Tomb of Horrors

[reinbowarrior]

Brilliant

Mark -

A brilliant sum up of what happened. BOth detailed and unbiased, good to know you were rooting for us too.

Had I known I was walking into that floating skull of nastiness, we would have done differently. Haste us all, wall of force him in place, grabbed the treasure and RUN!

Hindsight is very useful - and I think you give us too much credit. Now I've read the adventure, had I known what the scepter/crown/key hole/hall of pillars were capable of, I'd have never have gone near them. Luck had a lot to do with it.

I have a one/two off too - the Anvil of time - please say you haven't read the adventure in Legend of the Twins?

Well Miniris RIP... The ranks of the fallen swell.

 

[the Jester]

Given that theres no indication on many of the traps, I call BS on this. Take the crown/scepter for instance. One orb kills the wearer no save, the other removes it. Naturally theres no clue involved. Yeah, you're really clever for flipping a coin and getting the right side...

Hmm, augury? Divination? Commune? Contact Other Plane? Stone Tell? Bardic knowledge, or Knowledge (arcana)?

This is a high-level adventure- high-level pcs have remarkable information-gathering abilities. Just because there is no obvious clue doesn't mean that there is no way to create a clue. The high-level group I took through my own homebrewed version of Return to the Tomb of Horrors (of which the original tomb is only a part) did extraordinarily well. And I don't pull punches or engage in much fudging.

 

[merelycompetent]

Tomb of Horrors: These traps and dungeons are what greedy paranoia plus spells like augury, commune, contact other plane, divination, legend lore, and stone tell (among others) are for. I will confess, though, that our DM both times was truly a RBDM (and thank you for many hours of great fun, Bill and Michael!), so we were properly over-paranoid on the first run through (though not quite paranoid and lucky on the second).

Of the two times (both 1st Ed) I have played the original ToH, we broke 50/50. First time, we went in having cast every divination/info-gathering spell we had (plus burning many, many scrolls and items) *before* going in. Our 2 clerics also had augury and divination memorized (IIRC, there may have been a scroll or two left over, plus a commune - not sure) in preparation for later use (something that saved us from several of the perma-death traps). We made it through without anyone dying permanently (though we did have to use a clone spell after the final battle). The second time was less successful, and we failed to properly prepare ("Don't worry guys, it's not *that* bad!") - my elf fighter/wizard was pulped by the juggernaut, lost another (fighter?) to green slime, one of our clerics died in a trap (can't remember which), and so forth. Only 2 out of 6 PCs made it out alive (and that barely - Deck of Many Things, avoid any one fate once, saved the thief from a sphere).

I will also point out that there *shouldn't* be any warning on many of the traps. Acererak was a BBEG... and made his tomb to reflect that.

This was an adventure for the truly paranoid and greedy. That's not everyone's cup of tea, but it sure was fun as heck for us!!

 

[Melan]

Mark: thanks a lot for your writeup! It was very entertaining to read how other people did in the tomb, and how the 3e conversion differs from the original (which has almost zero combat encounters, by the way - for good or ill).

 

[Mark Hope]

Mark: thanks a lot for your writeup! It was very entertaining to read how other people did in the tomb, and how the 3e conversion differs from the original (which has almost zero combat encounters, by the way - for good or ill).

Cheers, Melan Although the combat encounters made things tougher for the characters, I have the impression that they made things easier on the players, serving as a welcome release of tension amidst all the paranoia. I ran the original many years ago - it was the only adventure I have run where the players begged me to stop and declare it all a dream so that they could have their precious characters back ...

 

[Henry]

(looks at the date) Now THAT'S what I call an extended campaign.

Mark, thank you for the writeup! Nice to know the Tomb still claims its legacy, even today.

 

[Mark Hope]

(looks at the date) Now THAT'S what I call an extended campaign.

Heh heh. Awkward scheduling over vast stretches of time is our speciality ...

Mark, thank you for the writeup! Nice to know the Tomb still claims its legacy, even today.

Cheers . I was glad to see that it could hold still hold its own almost 30 years since its publication. Oldie but goodie...

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Hmm, augury? Divination? Commune? Contact Other Plane? Stone Tell? Bardic knowledge, or Knowledge (arcana)?

This is a high-level adventure- high-level pcs have remarkable information-gathering abilities. Just because there is no obvious clue doesn't mean that there is no way to create a clue. The high-level group I took through my own homebrewed version of Return to the Tomb of Horrors (of which the original tomb is only a part) did extraordinarily well. And I don't pull punches or engage in much fudging.

Most of those rely on your DM not being a tool. In other words, for DM's running these type of adventures, they will fail. Face it, its for an era of sad geeks who LOVE to squeal "Got you!" at their players for bing so stupid as to do anything. And if they dont do anything? Well, you can cheat and "Get them" anyways.

If, in the rare event you have a fair DM who lets the spells work, I dont really consider asking the DM what to do "using your head".

 

[reinbowarrior]

Mark's campaign write ups

Mark's write ups put the rest of us to shame.

His Epic retelling of our dark sun campaign makes great reading too - made me giggle like you wouldn't belive! (I was Vok).

The tomb of horrors was very hard work - and definately stands the test of time. Even with my sour grapes over the death of Miniris. Damn floating skull...

 

[reinbowarrior]

In other words, for DM's running these type of adventures, they will fail. Face it, its for an era of sad geeks who LOVE to squeal "Got you!" at their players for bing so stupid as to do anything. And if they dont do anything? Well, you can cheat and "Get them" anyways.

Sorry don't agree at all. I think an intelligent group of players can navigate the Tomb successfully with a little caution without asking the DM. We certainly didn't use too many divinations spells, but still made it to Acererak.