::EDIT::Note that the game is now completed, but this thread can still be used to discuss past experiences, as well as plan for future return trips to the Tomb of Horrors.
Greetings fellow D&D enthusiasts. I come to you today in search of discussion, and helpful advice.
I must begin this topic with a tiny little disclaimer: in here you will no doubt find many spoilers to what is arguably the world's most infamous dungeon crawl, the Tomb of Horrors. For clarification, I mean the original tomb, and not the recently published super adventure that functions as a sequel to it. If it is your desire to ever play in this adventure, stop reading now.
Now that I have gotten the disclaimer out of the way, on to the real discussion.
First, a little history lesson. For those of you who don't know (where have you been?), the Tomb of Horrors is a 1978 adventure module written by Gary Gygax. It was originally written for and used at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax designed the adventure both to challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign, and to test players who boasted of having mighty player characters able to best any challenge. Numbered "S1," the module was the first in the "S" (for "special series") series of modules. Several versions of the adventure have been published, the first in 1978 and the most recent, published for the fourth edition, in 2010. It also served as the basis for a novel published in 2002.
I myself have never run or played the module. In fact I only learned of it myself when Wizards updated it to 3.5 edition rules back in 2005, and made it downloadable for free on their website. It was love at first sight. This was exactly the kind of dungeon I had always dreamt of creating! A challenging crypt filled with more puzzles and traps than monsters to fight. Without even having to experience it first hand, the Tomb of Horrors quickly became my favorite dungeon. To this day I haven't read a dungeon I have been taken with more. Unfortunately for me, the oportunity to play in it or run it myself never came up. My group were already engaged in a story-rich campaign that couldn't afford the interuption if it had any hopes of concluding. As a result, much to my dismay, the Tomb of Horrors was put on a shelf to gather dust.
Fast forward 5 years. A new edition, a new group, a new Tomb of Horrors. As part of the DM rewards program I got the 4th edition update to the classic module in the mail. As if it was yesterday, all the feelings inspired by having read the adventure in it's previous incarnation came rushing back. I immediately felt dismayed that I had never found the time to run the thing. No more. I immediately began my preparations for the most epic undertaking a DM could ever take.
I plan to run the entire Tomb of Horrors adventure in one weekend
24 hours to beat the Tomb of Horrors. That is the challenge I posed to everyone a week and a half ago. One month from now I will sit down with an esteemed group of players, none of which have ever experienced the Tomb of Horrors before, and run them through it over the course of two days of intense D&D gaming. Many will die horrible deaths, get up again (with a raised or new character), only to die horrible deaths again. And it will be glorious.
I have been preparing this epic Weekend of Horrors more or less since the idea came to me back in August. The bulk of the work is memorizing the adventure of course, since it is a long time to be sitting in the DM's chair I don't want to be slowed down by having to re-read the details on each room. In addition to that I have mapped out the tomb in advance and created any helpful player handouts I may need. I have acquired prizes for the players, devising my own rewards system specific to things you can do only in the Tomb of Horrors, as well as prepared atmosphere setting playlists ahead of time. I am pulling all the stops on this one. I want to make sure the Tomb of Horrors is the most memorable D&D experience any of us have ever had.
And that is why I have come to you, the D&D community, for the final step of my preparation process. I am looking for any helpful advice, hints, suggestions, or warnings that you can give me to help ensure that this epic event goes off as planned. If you have played in the Tomb of Horrors and have some insight into player thoughts I should prepare for, that's great. If you have run it (in any of it's incarnations), your experience would be even more helpful. Even if you haven't experienced the tomb itself first hand you can still provide me with ideas on how to run a more emersive game experience.
Anything helpful you have to offer me would be greatly apreciated. So please, without further delay, let's begin a constructive discussion on a world of Horrors unlike anything my players have ever dreamed of.
~Zinger2099 DM of 6+ years. Obsessed with the Tomb of Horrors.
Zinger . . . 10/90 - If he bussed his don as a scum rolename cop while faux dug his grave attacking the claimed cop d1... well, if he fooled us all to lylo he deserves to win.
Soon is a funny creature with a highly variable pupal state, after which it becomes the beautiful creature known as now. Sometimes this metamophosis takes as little as a day, and sometimes it takes several months. Occasionally, the creature enters hybernation after chrysalis begins, and it may be several seasons before the metamorphosis is complete. Occassionally, the creature dies while in the pupal state without warning, and waiting for now to emerge becomes a lesson in futility. This is also seen in the creature known as later, and waiting for both soon and later to become now can be a frustrating process.
