D&D 5E Mud Sorcerer's Tomb - Crappy adventure? Or CrappiEST adventure?

[Joshua Randall]

RangerWickett, you nailed it. This is a bad, bad adventure. (So bad that I was motivated to write a letter to Dungeon magazine back in the day lambasting it.)

The fact that Wizards chose it to show off D&D "Next" (a/k/a D&D Last) is quite telling.

Namely, it tells me that this is not a game I will ever enjoy and that the people designing it have antithetical views towards what makes a game fun.

 

[Stormonu]

We really enjoyed the original from the Dungeon Magazine.

I should start a thread about some of those classics. I still use that big red dragon and his lair in my world...was that the first Dungeon?

What Dungeon Mag was it from? I stopped downloading the playtests, and I'm curious now to go back and read the original.

 

[Libramarian]

What Dungeon Mag was it from? I stopped downloading the playtests, and I'm curious now to go back and read the original.

Looks like #37. I have also heard that it's a classic, so now I have to read both the original and the playtest version.

 

[SkidAce]

Yes, #37. It was originally a 2ED module.

 

[steeldragons]

I'm with Dannyalcatraz on this....in all of my years I've never heard of this module...in any incarnation. Which I find incredibly odd. Not saying it didn't exist, obviously it did and some people saw it. I just can't fathom how I never did. [and I have to say, based on title alone, it sounds stupid as hell. "The Mud Sorcerer"? Theriouthly?]

 

[Tuft]

I think WotC is trying to release playtest adventures to cover the classic adventure "genres." They started with dungeon exploration with Caves of Chaos and then did wilderness exploration with Isle of Dread. I think they just wanted to do a Tomb of Horrors style game, but felt that they had redone Tomb of Horrors so recently that they needed a different example of the genre.

Sounds *very* reasonable!

 

[RichGreen]

I haven't read the D&D Next version of this adventure, but I remember reading it the first time round in Dungeon years ago and being baffled by some of the praise it got. Was very surprised to see it do so well in that Dungeon top adventures poll too. Think I'll have to give the new version a read....

Cheers


Rich

 

[Wycen]

This pdf shows the evocative art found in the Paizo version of the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb. http://paizo.com/dungeonissues/138/DA138_Supplement_LR.pdf Visually, that makes me want to play it.

 

[Stormonu]

Well, I've now read through the original and it's not bad - very Tomb of Horrors-ish. I do notice there is a propensity for magic to be required to solve the problems (noting one or two mundane solutions per puzzle would have been nice), but nothing out-of-place for old-style dungeon crawling.

 

[vagabundo]

I was excited to see this adventure included in the packet as it was always on my "list of adventures to run". It's also gotten a lot of praise over the years, so I'd be interested in hearing more impressions.