Mercurius
Legend
I just started my group through the new Tomb of Horrors last night and so far, so good.
Last session I ran my group through the first sequence in the Deathdealer: Shadows of Mirahan adventure where they are defending a ruined keep from an undead army, trying to delay it so refugees from a town can get away. They were (relatively) successful, holding them off long enough that the refugees could hide in a forest. Eventually they fled to the woods and it was easy to segue them into the first adventure of Tomb of Horrors where they find a portal into the Feywild and the Garden of Graves. We only made it through the first encounter--the begging statues--and they were almost killed by the very nasty crone, although we were down to only four players last night. They "chose poorly" and even after defeating the crone she reappeared as part of the statue, but they were so depleted--they used all their action points, dailies, and encounters to defeat her--that they decided to camp out another night outside the cave. This gives me an opportunity for the other players to catch up to them.
Anyhow, I remember the original Tomb of Horrors as being the AD&D module, at least the one that inspired the most awe and dread from my 11-year old mind. I haven't read through the whole book, but from what I have read it taps into some of that. I've been running a kind of hybrid combination of sandboxish setting and "islands" of adapted pre-published scenarios and was hoping to further develop the sandbox but throw in some major plot elements that could be interwoven into a larger plot. The Tomb of Horrors backstory is easy to adapt to my world because my world is about a thousand years after a magical apocalypse and civilization is just starting back up again. The cause of the apocalypse had to do with a confrontation with the ruling wizard-kings (the Sul Magari) of the last great empire and the gods themselves--most of the gods and wizard-kings were killed, although some of both survived. Acererak is easy to slot in as a survived (so to speak) wizard-king who is trying to attain godhood.
Anyhow, it is nice to run an adventure that is more focused on puzzles and thinking. There is nothing quite like witnessing your players trying to figure something out together; it is very hard not to jump in and say "getting warmer." I did tell them that this adventure would require a lot more thought, that every clue could matter.
Any experiences with this so far? Thoughts? Problems? Tricky bits?
Last session I ran my group through the first sequence in the Deathdealer: Shadows of Mirahan adventure where they are defending a ruined keep from an undead army, trying to delay it so refugees from a town can get away. They were (relatively) successful, holding them off long enough that the refugees could hide in a forest. Eventually they fled to the woods and it was easy to segue them into the first adventure of Tomb of Horrors where they find a portal into the Feywild and the Garden of Graves. We only made it through the first encounter--the begging statues--and they were almost killed by the very nasty crone, although we were down to only four players last night. They "chose poorly" and even after defeating the crone she reappeared as part of the statue, but they were so depleted--they used all their action points, dailies, and encounters to defeat her--that they decided to camp out another night outside the cave. This gives me an opportunity for the other players to catch up to them.
Anyhow, I remember the original Tomb of Horrors as being the AD&D module, at least the one that inspired the most awe and dread from my 11-year old mind. I haven't read through the whole book, but from what I have read it taps into some of that. I've been running a kind of hybrid combination of sandboxish setting and "islands" of adapted pre-published scenarios and was hoping to further develop the sandbox but throw in some major plot elements that could be interwoven into a larger plot. The Tomb of Horrors backstory is easy to adapt to my world because my world is about a thousand years after a magical apocalypse and civilization is just starting back up again. The cause of the apocalypse had to do with a confrontation with the ruling wizard-kings (the Sul Magari) of the last great empire and the gods themselves--most of the gods and wizard-kings were killed, although some of both survived. Acererak is easy to slot in as a survived (so to speak) wizard-king who is trying to attain godhood.
Anyhow, it is nice to run an adventure that is more focused on puzzles and thinking. There is nothing quite like witnessing your players trying to figure something out together; it is very hard not to jump in and say "getting warmer." I did tell them that this adventure would require a lot more thought, that every clue could matter.
Any experiences with this so far? Thoughts? Problems? Tricky bits?
