D&D 1E What are examples of "gotchya" encounters from Gary Gygax?

[MerricB]

I remember tomb of horrors being scant in the treasure department.

The final hoard contains 160,000 gp worth of gems and 10 permanent magic items, in addition to a dozen potions and six scrolls. There are other incidental treasures in the adventure.

 

[MerricB]

It's clear from the 1e DMG that Gary Gygax didn't want a cautious play style.

Assume that your players are continually wasting time (thus making the so-called adventure drag out into a boring session of dice rolling and delay) if they are checking endlessly for traps and listening at every door. If this persists, despite the obvious displeasure you express, the requirement that helmets be doffed and mail coifs removed to listen at a door, and then be carefully replaced, the warnings about ear seekers, and frequent checking for wandering monsters (q.v.), then you will have to take more direct part in things. Mocking their over-cautious behavior as near cowardice, rolling huge handfuls of dice and then telling them the results are negative, and statements to the effect that: “You detect nothing, and nothing has detected YOU so far —“, might suffice. If the problem should continue, then rooms full with silent monsters will turn the tide, but that is the stuff of later adventures.​

And yet most of the rest of the text encourages just such a style.

I think we're looking at a difference of degree. If you have a party that takes 5-10 minutes of real time to open each door, as they forensically check everything around it and argue about what's going on, that's the point at which Gary started getting irritated.

Just rocking up to the door, a couple of characters listening, then opening it - that keeps the action moving.

When the players meet an unusual feature - such as many in the Tomb of Horrors - then I'm sure Gygax expected his players to pay attention and consider what threat it bore.

It's not "don't be cautious" but rather "don't spend so much time being cautious that play becomes boring".

Cheers!

 

[Iry]

Tomb of Horrors is easily beaten by some shovels and a lot of time. Except for Acererak of course.
I love the idea of hiring an excavation team to dig the Tomb up completely.

 

[the Jester]

I remember tomb of horrors being scant in the treasure department.

Not Acererak's horde!

 

[MwaO]

Except you don't need to fight him, at all. Take the treasure and run.

Or put him in a box/put a cloak over him/etc...

 

[Shades of Eternity]

you mean you can defeat him in a way that can make classic doctor who proud?

 

[Helldritch]

Tomb of horror was a nightmare to play. My master put us in this sh*t hole of a dungeon. My character, Helldritch, was a fighter that turned Magic user (7th fighter, 14th M-U). We entered the tomb and I ended up being the sole survivor. I remember using my disintegrate spell to get out and I never came back. I had to wish for the bodies of my friends. I paid for their resurrection and we went back for more. The second attempt was the good one but we spent so much resources that the dungeon was a net loss for us. Strangely, it is one of my favorite adventure both as a player and as a DM. The key to survival? Summoned monsters. A lot of them...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I remember tomb of horrors being scant in the treasure department.

The whole adventure is a "Gotcha". The sensible thing to do is simply leave. There is nothing driving the players to compete the dungeon apart from their own egos.

 

[Todd Roybark]

There is nothing driving the players to compete the dungeon apart from their own egos.

That is also the essence of Moby Dick. There is nothing driving Ahab to chase the White Whale apart from his own ego.
( Well, maybe, a little bit of the OCD, as well ).

At least when I kill a demi-lich, I not only get cosmic revenge, but I also get 10 magic items !

I admit to having felt Khan-esque, about getting to the true end of Tomb of Horrors.

Redirect Notice

 

[Undrave]

Or put him in a box/put a cloak over him/etc...

Oh so Acererak is a parakeet?