Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (board game)
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb was a board game for 1-4 players, designed by Stephen Hand and published by Games Workshop. It featured a three-dimensional board, representing an Egyptian pyramid, with two consecutively smaller playing areas above the bottom board.
 Cover art of Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, illustrated by James Warhola | |
| Designer(s) | Stephen Hand |
|---|---|
| Illustrator(s) | Gary Chalk, Dave Andrews, H |
| Publisher(s) | Games Workshop |
| Players | 1-4 |
| Setup time | 5-10 minutes |
| Playing time | Approximately 2 hours |
| Random chance | Medium to High (Solo play) |
| Age range | 14 to Adult |
| Skill(s) required | Simple mathematics |
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.
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 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.
Victory
To win, a player had to enter the Chamber of Osiris 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 Egyptology, 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. [1]
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.
References
- Curse of the Mummy's Tomb rule book
- Curse of the Mummy's Tomb Mummy's Tome reference guide
Notes
- "Curse of the Mummy's Tomb". www.boardgamegeek.com.