeons and Dragons. Everything Epic has managed to take the best elements of both and cram them together in Secrets of the Lost Tomb, streamlining the complexity of D&D while maintaining the interactivity, sense of adventure, and variety of the classic that sent many of us out to purchase our first bag of polyhedron dice. The day my copy of Secrets of the Lost Tomb, with the Ancient Myths & Legends and Great Apocalypse expansions, I tore into the box giddily. Everything about this game is masterfully designed by Chris Batarlis and his team. Everything. The game pieces, adventure cards, player characters, and board tiles are colorful, varied, and bursting with creativity and nods to the classics.The main pack alone comes with a ton of stuff. So much stuff that it would be an unboxer's delight. You get tiles, a broad variety of adventurers to play with diverse backgrounds and strengths, a rulebook, a scenario book, dice, the comet counter, greater and lesser monsters, weapon cards, armor cards, advantage and disadvantage tokens, random scenario cards, traps, utility items, mythical items, a trans dimensional power up merchant, and tons and tons of story. The tiles are all designed with close attention to detail and variety. The scenarios read like classic genre pulp. There's horror, zombie horror, gothic horror, Egyptian adventure, quests with the classics, and detective fodder. With five expansion sets available, I haven't even seen everything. Oh, and the figurines. There's even a set of figurines for the player characters. Opening Secrets of the Lost Tomb is like Christmas morning for anyone who likes adventure games.The best way to play Secrets of the Lost Tomb is with someone who is familiar with the system. It isn't D&D complex, but neither is it checkers simple. The best way to learn the system is to break out the solo mode. That's right, EEG was smart enough to include a solo mode that is an excellent tool for familiarization. The game is family friendly but manages to hit all the notes that would make adults of any age want to join the Eternal Order of Perseus.Secrets of the Lost Tomb is a board game made by people who love playing board games. If EEG keeps coming out with product of this quality, and their releases of Agents of Operatives and Big Trouble in Little China (that's right. Big Trouble in Little China. The boardgame) are an indicator that they will, board games will never be the same. Top notch product, worth every penny, and every minute playing. Seriously, that unboxing, though.

Quick version:If you like Ameritrash games, exploring dungeons (or tombs, even) and rich thematic gameplay then this is one of the best games out there and I highly recommend it.If you don't like having to keep track of a bunch of stats spread over various cards, don't like dice-based event resolutions or don't have the time or the table space for a big game, then you might want to sit in on a session first or avoid it outright. For me, this has scratched the itch that the likes of Descent 2e, Arkham Horror and Betrayal at the House on the Hill have failed to fully satisfy. The well thought out solo mode is also a big winner for me.PROSFantastic componentsMassive variety of scenarios, locations, adventurers and monstersVery thematic and immersiveScales well from 1 to 6 playersDifficulty can be adjusted by adding or removing various types of cards.Massive campaignCONSTable hog. Because you are exploring 3 levels of the tomb, the maps can grow quite big, easily taking up a 1m x 2m space with map tiles and player cards.Lots of little tokens - everything can be stored in a Plano box, sorted into types which dramatically reduces the fiddlynessSmall card text can be hard to readLots of things to keep track of (stats, bonuses, etc)Full reviewWe played the first scenario (Pharaoe With The Blue Eyes) and it took over 4 hours, way longer than the listed time. This was partly due to having to refer back to the rules to answer questions, partly due to the team discussing options and partly the amount of text that needed to be read out.I have to say that the time flew by and it really didn't feel like it took anywhere near as long as it did, such was the immersion we felt.We have played that scenario a few more times since and it has taken about 1.5 hours.You have a bank of 12 action points that is distributed evenly among the players so with less players, each person gets more actions. Players take one action at a time going round the table until everyone has used all their actions. This cuts down on downtime and keeps players involved in the game. You can explore new rooms, search the room you are in, fight monsters, rest, heal and trade items between other characters in the same room. Once everyone has taken their actions the tomb reacts and you draw a card which tells you what happens.When you explore a new room, you draw a tile corresponding to which of the 3 levels you are in (very much like Betrayal at the House on the Hill) and perform any action listed on the tile. Some tiles make you do an attribute test, some award you treasure or skill bonuses and others are traps. There can also be an adventure trigger. If the tile has a 1, 2 or 3 comet symbol, you refer to the relevant part of the scenario book and read the passage out loud. This progresses the adventure forward and get's you closer to your goal and/or the Big Bad appearing. There can also be an adventure/misadventure symbol. In that case, you draw a card and read the text on either the good side or bad side. Despite the occasional typo, all the text is very well written and very thematic although it may not always tie in with the art on the room tile.Every action, event or fight is resolved by making an attribute check. Each character has a series of attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Mythos and Speed) and the number represents the amount of dice you roll. If a card has you make a Mythos check it will have the Mythos symbol followed by a number (if no number, then it's a 1) and that is the amount of successes you must have on the dice. Tests succeedd on a 5 or 6. If you don't like luck in your games, then this will be a turn off. This game is pure Ameritrash, but so much fun. Yes, it can be annoying when you roll 12 dice and fail to roll any fives or sixes, but then you read the failure part of the card and accept your fate.After the adventurers have done, you draw a tomb card and this lists all the things that happen during the Tomb Phase.It usually starts with either a positive or negative effect affecting the group for that phase. Then, any monsters already in the tomb will move towards the nearest adventurer. Then creatures in a room with an adventurer wil fight them, then more creatures will spawn and finally the time track will advance.The time track is the trigger for scenario events. Once the track reaches a prescribed number, the next part of the scenario will trigger so you need to be aware of this and make sure you have everything you may need before a trigger happens. Combat is relatively simple but can take a couple of fights to get used to. Creatures have a bunch of stats including a courage attack, physical attack, speed, armour, evasion rating and soul points. The player will start by choosing which weapon they are going to use. Weapons have an attribute - melee weapons use Strength, guns and whips use Dexterity, etc. and take as many dice as that stat requires. Weapons also have buffs, so if a weapon has +2 attack, you add 2 more dice to the pool. Once you have a selection of items and companions, you can end up rolling 12+ dice each attack. You first check the creatures physical attack number and if this is lower than the number of successes rolled, you successfully defend and proceed to attack. If a creature has armour, that soaks up that number of 5's rolled. any remaining 5's and all the 6's are then taken as damage. If you kill the creature, you receive Soul Shard tokens equal to the number listed on the monster card. These can be taken back to the tomb entrance and spent on various things including stat buffs, curse removal and equipment. Creatures also have a Courage stat. The first time you attack or are attacked by a creature card, your character suffers that much courage failure. You get half of it back when you kill the monster. If your courage drops too low, you will flee the tomb and will have to start again with a fresh character.This base game comes with a good selection of scenarios, tiles and characters. There are also expansions available which add much more including a full campaign mode. Each story is very different, all with a classic pulp fiction feel and range from trying to stop an evil Pharaoe returning to life to thwarting Nazis trying to recover Captain Nemo's nuclear submarine The Nautilus. All are well written and very thematic.I am very impressed with this game and it was very much worth the money. The play time could be an issue, you really need to double the time listed for each scenario until you have played a good few games with the same group and know how everything works and the general strategies required.

An excellent game of storytelling, adventure, and adrenaline.If you're in the market for a massive game of modular and diverse adventure, this is the one.A solid recipe of pulp adventure, lovecratian horror, and dungeon-crawling delight; this game is a great modern classic for fans of co-operative storytelling adventure.