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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="Umbran" data-source="post: 2913573" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>Well, when handed a lemon, make lemonade!</p><p></p><p>The thing is, before you talk about verisimilitude, you have to know to what you're trying to be true. My copy of the module is back home, but if I recall correctly, we aren't told a whole lot about the personality of the lich. So, rather than assume stuff about him, and say the dungeon is not in line with that, look at the dungeon, and derive some of the lich's personality from it...</p><p></p><p>Consider - this is a lich we are talking about. Undead. This guy has used dark powers to transform himself into a nigh-immortal form, damning his soul for eternity in the process. He then continues to exist until he's outlived even what support the dark power has given him. All in all, I think this guy must have left the realm of what we'd call "sane" in normal humans. </p><p></p><p>Thus, his behavior in designing and building the place doesn't have to conform to normal human logic. Maybe he didn't want to be disturbed, sure. But maybe he also wanted to inflict pain and death on those powerful enough to challenge himself or others like him. Maybe he'd become a form of obsessive-compulsive with the puzzle thing. Maybe he actually was sane, but served a deity (sane or otherwise) who imposed this final rest upon him for some reason we've not yet explored. We can make him up a number of different ways to make the place consistent with the lich.</p><p></p><p>All of which may be moot, of course, because the PCs can't talk to him. But it is still a fun thought process. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 2913573, member: 177"] Well, when handed a lemon, make lemonade! The thing is, before you talk about verisimilitude, you have to know to what you're trying to be true. My copy of the module is back home, but if I recall correctly, we aren't told a whole lot about the personality of the lich. So, rather than assume stuff about him, and say the dungeon is not in line with that, look at the dungeon, and derive some of the lich's personality from it... Consider - this is a lich we are talking about. Undead. This guy has used dark powers to transform himself into a nigh-immortal form, damning his soul for eternity in the process. He then continues to exist until he's outlived even what support the dark power has given him. All in all, I think this guy must have left the realm of what we'd call "sane" in normal humans. Thus, his behavior in designing and building the place doesn't have to conform to normal human logic. Maybe he didn't want to be disturbed, sure. But maybe he also wanted to inflict pain and death on those powerful enough to challenge himself or others like him. Maybe he'd become a form of obsessive-compulsive with the puzzle thing. Maybe he actually was sane, but served a deity (sane or otherwise) who imposed this final rest upon him for some reason we've not yet explored. We can make him up a number of different ways to make the place consistent with the lich. All of which may be moot, of course, because the PCs can't talk to him. But it is still a fun thought process. :) [/QUOTE]
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Is the original Tomb of Horrors a well-designed adventure module?
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