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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Is the original Tomb of Horrors a well-designed adventure module?
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<blockquote data-quote="Melan" data-source="post: 2906512" data-attributes="member: 1713"><p>Very little except popular opinion - which may reveal how the Tomb fits into the contemporary gaming culture, and how it is perceived by current fans, but little of substance. We can agree that S1 is one of the most polarizing modules in existence, and I guess the results will reflect this - there was a "Rate Tomb of Horrors" thread way before the crash, and unlike other famous modules, Tomb got a lot of straight tens and straight 1s with little in the middle.</p><p></p><p>In my opinion, Tomb of Horrors is an example of good game design. It takes a game style (traditional dungeon adventuring) and builds a challenge based on that. Really, it is the "ultimate test" for people who have grown up on Gygaxian dungeoneering. In its casual brutality, it separates the wheat from the chaff: those who are merely good players will probably not succeed. Only those who can think outside the standard adventurer responses ("fight/cast spell/use magic item") have a chance at it without a lot of luck, because standard rules mastery doesn't work properly in the tomb. Especially when some of those rules are blatantly disregarded in Acererak's domain. That's why it was a mindbending experience on first release - it was an out-of-the-box dungeon for out-of-the-box thinkers.</p><p></p><p>On the other hand, S1 clearly doesn't fit into some later game paradigms. It isn't an "ecologized" dungeon, and neither is it a place conductive to accommodating serious "in-character play". For example, in the other thread, jdrakeh wrote:</p><p> </p><p>There is really no way - or reason - to debate this. The only thing I can say that in its proper context, Tomb of Horrors is a masterpiece, just like Rober E. Howard's short stories are good pulp fiction but lousy "high literature". It doesn't fit into today's design paradigm at all. But why should it?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Melan, post: 2906512, member: 1713"] Very little except popular opinion - which may reveal how the Tomb fits into the contemporary gaming culture, and how it is perceived by current fans, but little of substance. We can agree that S1 is one of the most polarizing modules in existence, and I guess the results will reflect this - there was a "Rate Tomb of Horrors" thread way before the crash, and unlike other famous modules, Tomb got a lot of straight tens and straight 1s with little in the middle. In my opinion, Tomb of Horrors is an example of good game design. It takes a game style (traditional dungeon adventuring) and builds a challenge based on that. Really, it is the "ultimate test" for people who have grown up on Gygaxian dungeoneering. In its casual brutality, it separates the wheat from the chaff: those who are merely good players will probably not succeed. Only those who can think outside the standard adventurer responses ("fight/cast spell/use magic item") have a chance at it without a lot of luck, because standard rules mastery doesn't work properly in the tomb. Especially when some of those rules are blatantly disregarded in Acererak's domain. That's why it was a mindbending experience on first release - it was an out-of-the-box dungeon for out-of-the-box thinkers. On the other hand, S1 clearly doesn't fit into some later game paradigms. It isn't an "ecologized" dungeon, and neither is it a place conductive to accommodating serious "in-character play". For example, in the other thread, jdrakeh wrote: There is really no way - or reason - to debate this. The only thing I can say that in its proper context, Tomb of Horrors is a masterpiece, just like Rober E. Howard's short stories are good pulp fiction but lousy "high literature". It doesn't fit into today's design paradigm at all. But why should it? [/QUOTE]
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Is the original Tomb of Horrors a well-designed adventure module?
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