The New D&D Adventure Is - Tomb of Annihilation!

Tomb of Annihilation is in the Forgotten Realms set in the Lost Continent of Chult - Away from the Sword Coast (the hosts of the live stream are very interested with undead dinosaurs). Acererak is, as many predicted, the source of this plotline as the Archlich is more or less "eating" resurrection magic from the rest of the Forgotten Realms and causing a zombie apocalypse. Pendleton Ward from Adventure Time is a creative consultant on this adventure.

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More updates will be coming through the Dungeons & Dragons marathon live stream live on Twitch throughout the weekend.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Except Acererak isn't a plane hopper...he's a dead lich. He's dead. He had his minions build him his "final resting spot" (#33), destroyed them, then pretty much just waited for his lich body to crumble...leaving only his skull. Acereraks soul then went on to the planes and whatnot...but all dead people do that; you don't have to be a lich. IF his 'final resting spot' is breached (keys), his soul is brought back...in the form of a "demi-lich". But he's still dead and not going to get any better.

That may have been true when Tomb of Horrors was first written, but it hasn't been true in a long time. Bruce Cordell's Return to the Tomb of Horrors changed all that, and the 4E Tomb of Horrors (which, yes, full disclosure, I worked on) ran with it.

If you want to complain about things possibly having been changed from the source, you're certainly welcome to, but it's a bit late, and hardly original to ToA.

 

[Jhaelen]

Paizo ganks the Isle of Dread and stuffs it into Greyhawk and they are applauded for it. Everyone loves them for it. WotC does the exact same thing, but puts it into Forgotten Realms instead, and they're uncreative hacks who don't know anything about gaming and only produce boring stuff.

Well, that's quite likely because of the very different status of 'Greyhawk' compared to ' The Forgotten Realms'.

To me it's similar to the difference between 'A Perfect Circle' covering John Lennon's 'Imagine' and 'Justin Bieber' covering the Beatles' 'Let it Be'.
The former is a great artistic re-interpretation, and the latter is sacrilege

 

[Hussar]

Well, that's quite likely because of the very different status of 'Greyhawk' compared to ' The Forgotten Realms'.

To me it's similar to the difference between 'A Perfect Circle' covering John Lennon's 'Imagine' and 'Justin Bieber' covering the Beatles' 'Let it Be'.
The former is a great artistic re-interpretation, and the latter is sacrilege

In other words, it's okay when someone you like does it, but, when someone you don't like does the same thing, it's bad.

Like I said, this has been going on for years. No matter what WotC does, they will fold the hundred dollar bill entirely wrong.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

No matter how you slice it, it's still not a thing for me or my group. And me ranting about this annoyance can be chalked up to "Just one of those old coots, rambling on about how much better it was back in ye olden days...".

And for every "old coot" like you, there is one like me, who is the exact opposite. In my 35 years of gaming, 85-90% of my D&D gaming has been homebrew, with very little use of published worlds. So much so, that I barely know who Acererak even is and I have never played through any version of Tomb of Horrors or Isle of Dread. So these changes and updates mean nothing to me because I never knew the original versions.

 

[GarrettKP]

And for every "old coot" like you, there is one like me, who is the exact opposite. In my 35 years of gaming, 85-90% of my D&D gaming has been homebrew, with very little use of published worlds. So much so, that I barely know who Acererak even is and I have never played through any version of Tomb of Horrors or Isle of Dread. So these changes and updates mean nothing to me because I never knew the original versions.

And I suspect for every "old coot" and every 35 year vet with your mindset I suspect there are dozens of people like me who do not have that amount of experience or the time to create a world, so these modules play a huge role in how we play D&D.

Whether we started only 10 years ago or this year, the majority of the player base are new players who want the experiences the veteran D&D players have. We want to know what the Tomb of Horrors is like to play through, or how it feels to free Barovia from Strahd, or how gratifying it is escaping from the Underdark.