Will add that I think Zinger is just a new 'type' of mafia player that doesn't really play by our standards and therefor still leaning towards town for now based on the way he plays in other games and it's seemingly the same (and I can't really see him as scum in all of them).
The sun rises – and then is blown away by the fierce wind.
All over the world, dark clouds cover the sky. The atmosphere is covered in a dark iron curtain of cumulus. Thunder pours from the sky as if it mere rain and it hails daggers onto the ground. The people hide in fear, of whatever ungodly evil has been summoned by some fool.
The Great Guardian of the Sky, RAYQUAZA, has been summoned.
And he has come for Silly Dragons!
(Right Click - > View)
RAYQUAZAAMEN.png
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Silly lay dead, once known in life as James, Town Aligned.
Now that Silly is dead, there is a calm. Once again all is right with the Heavens above.
But on Earth violence remains. King of Dominaria weeps over the loss of the one of his heart. He decides to end it all. He grabs an Arbok and shoves it onto it his neck. “BITE ME – END ME!” The snake does as asked and fills KoD with an exotic, incurable venom. He collapses.
Enraged and vicious, the snake systematically begins killing KoD’s poke’mon. Gengar and Beedrill are brutally slaughtered in an attempt to fight back. Skitty wisely tries to run away, but is easily taken out after Ekans discovers an underground gopher hole to pop out of. With great wide unhinged jaws, the snake swallows Skitty whole.
In great sorrow after the death of his owner, Silly, Wailord begins to look for his own lover – Skitty. It is a little known fact but whales and cats actually can interbreed in the pokemon world. Here is a graphic image illustrating this relationship.
At noticing the scent of Skitty in the vicious Arbok, Wailord goes nuts. He begins flopping around on the land and foaming from the mouth. He turns into some kind of suicide berserker and just throws his body haphazardly into anything. Mountains are crushed, caves are demolished, the earth is sundered. And Arbok is turned into a purple fruit roll up.
Meanwhile, KoD is suddenly feeling better! “I must have a natural immunity to snake poison or something. Wow…that was certainly sad and all, but y’know, I don’t think I’ll kill my – OH MY GOD IT’S A GIANT STAMPEDING WHALE!”
It was like dropping the Moon onto an ant. KoD never stood a chance.
…wait, maybe he did! The blowhole! KoD managed to become a modern day Jonah and avoid certain dead by smashing. He begins to live inside the whale itself, starting a farming community on the great beasts tongue. Mostly living out of self grown mushrooms plucked from his own horribly unhygienic body and drinking whale saliva to survive, KoD is…well, still suicidal. But clinging onto life.
However, one day the great beast yawns. KoD tumbles back into the digestive system. His skin is flayed away by acid. Miraculously, he survives as some kind of horrible walking pile of muscles. Then…in the most horrible, disgusting way imaginable…he manages to escape from the whale using a secret exit.
Of course, the local insects also like what came out of the whale’s secret exit. They find KoD and decide he’d be much better with several stings and bites. KoD becomes violently ill from malaria and begins puking. Unfortunately he loses a lung in the process and has to be rushed to the hospital. There he is put into an iron lung and locked away by the hospital staff, who promptly forget to feed him. KoD starts starving to death inside an iron machine that is keeping him alive against his will. Crying every day, he wishes just to die.
Then, one day, a young boy from a local charity group brings KoD breakfast. There’s eggs, orange juice, coffee…and a bran muffin.
KoD eagerly eats the breakfast, having begun digesting his own stomach before being given the wonderful gift of food. He saves the muffin for last. He takes a big bite and begins choking. He passes out and dies from lack of oxygen.
However, the EMTs finally heard KoD’s cry! They bring in the jaws of life and a deliberator. AMAZINGLY, they actually bring KoD back from the dead! KoD managed to survive the terrible curse of the muffin! All is saved.
Unfortunately, whales are incredibly fond of muffins too. Wailord shows back up seeking the muffin and grinds everyone in the hospital to a fine paste. KoD is now a pancake and was, before being smashed into a breakfast food himself, Jessie, Town Aligned.
Eventually Silly’s Wailord killed itself after realizing its life as a reality TV star was meaningless. Silly’s other Poke’mon, Zapdos died of a heroin overdose.
…
Serena is drinking coffee peacefully. It is a luxury she will not have often.
The big, puffy pink lips…yes, Serena must give this woman a lovely kiss!
The making out is passionate and forceful. There is tongue on tongue action.
