I've been intrigued with S1 Tomb of Horrors for a long time, and this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/306672-tomb-horrors-example-many-one-kind.html has me thinking about it again.
In particular, this line of posts caught my attention:
I've heard this about the ToH before, (particularly the story about the 1st level thief who makes it through) but I've always been a little skeptical. Acererak's clues are pretty opaque, and the consequences for screwing up are permanent. I've tried to unravel the module before, but I couldn't do it by myself. So here we are.
I'm not interested in whether or not the module is "well-designed" "good" or even "fun." Some people love it, some people hate it, and that's fine. I don't want to talk about whether or not folks enjoy whatever playstyle is necessary to survive the ToH. I'm not interested in a long debate about challenging the player vs. challenging the character. I definitely don't want to start a discussion about the merits of old-school play in general. If you want to talk about that stuff, please do so in another thread.
I'm interested in this: What does it take to survive the ToH? Does the module provide enough clues to allow the players to navigate the Tomb safely? How much guesswork, dumb luck or divination magic is necessary to get through the Tomb? How much can be accomplished with caution and reason alone?
My plan is to go through the module room-by-room. I'll post a description of the room and any hints/clues it contains for the PC's. Then I'll give my thoughts about how a group of players might interpret those clues and apply them to Tomb.
There's no way to do this without spoiling the module. I don't plan on using spoiler tags, and I'd rather y'all not use them either. So consider yourself warned.
In particular, this line of posts caught my attention:
The module gives you clues in the form of riddles, and those riddles are, essentially, a "walk through" for the entire module (if you can parse them out carefully). On the other hand, if you fail to notice the first riddle, or if you ignore the clues provided, well, the module can kill you pretty quickly.
I recall one post about a newbie gamer who had never played an rpg before with a first level pc making it to the end, grabbing some loot and fleeing for his life.
Unlike some modules, with traps that have no possible way of being decoded short of painful experience (iirc, Tsocjanth has several of these...there is no clue that one color is good and another bad, that one face on a pedestal is a boon and the other a curse, etc.), ToH presents players with a chance to figure things out.
I've heard this about the ToH before, (particularly the story about the 1st level thief who makes it through) but I've always been a little skeptical. Acererak's clues are pretty opaque, and the consequences for screwing up are permanent. I've tried to unravel the module before, but I couldn't do it by myself. So here we are.
I'm not interested in whether or not the module is "well-designed" "good" or even "fun." Some people love it, some people hate it, and that's fine. I don't want to talk about whether or not folks enjoy whatever playstyle is necessary to survive the ToH. I'm not interested in a long debate about challenging the player vs. challenging the character. I definitely don't want to start a discussion about the merits of old-school play in general. If you want to talk about that stuff, please do so in another thread.
I'm interested in this: What does it take to survive the ToH? Does the module provide enough clues to allow the players to navigate the Tomb safely? How much guesswork, dumb luck or divination magic is necessary to get through the Tomb? How much can be accomplished with caution and reason alone?
My plan is to go through the module room-by-room. I'll post a description of the room and any hints/clues it contains for the PC's. Then I'll give my thoughts about how a group of players might interpret those clues and apply them to Tomb.
There's no way to do this without spoiling the module. I don't plan on using spoiler tags, and I'd rather y'all not use them either. So consider yourself warned.