Is TOMB OF HORRORS the Worst Adventure Of All Time?

jamesjhaeck · Jan 25, 2016

Dahak said:
John Wick was probably the player in his group (and there was always one) who stomped out of a session when he didn't get his way. Gary Gygax hurt his precious little feels and now he's burying a dead guy's work.

Sounds like you didn't read the article. Wick was the DM!

MwaO · Jan 25, 2016

I'd point out that most people who played Tomb of Horrors in convention or near the time that it came out were also highly aware of the illusionary wall story from I think the previous year.

Namely, 8 out of 9 parties found an illusionary wall and stepped through. Then died. The winner of the RPGA tournament was the only group who thought to tap around with a 10' pole.

If you were playing an RPGA mod from that time period, the general assumption was that there were a bunch of absolutely lethal traps that needed to be carefully thought out. Such as using a 10' pole or sending cheap, mostly trained, kind of party-sized creatures(aka mules) into things to see if they came back out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2x63mm/the_good_old_days/

thexar · Jan 25, 2016

The best part is playing Joust against the Lich. The trick is to be Player Two.

eleran · Jan 25, 2016

My ToH experience.

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.

I had a similar yet different experience. Our DM set the whole thing up as a quest to travel to Acereraks tomb and vanquish the evil and rescue something or other from the tomb. We went through all the trouble of following clues to the well hidden dungeon. Went inside and went through the grinder, which was obviously pissing of some players. it ended with an almost total TPK. We got to the tomb, and everyone got killed but me, the thief of the party who had always been played as a coward when it came to BBEGs and the like, but was a total beast on traps and locks and other thiefy things. I split as soon as the skull rose up and struck down our mage. The entire rest of the party met similar fates. But since I had been mapping and taking care of traps I knew the best way out.

It turned out to be a dream/nightmare sequence. We were assured through a Commune spell that would be our fate if we ventured into the Tomb. So we made the decision that rather than enter the tomb we would do our best to magically seal and ward it so no one else would go in, and hopefully nothing would come out.

He gave us full experience because of the trauma the players went through. I have never been sure if he did the dream sequence on the fly because of the result or if he had that planned from the beginning. I think it was planned out that way.

At least that is whats left of my memory of this dungeon. It was over 30 years ago.

Cristian Andreu · Jan 25, 2016

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.

I once ran it in a similar manner. The dungeon's entrance(s) was in a haunted graveyard with ten open graves and a bell; every-time someone died, they woke up in one of the open graves and the bell rang once, slowly breaking apart each time and crumbling to dust at the 30th, basically giving the party 30 lives to spend together.

It worked surprisingly well.

Ralif Redhammer · Jan 25, 2016

So...Dark Souls the RPG?

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.

neobolts · Jan 25, 2016

Glad to see so many people who "get" it. This is a one shot deathtrap for bragging rights and tale telling. It would be a terrible addition to a long running epic fantasy tale. Worst to me means poorly written or unplayable.

Dahak · Jan 25, 2016

Jumblejacks said:
Sounds like you didn't read the article. Wick was the DM!

Sounds like you didn't read my post. He wrote in his usual bratty tone, about how he had to save his players. Then he whinged about how EGG was mean to him. That he ran the game has nothing to do with me comparing him to the player who rage quits when things don't go his way. He's a control freak, or at least writes like he is. Caveat: I don't know the guy, he may be the sweetest man alive outside of gaming.

mach1.9pants · Jan 25, 2016

A great way to get your name back in the news for your upcoming rpg release, well played Mr Wick. As to his review, he totally misses the point of the module, as had been pointed out numerous times up thread.

Celebrim · Jan 25, 2016

neobolts said:
Worst to me means poorly written or unplayable.

It's neither poorly written nor unplayable.

And may I refer you to the 'Return to the Tomb of Horrors' story? http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...the-Tomb-of-Horrors-finally-gets-a-Story-Hour!

I suspect many groups have in fact actually incorporated the Tomb into long running epic fantasy tales successfully.