Dr.Bedlam Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 I am deathly curious to see what changes they made in "Tomb of Horrors." Originally, TOH was a TOURNAMENT module, and was never intended to be finished or have any survivors; it was all about scores based on how far you got. It was the epitome of "meatgrinder adventure." How have they made it playable for 5E? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Well, part of the reason people loved Tomb of Horrors was because of its crushing difficulty. I've heard that when they did the the 3E and 4E rereleases they got a lot of flak about them being too easy, and a friend of mine said that when they announced the new reprint one of the people on the dev team said that they were working to keep it as difficult as the original. Which is good, in my opinion. I think the only thing that should really be changed is that Acerak was originally completely immune to the nebulous "harm" which meant that technically a DM could say that anything that attempted any sort of active damage or destruction was useless. But then again, you didn't have to actually fight Acerak unless you physically touched him. But yea, I hope they keep the crushing difficulty. My friends and I are looking forward to running it as a meatgrinder. Just give everyone advance notice and be like "roll up 5 characterse and expect them to die, then come on over to play." And then drink and kill each other all night. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Haven't had the chance to dig deep into Tomb of Horrors, but so far I've noticed the Four-Armed Gargoyle is identical to a regular 5th Edition Gargoyle (CR1), except with one extra claw attack. Which seems ridiculously weak for Tomb Of Horrors. I mean the original AD&D one was huge, had a strength of 19 and 64 hit points. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 46 minutes ago, BlazingTornado said: Haven't had the chance to dig deep into Tomb of Horrors, but so far I've noticed the Four-Armed Gargoyle is identical to a regular 5th Edition Gargoyle (CR1), except with one extra claw attack. Which seems ridiculously weak for Tomb Of Horrors. I mean the original AD&D one was huge, had a strength of 19 and 64 hit points. How did you get your hands on it? It doesn't release for another week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 (edited) 5 hours ago, Unruly said: How did you get your hands on it? It doesn't release for another week. https://m.facebook.com/dungeonsanddragons/photos/a.98724281070.125189.73340321070/10154967528071071/?type=3 EDIT: The Roll20 addon is also out: https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/bundle/5/tales-from-the-yawning-portal Edited March 28, 2017 by BlazingTornado 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 So in other words places are breaking the street date, which is listed as April 4th on Wizards' site. Which is some bull*. The only FLGS I have only deals in CCGs and when I asked about special orders, with payment upfront, I was greeted with a "I'll have to check." from the owner. Multiple times. So I basically have to order stuff online if it's anything other the MtG. The not-so-local place is a bit better, but in addition to being in a different town they also have hours that are even less conducive to my shopping there with my work schedule. *Not really bull, because it's not like it's something that can be spoiled or anything like a highly anticipated novel, but it's bull that I still have to wait another week for mine and other people got theirs almost 2 weeks in advance. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 1 hour ago, Unruly said: So in other words places are breaking the street date, which is listed as April 4th on Wizards' site. Which is some bull*. Not really breaking. They do this all the time, certain FLGS get em before the full release date, because WOTC wants to help keep the FLGS running I guess. Same deal happened with Volo's Guide To Monsters. It can get a bit confusing. The official Facebook D&D page probably wouldn't be advertising a broken street date. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nunae Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 On 27.3.2017 at 3:03 AM, Jokemeister said: In addition, you might want to start off by simply asking him to finish creating his character and backstory and send it through to you (this would include the name and some possible reasons why his PC is in the Underdark). Tell him that once he has done that, then you can start thinking about how to integrate his PC into the story and how his PC meets up with the rest of the party. On 26.3.2017 at 6:33 PM, Doug Sundseth said: If you decide to invite him, I'd recommend having a long and specific talk about your expectations and the problems you've seen in his previous actions and at the end ask him what he plans to do differently this time. Well, my reaction after he said he wanted to play again pretty much was "okay, please message me in skype" (phone is broken right now, as he knows). Hasn't happend yet. Not even to schedule some time when we're both free to talk longer or something like that. So, right now the ball is firmly in his corner anyway, and my group has expressed their annoyance with him not even being able to talk and name his character as well. In that regard, he is even making my job easier, since otherwise I would have to evaluate if I believe his willingness to change long term and that stuff. Still, would be awkward as hell if I excluded him long term, since I know 3 out of 4 of my players through him. