Tell me your tale about the Tomb of Horrors

[DM-Rocco]

Sounds like he's just relating a story overheard being told at a con.

I wouldn't call it over heard, because Gary said the judges looked at him at asked if that would work.

 

[Corbert]

"We are sentient. Dungeons are not. Dungeons lose."

OK, make the dungeon sentient
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=187220

Edit: also http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=345265

 

[DragonLancer]

I have a copy of ToH which I picked up about a year ago second hand for about £5 GBP.

I have not run it because though its a classic module, the idea of a dungeon just filled with traps and designed to be a party killer doesn't hold the attraction for me.

 

[rossik]

and i wonder...afetr you pass all the traps and stuff, including acererak, they have to come all way back..

 

[DM-Rocco]

OK, make the dungeon sentient
http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=187220

Edit: also http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=345265

Eventually, if you run it enough, you will get players that want to teleport out or rest and try again. I made the dungeon sentient a long time ago. Rather than have the demon come back and rest the traps, the dungeon goes it on its own accord. It gives it more of a ravenloft feel. In the end, I run it more as a cross between The Tomb of Horrors and Terrgeron Manner from a Light in the Belfery of Ravenloft fame.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sadly, my last group never got there.

The tomb was in an immense barrows complex with a number of other ancient tombs. They took one look at "a large barrow mound, set with large rocks that take the shape of a grinning skull", and immediately decided they'd never go anywhere near the place, despite the number of rumors they heard about the huse treasure to be found within..

Metagamers.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I ran it at a convention last year; the adventurers seemed hell-bent on self-destructing despite missing the notorious traps (sphere of annihilation, pit traps in the entry hall). They decided to camp inside the dungeon (!) - the nightmares that permeated their dreams kept anyone from re-memorizing spells. Then there was the Type IV demon that showed up the second "night" which caused an immediate retreat...

They refused to go back in, then, the slackers!

Heh. Gary thought that was a pip, I must say.

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

Reminiscing about ToH makes me wonder if D&D's heyday is way in the past, at least for me. It's gravitated so far away from puzzle-solving and other forms of strategic thinking, and its current design and development staff feel that the majority of players want an RPG to deliver short-term and fast-paced gameplay that rewards reckless, triggerhappy behavior instead of making it costly. Looking at how people employed at WotC call it a badly-designed or overrated dungeon makes me kind of sad.

No, ToH isn't for everyone. Heck, I sure wouldn't want to run that style of dungeon more than occasionally. But I do regard it as a facet of D&D gameplay that shouldn't be discarded.

You've pretty much said above why it's a facet of gameplay that should be discarded.

Can't hack it?

 

[hong]

Can't hack it?

Nonsense! It's simply that I prefer to express my HEROIC MANLINESS - edited by PS in other ways.

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

Nonsense! It's simply that I prefer to express my HEROIC MANLINESS - edited by PS in other ways.

LOL

Well-played, sir; well-played INDEED.