During this ungodly nightmare of mankind/poke'mon relations, a mysterious move is made. Jynx yawns incredibly loud - popping her cheekbones...which turn out to be whirling blades of death. Shocked Serena tries to escape, but Jynx bear hugs her into submission. In an instant the Jynx whirls Serena's tongue into a bloody pile of dust. Slowly, the electronic blades go deeper and deeper up Serena’s throat until finally reaching the brain. A few slices here and there…Serena has been given an involuntary lobotomy.
She stares into space aimlessly. She is of the living but her spirit is gone.
The odd Jynx continues its plan. It vomits out several eggs into the now living corpse of Serena, via oral entry. They hatch into little Jynx maggots and begin to feast on Serena’s non-vitals. Slowly, the maggots begin to mature while eating out the inside of the still breathing, lobotomized Serena. They keep her alive in order to sustain the body as a food source – ensuring to eat an unimportant muscle, a vestigial pancreas…she’ll stay fresh longer if her heart still beats…
It’s too horrible to watch anymore. All you need to know is that she was Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her remaining Poke’mon, Gengar and Mismagius died alone in the wilderness.
Television informs you Glare has the orb now. It then flips to some local news about a ship being fired upon. Bored, you watch aimlessly until you hear a gunshot.
A random Suicine had it's brains blown out. The exit wound is the size of your fist. You try to apply medicine but you realize duct tape can't fix the hypothalmus.
...
TL;DR:
* Silly Dragons died as James, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Wailord and Zapdos. He was obliterated by Rayquaza.
321wailord.png145zapdos.png
* King of Dominaria died as Jessie, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Skitty, Gengar and Beedrill. He was crushed by Wailord.
300skitty.png094gengar.png015beedrill.png
* Serena died as Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her Poke'mon were Gengar and Mismagius. She was given a Lovely Kiss.
The original 1E ToH had many things that are considered "badwrongfun" for fans of 4E. - Insta-death traps - Save or dies - and so on
I've ran the original ToH many, many times over the last 2 decades, and it was always fun. I always let the group know that the lives of their PCs are fleeting, and to bring several backup characters. I let them know about the instant death traps, save or die effects, and so on. If they were cool with them being in place, then they could play. No one has ever objected to date.
From your post, I gather you will be running the 4E reward ToH module. I have not ran this one. I have ran the original (countless times), and the new 4E ToH "sequel" adventure. I don't know how closely the rewards module resembles the original. I have been told by some that it's pretty close to the original, while others have told me that there are many differences. All I can speak to is the original. _________________________
What follows is an assumption that the 4E reward module is pretty close to the original 1E module. If it is not, then you'll have to basically disregard all of it.
1) Completing it in 24 hours. This is typically not a problem. With the original, once you got to know where the insta-deaths were (due to multiple greusome deaths), you could quite easily make your way through the tomb in a fairly short amount of time, even with combat encounters tossed in.
2) Memorization of the rooms. If you prefer to not have to reference your adventure book during play, then may I suggest index cards? Simply write the basic layout of the room and the relevant monsters / traps / etc. that are in it. Keep them in a small stack, and simply remove them once they've been passed through. On the other hand, if you think you've got what it takes to memorize the entire dungeon...well...you obviously have a much better memory than I do. Best of luck with that.
3) Player thoughts. With the original, the players had no illusions about what their luck would be like. They knew they were likely going to die repeatedly, and in terrible ways. They planned accordingly. Their PCs had little to no background to speak of. They had shallow personalities. They had generic names. They had all the things you would expect characters to have that are expected to not live longer than a couple of hours (at most). If you sell the adventure to your players properly (and it turns out that is, indeed, as lethal as the original), expect similar results. The players won't get too attached to their characters.
4) Immersion. The ToH is a meat-grinder. It's a PC killer. Add all the story-based elements that you like, but in the end, it's still a slaughterhouse. I wouldn't sweat immersion too much. The players know what they're going through. Fleshing out all the little details is nice, but really not neccessary. What's neccessary is mood and atmosphere. If everything the PCs see, hear, smell, etc. reminds them that are in a death-trap, they will immerse themselves just fine. Paranoia is your friend, especially in the ToH. You'll know you're doing it right if the players are scared to death to have their PCs so much as peek around a corner.
Hope this helps, and best of luck to you. The original ToH has brought me many years of memorable, fun gaming experiences. I might have to dig it out again, for old time's sake.
I'm currently running some players through it. They're all paragon though (it seemed a good proxy for an element in the longer running campaign) so the total challenge level isn't off the charts.
Passives. If you want to get that "I have to search every 10 ft square", passives completely destroy that sense of paranoia. The DCs are too static, and it's too easy for one good "radar" character to just autofind everything.
