Is TOMB OF HORRORS the Worst Adventure Of All Time?

Cristian Andreu

Explorer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #11

I love Tomb of Horrors, even if my regular DMing style is very different (I avoid putting situations in which the fate of PCs is out of their control entirely).

I think it is one of those things you need to be fully aware what to expect before venturing forth. I've always understood the module is entirely self-aware, and if memory serves it was explicitly created to force PCs to think every step and surprise them with curveballs on every corner.

I think Wick misses the point when claiming it represents the worst and most backwards ideas about roleplaying; most of the tricks ToH uses can indeed be representative of a rather contentious DMing style, but only when used unfairly. I cannot speak for what Gygax's original intent was, but I'm pretty sure he expected players to understand this was going to be the epitome of the deadly dungeon, and that those tricks were going to be aplenty.

In other words, it's like stepping into Splash Mountain and then complaining that the ride sucks because the designers were completely careless about people getting wet. Sure it would suck getting wet in Space Mountain where you are not expecting it, but in Splash Mountain it's kind of in the name.

 

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ccs

41st lv DM

• Jan 25, 2016

• #12

That was an amusing read.
I wonder if the author ever figured out why he was punched in the face?

 

J

jaycrockett

Explorer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #13

He has quite a story to tell about Tomb of Horrors. I think that alone makes it not the worse adventure. The worst adventures are forgettable.

Also the artwork is wonderful. Any module that has Erol Otus art in it is ok by me.

 

Jiggawatts

Adventurer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #14

This guy just embodies class and elegance.

 

Celebrim

Legend

• Jan 25, 2016

• #15

Yeah, this is the guy that claims D&D isn't an RPG, so why does his opinion of a D&D module count?

S1 is not only not the worst D&D module of all time, but it is one of the best.

His little 12 year old self was incapable of running the module for its little 12 year old friends. Boo hoo.

I'd feel some sympathy and compassion here, but Wick hasn't over the years - including in this article - shown much sign of having learned much since that time.

Or not to point too fine a point on it, I'm not terribly surprised when Wick self-discloses all the jerk moves he's pulled over the years. Nor am I ever any more flabbergasted by the degree of cluelessness on display when he discusses something.

 

Moorcrys

Explorer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #16

Boo hoo John Wick. It's old school and awesome.

 

EternalDungeonMaster

Explorer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #17

In my opinion, Tomb of Horrors is not meant for at-home campaign play. The adventure was written as a tournament adventure, which was run with pre-generated characters. The early D&D tournaments were competitive in nature; groups earned points based on how far into the tournament they could get and how many tournament objectives they could meet. The entire party could get wiped out and the group might still win the event if they scored enough points. In fact, it was highly unlikely that a group would make it to the end of one of the early tournament adventures without either running out of time first or the entire party getting killed.

In its golden age, TSR needed to print a lot of material: publish or perish. So these tournament adventures made it into print. They weren't written for campaign play. Some, just by chance, were better for campaign play than others. Tomb of Horrors? Not so much.

For my taste and experience, I would not run this as an adventure for an ongoing, long-term campaign. It wasn't written for that purpose, and it doesn't lend itself at all to that purpose.

 

Celebrim

Legend

• Jan 25, 2016

• #18

CNYGamer99 said:

In my opinion, Tomb of Horrors is not meant for at-home campaign play.

Click to expand...

It also makes a great one shot, using one of the parties included in the adventure which in practice is how most people play it.

If you want to include it in a standard campaign, you have several options. One, you could play with a highly experienced team of players with proven tournament skills. Or you could run the module at a couple levels higher than its suggested level with even moderately experienced players. Spell casters of 15th level or higher will largely breeze through the module (consider the impact of 'Find the Path' alone), and if they don't and they earned those levels legitimately then its their own fault. Or you could play the whole thing is a nightmare where death is not permanent, forcing the players to TPK after TPK ground hog day style until they escaped the nightmare.

Of course, the big problem with running ToH these days is almost everyone that is experienced has experienced it.

And well they should.

 

L

LostandDamned

First Post

• Jan 25, 2016

• #19

For a one shot fun game, it's a classic.

For a regular campaign it's an awful piece of badly written garbage.

 

EternalDungeonMaster

Explorer

• Jan 25, 2016

• #20

Celebrim said:

Or you could play the whole thing is a nightmare where death is not permanent, forcing the players to TPK after TPK ground hog day style until they escaped the nightmare.

Click to expand...

I like that, it sounds like a fun idea. I might steal that for my game.