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Tomb of Horrors (4E version) - anyone run this yet?
I just started my group through the new Tomb of Horrors last night and so far, so good.
Last session I ran my group through the first sequence in the Deathdealer: Shadows of Mirahan adventure where they are defending a ruined keep from an undead army, trying to delay it so refugees from a town can get away. They were (relatively) successful, holding them off long enough that the refugees could hide in a forest. Eventually they fled to the woods and it was easy to segue them into the first adventure of Tomb of Horrors where they find a portal into the Feywild and the Garden of Graves. We only made it through the first encounter--the begging statues--and they were almost killed by the very nasty crone, although we were down to only four players last night. They "chose poorly" and even after defeating the crone she reappeared as part of the statue, but they were so depleted--they used all their action points, dailies, and encounters to defeat her--that they decided to camp out another night outside the cave. This gives me an opportunity for the other players to catch up to them.
Anyhow, I remember the original Tomb of Horrors as being the AD&D module, at least the one that inspired the most awe and dread from my 11-year old mind. I haven't read through the whole book, but from what I have read it taps into some of that. I've been running a kind of hybrid combination of sandboxish setting and "islands" of adapted pre-published scenarios and was hoping to further develop the sandbox but throw in some major plot elements that could be interwoven into a larger plot. The Tomb of Horrors backstory is easy to adapt to my world because my world is about a thousand years after a magical apocalypse and civilization is just starting back up again. The cause of the apocalypse had to do with a confrontation with the ruling wizard-kings (the Sul Magari) of the last great empire and the gods themselves--most of the gods and wizard-kings were killed, although some of both survived. Acererak is easy to slot in as a survived (so to speak) wizard-king who is trying to attain godhood.
Anyhow, it is nice to run an adventure that is more focused on puzzles and thinking. There is nothing quite like witnessing your players trying to figure something out together; it is very hard not to jump in and say "getting warmer." I did tell them that this adventure would require a lot more thought, that every clue could matter.
Any experiences with this so far? Thoughts? Problems? Tricky bits?
I can't wait to run it. I'm co-writing a homebrew game that is heavily steeped in Far Realm lore, with psionics reskinned as a Far Realm power source. Like you, I'm seeing ToH as a great Paragon Tier tie-together, so I'm writing "A" as a corrupted mortal who wants to replace the Gods that the Aberrants have destroyed eons ago.
I have no experience with either previous versions, though the legend permiated my playing for the past 20 years. My new group has no ToH vets either, so this should be a real blast.
As I have noted in other threads, I plan on slotting the one 4E ToH into the other, probably in between the fey bit and the shadow tomb. (they learn the ol demi lich is behind the fey thing, take him out, then realize, no, not actually...).
4E has rituals, use them, they're magic; Want to see the greatest thing you will ever see? then click; You can use “Earth” as a D&D setting; Origins of The Rouse; (look for it) The Rouse responds; (look for it) One can appreciate both old and new D&D.
OK, I just completed my second session and wanted to get this thread live again, although won't go into too much detail tonight as I am tired (and a bit hazy due to a few beers). But so far this has been a very fun adventure - we worked through a few more encounters and entered the thick of the first part of the book, the Feywild part, with the PCs entering the complex. One of the players from the last session couldn't come tonight so he hung out at camp for the session, but another player that missed the last session was here. We had four 9th level characters and, quite frankly, they were a bit overwhelmed. They handled the first combat situation - the campground - quite well, but when they got to the Gray Angels in locations 21-23 it got rather ugly. Two of the four actually died; the other two narrowly escaped and made it back to camp with the plan of heading back to town or reinforcements (e.g. new characters). But their interest is piqued and I think they're all quite into it.
So Ari Marmell etc: good job! I also read ahead a bit and am very impressed, although am still trying to understand the painting near the end of the book of a group of characters fighting Orcus and Demogorgon...as far as I can tell this situation doesn't occur or have the clear opportunity of occurrence at any point in the adventure. No problem, I was just wondering about the picture. But I find that the overall arc of the adventure is very easy to integrate into my campaign.
We don't play again for another 2-3 weeks, but I can answer any questions or address any comments about the adventure.
So Ari Marmell etc: good job! I also read ahead a bit and am very impressed, although am still trying to understand the painting near the end of the book of a group of characters fighting Orcus and Demogorgon...as far as I can tell this situation doesn't occur or have the clear opportunity of occurrence at any point in the adventure.
Thanks.
And to answer your question...
Spoiler:
See page 136. In Pluton, the PCs can face aspects of Orcus and Demogorgon, drawn from one of the tapestries.
__________________ Ari Marmell
aka
Mouseferatu
--Rodent of the Dark
I'm not sure if there is interest, but we're playing this Friday and I'll post another installment because I think this adventure warrants more attention than its been getting (as far as I've seen).
I would definitely be interested in hearing how things go. While I probably won't run Tomb of Horrors itself anytime soon, I am hoping to pick it up to cherry pick parts of it for my own game, so I'd be real interested in know what works and what doesn't. Plus, who knows, if its good enough I just may have to find an excuse to run it in full (or at least near-full).
I would also be interested in hearing people's thoughts on how it compares to other modules like Revenge of the Giants, etc.
Just wondering if you could run the RPGA TOH adventure as a prologue? Would it gel with the super adventure story line?
I just got the RPGA one today and it has hyped me up to run this and then the super adventure. I was going to use the Legacy article for Skull City and run my group through it when they finish messing about in Thunderspire. But from what I've read I'd be retreading some of the same ground as the start of this super adventure.
__________________ Pablo El Vagabundo
"Mercy!? You want MERCY? I'M CHAOTIC NEUTRAL!!!" One of my rituals is in Goodman Games's Book of Rituals.