What one of my player's suggested was to get their static perception scores, and just roll a ton of checks. And then as they get near each trap/each thing that can be perceived, scratch off a roll. You might want to do the rolls w/ 3d6 instead of 1d20 to closer approximate "take 10", but I think the general idea has merit.
Combats I'm assuming you're doing the Rewards module. Some of the Combats use MM3 damage expressions, some are MM1 grindfests. Figure out which you want.
Prep There's a couple of spots where you don't realize information is missing right up until you lay out the battlemap. It would be nice if you could figure out how you'll fake it earlier... but that may not be possible.
Also, go through now and for each combat, figure out what all the combatents are. For example, there's one combat with a monster and a trap, but the stat block for the trap's on a separate page and seems like its shown after the "what they find after looting the room" text. It's quite easy to miss that the trap is supposed to be part of the combat.
Time 24 hours will be plenty. We're at the 90% mark after 8.
In Game Time Challenge level of the combats that do exist (and the surge-ramifications of the traps they do get triggered) will vary based off the number of extended rests. For the best effect, prohibit extended rests, but that will guarentee that no character that starts will finish.
"Nice assumptions. Completely wrong assumptions, but by jove if being incorrect stopped people from making idiotic statements, we wouldn't have modern internet subculture." Kerrus
Practical gameplay runs by neither RAW or RAI, but rather "A Compromise Between The Gist Of The Rule As I Recall Getting The Impression Of It That One Time I Read It And What Jerry Says He Remembers, Whatever, We'll Look It Up Later If Any Of Us Still Give A Damn." Erachima
I spent a very long time converting the original Tomb of Horrors, piece by piece, showing more deference to the save-or-die mechanics than to 4E's balance. This was before the official conversion was even announced. Check my sig for download.
My advise is to make the experience as meta-scary as possible. Have everyone show up with a character, but have them also show up with an extra character to go into a 'pool'. That pool is considered to be camping outside, ready to be pulled into the Tomb when someone dies.
Do not explain anything more than what you feel they would notice with casual observation. If they make Perception checks, point other things out, if you must. But this is an adventure about them, the players--they will live or die by their OWN merits, not by any DM dice fudging or assistance or hints.
One thing I think is important both for scariness and fairness is tell them that this is one of the original adventures for D&D--that they need to really get into character as the delvers, because 4E rules like "no death traps" are off.
This is something fair to tell them simply because an AD&D crowd would know that traps can kill them instantly, but a 4E crowd? Not so much, they rely upon being tougher than steel even in the worst of situations.
Finally. Photocopy your actual adventure document onto paper you don't mind writing on. Read the original module, and compare it room by room with a marker in hand; completely cross out and replace any sections you don't like how it was converted with your own machinations.
This will serve to both make you super familiar with the Tomb (the more familiar, the better) and to make sure the conversion of your choice is up to your particular standards.
* * * *
Also, I'm not terribly satisfied with how my conversion has aged over 4E's evolution (errata to DCs, damage, monster building techniques, trap design...) but I did the best I could at the time.
If you have any questions on the Tomb feel free to PM me, as if nothing else I've made myself an expert on it by pouring over the maps and encounters on it for months on end.
Thank you all of you for your responses. Individual responses are below, but first I have some general questions I would like to pose to all of you. My questions are inside the SBLOCK below. Be warned, there are spoilers.
My favorite trap, the Devourer, is pretty well built for a 4th edition version. It doesn't insta-kill anyone who climbs in anymore, but it does stun them and does an incredible amount of damage each turn the person remains there. If they can save vs. the stun they can try to pull themselves out, or others can reach in to try and pull the person out (taking damage in doing so), but if neither of these are achieved within just a few turns that player will disintegrate as expected.
My question regarding the Devourer is how to run it. The mechanics of the trap (called a cursed location in the module) are well outlined but there is no advice on what to describe to the players. I decided I would secretly inform the player who climbed in of what is happening to him or her, but what do I tell the others? Do I tell them the player is dying and needs their help? Do I tell them nothing? Previous versions of the tomb tells the others nothing, suggesting to them that it might be a portal of some kind instead of a death-trap. This is what makes it one of my favorite traps and it is what I want to do, but I am still a little vague on how to do it. I would really apreciate some insight on this perticular trap and how you have run it yourselves in the past.
My second question at the moment is what do you do when the party gets split up? Yes I know with the fear of death inspired in them it is unlikely the party will willingly part ways but considering some of the traps in the dungeon, it is entirely possible that they do unintentionally (ie. someone gets telported to the begining in the nude and that such thing). How did you handle situations like these?
I'll have more questions as I think of them. @Thunder_Dragonbane: Horror never dies.
