paigeoliver Posted September 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? I THINK there would only be a legal issue in scanning and DISTRIBUTING the map. I fail to see how scanning it and giving it to a friend would not be fair use. Anyway, I encourage all interested parties to go ahead and buy the download of "Return to the Tomb of Horrors". It is only $4, and you are gonna need it to play my Hero revision of the thing anyway. To whoever was asking earlier, Tomb was being used BEFORE AD&D even saw print, and was one of the first printed module, and it came out in the 70s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted September 22, 2004 Report Share Posted September 22, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? To whoever was asking earlier, Tomb was being used BEFORE AD&D even saw print, and was one of the first printed module, and it came out in the 70s. That was me. Thanks. I hope the hero version works out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted September 23, 2004 Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? We tackled the Tomb of Horrors with about 30 characters (in rotating shifts). After a few died, we'd come out and refill our ranks and go back in. We did manage to kill Acererak. Only two of us were left. Several things worked in our favor: We figured out how to kill it. We freed the efreet from the urn and one of the wishes we wished for was to know how to kill Acererak. There is a missing mark on the map where the "wish-granting-gem" is supposed to be. Thanks to this typo, we didn't find it, and it would probably have killed us. We left the swirling dust alone. There were a number of deadly areas that we never got around to. We also asked the efreet how to get directly to Acererak's room. The DM was very lenient. It may have been intended that the efreet shouldn't have known how to kill the demilich, but he told us anyway. The main question I had afterwards was, "Why the heck would anyone want to become a demilich?" You just sit there for years, decades, or maybe even centuries doing absolutely nothing. No fun, no pleasure, no hobbies, no entertainment. Every once in a great while, you get to eat a soul, but only when someone touches or attacks you. If you want to live forever as an undead, it seems to me that being a vampire is a much better way to go. You've got arms and legs, you can go where you want, have conversations with people, exercise political power, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted September 23, 2004 Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Demilichs spend almost all their time in astral form wandering the various planes of existence freely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted September 23, 2004 Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? But vampires are so angsty and tragically hip. Anyway, I don't think becoming a demi-lich is really what anyone has in mind. It seems to be more of a not-commonly-known side effect of being a lich for several centuries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted September 23, 2004 Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Which brings up all the usual questions about the "hard to kill" undead. Does the demilich need to eat souls in order to "live"? If so, how often? Sealing off the tomb would then kill him eventually. And he'd die of starvation if no one survives all his traps for a long enough time. If he doesn't need to eat souls at all, why bother building a tomb? Why not just seal yourself up where no one can find you or get to you and spend all your time roaming the Astral Plane as a free spirit? It's not like there's any pleasure or joy left on the material plane. Same thing with vampires. Do they eventually starve to death if they don't get to suck any blood? Don't these contradict the idea that the only way to kill them is stake-thru-heart or list-o-spells? But now I'm way off the subject. I agree with those above who disliked the adversarial stance in D&D. It was one of the reasons I switched. DM out to get players is the root of all munchinism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted September 23, 2004 Report Share Posted September 23, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? \Same thing with vampires. Do they eventually starve to death if they don't get to suck any blood? Don't these contradict the idea that the only way to kill them is stake-thru-heart or list-o-spells? Depends on the sources. As the vampire is already dead, not getting any blood doesn't "kill" it, just tends to weaken it. A lack of blood will usually send a vampire into a comatose state, akin to sleeping. Get any blood on or near it, and the vampire will wake up hungry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Kann Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Maybe a Demi-Lich is a Lich that has gone insane? Maybe it secretly hopes to be destroyed, on some twisted subconscious level it sends out little clues to lead powerful adventurers possibly capable of dispatching it to it's layer. Once they arrive however the sadistic and incredibly bored aspect of the lunatic Lich come into play and it just can't help itself in trying to make life difficult for our heroes, even kill them if they make an error. Maybe the whole dungeon environment is the last pathetic entertainment that a Demi-Lich can generate for itself trapped as it is after centuries of slow decay in it's previous Lich form? Just ideas. Couldn't help myself Edward Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metaphysician Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? I will repeat: A demilich is a desirable evolution for a lich, as it leaves them in an essentially free, and almost unkillable, astral form. The skull is just what little connection it still bears with its old self. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? I used to have the Dangerous Journeys rulebook, and have recently decided to go ahead and collect the series, since it is pretty cheap. But, my question is. Did anyone, ever, at any time play that game outside of Gary Gygax's personal little gaming group. The reason I ask is that the game is a work of art, more so then hero is in a way, but it seemed to be too complex for actual humans to play. I was actually a playtest local GM for GDW when the system first came out and the company was trying to drum up interest. After the Gygax lawsuit took GDW down (along with Traveller, although The New Era bit) all I have left is the cheesy blue playtest shirt. I still have all the books, which I paid full price for, BTW. Interesting system and really good world concept. Hero is a far superior and more playable system, though. Paige is dead on about the Dangerous Journeys' complexity, even by Hero standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentor Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Our group got wiiped out in Tomb of Horrors in 1979. Only a couple died as a result of the traps. The reat of us (7 or 8) got to feed the Demi Liche our souls. That was not a high point in our D & D memory banks. (And let me just thank paigeoliver for openniong up that wound again. