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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Justin Bacon" data-source="post: 2735609" data-attributes="member: 3795">There's a difference between Acererak (a character in the world) designing a capricious death trap in the context of the world and Gygax (an RPG designer) designing a capricious death trap by (re)writing the rules by which the universe works.Let's be clear: This is a module which explicitly breaks the rules without any rhyme or reason. For example, take a look at Area 7: "At the place it turns east there is a plug in the ceiling which can be detected only with magical vision means or if a character has sense enough to test for secret doors by rapping. Secret door detection will not be of avail here except as noted."How, exactly, did Acererak design a secret door that evades, for example, the natural ability of elves to detect secret doors? Is this a magical effect? Would a dispel magic suppress it and allow elves to detect secret doors in a normal fashion? I dunno. You dunno. Gygax is simply being capricious and arbitrary in a way that has NOTHING to do with the actual game world. Don't believe me? Then why do the players need to specify rapping? Why can't the normal mechanics for searching cover this?Or how about the auto-striking bolts in Area 9 which appear to be magical (since you need to make a saving throw vs. magic to avoid being hit)... but which continue to operate even if an antimagic effect is used. Or the spike trap in Area 20 which can't be overcome by a thief for some reason. Or the sleep gas which can't be resisted in Area 23 for some reason.And so forth.There's a difference between saying "Acererak designed a cunning and deadly tomb for himself" and saying "here is a poison which instantly slays anyone touching it, even if they're magically immune to all poisons; NO APPEALS!".Justin Alexander Bacon<a href="http://www.thealexandrian.net" target="_blank">http://www.thealexandrian.net</a></blockquote>

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