@Hocus-Smokus: Yes, I am running the 4th edition rewards module. It is surprisingly close to the original, for a 4th edition game, but there are some considerable differences (namely the save-or-die stuff). It is still very lethal. Some things are made better by the functions of 4th while others are lost in transition. I will be using previous versions of the module to supplement the 4th edition one in places this update didn't do as well as it could have. Worry not, players have been duly warned of the dangers within, and they are scared to death. I don't plan to memorize each room word for word, but I do plan to be familiar with it enough to know what to expect roughly with each choice the players make, and then when I need a specific I will have the book on hand. One day, if I can find a DM who will let me, I would love to play in the original Tomb of Horrors, but I don't know anyone who runs that edition.
@kilpatds: I plan to eliminate passives, and to roll all perception checks myself. You mentioned some combats use MM3, and others MM1 math. Can you give me some examples? I don't have the MM3, if that matters. I would prefer to avoid grindfests, I would like the few monsters that apear to be quick and deadly. As for your 3rd point, I have found a few places like that, namely the crown the lich wears that you reference being on the following page. Could you give me some more examples of situations like these in case I have missed some in my search of the module? As for the issue with extended rests, I plan to have the whole tomb reset itself every 24 hours, which in itself is something that discourages extended rests. I also will prevent any attempts to take an extended rest in the dungeon, so they must exit first. In adition, if they start taking too many extended rests, the magic of the tomb will start playing 'tricks' on them. Forks that split left and right get reversed, traps might change trigers, or even locations, and anything else I can think up.
@dieffenbachj: Wow, that updated module you made is an amazing piece of work. There is definitely at least some of this that will show up in use. My players will all be bringing at least one back-up character each. For those that won't want a revolving door of characters, they will also be given the option to raise their character for free at the cost of giving up a piece of their soul to Acererak. Doing this gives them a version of the death penalty that is permanent until Acererak is defeated. Alternatively, they can also just use the ritual if they have the means. I will very likely take you up on your offer to PM you with questions when they come up in my preperation process.
Zinger . . . 10/90 - If he bussed his don as a scum rolename cop while faux dug his grave attacking the claimed cop d1... well, if he fooled us all to lylo he deserves to win.
Soon is a funny creature with a highly variable pupal state, after which it becomes the beautiful creature known as now. Sometimes this metamophosis takes as little as a day, and sometimes it takes several months. Occasionally, the creature enters hybernation after chrysalis begins, and it may be several seasons before the metamorphosis is complete. Occassionally, the creature dies while in the pupal state without warning, and waiting for now to emerge becomes a lesson in futility. This is also seen in the creature known as later, and waiting for both soon and later to become now can be a frustrating process.
Will add that I think Zinger is just a new 'type' of mafia player that doesn't really play by our standards and therefor still leaning towards town for now based on the way he plays in other games and it's seemingly the same (and I can't really see him as scum in all of them).
The sun rises – and then is blown away by the fierce wind.
All over the world, dark clouds cover the sky. The atmosphere is covered in a dark iron curtain of cumulus. Thunder pours from the sky as if it mere rain and it hails daggers onto the ground. The people hide in fear, of whatever ungodly evil has been summoned by some fool.
The Great Guardian of the Sky, RAYQUAZA, has been summoned.
And he has come for Silly Dragons!
(Right Click - > View)
RAYQUAZAAMEN.png
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Silly lay dead, once known in life as James, Town Aligned.
Now that Silly is dead, there is a calm. Once again all is right with the Heavens above.
But on Earth violence remains. King of Dominaria weeps over the loss of the one of his heart. He decides to end it all. He grabs an Arbok and shoves it onto it his neck. “BITE ME – END ME!” The snake does as asked and fills KoD with an exotic, incurable venom. He collapses.
Enraged and vicious, the snake systematically begins killing KoD’s poke’mon. Gengar and Beedrill are brutally slaughtered in an attempt to fight back. Skitty wisely tries to run away, but is easily taken out after Ekans discovers an underground gopher hole to pop out of. With great wide unhinged jaws, the snake swallows Skitty whole.
In great sorrow after the death of his owner, Silly, Wailord begins to look for his own lover – Skitty. It is a little known fact but whales and cats actually can interbreed in the pokemon world. Here is a graphic image illustrating this relationship.
At noticing the scent of Skitty in the vicious Arbok, Wailord goes nuts. He begins flopping around on the land and foaming from the mouth. He turns into some kind of suicide berserker and just throws his body haphazardly into anything. Mountains are crushed, caves are demolished, the earth is sundered. And Arbok is turned into a purple fruit roll up.
