D&D 5E Yawning Portal vs Tomb of Anilhilation

[Klaudius Rex]

Not sure if this was brought up before but, it seems that both Tales from the Yawning Portal "greatest hits" book and the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path feature the infamous Tomb of Horrors dungeon in thier books.

Tomb of Horrors is presented in the book, Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a collection of great adventures, and in this case, dungeon crawls through the years.

Tomb of Horrors will apparently also be featured as the main dungeon in the jungles of Chult in the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path due out this September.

Not sure why Wizards will release essentially the same content in back to back products like this?!

With this in mind, is it even worth it to get all excited about the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation book when its main dungeon that the book is based upon, was literally just released in Yawning Portal a few months ago in February? (It even has Aceterak the lich!)

 

[Tobold]

I thought that Tomb of Annihilation is more like a hommage to Tomb of Horrors, and not a literal conversion. Just like Princes of the Apocalypse is a hommage to Temple of Elemental Evil, without being the same story or dungeon.

 

[CapnZapp]

Not sure if this was brought up before but, it seems that both Tales from the Yawning Portal "greatest hits" book and the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path feature the infamous Tomb of Horrors dungeon in thier books.

Tomb of Horrors is presented in the book, Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a collection of great adventures, and in this case, dungeon crawls through the years.

Tomb of Horrors will apparently also be featured as the main dungeon in the jungles of Chult in the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path due out this September.

Not sure why Wizards will release essentially the same content in back to back products like this?!

With this in mind, is it even worth it to get all excited about the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation book when its main dungeon that the book is based upon, was literally just released in Yawning Portal a few months ago in February? (It even has Aceterak the lich!)

Yes

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Sword of Spirit]

I think the main reason they are doing both is for people (like me) who are irritated about taking concepts more associated with certain past adventures and importing them into the Forgotten Realms rather than going where they were originally set. By giving us the real Tomb of Horrors, and then a Faerunized Tomb of Horrors sequel that Acererak whipped up when he made a trip there (which is fairly reasonable), they can make everyone happy.

It's working for me. I bought Tales from the Yawning Portal, but am unlikely to get Tomb of Annihilation because I'm not interested in a Forgotten Realms situated adventure like that.

 

[GarrettKP]

The Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is not the Tomb of Horrors. Their layouts are different, the Tomb in the new book includes 9 dead gods and their resting place as well as the chance to form pacts with them, and the Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is called The Tomb of the 9 Gods.

It took inspiration from the Tomb of Horrors, but it is not the same. Just as the Temple of the Elder Elemental Eye (or whatever it is called) in Princes of the Apocalypse takes ideas from the Temple of Elemental Evil but is not the same.

 

[ccs]

Not sure if this was brought up before but, it seems that both Tales from the Yawning Portal "greatest hits" book and the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path feature the infamous Tomb of Horrors dungeon in thier books.

Nope. Nobodies noticed any similarities until now. Thanks for being so perceptive & giving us the heads up at this late date.

Tomb of Horrors is presented in the book, Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a collection of great adventures, and in this case, dungeon crawls through the years.

Tomb of Horrors will apparently also be featured as the main dungeon in the jungles of Chult in the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path due out this September.

I think you're wrong on that. The dungeons are sure to be different. Different layouts, different traps/tricks/foes. Different plot as to why you're going in. Three things in common that I'd expect though are Acerak & a big green demon face, & treasure....
But if by being completely different you mean they're the same? Then that applies to every dungeon module ever made. Look! The module contains a dungeon to explore! And it's filled with monsters & traps!

Not sure why Wizards will release essentially the same content in back to back products like this?!

I suspect $ is involved.

With this in mind, is it even worth it to get all excited about the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation book when its main dungeon that the book is based upon, was literally just released in Yawning Portal a few months ago in February? (It even has Aceterak the lich!)

