Post/Author/DateTime	Post
sanities_eclipse 10-30-06, 08:37 PM	I have decided to run the 3.5 updated version of the classic "Tomb of Horrors" for my group this weekend for halloween. First, I have to give a second to tip my hat to Gary Gygax. I am always amazed at his works. I was wondering if anyone has run this before and what advice I could get from them to make this a successful adventure. I am very eager and a little leary about this adventure because it is packed full of fun, but there is an almost gaurantee that someone will die. I will post after the adventure to let you all know of how many of my seven person group died and to recap any interesting occurances. For those who haven't played or ran this classic adventure and didn't know, it is available for daownload on the official D&D website in a 3.5 format.
bubbagump 10-30-06, 08:50 PM	I ran this one a couple of months ago. It's still a killer, though not as much as the original version was. I have only two bits of advice, both depending on certain circumstance. First, if your players have played the original Tomb they'll definitely recognize this version. Change up a few cosmetic things (appearance of statues, etc.) and you'll probably get by this obstacle just fine. Second, if you want the PCs to have a good chance of surviving provide them with some way to reach civilization quickly. I played the Tomb with a group of veteran players (three of whom had played the original Tomb) using the four iconic classes. The few cosmetic changes I made kept them completely in the dark. Unfortunately, the result was still a TPK because I set the thing in its "official" location and the attendant circumstances (lack of access to food, random encounters, etc.) killed two characters who should have otherwise survived. The two who died in the Tomb itself might have survived longer if they had had access to more resources.
sanities_eclipse 10-30-06, 09:38 PM	I was thinking of having the party find a couple charges on a resurrection rod before they go in. I don't mind killing them, I just would like it if they were able to come back from the dead somehow and not have a TPK so that no one is left to drag dead carcasses back to town.
bubbagump 10-31-06, 07:47 PM	Excellent idea and highly recommended. One of the biggest problems I had is that the players never think about packing silly, unimportant things like...food. I, of course, consider that an opportunity to scrupulously interpret the rules. It's my one great joy in life.
sam500 11-01-06, 10:41 PM	I ran the Tomb of Horrors as a one shot last night for Halloween for a group of 10. There was a prize to see who could last the longest. I killed 4 PC's relatively quickly, but then the wizard of the group completely threw me off. She successfully mind jarred, the mutant four armed gargoyle. The same mutant four armed gargoyle that was about to TPK everyone. This made her into the ultimate fighting and trapfinding machine with a DR of 10/-. It really through me a loop and made the group survive that much farther. Damn those clever PC's. Does anyone else have any funny stories of the Tomb of Horrors to share? Cheers, Sam
terrainmonkey 11-02-06, 12:08 AM	actually, that gargoyle is a construct, thus immune to mind affecting spells. i would have ruled that it didn't work. also, about the tomb, it is a great excuse to kill pcs in a big way. break the rules of the game if you have to. this module is a killer. make it so. to hell with the players here. it should be a TPK every time. don't even give them a chance. and if they do get to the last room, suck all of thier souls at once. not just one at a time. it's you against the players. have fun with it. this module lets you do that. it lets the DM be evil and really stick it to the players in a big way. take advantage of it and be totally unfair. oh, and to those who didn't bring food. tough luck. should have thought ahead. so sad. too bad. sucks being you mr. hungry. time to start resorting to canibalism if you want to survive. hey, that half orc barbarian that was killed by the gargoyle is looking like ham to me...;)
Kaligrad 11-02-06, 12:19 AM	Went through the first module once, and the players surprised me by surviving without a single death through the first third of the tomb. Gotta finish them...er, it off some time. I instituted a sort of "lives" system for the module; that is, they got to be resurrected at the point they died up to four times.
sam500 11-02-06, 12:23 AM	Try again. He's not a construct. He's a "Large Humanoid (earth)". I checked twice. I don't agree with your take on DMing the tomb either. It's a DM's job to abjudicate the rules, but being a complete bastard means that your players don't have fun. I like haveing fun with my players. Although I did interpret the rules quite strictly for this adventure, as I was expecting everyone to die within 3-5 hours of the session start. Deaths occurred: 1.Rogue fell in poison pit trap in hallway 3. 2.Fighter jumped into sphere of anhilation before wizard spellcrafted it. 3.Other rogue had ceiling fall on him in hallway 1. 4. 4 armed gargoyle ripped the paladin apart in one round (power attacking for over 100 points of damage). With both rogues dead and the mind jarred gargoyle too big to fit through the crawlspace necessary to get to room 14 the party faced almost certain destruction. But it was getting late and I wanted to try "Werewolves of Miller's Hollow" so we ended it there. Yours, Sam
BevisIscariot 11-02-06, 12:26 AM	I agree with terrainmonkey: this adventure is good for one thing and one thing only: TPK. Especially if you're running it on Halloween -- which I wanted to do this year but couldn't (schedules, etc.). I intended to run it as a one-shot nightmare type thing that didn't actually affect the campaign because, if you really run it as it's written, without pulling any punches or giving the characters 9 lives apiece, it's a horror show.
BevisIscariot 11-02-06, 12:28 AM	sam's right about the gargoyle, though.
terrainmonkey 11-02-06, 12:32 AM	okay, calm down.... in the original it was a construct, like a golem. that's how i run it even today. on to the rest, i was being sarcastic. tongue in cheek. no, that's not how i run the tomb but i would like to because sometimes i feel like being a sadistic p***k to my players, especially when discussing the tomb. this is a killer dungeon. i like to play it that way. if a PC dies, that player goes home. there's no take backs, no extra lives, no ressurection vials, no save spots, no reloads. your character gets killed in the tomb, he's gone, never to return. get the 4d6 and get to rollin', cus you aint coming back in this adventure bucko. most of the time i run it for special occasions anyway with pregens. i would be hard pressed to run it for my regular group because i would feel kind of bad when i killed off a character. this isn't a regular adventure for a regular ongoing campaign unless you want to give them a journal or help in some way.
sam500 11-02-06, 01:08 AM	I see. I think we're speaking the same language. I totally agree with no takebacks, regens, etc. I was running it as a one shot with a prize at the end. Not for the end of the dungeon, but a prize was offered for the player who died last and the player who amassed the most loot in the dungeon before dying. A TPK is almost assured, I actually expected it in the first hour. I pre-genned 12 9th level PC's (2 fighters-Master and Blaster- 2 wizards-Yog and Sothoth- 2 Clerics - Sin and Mercy- 2 Rogues- Sliver and Sting-1 monk-Bruce-1 Bard-"Wordman ala Eddie and the Cruisers"-1 Druid-Tarzan-1 paladin-Pios). Each PC had their own special niche in the party. For instance only one cleric could turn (ie: positive Cha modifier). Both rogues had low intelligences thus focusing their skill sets so that they complimented eachother (one was good at searching, the other good at disablign device). This sort of trickery force the players to work together despite the game being a bit of a competition. I ruthlessly slaughtered PC's from the get go, not allowing the rogues to take 10's or 20's (a silly idea really for a one shot like this). Resting was also not allowed as their characters were all timed for one reason or another. My wife was the one who shocked me with the Magic Jar spell. Does anyone else have funny stories of their Tomb of Horrors trip. I was speaking to another DM who ran the module where the entire party got it into their head that the green demon head was trapped so they had to avoid touching the rim of the mouth as they jumped through into the dark passageway beyond. The party leader (a real ass of a player in real life) was giving people a "hand" with their balance checks to jump into the mouth before jumping in himself. I couldn't stop laughing at the thought of it. Must have been the quickest TPK in history. Yours, Sam