Humpty Dumpty exploring the tomb
Humpty Dumpty found Acererak's doom
All of the clerics and all of the scrolls
Couldn't resurrect Humpty Dumpty's soul.
My only problem with ToH is how to fit it, P1, P2, and my freaky bastardized and tweaked conversion of Dead Gods all in to my game while still having room for a desert-crossing adventure, some city action in a culture that uses residuum like saffron and all the player-driven stuff too.
Oh, for the days when leveling was much much slower!
Just wondering if you could run the RPGA TOH adventure as a prologue? Would it gel with the super adventure story line?
I just got the RPGA one today and it has hyped me up to run this and then the super adventure. I was going to use the Legacy article for Skull City and run my group through it when they finish messing about in Thunderspire. But from what I've read I'd be retreading some of the same ground as the start of this super adventure.
I can't answer that, sorry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the Jester
My only problem with ToH is how to fit it, P1, P2, and my freaky bastardized and tweaked conversion of Dead Gods all in to my game while still having room for a desert-crossing adventure, some city action in a culture that uses residuum like saffron and all the player-driven stuff too.
Oh, for the days when leveling was much much slower!
Well, there's your answer - just level up your group more slowly
We only made it through the first encounter--the begging statues--and they were almost killed by the very nasty crone, although we were down to only four players last night. They "chose poorly" and even after defeating the crone she reappeared as part of the statue, but they were so depleted--they used all their action points, dailies, and encounters to defeat her--that they decided to camp out another night outside the cave. This gives me an opportunity for the other players to catch up to them.
**** yeah, the crone statue! The CE fire wizard decided to high-five her, and with that backhand she knocked out quite a few of his teeth! Lucky for them I was unable to recharge that attack that targets more than one player.
The third encounter, campfight, I had to up the ante as we're a big party. So they fought a homebrew gazebo.
Ari, had no idea you posted on here and I'm running it again this week. Haven't had this much fun DMing for a long time, and I love watching the players speculate over the poem and trying to make it apply to everything!
We played again last friday but I don't have much to report because we started late due to new characters being created (a human invoker and a blue orc artificer; side note: blue orcs, or the Tralgur, are a cousin sub-race to the orcs that are far more civilized and not at all brutish, but instead dedicate themselves to the study of arcana, especially artifice).
Anyhow, the surviving PCs (dwarf fighter, human rogue, eladrin swordmage) had to make their way back to town to recruit others. Basically, towards the end of the session they got back to the ruins and took a different route, through the caves underneath the cliff. They found one of the trapdoors and entered the oddly shaped, rune-carved rooms. The got to #15 and complete darkness fell over them for a moment and when they could see again they were facing doubles of themselves...I left them with that cliff-hanger and enjoyed hearing them wonder what was going to happen; "If we have to face exact copies of ourselves we're in trouble." Of course they aren't exact duplicates in terms of powers, but it should be fun.
The one thing to note is that this area of the ruins - area 15 and 16 - is so oddly shaped that it is a bit difficult describing and navigating without using a battlemap or piece of paper. It was also good to see their fear of the gray angels, probably their most challenging foe along with the young adult green dragon they faced a couple levels back. Both resulted in character death, and both left a lasting impression!
Well, after finishing the first chapter, here are some of my observations regarding it:
1. Drop the level of the plant monster in the final encounter. 5 levels above the party is a bit much to deal with.
2. The fighting area when you're dealing with the copies of yourselves is a bit small...choke points made it very difficult for the monsters to coordinate.
3. The Lamia + Swarms encounter is horrible if your party doesn't have much in the way of Area or Blast powers.
4. Prepare for th PCs to take a long time to figure out the sundial puzzle, and even then, focus too much on certain stanzas of the poem.
I actually introduced the Emerald Claw to this puzzle (by having them also choose the wrong number to stand in front of). I wanted to have some reason for the secondary bad guys in chapter 4 to be around (instead of Vecna, it's Vol as I'm running an Eberron campaign).
Just wondering if you could run the RPGA TOH adventure as a prologue? Would it gel with the super adventure story line?
I just got the RPGA one today and it has hyped me up to run this and then the super adventure. I was going to use the Legacy article for Skull City and run my group through it when they finish messing about in Thunderspire. But from what I've read I'd be retreading some of the same ground as the start of this super adventure.
I'm planning on running the RPGA Tomb as an interlude between Chapter 2 and 3, using one-shot characters. Basically as a flashback. The main reason is that this will give more context to the condition of the Tomb in Chapter 3.
I'm just finishing up the Heroic Tier of Scales of War. I'm tag-teaming out with one of my players -- he wants to DM for a bit, and I want to play for a bit -- so he can continue the current campaign with Revenge of the Giants. In the meantime, I get to prepare...
Phase one will be to run the original-original Tomb of Horrors using some simple lite RPG system during our usual Holiday Hiatus... I'm thinking of using F# and setting the adventure somewhere in Africa during the 1920s or 30s, ala The Mummy or Indiana Jones.
Then, when we are finished with Revenge of the Giants, I'm going to start a new campaign using Dark Sun. In this particular campaign, Athas is Earth of the distant apocalyptic future, long after "Martians" invaded and devastated the Earth following our defeat during the War of the Worlds.
I'm going to scoot the characters through most of the Heroic levels with a conversion of the old Dark Sun adventure Freedom! After which, I'll slowly segue into the new 4E Tomb of Horrors!
That's right... The Tomb of Horrors... In Dark Sun.
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4E has rituals, use them, they're magic;
Want to see the greatest thing you will ever see? then 
You can use “Earth” as a D&D 
The Rouse 
One can appreciate both old and new D&D.
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