So Gregorius 21778 has released The Tomb of Ferkhat the Dreaded for Blood of Pangea, complete with an excursion into an Egyptian-inspired burial. We love tombs, the pastime adores them (even while heroes perish therein), and with Halloween, a celebration of ghosts and dancing skeletons, it's a great time to list the reasons why:
1. DEATH. It's the bitterest fact of life. We mourn our loved ones and recognize, in a largely supressed way, our own inevitable demise. It's scary to contemplate.
2. THE UNDEAD. Death is bad enough without the insult of rotting corpses (or worse) to ensnare the living with gruesome aplomb. Not content to wait for time, these fearsome abominations, reminders of mortality made terrible flesh, hasten to speed death, and in the worst way possible. Death, and the dead, are the ultimate foes...
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3. TRAPS (AND CURSES). Setting necromancy aside, fantasy crypts come equipped with dangerous traps and sometimes (working) curses to defend against plunderers.
4. TREASURE. You can't take it with you; but boy, people try. Crypts are filled with worldly goods, glittering treasures enough to entice avaricious adventurers. Fantasy interments represent our mortal conundrum. Undead are the fear of death, clerical miracles the denial thereof, and vast riches our need to live on despite a certain demise...
Which is to say: the best gaming, even the gonzo variety, speaks to something essentially and irrevocably human. And heroic. A psychologist's plaything, since facing death made terrifyingly real and snatching a temporary respite from the inevitable so nicely encapsulates our situation. It's why we love Halloween. And tombs. They're fantasy made mortal.