Meanwhile, KoD is suddenly feeling better! “I must have a natural immunity to snake poison or something. Wow…that was certainly sad and all, but y’know, I don’t think I’ll kill my – OH MY GOD IT’S A GIANT STAMPEDING WHALE!”
It was like dropping the Moon onto an ant. KoD never stood a chance.
…wait, maybe he did! The blowhole! KoD managed to become a modern day Jonah and avoid certain dead by smashing. He begins to live inside the whale itself, starting a farming community on the great beasts tongue. Mostly living out of self grown mushrooms plucked from his own horribly unhygienic body and drinking whale saliva to survive, KoD is…well, still suicidal. But clinging onto life.
However, one day the great beast yawns. KoD tumbles back into the digestive system. His skin is flayed away by acid. Miraculously, he survives as some kind of horrible walking pile of muscles. Then…in the most horrible, disgusting way imaginable…he manages to escape from the whale using a secret exit.
Of course, the local insects also like what came out of the whale’s secret exit. They find KoD and decide he’d be much better with several stings and bites. KoD becomes violently ill from malaria and begins puking. Unfortunately he loses a lung in the process and has to be rushed to the hospital. There he is put into an iron lung and locked away by the hospital staff, who promptly forget to feed him. KoD starts starving to death inside an iron machine that is keeping him alive against his will. Crying every day, he wishes just to die.
Then, one day, a young boy from a local charity group brings KoD breakfast. There’s eggs, orange juice, coffee…and a bran muffin.
KoD eagerly eats the breakfast, having begun digesting his own stomach before being given the wonderful gift of food. He saves the muffin for last. He takes a big bite and begins choking. He passes out and dies from lack of oxygen.
However, the EMTs finally heard KoD’s cry! They bring in the jaws of life and a deliberator. AMAZINGLY, they actually bring KoD back from the dead! KoD managed to survive the terrible curse of the muffin! All is saved.
Unfortunately, whales are incredibly fond of muffins too. Wailord shows back up seeking the muffin and grinds everyone in the hospital to a fine paste. KoD is now a pancake and was, before being smashed into a breakfast food himself, Jessie, Town Aligned.
Eventually Silly’s Wailord killed itself after realizing its life as a reality TV star was meaningless. Silly’s other Poke’mon, Zapdos died of a heroin overdose.
…
Serena is drinking coffee peacefully. It is a luxury she will not have often.
The big, puffy pink lips…yes, Serena must give this woman a lovely kiss!
The making out is passionate and forceful. There is tongue on tongue action.
During this ungodly nightmare of mankind/poke'mon relations, a mysterious move is made. Jynx yawns incredibly loud - popping her cheekbones...which turn out to be whirling blades of death. Shocked Serena tries to escape, but Jynx bear hugs her into submission. In an instant the Jynx whirls Serena's tongue into a bloody pile of dust. Slowly, the electronic blades go deeper and deeper up Serena’s throat until finally reaching the brain. A few slices here and there…Serena has been given an involuntary lobotomy.
She stares into space aimlessly. She is of the living but her spirit is gone.
The odd Jynx continues its plan. It vomits out several eggs into the now living corpse of Serena, via oral entry. They hatch into little Jynx maggots and begin to feast on Serena’s non-vitals. Slowly, the maggots begin to mature while eating out the inside of the still breathing, lobotomized Serena. They keep her alive in order to sustain the body as a food source – ensuring to eat an unimportant muscle, a vestigial pancreas…she’ll stay fresh longer if her heart still beats…
It’s too horrible to watch anymore. All you need to know is that she was Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her remaining Poke’mon, Gengar and Mismagius died alone in the wilderness.
Television informs you Glare has the orb now. It then flips to some local news about a ship being fired upon. Bored, you watch aimlessly until you hear a gunshot.
A random Suicine had it's brains blown out. The exit wound is the size of your fist. You try to apply medicine but you realize duct tape can't fix the hypothalmus.
...
TL;DR:
* Silly Dragons died as James, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Wailord and Zapdos. He was obliterated by Rayquaza.
321wailord.png145zapdos.png
* King of Dominaria died as Jessie, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Skitty, Gengar and Beedrill. He was crushed by Wailord.
300skitty.png094gengar.png015beedrill.png
* Serena died as Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her Poke'mon were Gengar and Mismagius. She was given a Lovely Kiss.
Can you give me some examples? I don't have the MM3, if that matters. I would prefer to avoid grindfests, I would like the few monsters that apear to be quick and deadly
The gargoyle uses MM3 damage expressions. The fey chick does not.
