I'm curious about this too. I was thinking of adding it to my next campaign as I have never played or run but I don't want to have a total meatgrinder on my hands.
I played and ran the original version of the tomb. I strongly recommend that players bring only "expendable" characters that they aren't too attached to. We used the pregenerated characters that came with the original mod...
and died to a man. Twice.
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I just played in this version a couple of months ago. The DM had run the original many, many times. I believe that the module is fairly true to the original but I do not know that it is as deadly.
We survived it and I do not believe any of us had ever played it before. It was fun. We did somethings that the DM had mentioned no one had ever done before which might have explained why nobody died.
I have both the original and the new 3.5 version. The 3.5 version is well-written, but suffers from a lack of detail that I can only compare to a 140 minute classic film being trimmed down to a 80 minute cineplex style of storytelling. It tries very hard to stay true to the spirit of the original, but honestly I think it's only good for people who don't have the time or patience to convert and play through the original. Converting the module isn't even that hard in my opinion.
I ran the 3.5 version a about a year back. It was fun at first but the poor bastards kept dying (as in three or four time for each character. The sorcerer died in the very first room (the false entrance with the collapsing ceiling). It was very deadly and after a while it got tiresome to run. There wasn't much information story wise which made it not very engaging to run. It was fun at first, and if some story was added and it was made a little less deadly in some places it would be a decent module to add into a continuing story.
I just DM’d it recently and I agree that it’s still plenty deadly but not as deadly as the original. My group had a great time with it, though. They played extremely well and got lucky when they needed to, so they survived with only what I call the “unavoidable” deaths. I ran the 1E version several times too, back in the day, with similar results.
My 1E and 3E players all did very well by following some keys to surviving (oblique and cryptic, therefore pretty minor, spoilers follow):
- Don’t touch anything you don’t have to.
- Never be greedy. Greedy players touch things they don’t have to.
I agree that expendable characters are the most straightforward way to go, and I never thought I would run it for campaign characters. However, I did hit on a way to run this in my long-running 3E campaign: I ran it “with the safeties on” (but the players had to earn it). I had a side quest for the party before the Tomb, in which after several difficult trials they earned the Wards of St. Cuthbert. These basically gave the party some extra automatic resurrections, plus some other benefits, but I didn’t tell the players what the Wards would do. The Wards weren’t under the players’ control. It was a little video-gamey, but my players enjoyed running their long-standing characters through the adventure, which otherwise I definitely wouldn’t recommend!
I agree that adding more backstory around the Tomb is a good idea for campaign adventures. I also threw in a few more monsters, but that’s a matter of taste. We had fun, so I recommend raising a glass to the late, great Gary Gygax and give it a try!
Doug
Thanks for the info guys. I have also included this 3.0 adventure in my upcoming campaign and was looking for some feed back. I will definitly include it in my adventures. I feel like dungeons such as ToH and ToEE are classics that every group should have to chance to enjoy.
I'd love to see someone sit down and take the time to update The Temple of Elemental Evil for 3.5 or 4.0, that would rock.(Wish I had the time!) As it is I will have to settle for running my guys through part of the Return to the Temple of Elelmental Evil and later in their "careers" have them go looking for Acererak in the Tomb. :-)
Here is another good thread on this topic Has Anyone Survived The Tomb Of Horrors?
I'll agree with DM Dougbear, that the 3.5 Tomb of Horrors is a rough ride, but not quite as deadly as the original 1st edition version. In some ways that's an improvement, as there are several instances in the 1st edition where the PC's are potentially killed with No recourse and No saving throw. I don't necessarily deem that a bad thing, but Cordell clarified some things that needed clarifying. The best thing that the 3.5 version did was to provide DC's for the traps. I ran the Tomb of Horrors twice (and Return to the Tomb of Horrors, but neither group got past the original Tomb) in 2001/2002 using 3.0 rules and had to do a lot of work trying to convert it over. I'm please that Cordell has done it for me now, imperfect though it may be.
I downloaded and ran the updated version some time ago. I had pre-rolled characters ready. Out of eight players, only two survived. All six died at the same time, in a trapped hallway. The other two made it out alive, but decided not to carry on (they probably would have if they'd been able to loot the bodies, except there weren't any.)
It's a fun ride, for a deathtrap dungeoncrawl. I'll have to see if I can convince them to try again this year...
I downloaded this off of the Wizards website several years ago, but haven't run it yet. Is there anyone out there who has run or played through this module? Is it still as deadly and fun as the earlier version?
I ran the original back when it came out and the 3.5 version last summer. The original was about twice as vicious. However, neither in the original nor in the 3.5 version did anyone successfully complete the whole adventure alive. (They ended up running away in the original and being unable to escape alive in the 3.5 version.)
Both versions were fun to play!
I'd love to see someone sit down and take the time to update The Temple of Elemental Evil for 3.5 or 4.0, that would rock.Here ya go :-)
http://www.enworld.org/downloads/fileinfo.php?id=162
Zipped or unzipped downloads - just click the appropriate button at the bottom of the screen.
Information is power. Thanks a bunch Kamelion, but I meant an updated version of the Original dungeon/adventure, not the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (which I have and its great too BTW).
Apreciate the thought though!
-Roth
If your looking for a real meat-grinder of a dungeon, try "Dungeon Crawl Classics #13: Crypt of the Devil Lich" by Goodman Games.
I've played, then run this crawl and it's totally ridiculous. Er.. in a good way.
There's a trap in there that is completely unavoidable death unless the PC's have access to true seeing.
To be quite honest, these kinds of dungeon crawls can be very unfun in any kind of serious role-playing campaign and would recommend neither Tomb of Horrors or the above crawl if you actually enjoy playing your characters. :)