Official Tomb of Horrors 3.5 conversion (merged)

[Edena_of_Neith]

Do you want to put the terror back in Acererak?
Just mention to the your players that he around 30th level (after all, he's had thousands of years to level.)
If your players aren't scared by that, why are they entering the Tomb? Being scared, might just keep them alive long enough to face Acererak!

Of course, you the DM could actually flesh out Acererak at 30th level. If you do, I'm sure you could then prepare ways in which to increase the DR of the Save versus his soul draining attack ...

 

[Li Shenron]

“THIS IS A THINKING PERSON’S MODULE.
AND IF YOUR GROUP IS A HACK AND SLAY GATHERING,
THEY WILL BE UNHAPPY!” -- Gary Gygax, Tomb of Horrors.

I always thought that your sig was making fun of Gygax, I thought the ToH was indeed a hack'n'slay and the warning was very off...

Now I'm puzzled because I've downloaded the adventure (not read yet) and the same quote is in the first page of the new version of ToH as well!

 

[Kweezil]

Already doing that. Acererak has a set place in world's history, as the first lich and the being who almost took over the world 7000 years ago (give or take a decade), so he's going to have a few levels under his belt. Admittedly, he's not been heard of much since then, and has probably gotten a little out of practice (and now I have a mental image of an overweight demilich telling the party that he could have been a contender.... )

 

[Jupp]

I always thought that your sig was making fun of Gygax, I thought the ToH was indeed a hack'n'slay and the warning was very off...

Now I'm puzzled because I've downloaded the adventure (not read yet) and the same quote is in the first page of the new version of ToH as well!

Well there are only a handfull of fighting encounters, if at all, in the original ToH. But in the "Return to" version there were quite alot of fights put into before the party can actually access the original tomb.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Well there are only a handfull of fighting encounters, if at all, in the original ToH. But in the "Return to" version there were quite alot of fights put into before the party can actually access the original tomb.

I'm running my group through it now.

2 mandatory and about 9 if the party really tried hard to disturb things best left alone.

 

[J-Buzz]

Yes I hope this means good things are about to come from Wizards. Such as a conversion for many of their older Adventures.

 

[ThirdWizard]

My Living Greyhawk character at 9th level:

Multi-classed Ftr4/Mnk2/Pious Templar 1/Exotic Weapon Master1/Dwarven Defender1

O.O

The most I've seen is two base classes and one PrC in combonation in my game. ^^;


On the topic of ToH:

I really can't imagine my group making it through ToH. Just last session, a guy pulled a crystal off a pedistal without anyone checking it. A pedistal in the middle of a room! *sigh* It was fun rolling six times for prismatic spray, though. (They're 8th level.)

 

[Henry]

2. As mentioned, tournament modules are very different than "regular" modules. Based on the comment regarding the module as a "I am going to knock you down a peg" tool, were gamers permitted to bring and use homegrown characters in tournament events? I did not know that.

Actually, in this case, they were, and many convention games in the past used to have a "BYOC" notice - bring your own character. In fact, according to the same article/comments I read, Gary used to ask them to hand him the character sheets, so he could notify their home DMs of the characters' demises...

 

[shilsen]

It is the way Teleportation Circle works, though.

Cheers!

Good point. I missed that. Thanks.

 

[Slobber Monster]

* SPOILERS *

I'm thinking of running this down the line, but I can't make up my mind how I want to fit it in. The Tomb seems great for a Kill Things and Take Their Stuff campaign, and my players would be sufficiently motivated by greed to go along with that. However, I might want to make it part of a story arc, probably by sticking a super-MacGuffin in the Acererak's vault. I suppose if I do that I'll have to add fake MacGuffins to the false trease rooms. I guess it shouldn't affect the tone of the module much either way.

The more difficult question I've been pondering is whether to add an element of time pressure to go along with the MacGuffin. As is, the design of the module pretty much lets you rest between every single trap, fight and room. This makes every obstacle that can't cause instant death to a 9th level character almost a non-event. It also allows a party to burn through auguries and divinations while pondering every little decision, and to flood the place with summoned critters to do their trap detection. I don't mind that these tactics are effective, but I don't think I want to allow them unlimited effectiveness.

If I do add time pressure, then it would probably be in the form of a "race against the clock", with the timer set on the order of 4-7 days. After that the event they need the MacGuffin for transpires, or the Tomb plane shifts away, or whatever. Does this seem appropriate to those with experience running the tomb? I just want to impose enough level of resource management that the decision to press on or call it a day has some meaning. I don't like the meta-gaming involved in tying the character's decisions to out of game activity, so the module's suggestion to let the characters rest between sessions is out of the question.