I'm looking forward to it. In about 4 months +/- our current Fri. evening campaign will conclude (or sooner if a TPK) & I'll need something. And only 1 player other than me is familiar with the original. This'll be completely new stuff for them. So I'll pick it up & give it a read. If I like it, I'll run it. If I don't I'll mine it for maps/ideas/etc sometime in the future.

 

[Klaudius Rex]

The Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is not the Tomb of Horrors. Their layouts are different, the Tomb in the new book includes 9 dead gods and their resting place as well as the chance to form pacts with them, and the Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is called The Tomb of the 9 Gods.

It took inspiration from the Tomb of Horrors, but it is not the same. Just as the Temple of the Elder Elemental Eye (or whatever it is called) in Princes of the Apocalypse takes ideas from the Temple of Elemental Evil but is not the same.

How do you know this?
I mean, how do you know that Tomb of Annihilation has Nine Dead Gods?

It just seems to me that there are just too many similarities between whats coming up in Tomb of Annihilation and the Tomb of Horrors remake presented in Yawning Portal. Both have Aceterak. Both have the green devil face. And both a tomb to delve into.

 

[lkj]

How do you know this?
I mean, how do you know that Tomb of Annihilation has Nine Dead Gods?

It just seems to me that there are just too many similarities between whats coming up in Tomb of Annihilation and the Tomb of Horrors remake presented in Yawning Portal. Both have Aceterak. Both have the green devil face. And both a tomb to delve into.

I don't know anything about nine dead gods, but the marketing has clearly (to me) suggested the adventure is substantially different from a Tomb of Horrors remake. Sure, Acererak is the villain in the background, and he has apparently created another dastardly tomb (not the same one-- as has been very clearly mentioned in the marketing). But from there the differences are fairly legion.

Tomb of Horrors is -- entirely-- a trap heavy dungeon crawl.

Tomb of Annihilation--

1) has a metaplot where all who have been resurrected are slowly dying and being collected by some horrific artifact call the soul monger
2) details Chult- a topical jungle peninsula chock full of dinosaurs, frog people, yuan ti and any number of other nasties. In fact, it sounds like a lot of the adventure will be navigating Chult. Looking for the dungeon?
3) Has enough adventure material to take characters from level 1 to level 11, much of which likely doesn't occur in the tomb at all.

In other words, Tomb of Annihilation is an adventure path loosely inspired by the Tomb of Horrors and appears to go well beyond a dungeon built into a hill that you stumble upon for some reason.

There's really nothing about it that says 'remake' to me.

AD

 

[Jester David]

Not sure if this was brought up before but, it seems that both Tales from the Yawning Portal "greatest hits" book and the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path feature the infamous Tomb of Horrors dungeon in thier books.

Tomb of Horrors is presented in the book, Tales from the Yawning Portal, which is a collection of great adventures, and in this case, dungeon crawls through the years.

Tomb of Horrors will apparently also be featured as the main dungeon in the jungles of Chult in the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation adventure path due out this September.

Not sure why Wizards will release essentially the same content in back to back products like this?!

With this in mind, is it even worth it to get all excited about the upcoming Tomb of Annihilation book when its main dungeon that the book is based upon, was literally just released in Yawning Portal a few months ago in February? (It even has Aceterak the lich!)

I imagine it will be as similar as Storm King's Thunder was to Against the Giants, which was also reprinted in Yawning Portal. Tomb of Annihilation sounds very, very different.

 

[Jester David]

The Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is not the Tomb of Horrors. Their layouts are different, the Tomb in the new book includes 9 dead gods and their resting place as well as the chance to form pacts with them, and the Tomb in Tomb of Annihilation is called The Tomb of the 9 Gods.

It took inspiration from the Tomb of Horrors, but it is not the same. Just as the Temple of the Elder Elemental Eye (or whatever it is called) in Princes of the Apocalypse takes ideas from the Temple of Elemental Evil but is not the same.

I imagine you're a playtester
The above sounds like far too much information, and is likely pushing the terms of the NDA...