JG 117 Temple of Ra: Accursed by Set - Old School Role Playing

Temple of Ra is a Judges Guild adventure written specifically for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The authors are Thomas and Edward McCloud. Temple of Ra was published in 1979. From cover to cover the adventure is only twenty pages long including the maps and cover pages. It is a short adventure with only one dungeon level.

This is an Egyptian themed adventure. The Gods (and Goddesses) Isis and Ra and Set figure prominently in the story. The temple was built by priests of the sun god Ra. But ultimately the real work on the tower was performed by the Goddess Isis. But the evil God Set decided to foul this fine temple by spiriting it away and filling it with monsters.

Temple of Ra: Accursed by Set Link

What I like about Temple of Ra

I like the brevity. This module presents the situation and lets the DM run with it. It does not give ten pages of history that no one will read or care about. This is another example of something that I love about many of the old Judges Guild adventures…..it does not force the characters into one path. In fact….it leaves the decision making up to the players. Are they going to do go explore? Are they going to do good things? or bad things? Too many later modules (from various authors and various editions) seemed to feel that they needed to write the story and then make the players play it. That was never the way the game was meant to be played in my opinion. Read just about any of the current edition’s adventures and they are just about all written that way now.

The selection of creatures in this adventure is interesting to me. And it seems quite appropriate. There are lions and tigers and typical animals that would seem correct for an Egyptian theme. And there are nagas and rakshasas and sphinxes. And there are also a few demons. To me this selection seems very much right for this adventure.

I like the Egyptian theme. The interaction of the three Gods and Goddesses is interesting and a unique aspect of the adventure.

There is but one map here and it is simple and clean. There are multiple entrances into the temple.

Not all of the residents of this dungeon like each other. This gives the adventurers the option to play these off of each other or to find allies.

What I do not like about Temple of Ra

One thing that struck me the moment I saw it was the artifact entitled the Rod of Ra. This appears towards the very end of the module. But this artifact is highly over powered. I mean beyond the scope of imagination. It is a combined rod of resurrection and death ray with near total magic resistance for the cleric who wields it. It regenerates itself if placed in the sun on the proper day. And it comes with 20 charges (for each of these two powers) to begin with. There is no way I would give a goodie like that to one of my players. There is no way I could recommend any other dungeon master do so either.

I do not like the fact that the adventure requires one to own a copy of Gods, Demigods an Heroes. While I loved that book when I had it this adventure was written for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Granted…..the AD&D Deities and Demigods had not been published at the time of this adventure’s publication. But this adventure makes reference to certain creatures in the Gods, Demigods and Heroes book and then does not give the statistics for those creatures within this text. To assume that one owns a copy of an Original Dungeons and Dragons book in order to run this adventure seems questionable to me.

Would I recommend this adventure to others?

Maybe. Only if you remove or severely weaken the Rod of Ra I mentioned previously. I would never give such an artifact to my players. There are not even any severe drawbacks to it’s use.

Would I run Temple of Ra with my own players?

The temple itself is fine. As are the monsters and treasures. With the one notable exception being the Rod of Ra. I would not use that item if I chose to play this adventure. I might insert a normal Rod of Resurrection instead. Other than this one mistake the adventure is good and well written.

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