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Anyway,I almost never used a module or gamed in someone else's world. Can someone who went through them tell me what was the big attraction? What made them cool for you? Keith "???" Curtis I think it is the same thing that makes defeating Retro and The Machine cool in Dark Champions. I rarely have the gumption to run a module but when you can take a module and use it to outline an entire campaign with all of the proper literary elements...beginning, middle, end etc..it can really sing. I played in two long term module campaigns and both rank as my favorite campaigns ever - The Lich Lords and Hudson City Blues. Both of these games lasted 3-4 years of weekly playing so you know there was as much brought in from the DM and other sources as there was included in the module. In later days when reflecting on your glory days of gaming - you can say well in so & so we did this. You provide an instant frame of reference to the person that you are speaking to and then need only cover the really cool aspects of your particular adventure. PS - some people suck at running games and need to read more modules or run more modules. I have played with more than a few GMs who want to do things organically and they just can not muster up to the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starwolf Posted September 24, 2004 Report Share Posted September 24, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Btw' date=' is anyone going to be interested in my hero conversion of this, if so I will make it more than just scribbled notes.[/quote'] I would be interested Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legendsmiths Posted September 26, 2004 Report Share Posted September 26, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? To be true to the original it must be converted to HackMaster, the one True game. :ducks: Seriously, I would be very interested to see your conversion of Tomb, but if it is a true conversion I seriously doubt I could unleash it on my existing campaign. It would be a separate game in and of itself. Have you looked at the HackMaster version (http://www.kenzerco.com/images/rpg/hackmaster/TombUH.jpg)? Often these are old school rehashes that are very well done. The depth of them is frightening at times (Little Keep is pretty amazing). While not 100% of the original, the impression is surely there, with many subtle jokes. We are currently playing Temple of Existential Evil and Quest for the Unknown. Quest is pretty much as I remember In Search of, but Temple is just uncanny, especially since I've been playing the Temple of Elemental Evil PC game. In the original you have the Village of Hommlet, kind of a play on the word Hammlet. In the HM version you have the Hammlet of Tharpe, a play on the word Thorpe. Lot's of that. HM is like watching a very cheesy sci-fi movie that takes itself 100% seriously (e.g. Riddick). If you analyze it it is rediculous, but if you take it at face value, with the intensity it is presented with, it's pretty enjoyable. Back on topic, the HM modules provide a source for these older adventures with a modern RPG facelift that is still old school (i.e. not White Plume Mountain to FUDGE). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarron Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Thanks to this thread, I dropped about $250 over the past week on E-bay and Amazon buying up all the old modules I remember from my youth. Sigh... I think I might try to get some people together and run some of the these. I'm thinking I'll start the with Scourge of the Slavelords series and see how it goes. Or maybe the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. Enough time has passed that most players won't remember the details too well, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Thanks to this thread' date=' I dropped about $250 over the past week on E-bay and Amazon buying up all the old modules I remember from my youth. [i']Sigh...[/i] I think I might try to get some people together and run some of the these. I'm thinking I'll start the with Scourge of the Slavelords series and see how it goes. Or maybe the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. Enough time has passed that most players won't remember the details too well, right? Switch the game system to Hero and staart with saltmarsh. I doubt anyone would remember enough to cause problems and the Hero conversion should throw them off even if they do. The only 'secret' i can remember is the premise of module A-4 and all that would lead me to do would be to make sure i can use a dagger or a club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? I think I might try to get some people together and run some of the these. I'm thinking I'll start the with Scourge of the Slavelords series and see how it goes. Or maybe the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. Enough time has passed that most players won't remember the details too well, right? I'd be willing to sell you "Slavers" for $10. It's a followup source book for the Slavers series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proditor Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Back on topic, the HM modules provide a source for these older adventures with a modern RPG facelift that is still old school (i.e. not White Plume Mountain to FUDGE).Ah, White Plume Mountain. I actually love that adventure and ran it, Return to White Plume Mountain AND the legacy of Keraptis. I am seriously thinking of importing it almost wholecloth into my FH world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorWandering 1 Posted October 4, 2004 Report Share Posted October 4, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Ah' date=' White Plume Mountain. I actually love that adventure and ran it, Return to White Plume Mountain AND the legacy of Keraptis. I am seriously thinking of importing it almost wholecloth into my FH world.[/quote'] Return to WPM? Legacy?!? I didn't know they did sequels to WPM. Are they any good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted October 5, 2004 Report Share Posted October 5, 2004 Re: Anyone have Tomb of Horrors? Return to WPM? Legacy?!? I didn't know they did sequels to WPM. Are they any good? RtWPM is pretty good. The interior of the mountain has undergone renovations but the fun stuff is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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