T1-4, ToEE - What the crap?!

[Voadam]

Hello; I picked up an old copy of T1-4, The temple of elemental evil, and I have to say, I'm flabbergasted at it. THis is a _very_ famous dungeon, but there's absolutely no development or hooks to get this thing off the ground! I mean, I can't figure out why the players would even hang out in Hommlet long enough to actually learn of the adventures. Also, there's all this contradictory info; the siege of the ToEE happened a decade ago, but now it's location is lost?

Now I don't want to bash it, and I certainly don't want to get into a debate about editions. I guess what I'm trying to say is: I feel like I'm trying to drive standard here, and I've only ever ridden a bicycle.

So on to a constructive thread: How have you actually used this baby in play? What do you use for hooks, and how do you connect the locales?

Wasn't there a thief in the inn of the Welcome Wench who had a map to the Moathouse and wanted to get a bunch of adventurers to go with him and share the risk of exploring?

When I ran it a couple decades ago that's what I remember being one of the main hooks. The evil party of course killed the thief when they detected he had a magic dagger and took his map as well. They went to Nulb because it was a rough and tumble place more to their liking (with everybody being evil).

 

[diaglo]

Wasn't there a thief in the inn of the Welcome Wench

Vernok the Thief
edit: Furnok not Vernok.. i changed his name to keep the players guessing.

Spugnoir the magic-user

the Monk and his sidekick...

and the Fighter upstairs....

also Elmo... who wishes his Brudda Otis was here.

can all be found at the Inn of the Welcome Wench

also a jillion other NPCs the DM wishes to move there... it is a happening place.

but that was T1. the better version.

 

[Voadam]

Vernok the Thief

Spugnoir the magic-user

the Monk and his sidekick...

and the Fighter upstairs....

also Elmo... who wishes his Brudda Otis was here.

can all be found at the Inn of the Welcome Wench

also a jillion other NPCs the DM wishes to move there... it is a happening place.

but that was T1. the better version.

And a half-drow love child one of the bar maids had with a PC in my campaign.

Huh I only had T1-4 this is the first I heard anything was cut from T1, I might pick up the pdf to check out the extra info.

 

[David Howery]

hmm... haven't read it in ages, but IIRC, the hook was that Hommlet was famous for being the victim of the Temple on it's first rise to power, and it started out with bandit raids. Then the temple was thrown down, and peace was restored. Now, bandit raids are starting up again around Hommlet, so everyone's wondering if the Temple is starting up again, so the PCs go there to check it out.... now, just WHY they decide to go there and check it out is up to the DM, of course....

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I hate agreeing with diaglo, but he is right - T1 was vastly superior. Spend the 5 bucks and get the ESD from RPGNow, then dump the rest.

The Auld Grump, who really, truly hated T1-4...

 

[Faraer]

Trollwad, your post was unexceptionable -- it isn't a module's job to dictate motivation to PCs! -- except for these

Ok, tell your players that theres this funny looking old human sage smoking a pipe who tells them that this is their assignment...

It does seem like you are used to riding the elminster bicycle.

which are pure canard. Elminster simply is not used this way in Realms sources; indeed, the sources suggest if PCs attempt to find Elminster in his tower that he be out.

 

[Hypersmurf]

(The last time I ran this module, some 16 odd years ago, the party ended up negotiating with Lareth. They would let him go if he left everything behind. They were reasonably sure they could take Lareth, but it would cost them dearly. Lareth was sure they could take him and his best bet was to get away with as much as he could. He settled for his personal equipment, and his skin.)

They sounds quite similar to what happened to us when we first met Lareth.

We took out all his minions and bodyguards, but got fairly badly beaten up in the process.

So it was five of us, all low on hit points, and Lareth - who we'd already figured out we were having a hell of a time hitting, with his insane stats and heavy armour.

He ended up saying "I'm walking out, and you're not stopping me..."

... and he walked out, and we didn't stop him.

We caught up with him later on a road somewhere with a bunch of new minions, and the cavalier hit him with a mounted lance charge... which definitely helped.

(It also helped when we pointed out to the DM that a Staff of Striking doesn't triple all damage when you expend extra charges, just triples the bonus!)

-Hyp.

 

[OregonGM]

T1-4 is not for a DM who just wants something to run. As a 3-e conversion, assume that 10 players will result in, at game end, 2 12th level PCs, a smattering of 9-11th PCs, and a small handful of folks who died close enough to the end to be 5th and 6th.

Weekly game. Two years. We *might* have hit 18 months with a smaller group.

ToEE has its problems, sure. The extensive re-writes for the flavor text alone was a mountain . . .but the thing works. I did probably 3 months of making it "right" before the first character was rolled up. This is an excellent way, by the way, to freaking MASTER a rules conversion. (It being our group's foray into 3E)

No insults neccessary for it not being to someone's liking. This is not the adventure I'd use as a quick drop-in game. This is the adventure you use when you decide you are going to work your behind off and have a campaign that is still talked about years later.

This is a rusted-out piece of junk that, if you have the inclination to shine it up just right, you can display at a classic car show to a round of applause.

If it ain't gonna be a labor of love, don't do it.