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 One of the kids has exceeded my expectations - I just got an e-mail from him(!) telling me that his wizard wants to find all the information that he can about the dragon that chased them out of the swamp - he noticed that the dragon 'missed' with his breath weapon twice - which means that the dragon was deliberately missing. (Which is completely true.) So, now he wants to know what the dragon is likely up to.... The first and easiest thing for him to learn is that the dragon has a history of driving people out of his swamp, and for eating some of the more persistent trespassers. (Goblins, mostly. Like chewy green popcorn....) The second, somewhat harder, is negative information - there is no history of him attacking anything outside of his swamp, and afew recorded incidents of his breaking off chases when they reached the edge of his swamp. And there are no recorded results for what happens if anyone tries to open peaceful communication with him.... (Mostly because people don't like going into swamps where they will likely be chased by a dragon....) The Auld Grump 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 (edited) 23 hours ago, TheAuldGrump said: One of the kids has exceeded my expectations - I just got an e-mail from him(!) telling me that his wizard wants to find all the information that he can about the dragon that chased them out of the swamp - he noticed that the dragon 'missed' with his breath weapon twice - which means that the dragon was deliberately missing. (Which is completely true.) So, now he wants to know what the dragon is likely up to.... The first and easiest thing for him to learn is that the dragon has a history of driving people out of his swamp, and for eating some of the more persistent trespassers. (Goblins, mostly. Like chewy green popcorn....) The second, somewhat harder, is negative information - there is no history of him attacking anything outside of his swamp, and afew recorded incidents of his breaking off chases when they reached the edge of his swamp. And there are no recorded results for what happens if anyone tries to open peaceful communication with him.... (Mostly because people don't like going into swamps where they will likely be chased by a dragon....) The Auld Grump I was not the only person that he sent e-mails to - when I got to the game, I got buried under a pile of questions about the dragon, and the history of the swamp - the kid decided that if the dragon drove them out then he was guarding something. I have grown up players that could not have reached that conclusion! (If I had not already had the dragon guarding something then I would have after hearing the kid say that. So, the party split up for a while, asking questions, and, in the case of the wizard, going to a larger city to see what the Wizard's Guild has on record. (I didn't have a Wizard's Guild in the kids game - but now I do - I had not expected a group of eight and nine year olds to think it was important.) And Molly wants to join the kids game.... (Molly was just about that age when she first played in one of my games.) *EDIT* Good golly! She's old enough to drink now! The Auld Grump Edited March 29, 2017 by TheAuldGrump 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlazingTornado Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 My goodness, both the Sunless Citadel and the Forge of Fury threw child dragons at the adventurers. No wonder some commenters talk about how dragons ceased being considered campaign-level enemies in the post-Advanced era. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuldGrump Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 (edited) That is actually kind of nonsense - there have always been 'child dragons' in the game - and Dragonlance had the adventurers facing a dragon in the first adventure as well. (I actually consider that first adventure to be the best in the series.) Dragons actually deal more damage during their appearances in 3e than they did in 1st ed. They live longer, and have better attacks - as well as being able to use their breath weapon more than three times each day. Both players and dragons gained a lot of options in 3.X. Dragons, with the exception of Dragonlance, were not 'campaign monsters' in AD&D, and neither were demons or devils - the main bads were intelligent humanoids. (I lump giants in with humanoids... go figure.) As for 4e... the one time we tried having a fight with a green dragon and a bunch of kobolds quickly convinced us to go back to 3.5. (That was the worst battle that I have ever had in D&D - not fun at all, at all.) We did not bother to finish the battle. (And that was taken from something that was on the Wizards of the Coast site! It was like the WotC designers had sat down and tried to come up with the battle that was most likely to drive people away from their game.) *EDIT* To be clear - I am not ranking on the 4e system here - just that WotC had a really, really bad introductory scenario on their website - adventure design has not been a WotC strong point, in 3rd ed as much as 4e. I think that I am one of the few people that I have ever heard of that likes Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil better than the original ToEE. The Auld Grump - the first adventure that I remember encountering a baby dragon was by Judges Guild, way, way back when. Edited March 29, 2017 by TheAuldGrump 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowley Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 With my impending move, I'm going to have to wrap up my Stonehell game... I really hope I can put together another group soon... But now I need to figure out *how* to wrap it up... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jokemeister Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 1 hour ago, David Brawley said: But now I need to figure out *how* to wrap it up... Good luck. This was one thing I was never able to learn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unruly Posted March 30, 2017 Share Posted March 30, 2017 4 hours ago, David Brawley said: But now I need to figure out *how* to wrap it up... There's always the "Rocks fall, everyone dies" approach. The party enters a building or something and an earthquake hits, collapsing it on their heads. Or if they're in the Underdark they get captured by Drow and mutated. Or you could trick the party wizard into projecting everyone into the Astral Plane where either a horde of Githyanki are waiting to cut their cords or an Astral Dreadnought is waiting to kill them. You know, just kill everyone unceremoniously and say "See ya, Suckers!" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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