Running a 3.5 Return to the Tomb of Horrors

[Warrior Poet]

Incidentally, is 13th level with starting DMG gold and a 32 point buy a good kickoff point for this shindig?

To quote Newt from Aliens: "It won't make any difference."

Enjoy!

(seriously, it's a great, great time. But not if the players are really attached to their characters)

Warrior Poet

 

[werk]

. Hard drives and CDs are bigger than my basement.

That's a TINY basement...

 

[WizarDru]

i can't remember exactly... but i think there are some problems with the pdf in the maps or illustrations.

Note that I've noticed. I picked up the PDF for $4 (!) and as far as I can tell, everything's fine. I personally don't like the 'Return' portion much at all, however. The original module is much better, IMHO...but since it's so familiar, I played a fake-out on my players and while I told them they'd be visiting the Tomb of Horrors, I'm actually using Goodman Game's Tomb of the Devil-Lich. Unless I'm incorrect, there's also a couple of 3.0/3.5 conversions of both the original and Return here on this very site.

 

[Henry]

Note that I've noticed. I picked up the PDF for $4 (!) and as far as I can tell, everything's fine.

Dru, have you ever tried to print out any of the player handouts, particularly the color ones? Do they look scalable, or are they about the same medium-low resolution quality of other TSR PDF's for sale? I've purchased a few Forgotten Realms products, and while they're great, the map and other graphics qualities were a bit poor for high-quality reproduction.

 

[WizarDru]

Dru, have you ever tried to print out any of the player handouts, particularly the color ones? Do they look scalable, or are they about the same medium-low resolution quality of other TSR PDF's for sale? I've purchased a few Forgotten Realms products, and while they're great, the map and other graphics qualities were a bit poor for high-quality reproduction.

That trend continues here, I'm afraid. They scanned the document in at the minimum necessary for OCR, which is 144 dpi, AFAICT. The images look OK, but not spectacular. I printed the maps out to a b/w printer and it looked passable...but there is clear artifacting. I got my $4 worth, but I wouldn't have paid a lot more for it. Especially when contrasted against Goodman's product, which is lushly illustrated and appears to be in 300 dpi. And I printed that on a high-quality color laser-copier and it looks NICE.

 

[thefrostytinman]

Two of my players (level 1) where defeated by a farmer who thought they where trying to rob him. One was a thief (god old AD&D)and the other a fighter. It was pretty dam funny the farmer attacked them with a pitchfork and got a 20 on each, when they retaliated they rolled ones at the same time. The thief was down and the fighter mortally wounded he picked up his friend and retreated.

Another funny story from the days of AD&D. Our groups paladin like a goo paladin would always get the rest of the party in trouble so, when an event that would be against the Paladin coed would come our master thieves would usually try to sabb him out. Well as he got smart he would refuse to take his helmet off. So at one critical time the thieves attempted to knock him out however he has not going to fall for that trick again and keep his helmet firmly in place. One of the thieves had a very large gem he recently acquired came up behind him and struck hi in the head before he did this I instructed him that he would need a natural 20 if he was going to knock the paladin out and the gem would surly be shattered. Needles to say he rolled a natural 20 the gem shattered the paladin was out and another soon to be paladin induced crisis was averted.

 

[WizarDru]

...??

Hello, thefrostytinman, and welcome to the boards!

I'm afraid I missed how your post ties into the topic at hand, but thanks for sharing it, all the same. We're always glad to have someone come share anecdotes.

 

[DM-Rocco]

I just ran my characters theough The Tomb Of Horrors in 3.5, very much fun for me, not for them.

Anyway, I used conversation notes from the conversation threads in ENWorld. I can't find them right not, I am at work. I slightly changes a few things to fit a few situations and I used a happy nedium bewtween the AD&D demi-lich and the 3.0 epic lich in the back of the Epic PHB. If you use the AD&D one, they should kill it in one round, if you use the Epic PHB lich, it will waste them in one round.

Also, I started a log of the adventures of my group in the story hour. Right now it details everything they have done up to the entrance of the Tomb of Horrors. I am in the process of finishing the updates, check it out if ya want and feel free to ask questions about how to handle certain situations, once you have reviewed the module first of course.

 

[Darmanicus]

Hi Frosty.............bye Frosty.

 

[BMcauliffe]

I recommend Libris Mortis, as a few monsters in RttToH are found in there (and it will help you in both adjudicating as well as customizing sections of that module). Not necessary in any way, of course, but very useful.

It's a great, great adventure.

(But be aware of the CRs and ELs when converting - it doesn't support a straight 2e -> 3e level conversion at all.)

You will also need the 3.0 Epic Level Handbook and maybe Fiend Folio (can't remember). This adventure is definetely not for 13th level characters. The CR of the example Demilich in the EPIC Level Handbook is 27.