Review - Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier by Gus L

I’m going to talk about a module I really like, so let’s call this a review! This is going to be about Tomb Robbers on the Crystal Frontier by Gus L. I have read the module, and before that I’ve played through parts of it (skipped some due to scheduling issues, but what can you do?).

Disclaimer: I do occasionally chat with Gus on various discords, which is also why I decided to write up some reviews of his stuff. Ain’t nobody paying me to write words on this blog, as if that wasn’t obvious. Also, ya know, spoilers for the module.

Cover also by Gus L.

Overview

Tomb Robbers consists of the main dungeon that it explores, a chapter on how to wrap things up after the characters are done with it, some appendices on the factions and magic items found in the module, a short write up of Scarlet Town (a possible base of operations for a game set in the Crystal Frontier) and then a whole other second smaller dungeon just to round things off!

The writing and art are by Gus himself, while editing was done by Ava Islam and Nick LS Whelan.

The main concept of the dungeon is that you are exploring one of the many crystal tombs that litter the Crystal Frontier, a borderlands between two powerful nations. The crystal tombs are chucked at the planet from outer space by Evil Space Elves, and you get to even meet some of them, sort of. There’s a lot of undead, a lot of dangerous crystal dust and generally a good amount of dungeon to explore.

The smaller dungeon, called Common Grave, is also a crystal tomb, just a much smaller one. I’ve only read through that one and haven’t played it, so I won’t really factor it into this review.

Both of these dungeons are statted out for OSE, so you can use whatever flavor of B/X you like to run it.

What works for me

First off, let’s get the bells and whistles out of the way - the visual presentation is very solid. The art direction and visuals are coherent (an upside of Gus doing all the art himself), the color palette is memorable, the way the book is laid out is generally easy to follow. The book looks good, in short.

As to the adventure itself, I quite like it too. The crystal tomb is, in many ways, the main antagonist and danger in the module. While there are some encounters like the pit of way-too-many zombies, or the Stylite and a few others, the main danger actually comes from simply navigating this very hostile environment. For me that really makes it a good exemplary dungeon. I remember plenty of sessions of exploring the tomb mostly just involving ways to navigate the tomb without dying from the crystals. I wouldn’t even say it’s traps in the usual D&D dungeon way, more that the material of the dungeon itself is just fundamentally bad for you, thus going into it at all is a risk.

I like the flow of the dungeon itself - there are a few loops, some of which are not obvious, there’s an alternate entrance/exit (good if you want to screw over the person who employed the PCs to delve into the tomb!) all the hallmarks of a well Jaquaysed dungeon.

I find the key pretty decent in most of the rooms.I do wish it was slightly shorter at times (and I suspect if I tried to run it I would need to make sure I reread rooms before hand just in case), but it is not too verbose and important elements are highlighted so that’s good.

Another thing I like is that the big puzzle door in one section of the dungeon can also be simply circumnavigated through using Knock or any equivalent magical way of unlocking a door. That to me is good design too - give players the option to have a go at the puzzle, or just let them ignore if they have the resources to do so and don’t feel the desire to spend the time.

I personally enjoy the setting the dungeon and the rest of the book presents you with some good Fantasy Cowboy Shit, and if you’re into that you’re into that.

If you're also here to do Cowboy Shit, then definitely give the Crystal Frontier a look!

It does mean that using the tomb for a different setting might require a few tweaks, but honestly I think it could work pretty well in your more standard D&D fare without needing to do major revisions to the actual dungeon itself. Gus has also posted numerous other things for his Crystal Frontier setting, so if you want to specifically play in that I think you can get a good few sessions out of it by just running what he’s already released.

Oh and it has Evil Space Elves, which are great. They are always great. Put them in your campaign. I don’t care if they’re Githyanki, I don’t care if they’re the Eld, I don’t care if they’re the Empyrians from this adventure. Just shove them in your campaign!

One last positive thing to note - I like that the book offers plenty of guidance on dungeon exploration, on how to run the dungeon itself and just generally good teaching tools. One of Gus’s other adventures, Prison of the Hated Pretender, is one of my go-to recommendations for people asking for teaching modules, so it’s good to see some of that in here too. One of my issues with Prison is how relatively small it is, whereas the crystal tomb offers a big enough space that exploration does indeed become a rewarding activity.

 

What doesn’t work for me

I have had a few gripes with the dungeon as well, though not nearly enough to consider them an issue. First and foremost I feel the factions in the tomb are a bit lacking. There’s a few - the reanimated former tomb robbers, the Stylite, the Sleeper, Mab, the employer who hires the PCs, and a few others.

However of those most if not all are either undead, Evil Space Elves…or Undead Evil Space Elves. Through my experience as a player our only interactions with these individuals was to agree to whatever it is they say they want out of us and then just run away as soon as possible and hope to never meet them again. All the Empyrian NPCs specifically are kind of inimical to your PC’s (and much of humanity’s) existence and as such we never found any good reason why we would ever want to help them.

As I mentioned in the previous section, I also found the key to be a bit verbose when reading it, and whether or not that’s a deal breaker is up to you. I personally prefer things a bit more stripped down, but this is just minor quibbles honestly. At least when a monster shows up the stat blocks are near the key for it, which I always enjoy having. I absolutely hate having to flip through a module just to find the stats for something, and I am glad this doesn’t make me do that.

 

Conclusion

I think…that’s about it really? The tl;dr of this whole thing is that I think Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier is really damn good and you should go read it and better yet - run it or play in it.

And if not, at least take inspiration for it and write your own thing and put it up, because while fancy kickstarters and “zines” with loads of people working on them are all well and good, solid hobby projects like these are just nice to have around.

Where to get it

On DriveThruRPG. You can also find Gus L’s stuff on his blog All Dead Generations.