And by putting out these modules that have such a legacy for inspiration WotC is scratching that itch, and also putting out something the "old coots" recognize. Even if they do not love the retread, this gives the Veterans and the Newbies some common frame of reference. Most everyone knows who Acererak is, or who Strahd and Tiamat are.

It may not be what you want for your games, but it scratches the itch for a majority of the player base, and in business you have to cater to a majority, especially when the release cycle is slower than the older days.

 

[JeffB]

I find it endlessly interesting to see the difference in reactions between how one company does something and another company that does exactly the same thing.

Paizo ganks the Isle of Dread and stuffs it into Greyhawk and they are applauded for it. Everyone loves them for it. WotC does the exact same thing, but puts it into Forgotten Realms instead, and they're uncreative hacks who don't know anything about gaming and only produce boring stuff.

:/

FWIW, and that's not much.... I hated when Paizo did the IoD AP. Frankly I never cared much for their stewardship of the magazines. I know Erik and I got into a few conversations about my "disapproval" bitd

There has been a huge amount of re-hashing old stuff, and even as an old crank who loves the originals with all their warts, I hate seeing all these re-makes. It's like Lucas and his Special editions.

Get into the now, and do something new, fresh, and exciting, and stop riding coattails of the forefathers' works..At this point it is no longer flattery.

/cranky grampa

 

[jimmytheccomic]

That may have been true when Tomb of Horrors was first written, but it hasn't been true in a long time. Bruce Cordell's Return to the Tomb of Horrors changed all that, and the 4E Tomb of Horrors (which, yes, full disclosure, I worked on) ran with it.

)

Hey, that was good ! I'm probably going to use it in my Tomb of Annihilation game, I may make the "Soul Reaver" or whatever the device is also serve as the material plane battery, then take them through the Feywild and Shadowplane to hit the other batteries.

 

[Mistwell]

I find it endlessly interesting to see the difference in reactions between how one company does something and another company that does exactly the same thing.

Paizo ganks the Isle of Dread and stuffs it into Greyhawk and they are applauded for it. Everyone loves them for it. WotC does the exact same thing, but puts it into Forgotten Realms instead, and they're uncreative hacks who don't know anything about gaming and only produce boring stuff.

:/

To be fair, while I quite like parts of the Savage Tides adventure path, the Isle of Dread part of it was not very good in my opinion. The adventure that comes before it in Sasserine was excellent however. And I seem to recall that was a fairly common perception at the time - that the actual remake part was lacking. I know when I opted to run it in 5e, starting during the beta test, a lot of people here gave me that advice to skip the Isle of Dread part.

Not that any of that has anything to do with setting. In fact, for that particular adventure I'd say setting is fairly meaningless. The whole point is it's away from well travelled paths and civilized lands that the players might be familiar with - that's almost by definition "plop into a back corner of any setting". There is nothing particularly Mystara or Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms about any of it.

 

[Irennan]

I get not liking the Realms. It's not everyone's cup of tea (and it's popular, there's a lot of it, and people use it poorly). But hating on Ed because he created it is somewhat petty. He didn't make Drizz't clones or have your DM save your party with Elminster, or publish dozens of novels and sourcebooks in a single year.

Yeah, someone can not like his writing. But don't call him a liar because you don't like his prose.
While I can't stand the man's books, he seems very nice and approachable. A genuinely decent guy... albeit pervy. (My wife and him would get alone fine: she has an equally dirty mind.)

Well, he technically made Eilistraee for his game, which some count as Drizzt's clone even tho she's *drastically* different from him, but yeah. We're talking about writing stories, and children are full of imagination (although some have better eloquence than others), and when Ed was a child stories and imagination were a huge part of what kids would use to entertain themselves. I really don't get why it's such a big deal to the point of accusing him to be lying :/

 

[murquhart72]

Do your Mommy and Daddy know you are using their computer?

HA! murquhart72 BUUURRR-- hey wait