The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan - your experiences?

[el-remmen]

This module killed off "The Oath" an adventuring party I had run in 2E for nearly 3 years. TPK. . boom!

It was the room with the Neirid and the eel that did it.

I had the PCs fall into the lower levels of the shrine by being chased by a T-Rex a tribe of vegepygmies worshipped. (Which was an awesome idea if I say so myself b/c the T-Rex defended their valley and since it is a carnivore it did not eat them )

 

[Davelozzi]

Oh? So you played with this crappy cover...

Sorry Quas, I hate to encourage him, but I like the old one better too (the tan one, not the blue).

 

[Henry]

Looking at early D&D illustrations, one would think the game started in the early dark ages.

No, it just shows its late 1960's and early 1970's influence on the artwork VERY, VERY well. For the time, this stuff was cutting edge!

As for my C1 experiences, I had none. I owned the module (the brown cover with the vampire), but only ran it once, and it only got as far as said vampire. It went downhill, and I never played it again. Looking in hindsight, it was quite a neat module, but more for thinking adventurers than ones who are better at roleplay or combat.

 

[PatEllis15]

I ran it twice:

First time was a one off, and I kept my watch close at hand..... Probably TOO close, but seeing as it was the module that I got to run after my friend had killed off all my high level PC's in Tomb of Horrors, I had no problem when they ran out of options, and hadn't found the exit... collapsed... dead...

Second time around, I tweaked it a bit, had a big battle out front with an enemey spell caster causing the ground to open up and the PC's to fall in... They got out, and the bad guys got away... Worked pretty well...

Pat E

 

[Melan]

Oh? So you played with this crappy cover:

Not to fan the flames, but I prefer the first Otus cover as well. But I own both new versions.

Looking at early D&D illustrations, one would think the game started in the early dark ages.

Nah, it's the Weird Tales influence showing through. I'd rather have that than the fantasy generica of the mid 80s to late 90s or the neo-schlock post 2000. It's different, it's fantastic and it's dynamic. It isn't Frazetta, but for a semi-amateur outfit (which TSR still was at the time), it's great.

 

[JediSoth]

I own it, and I remember playing part of it once. But that's all I remember of the gaming experience. I never ran it myself, though I tried to work it into one of my campaigns a few years back. I just ended up designing my own ziggurat with a giant-scorpion riding orc fighter guarding the entrance.

JediSoth

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Played it in reverse back in '89 I think. We came in the back end of it, worked our way down through the 'safe' parts that weren't gas filled, and when we reached the bit that was gas filled we opened it all up, let it air out for like a month, then went in and cleared the whole thing out. Worked quite well if you want to try and figure out all the traps, and had some quite creative ones if I remember right.

I now have it and would definitely consider running it but would do it the way it's supposed to be rather than in reverse like we did it. It's definitely a Con-style module given the time limit attached, but that just makes it suited to those games when you have limited game time or want to try a different style of play.

 

[JohnBiles]

A pretty nifty adventure to read, but the one time I tried to run it, it was pretty much a catastrophe of death due to bad rolls.

But it has nifty pictures of things which the Pcs thought was cool.

 

[edhel]

I ran The Hidden Shrine last summer at a con using The Lamentations of the Flame Princess retroclone. It was great fun. The players get straight into exploration and action. Be sure to have lots of mundane equipment available to the PCs since it leads to some creative problem solving. I used equipment points instead of set gear so players could have whatever mundane items they wanted with them as they needed them. You also really have to familiarise yourself with this adventure since it's full good details that make the adventure sing.

All in all, it was fun times and really atmospheric - even scary. There's loads of environment to interact with and unexpected creatures and sights to be seen. The strong Mesoamerican theme ties it all together.

 

[Mistwell]

Sorry to revive an old thread. But I am reading through this now, considering it for 5e D&D Next, and figured it was better to resurrect an old thread rather than start a new one.

I've owned this since it was published in the 80s, but for some reason in all that time I never once read or ran it.

Reading through it from the DMs perspective....wow. This is just one huge death trap after the next! I can't imagine my players surviving this thing, particularly in the tournament style it's written for. Loss of hit points every ten minutes? Constant save or die events? Constant "figure out the right thing to do on the first try or face certain death" type traps? Ouch.

I am curious if anyone survived this adventure using it tournament style? Or does anyone remember being run through it at a convention?

Has anyone tried it in 5e D&D Next?