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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8606734" data-attributes="member: 8461">I'm going to go ahead and say this up front, just to get it out of the way: <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17473/Return-to-the-Tomb-of-Horrors-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Return to the Tomb of Horrors</a> is the single best prefab campaign that TSR/WotC ever made, bar none. I feel so strongly about that, I'm not even going to put a "to me" or "in my opinion" in there. This is the high-water mark for how a campaign-in-a-box (literally) should be.Now, part of that is because it has good material to work with. The eponymous Tomb of Horrors was already plenty famous before this boxed set came along; the original S1 Tomb of Horrors (which isn't available on DriveThruRPG now, even though it <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product_reviews_info.php?&reviews_id=485052&products_id=176871&affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">used to be</a>) was already well-known for its deadliness. And even before that, Gary Gygax ran it at tournaments as early as 1975 under the OD&D rules, which – fun fact – was reproduced for the special edition of Art & Arcana. An appendix at the back of the reproduction further reprints the original Tomb created by Alan Lucien and sent to Gary (for which the final enemy was a lich named "Ra-Hotep"), which inspired Gary to create Acererak's infamous resting place! So yeah, the Tomb of Horrors already had a deep bench before it was finally Returned to in 1998 (notwithstanding the original S1 reappearing in 1987's <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/273341/S14-Realms-of-Horror-1e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">S1-4 Realms of Horror</a> compilation, itself re-released as <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170945/S14-Dungeons-of-Dread-1e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">S1-4 Dungeons of Dread</a> in 2013).But even so, I strongly suspect that Bruce Cordell's masterpiece has something to do with the Tomb's enduring popularity. Or at least, with that of its creator, Acererak. Prior to this, Acererak was just the lich who built the Tomb and sank into quiescence inside of it; from here on out, he was one of the big bads of the D&D multiverse, a proactive source of malevolence weaving schemes of cosmic proportions that placed him among the ranks of luminaries such as Vecna, Cyric, Takhisis, and similar beings of enduring infamy. And this is where he entered the big leagues.The sheer scope of this adventure is breathtaking. You start out with a raid on a giant lair that's reminiscent of (albeit a bit smaller than) <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/186742/G1-Steading-of-the-Hill-Giant-Chief-1e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief</a>, and that's just the prologue. After that, you have to navigate Skull City, a necromantic college-town (the college in question being known as the Bleak Academy) that's sprung up around the Tomb of Horrors. Then you have to go into the Tomb itself, which is exactly as it was in S1. In fact, the original module is given a full-on reproduction in the boxed set, to the point where you could pull it out and run it for an AD&D 1E group!And that's still not the end! After that, you have to go to The City That Waits (aka Moil), a ruined city that's been shunted into a demiplane all its own. And if you survive that, you can make your way to Acererak's aptly-named Fortress of Conclusion on the Negative Energy Plane for the final showdown, to see if you can disrupt his master plan of collecting enough souls to merge his consciousness with the plane itself, allowing him to become all undead everywhere.I ask you, does it get more epic than that?And there's yet more content, if you know where to look for it! Cordell wrote an article ("Below the Tomb of Horrors") in Dragon #249 describing how to get to the area beneath Acererak's masterpiece, where he threw the actual architect, a cheery fellow named Moghadam, along with the workers who built the place and left them to die. While it has no map, it describes a number of creatures and encounters, along with traps and hazards, that can bedevil those who venture down into the place (although getting there is no easy feat, since Acererak didn't mean for it to ever be discovered). Heck, there's even a double-sided promotional page ("Catacombs of the Necromancers") that was released alongside this boxed set as an additional clue for when the players reach Skull City. I consider myself fortunate to have not only gotten a copy when I picked up the original set, but for having the foresight to put it in the box where it wouldn't get lost or be destroyed.And that's just barely overviewing what's actually in here. I can't even begin to describe how expansive this boxed set is. Every NPC is fully developed and fleshed out, even when they have no flesh on them! Whether it's Academician Drake at the Bleak Academy to Tarnhem the balor (aka Acererak's father), the sheer amount of content crammed in here is unbelievable. Not to mention how deadly the adventure is. The fact that it makes you go through the original Tomb is bad enough; presuming you don't get killed during the trek (or before you ever get that far), the subsequent areas don't let up. Instant death traps and encounter areas designed to put the hurt on you seem like they're everywhere; it's a beautiful paean to old school design at its finest.I have no doubt that's why this boxed set has been so heavily referenced going forward, both directly and otherwise. Not only would the Tomb itself be seen again in the <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/169623/Tomb-of-Horrors-Revised-35?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Tomb of Horrors Revised</a> (3.5E), <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153646/Tomb-of-Horrors-4e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Tomb of Horrors</a> (4E), and Tomb of Annihilation (the latter two being homages rather than literal reappearances), but numerous references to other aspects of this adventure would show up elsewhere, such as the Bleak Academy being spotlighted in <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/143695/Tome-and-Blood-A-Guidebook-to-Wizards-and-Sorcerers-3e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Tome and Blood</a>, or Acererak having become a vestige following his defeat as per the 3.5 <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50000/Tome-of-Magic-Pact-Shadow-and-Truename-Magic-35?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Tome of Magic</a>.That's not even taking into account that Cordell would also tie this into his "Neverness" world, slipping in a sly reference connecting this adventure to College of Wizardry, which in turn connected to not only Den of Thieves and Bastion of Faith, but also <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17286/Reverse-Dungeon-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Reverse Dungeon</a>, itself connection to 3E's <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28449/Bastion-of-Broken-Souls-3e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Bastion of Broken Souls</a>, etc. Oh, and Tarnhem was mentioned in the <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17447/Dungeon-Builders-Guidebook-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Dungeon Builder's Guidebook</a>. And the PCs visit the world that Moil came from in <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17297/Dead-Gods-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Dead Gods</a>, itself the sequel to <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17302/The-Great-Modron-March-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">The Great Modron March</a> and prequel to <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17299/Faction-War-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Faction War</a> (according to the latter's prologue). It was the sort of interconnectedness that I, having a beautiful mind, couldn't resist mapping out.<img src="https://i.imgflip.com/58ptpd.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />All of which is to reiterate how this book is at the apex of D&D design. It's a campaign of vast scope and epic stakes, with a deep well of lore that not only ties into numerous other parts of the world (by which I mean the multiverse), but also makes numerous contributions that were referenced and drawn upon later. Even today, this is what I think of when I think about classic campaigns, where the need for heroes is great and the challenges aren't sugarcoated. Giants and necromancers, <a href="https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/winterwight.htm" target="_blank">winterwights</a> and balors, traps, puzzles, plane-hopping, exploration, all leading up to a diabolical demilich...this is the distilled essence of D&D, right here.I doubt we'll ever see something like this again, and while I consider that a shame, I'm still hopeful that I can run my current group through this someday. Live or die, this is the sort of campaign that leaves you with stories to talk about for years to come.Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</blockquote>

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