D&D General Best Version to Experience Tomb of Horrors? (+)

[toucanbuzz]

I've run the Tomb of Horrors 4 times for 4 different groups in AD&D, 3rd edition, Pathfinder, and 5E. Personally, my best experience with gamers no matter the edition was adhering to the "thinking man's (woman's) dungeon" that Gygax originally intended it to be. He wanted to create something no one had experienced in the days of "I kick in the door, kill everything, and loot the room." My recommendations:

• Run it as close to 1st edition as possible. As noted, 5E makes it a cakewalk. Surviving ToH should be a badge of honor.
• Get a PDF of the original with its original handouts. That means don't use the 5E crap conversion (its maps are fine), or the 3E really crap version that changes the dungeon dramatically to be one big fight-fest with high-level foes.
  Spoiler

  and makes the finale room a "must fight" battle instead of finding a way to cleverly bypass the fight
• You can still use 5E rules, if you like, but ToH in its best form is an interactive puzzle, not another hack-fest. Imagine the exercise about being astronauts who crashed on the moon, and you're given a list of salvage to help you get to the base miles away. You don't roll a d20 and say "my astronaut already knows what they'll need to survive." In this type of play, you intuit with other gamers about what you need to take and what to do with it. Aim for that style of play for this particular adventure. It'll be a lot more fun.
• AD&D didn't have skill checks as we know them. Many traps and things that could be traps had to be intuited, interacted with, and solved as a group. It was more immersive if players describe specifically what they're doing to the mural on the wall rather than bypass interactive puzzle solving with a d20 roll. When in doubt, "thinking person's dungeon," not "die rolling" dungeon.
• Spoiler

  As odd as it may sound, a low-level AD&D party could have had just as much success in ToH as a high level one. It was never about your hack skills. It was mostly about your problem-solving skills in a timed setting. The AD&D finale could be completely bypassed in the original if players weren't so keen on believing they have to hack everything that moves. In the original, in theory, players could walk up, loot the treasure, and so long as they left the ghost and skull alone, all was well. But, Gygax knew players would react by "hack first." The 3E version changed this to the ghost being something that could harm players and the skull rising up if any treasure was taken.
• Use premade characters and sidekicks. That way there's no hard feelings if there's a death and someone can jump into a sidekick role if their primary dies.
• Don't be afraid to say "you're dead." If everyone survives the adventure, you probably ran the 5E version.
• Run it like the Tournament design. It was originally timed. You didn't have time to spend 30 minutes farting about ruminating about this funny looking door. Find a reason the party has to move fast, or simply recreate the original challenge and put a real-world timer. This pushes players into recreating the stress of having to act. In Tournament play, gamers all knew their table was up against rival tables, creating an incentive to make a decision, even if it wasn't the best one.
• You could get through the entire original adventure without a single combat. "Thinking person's dungeon."
• No spoilers. If someone has read it, read blogs, peeked at the books, don't. It ruins the experience.
• Insert a few hints about the
  Spoiler

  demilich at the end
  through past adventuring groups that failed. Run the finale as a puzzle to be solved, not a bag of hit points to be whittled down (hence original design that could only be damaged by a very particular series of actions or spells).
  Spoiler

  The AD&D demilich could only be harmed by a handful of things which the party won't have, and by taking damage from really expensive gems, which without a spoiler the party wouldn't have a clue is an option. Hence, I'd put a few clues in from failed parties, suggestions they left behind or their research. This then actually makes the conundrum real... we have to destroy the wealth to destroy the bad guy?

As for the mega-adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors, I never ran it but instead played in it briefly (the DM decided part-way through that running adventures was too much work and abandoned the game!) Everything I've ever heard says it's an awesome adventure that gives you something fresh for those who've survived TOH.

 

[Clint_L]

It's gotta be AD&D (1e) or OD&D.

We had it and never played it, but when we were doing weekend sleepover games we would read it together late at night after the session was over and just boggle at how impossible it seemed.