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I second for S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth and WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. Iuz can be used to bridge ToEE with those two modules, especially since WG4 is woven into the wilderness campaign of Tsojcanth. Of course, there is a lot more dungeon crawling, but S4 is one of the funnest...

I agree. While Gygax never specifies the drow are matriarchal, probably so as not to pigeon-hole them for other DMs' personal campaigns, it's pretty clear that was the implication. Females are the preferred priestesses (being able to achieve a much higher level than males) and usually held...

Further ideas to keep things varied, quoted from this thread: FreddyP wrote: "One idea I had was to use a rival adventuring party. When the heroes discover that the friendly/not-so-friendly group is using the bad guys against one another, they might feel more privy to do so themselves. "The...

A few ideas to counter the dungeon crawl doldrums: The Broken Tower and Upper Temple (pgs.36-42) provide some non-linear routes through the temple, for an enterprising party. There are five different access tunnels: three that lead to different areas of level 1, one that leads to level 2, and...

Yeah, as I mentioned in a previous post, Lolth was originally intended to be the antagonist of ToEE by Gygax when he wrote T1, not Zuggtmoy, thus explaining why Lareth is a servant of Lolth. The true menace behind the Temple was to be the Elder Elemental God. This was later changed to Zuggtmoy...

Lizardfolk with a lizard king or queen would be good, or maybe a green hag with some swamp harpies. And as mentioned, N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God or U2 Danger at Dunwater, the latter with perhaps some modifications to make the lizardfolk more adversarial, unless you plan to continue...

The ToEE Conversion document does a good job of adjusting enemy numbers for 5e while still retaining its deadliness, with advice for more or less enemies depending on size and level of the party when they reach the moathouse. The brigands in area #7, for example, is measured as a Deadly...

I really like this idea. It could be cryptic message or partial map that hints at a hidden sublevel (the the interdicted prison of Zuggtmoy), perhaps suggesting (or warning) that it is behind the "four seals" or can only be accessed with the golden key (orb). Since we are well into the module...

Yeah, originally Gygax intended for Lolth to be the demoness behind the temple, so Lareth was made a priest of Lolth in T1. As the design plans changed between when T1 and T4 was published, this never got corrected. It has caused so much confusion over the years. What is a priest of Lolth doing...

Those conversion notes are extremely helpful, they take care of most of the leg work. Brian C. Rideout did an outstanding job putting it all together for us. This will go a long way to getting full enjoyment out of Hommlet. A brigand roadside ambush is a classic way of getting things...

I'm running this right now (for the third time, first time with 5e rules) and it is still a blast. If you haven't got it already, I highly recommend this for conversion notes: http://newworldscoaching.ca/downloadable/toee.pdf My advice is to take your time with it. The Village of Hommlet is so...

I generally dislike the use of passive Perception for secret doors, but this approach sounds good - I will try it out in my next session. For the most part, I will mix it up. Just like combat encounters, finding secret doors can be easy, moderately challenging, or very difficult. Easy ones...

Yes, G1 was the very first module published by TSR, in fact.

It should be understood that modules were designed with a lot of loose ends or oddities (like the armbands in G2) intentionally back then. Players were encouraged and expected to try and figure these things out for themselves, without the use of skill checks. It was more of a trial-and-error...

To further this point, DM Sage Trap Examples has some more excellent advice for making traps more engaging for the players. It takes more time and effort for the DM to prep, but well worth it, IMO.

My knowledge of Mystara is pretty limited, but it has always struck me as more monarchy/nobility focused than GH or the FR. I do think GH's identity, while somewhat muddled over the decades, still separates itself significantly from FR. While both include many of the same fantasy tropes (magic...

While I appreciate that bards have been well represented in fiction and folklore, and the 5e bard is a solid class that embraces those icons, I must admit I feel the same way as Brandegoris. I DM our games and I have no problem with one of my players taking on a bard, but I have quietly...

I think what we'll end up seeing is similar to how they've treated FR: adventures that focus on a small region within GH, with some geographical and historical details provided. Past world events will likely be generalized, hitting only the high notes (references to the giants/drow, the GH wars...

The demilich has truesight out to 120 ft., so either your DM was feeling generous or he missed a pretty important ability.

True enough, and with Tomb of Horrors you're either in the Love It or Hate It camp. So maybe just ramping up the lethality is the happy middle ground, like have some of the traps inflict more damage or (as per the original) poisoned spikes are save or die. Because 5e PCs have more tools to...