Welcome to another exciting edition of Dungeons and Dragons theater! I’ve been feeling very nostalgic for my old gaming group, and wishing we could all get together for a Saturday afternoon gaming session (really, it’s the 21st century. Where are our transporters?!?). This nostalgia seems to be focused on a strange desire to play through Tomb of Horrors. This is problematic in a couple ways:
- First, no sane person wants to play through the Tomb of Horrors. This thing exists for no other reason than to allow the DM to savor the look on each and every players face as their beloved characters, the ones they’d raised from a single d4 or d6, die a horrible and fairly instant death with no backsies.
- Second, I’ve already played through the module once, and it is fairly fully engraved in my brain… well, at least the bits we managed to make it through. I’ve already learned the Golden Rule of the Tomb, and I fear that would take some of the edge off of the game. For those that don’t know the Golden Rule, it goes something like this. ‘Do not touch anything! NO NOT ANYTHING! The treasure probably isn’t real, so don’t waste your time (or your life). Just get through to the lich as quickly and as healthily as possible. In fact, if you are anywhere near the door, just turn around right now… it really isn’t worth it. Really! I hear there’s dragons in them thar hills, why not just strip off all of your armor, give your weapons to the poor, blind yourself and go fight them. I assure you it will be easier! What? You still want to go on?!? Are your affairs back home in order? Okay, but seriously, DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!’
Back when I first played the module, we’d all be playing for a while, and I was beginning to feel that Kev was getting tired of always being the DM. That had to be it because he really is a nice guy otherwise, but he took to us with a gusto that is normally reserved for the Thanksgiving dinner table! I suspect this was not uncommon as I can not imagine a situation where any DM would foist this on their players unless they were out for blood!
…and yet I still want to play…
…what’s wrong with me?!?!
I really miss playing D&D as well. I briefly got back into it when there was a comic book shop here in town before the economy imploded, but haven’t been able to participate in a regular, standing game since then. If only the teleporter were an option.
I did toy with the idea of joining one of the campus groups, but not being a student, myself, makes it all a little bit weird…
Ah classic dungeon crawling… I love more modern and even online gaming, but there’s something to be said about an old skool campaign of ultimate doom.
Neverwinter Nights from Bioware was filling my gaming urges there for a while, but it didn’t play nicely under win7 x64… I’m told it does now though… may have to reinstall!
Hey, there’s even a fairly highly rated Tomb of Horrors module for NWN1!
You are indeed defective sir. Pining away for the Tomb of Horrors whilst bitterly decrying its harsh difficulties… You are a fickle D&D fan… As I recall, it isn’t a problem getting through if you apply a little creativity in spell selections. That is so long as the DM isn’t equally creative at rolling the outcomes…
The big problem with Tomb is that just about everything is of the touch-and-die variety. The skull at the end is a great example. If you haven’t figured out “cast first/ask questions later”, your characters just die… no res possible. The sphere of annihilation… the three “entrances”… it’s an awesome design with the single purpose of killing adventurers!
Hey, its D&D, we all knew the risks going in…and of course that is why I cheat (hehe)…
Nice job on the reworking of the cover art. Mostly I like the writing tho. Maybe instead of searching for a drawing style, you should go with no style and stick with the writing… Just sayin’….
Yeah… I do enjoy doing Dungeons and Dragons theater. I like how adding one minimalistic character allows you to change the narrative of the image… well… maybe not change… I know the first time I saw the module my initial thoughts were… Thor and he’s got no pants… but that probably says more about me than the module!
As per the writing… let me see… Dang it! I know I have my draft of the Great American Novel (TM) lying around here somewhere… this is why you should always do copies people…