Short form MM3 monster design:
Single target attacks should do ~ 8+level average damage on a hit. (total for the round)
Multi-target attacks should do ~ 2+level average damage on a hit. (total for the round)
If it's a brute, multiply that by 1.25
If it's limited use, multiply that by 1.5
If it has a significant control function (daze, stun, dominate, dominate lite) reduce the damage. For Stun or Dominate, I multiply by 0.25 or so. For daze. 0.75 or so.
If it's an Elite or Solo, you want the total damage for the round to go up by factor of 2 or 5 respectively. Usually that means more attacks instead of bigger attacks to help average things out.
Monsters should generally attack AC at level+5 and NADs at level+3. Old Soldiers used to get a +2 bonus, remove that. Old Brutes used to get a -2 penalty, remove that. Artillery gets a +2 bonus, that has not changed.
So the encounters after the one you mentioned (I'm really trying to avoid adding to the spoiler count) tend to be a bit light on damage and high on control. I suggest reversing that.
For example, ISTR there's a monster with an at-will minor action slide3+stun. To make it more fun, make it a minor action "slide 5+MBA ally". That ramps up the damage output (by adding in the MBA of a munchkin PC) but keeps combat moving by giving him his turn back. The same monster has an aura that dazes. Maybe make that a standard action close burst 5 (huge area there) attack vs. NAD that does good damage, and dazes, and recharges when she's bloodied. Keeps the total action count higher, but does more damage faster.
In particular, i think the fey chick, the tapestries, and the mummy encounter all could use some love. My party skipped the other fun extra in the hall, and is about to head into the final, which I have to completely redo anyway for campaign reasons, so I can't comment on others.
"Nice assumptions. Completely wrong assumptions, but by jove if being incorrect stopped people from making idiotic statements, we wouldn't have modern internet subculture." Kerrus
Practical gameplay runs by neither RAW or RAI, but rather "A Compromise Between The Gist Of The Rule As I Recall Getting The Impression Of It That One Time I Read It And What Jerry Says He Remembers, Whatever, We'll Look It Up Later If Any Of Us Still Give A Damn." Erachima
Thank you very much kilpatds, that was extremely helpful. I don't know what ISTR means but I found the encounter you refered to based on your monster description.
I also apreciate the desire to hide spoilers. Despite my disclaimer at the top of the thread, it's still a good idea to use discretion.
Can you tell me about your group's encounter with the Devourer? How did you roleplay it? Or did your group avoid it entirely and not give you the chance?
Zinger . . . 10/90 - If he bussed his don as a scum rolename cop while faux dug his grave attacking the claimed cop d1... well, if he fooled us all to lylo he deserves to win.
Soon is a funny creature with a highly variable pupal state, after which it becomes the beautiful creature known as now. Sometimes this metamophosis takes as little as a day, and sometimes it takes several months. Occasionally, the creature enters hybernation after chrysalis begins, and it may be several seasons before the metamorphosis is complete. Occassionally, the creature dies while in the pupal state without warning, and waiting for now to emerge becomes a lesson in futility. This is also seen in the creature known as later, and waiting for both soon and later to become now can be a frustrating process.
Will add that I think Zinger is just a new 'type' of mafia player that doesn't really play by our standards and therefor still leaning towards town for now based on the way he plays in other games and it's seemingly the same (and I can't really see him as scum in all of them).
The sun rises – and then is blown away by the fierce wind.
All over the world, dark clouds cover the sky. The atmosphere is covered in a dark iron curtain of cumulus. Thunder pours from the sky as if it mere rain and it hails daggers onto the ground. The people hide in fear, of whatever ungodly evil has been summoned by some fool.
The Great Guardian of the Sky, RAYQUAZA, has been summoned.
And he has come for Silly Dragons!
(Right Click - > View)
RAYQUAZAAMEN.png
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Silly lay dead, once known in life as James, Town Aligned.
Now that Silly is dead, there is a calm. Once again all is right with the Heavens above.
But on Earth violence remains. King of Dominaria weeps over the loss of the one of his heart. He decides to end it all. He grabs an Arbok and shoves it onto it his neck. “BITE ME – END ME!” The snake does as asked and fills KoD with an exotic, incurable venom. He collapses.
Enraged and vicious, the snake systematically begins killing KoD’s poke’mon. Gengar and Beedrill are brutally slaughtered in an attempt to fight back. Skitty wisely tries to run away, but is easily taken out after Ekans discovers an underground gopher hole to pop out of. With great wide unhinged jaws, the snake swallows Skitty whole.
