Return to: the Tomb of Horrors

[SL1]

Greetings.
So my group and I have just completed a modified version of the Red Hand of Doom, and now it's time to start on a new adventure. I think I'm going to use the old version of Return to the Tomb of Horrors, modify it to 3.5 and run it with a group of 17-19 Level PCs.
Anyhow, if anyone has any experience in running this adventure, it would be cool to get some insight in how that went.

Also if anyone has suggestions to music for this adventure that would be greatly appreciated.

Regards, SL1.

[Yahzi]

ToH isn't an adventure, it's an ordeal.

There are two ways it ends:

1) TPK.

2) Your players summon monsters and use them to explore everything, touching nothing and entering no doorways until an NPC has done it first. This becomes quite boring after the first few hours, and has a 50% chance of ending in a TPK anyway.


My suggestion? Everyplace there is a trap, replace it with a random monster fight. It will be a lot more fun.

[Darrin]

ToH isn't an adventure, it's an ordeal.


I think he means the 2nd Edition "Return to the Tomb of Horrors", which Bruce Cordell wrote as an entire campaign set after some party manages to survive "S1: Tomb of Horrors", which triggers some sort of nefarious interdimensional plot.

It won an Origins award in 1998. I glanced through it, looked very deadly, but never ran it myself.

[Andorax]

Never been able to sell my group on letting me run it, in any edition, but I've wanted to. Storyline's phenominal, it's not as traptastic, encounter-weak as the original ToH...it's the sort of thing your players will talk about a decade later (well, and possibly curse you, but that's a DM's lot in life).

Serious adaptation will be needed though. RttToH has a lot of custom monsters, spells, effects, and rules not found elsewhere in 2E, let alone ported up to 3.5 in coherent manner. It sounds like a project I wouldn't mind pitching in on though.

[Tyndmyr]

I am quite curious about this idea, and would LOVE to use it myself.

[SL1]

Whatever the correct definition is to "Return to the Tomb of Horrors", is kind of irrelevant in my opinion. Either way I ran the original Tomb of Horrors with my group, and 3 of those 5 PCs who entered are still alive now at level 17, 18 and 19. It has been around 2 years (in-game time), and around 9 levels since they emerged from the ToH. They liked the challenge of that adventure/ordeal/whatever so I've decided to run the sequel as well.
My group consists of:
A 17th Level Barbarian (Survived ToH, but lost an arm)
A 17th Level Rogue
An 18th Level Crusader
An 18th Level Duskblade/Cleric (Survived ToH, but is anti-social now)
A 19th Level Beguiler/Mind Bender (Survived ToH)

I've read half-way through the sequel right now, and apparently there's a huge necromancer cult around the original tomb now. Figuring out how that happend in two years time, will be the hardest part I guess! :P Also Andorax if you like to help me convert it to 3.5, I'm in for that as well.

[PirateLizard]

LoL ToH and RtToH. The original ToH I don't think I ever ran myself, besides letting people roll up some level 9s on a boring afternoon and slaughtering them for fun. What I actually did in a campaign a while back, was cut up ToH, literally I took a bunch of cue cards and wrote what room was which, and whenever I was running short of ideas I'd shuffle and see if what I pulled was appropriate...if it was use it, if not, draw again.

After about the 3rd time my party ran into a revised, reskinned and recycled ToH trap they figured out what I'd done...they we're not that happy, but they thought it was funny. Over the next few sessions they were PARANOID AS HECK, looking at every situation as if it might be out of ToH and trying to figure out how I might have worked it into the situation. They typically failed to decipher what I'd done, or thought it was the wrong trap (lol), which lead to a good amount of swearing and some darn fun gaming.

As for RtToH, me and my group had mixed feelings about it back in the day. Personally I thought it was even meaner than the original, while a couple of my friends figured it might be slightly easier...I remember by sister in particular refused to look at the material for a good 2 years she was so sick/traumatized by the original. One way to look at it is...if you're closing on level 20, about to restart since you're not going epic and want to end with a blood bath or everyone getting buried inside an infinite river of those mean maggots in the Abyss...I believe you've found the right material. :smalltongue:

[Starbuck_II]

The main issue ToH is the clues are vague, misleading, and hard to acquire.

Example, to even be able to read one clue you have to be looking at the floor till you walk to end of hall. You are not allowed to be told you found writing unless you do this (that is what the original says).

The game assumes you will break through the walls of the tomb (sometimes secret doors are hidden behind walls), but most adventures don't let you so you wouldn't assume you can.

The good part: no wondering monsters. So 15 min work days are a good way to win.
It assumes high magic: some trap could only be seen with detect magic (others can't), some only True seeing (others can't), etc. Very wishy washy and hard to adapt to which works.

Best way to kill the Lich in original? Put on crown Lich and touch rod to his head. instant K.O. In fact, one guy won the tournament that way. :smallbiggrin:
Sadly, they made it a Fort save in 3.0/3.5 version one so can't win by being smart.

Later editions, they added demons that fix the walls/trap if you break them (though likely they take days to fix).