The Tomb of Horrors

[mr_odd]

So, throughout my reading of the forums, you guys seem to really like the Tomb of Horrors. Since you guys have brought it up so much, I decided to look through it and possibly run it for my players. Thoughts?

[hymer]

Well... There are several versions of it as I hear it. The 2nd edition version was brutal beyond any fairness, and should be run with that in mind. I don't know how horrible the 3rd edition tomb is, but if it is anything like the former, I'd run it as a one-shot, and not part of a campaign where players feel attached to their PCs.
Also, have something else ready for the night, as there could well be a TPK in the first half hour.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Don't do it. I played the 3e version for a couple sessions and it was boring and frustrating beyond imagination. Puzzles are bad enough at slowing a game down; add in the (deserved) reputation for deadly traps and you make things way, waaaay worse. Do you have any idea how long it takes to solve a puzzle when the party feels the need to poke everything for half an hour (real time, not game time) before they do anything with it?

[Svata]

Well... There are several versions of it as I hear it. The 2nd edition version was brutal beyond any fairness, and should be run with that in mind. I don't know how horrible the 3rd edition tomb is, but if it is anything like the former, I'd run it as a one-shot, and not part of a campaign where players feel attached to their PCs.
Also, have something else ready for the night, as there could well be a TPK in the first half hour.

In the first five minutes, more like. I've seen a party die without even getting inside.

[XmonkTad]

Having played a core-only (no SRD) run through the ToH, I can tell you that it rewards caution and paranoia to an insane extent. It's full of insane traps/monsters, and just about everything kills you if you screw up once.

Run it as a 1-shot or a crazy dream-world thing so that no one gets mad because they died and lost all their stuff and can't be brought back without true resurrection. KEEP YOUR PLAYERS AWAY FROM SPOILERS! The ToH goes from ludicrous to cakewalk with preparation (or cheese). You can beat the ToH with cleaverness, but it isn't easy.

As for you, the DM. Read through the module (the 3.5 one is on the web for free) very carefully. Decide what sourced to allow, and try not to give your players too much info beforehand (just tell them your running a classic, trap filled dungeon crawl). The ToH is meant for 4 level 8-9 PCs, but you will want backups (or an "extra life" for everyone).

[nedz]

It's very old school — written by Gary himself.

So play it old school: CharGen should be 3d6, in order, and plenty of it — they will get through lots of characters so no sense in them taking too much time optimising them. To be honest the characters matter less than the OOC wisdom of the players; doing something stupid = new character.

[SpawnOfMorbo]

Is your goal to get through the ToH or to go up against the ToH and see how long you last (or the party lasts).

Depending on your group's goal depends on how much this will suck or how awesome it will be.

I ran it once with save points like a video game, with some limitations of course :smallamused:.

I'll see if I can find my old notes

[weckar]

The 3e version is actually pretty tame. A reasonably sane party should make it through without much issue. It takes FOREVER though.

[Arbane]

Don't run characters the players are attached to through it. If it's anything like the AD&D version, TPKs can be swift and easy.

A cartoon walkthough of the classic Tomb of Horrors (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/toon/TombHorrors) (contains massive spoilers, obviously). This is one of series of walkthroughs of classic modules. I find them to be amusing and merciless.

[mr_odd]

In the first five minutes, more like. I've seen a party die without even getting inside.

Oh my goodness.... I just started reading it and the first trap could kill the entire party...... 16D6?.......

[NecessaryWeevil]

Don't run characters the players are attached to through it. If it's anything like the AD&D version, TPKs can be swift and easy.

A cartoon walkthough of the classic Tomb of Horrors (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/toon/TombHorrors) (contains massive spoilers, obviously). This is one of series of walkthroughs of classic modules. I find them to be amusing and merciless.

Ha ha ha! OMG these are hilarious! Thank you!

[Gavinfoxx]

The Tomb of Horrors was originally designed as a competitive module, where different teams at a convention center would compete to get the furthest without dying in a particular amount of time, with score being kept.

Keep this in mind. It is NOT designed to be fair.

If you run it for players, give them a few 'lives', or a respawn or save point system or SOMETHING, with some reward being diminished a little bit each time they die.

Do NOT run it for a group where people care about the characters.

[Adverb]

Acererak congratulates you on your powers of investigation.

[John Longarrow]

Having both played it and run it, party composition is vital.

All dark vision characters with 2 trap finders who are optimized in search will make for a slow, safe crawl that is very survivable.
A more normal or melee-centric party will die pretty horribly.

An all caster party who's bringing magic to the table for trap finding should work well, especially if they bring along some meat shields (undead) to soak the few monsters they will face.

This is a one trick pony module. You either find and deal with the large number of traps of you die. If you come prepared for traps, you live. If not....

[tomandtish]

Don't run characters the players are attached to through it. If it's anything like the AD&D version, TPKs can be swift and easy.

A cartoon walkthough of the classic Tomb of Horrors (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/toon/TombHorrors) (contains massive spoilers, obviously). This is one of series of walkthroughs of classic modules. I find them to be amusing and merciless.

Those are so awesome... and the Tomb of Horrors is so very, very true.

[Eldan]

The thing is, I can't imagine it being very fun in third edition. Rolling search checks and disarm checks all the time. From what I've been told, in pre-3E, you found and disarmed traps by actually describing how. So it's a bit more interactive and imaginative than just rolling high checks.

[hymer]

From what I've been told, in pre-3E, you found and disarmed traps by actually describing how.

You could play like that, but you can play like that in 3.X too. Thieves had their own skills, expressed in percentages, and Find/Disarm Traps worked much the same way - say where you search, and if you find something you can choose to try and disarm it.