The Temple of Elemental Evil - your experiences?

[Li Shenron]

We played it as far as clearing less than half the first level of the temple and going down to the second to take a peek. Before the temple it was nice, but once there it became cumbersome and heavy... we actually played it with 3.0 rules and the DM probably made the encounters too difficult, we felt like we advancing one room per evening. The game was put on indefinite hold, so we might actually pick it up again one day, but so far it hasn't happened.

 

[Psion]

is this book still easy to find in bookstores? i mean, in old books bookstores...

Not generally, unless they specialize in RPG collectables. There used to be a store like this in Orlando that I know is no longer there, and a store in Seattle that I have no idea if it is there anymore.

actually, is there a good bokstore to buy (online) these classic d&d books?

There are a few:
www.nobleknight.com
www.titangames.com
www.hitpointe.com

There's also an outfit called Crazy Igor's that works the con circuit.

 

[Beckett]

After having owned the module since the days of 2nd Edition, I finally ran it and finished it up earlier this year, having run it as a mostly on-the-fly conversion to 3.5 (early on was easy, a bugbear is a bugbear, those 0-level bandits are 1st level warriors, their fighter leader probably has a masterwork sword. Later on required a bit more prep).

It was a pretty hack&slash campaign, started after the final Race and Complete books came out. 1 or 2 characters per person, with the group that finished it consisting of 4 players and 7 characters. It was a lot of fun, with some great encounters, some awesome combats, and lots of feats and options available to the players. It did really start to drag near the end, particulalry the nodes, but there was still some fun in those (fighting a few dragons, and being tossed around by air elementals).

The Prince- oh, that was a fun bit. The players seemed to just be missing the clues, or they had them and they interpretated wrong. They knew something was up, just not what. Finally, one of the players proposed beheading the vampire, and the others just nodded in agreement. The blood pouring out of the neck was a nice wake up call, but one Raise Dead later and everything was fine.

 

[rossik]

wow, a couple of years since i posted...now im finally DM this for a 2ed party!

any advice for adaptation, if needed?

 

[Riley]

wow, a couple of years since i posted...now im finally DM this for a 2ed party!

any advice for adaptation, if needed?

I ran it in 1e and 2e. I didn't adapt much of anything for 2e, and half of the adventure we were using some of the 'Player's Option' rules for 2e.

The only adaptations I remember implementing:
- I customized the BBEGuys' (and allies') spell lists with lots of splatbook spells to make them more distinctive. And made Rufus (or was it Burne?) a specialist.
- I had to stock the Nodes with lots of elemental-themed creatures.

It really helped that I could remember the adventure backwards and forward the second time I ran it. Had lots of fun with NPC interactions (both friendly and hostile), and with an almost-total-party-capture which was resolved by throwing the captives into the Fire Node in nothing but their underclothes. A few died. The slowest party member was promptly eaten by a band of mephits, allowing the more fleet-footed party members to escape. However, the party was gradually able to explore a couple of the nodes, in the end gathering the resources they needed to escape and vanquish the TOEE high command.

Oh, and I just want to add...

Best. Dungeon. Ever.

 

[JohnBiles]

In retrospect I can see many problems with this module.

But when I got it in 1985, it provided us with months of endless entertainment. My current group, still playing off and on in 2008, first got together to play this adventure in 1985. The adventuring party we made for this went on to hit the Lost Caverns of Tsojacanth, the Barrier Peaks, parts of the comedy version of Castle Greyhawk, the Tomb of Horrors, and the GDQ series, then finished with Vecna Lives and a massive rewriting of Greyhawk's history.

The Party:
Aragorn the Cavalier (Human)
Gellor the Fighter/Magicuser (Elf)
Sly the Magsman (Halfling Thief)
Father James (Human Cleric of Saint Cuthbert)

They also acquired Spugnois (who acquired a Bugbear Henchman named Grinch) and the thief guy who I am blanking on the name of.

They were a very effective group and tore through the Moathouse with ease. They got down to the lowest level of the temple, only to alert everyone and end up having their Cavalier charmed and they had to retreat.

Then every villain they hadn't killed yet or who Hadrack could raise from the dead all came after the PCs at once in Hommlet with the Charmed Cavalier in tow.

Aragorn killed half the party and Hommlet got demolished, but Father James managed to summon Saint Cuthbert, who went on a killing spree. (He also turned Grinch Lawful good with his mace). His beatdown on Aragorn was a thing of pure beauty.

 

[DEP]

oh how this was my favourite Greyhawk campaign that I have run besides a quickly ended AoW. It was 3.5, and started with about 12 players, there was only 4 by the time the ToEE was done. We had 6 going into the Temple itself. We had a blast, played 4-5 days a week, for at least 5 hours a session. There was one character who lived through the whole module, but was killed shortly after. When all was said and done, there were 22 character deaths, one TPK and hell of alot of fun.

This campaign went on to epic levels, where most players ended up levels 23-26. God that was a fun time, and I have a group of mostly new players that may have to go through this one day...after our current campaign lol.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) i waited so many years for T2 to be released.
and then they released this PoS at Gen Con in 1985. i bought it and tried to run it. but it was so full of errors and the whole idea of a campaign in one module just rubbed me thebeen wrong way. (snip)

Here here!

I have never understood why this unedited piece of dreck was so popular. Amongst its many faults it highlighted how flavourless generic clerics were. Surely in the multitude of years that were available to design this (sorry... I know it was slapped together at the last instant) some effort could have been made to create clerics of air, earth, fire and water that actually reflected the element that they were supposed to represent.

I love these threads and I am glad they have threadcromanced.

 

[Obryn]

I just started running this module, using 1e AD&D rules, for the first time in years.

I tried an on-the-fly conversion soon after 3e came out, and ran parts of it for both 1e and 2e. This is the first time I'm running it since my DM skills matured.

I must be taking it too easy on them... Only one has actually died so far, and they've cleared out the upper level of the moathouse.

-O

 

[Cedric_the_Saxon]

Having been playing since '79, I recall, vividly, how anticipated this module was - it was five years over due. And, man, what a disappointment it was! Hommlet is a great adventure for beginning PC's and, generally, amounted to a cake walk. Nulb and the Temple were so devoid of clarity, however, that both ended up being death traps. The biggest error is the distance from Hommlet to Nulb. In Hommlet, the text states it's a couple of hours. The map, repeated in Return, shows almost 30 miles. I opted to use the map. The PC's were pretty well butchered in Nulb, even after getting a whiff of how much trouble they were in and trying to erect a hasty fortification. The survivors rallied some new PC's and took a stab at the Temple. When two PC's, one a bow-specialist, each lost an eye to the ravens, enough was enough. I couldn't get PC's to go near it, so it sat for 23 years on my shelf. In a wave of nostalgia, I've convinced them to go at it, again, either as a 3.5 or HackMaster conversion. Having read Reid's novel gives a DM some insight into alternate ways to run the approach to the Temple and avoid Nulb, which should prove useful. We'll see...