In great sorrow after the death of his owner, Silly, Wailord begins to look for his own lover – Skitty. It is a little known fact but whales and cats actually can interbreed in the pokemon world. Here is a graphic image illustrating this relationship.
At noticing the scent of Skitty in the vicious Arbok, Wailord goes nuts. He begins flopping around on the land and foaming from the mouth. He turns into some kind of suicide berserker and just throws his body haphazardly into anything. Mountains are crushed, caves are demolished, the earth is sundered. And Arbok is turned into a purple fruit roll up.
Meanwhile, KoD is suddenly feeling better! “I must have a natural immunity to snake poison or something. Wow…that was certainly sad and all, but y’know, I don’t think I’ll kill my – OH MY GOD IT’S A GIANT STAMPEDING WHALE!”
It was like dropping the Moon onto an ant. KoD never stood a chance.
…wait, maybe he did! The blowhole! KoD managed to become a modern day Jonah and avoid certain dead by smashing. He begins to live inside the whale itself, starting a farming community on the great beasts tongue. Mostly living out of self grown mushrooms plucked from his own horribly unhygienic body and drinking whale saliva to survive, KoD is…well, still suicidal. But clinging onto life.
However, one day the great beast yawns. KoD tumbles back into the digestive system. His skin is flayed away by acid. Miraculously, he survives as some kind of horrible walking pile of muscles. Then…in the most horrible, disgusting way imaginable…he manages to escape from the whale using a secret exit.
Of course, the local insects also like what came out of the whale’s secret exit. They find KoD and decide he’d be much better with several stings and bites. KoD becomes violently ill from malaria and begins puking. Unfortunately he loses a lung in the process and has to be rushed to the hospital. There he is put into an iron lung and locked away by the hospital staff, who promptly forget to feed him. KoD starts starving to death inside an iron machine that is keeping him alive against his will. Crying every day, he wishes just to die.
Then, one day, a young boy from a local charity group brings KoD breakfast. There’s eggs, orange juice, coffee…and a bran muffin.
KoD eagerly eats the breakfast, having begun digesting his own stomach before being given the wonderful gift of food. He saves the muffin for last. He takes a big bite and begins choking. He passes out and dies from lack of oxygen.
However, the EMTs finally heard KoD’s cry! They bring in the jaws of life and a deliberator. AMAZINGLY, they actually bring KoD back from the dead! KoD managed to survive the terrible curse of the muffin! All is saved.
Unfortunately, whales are incredibly fond of muffins too. Wailord shows back up seeking the muffin and grinds everyone in the hospital to a fine paste. KoD is now a pancake and was, before being smashed into a breakfast food himself, Jessie, Town Aligned.
Eventually Silly’s Wailord killed itself after realizing its life as a reality TV star was meaningless. Silly’s other Poke’mon, Zapdos died of a heroin overdose.
…
Serena is drinking coffee peacefully. It is a luxury she will not have often.
The big, puffy pink lips…yes, Serena must give this woman a lovely kiss!
The making out is passionate and forceful. There is tongue on tongue action.
During this ungodly nightmare of mankind/poke'mon relations, a mysterious move is made. Jynx yawns incredibly loud - popping her cheekbones...which turn out to be whirling blades of death. Shocked Serena tries to escape, but Jynx bear hugs her into submission. In an instant the Jynx whirls Serena's tongue into a bloody pile of dust. Slowly, the electronic blades go deeper and deeper up Serena’s throat until finally reaching the brain. A few slices here and there…Serena has been given an involuntary lobotomy.
She stares into space aimlessly. She is of the living but her spirit is gone.
The odd Jynx continues its plan. It vomits out several eggs into the now living corpse of Serena, via oral entry. They hatch into little Jynx maggots and begin to feast on Serena’s non-vitals. Slowly, the maggots begin to mature while eating out the inside of the still breathing, lobotomized Serena. They keep her alive in order to sustain the body as a food source – ensuring to eat an unimportant muscle, a vestigial pancreas…she’ll stay fresh longer if her heart still beats…
It’s too horrible to watch anymore. All you need to know is that she was Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her remaining Poke’mon, Gengar and Mismagius died alone in the wilderness.
Television informs you Glare has the orb now. It then flips to some local news about a ship being fired upon. Bored, you watch aimlessly until you hear a gunshot.
A random Suicine had it's brains blown out. The exit wound is the size of your fist. You try to apply medicine but you realize duct tape can't fix the hypothalmus.
...
TL;DR:
* Silly Dragons died as James, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Wailord and Zapdos. He was obliterated by Rayquaza.
321wailord.png145zapdos.png
* King of Dominaria died as Jessie, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Skitty, Gengar and Beedrill. He was crushed by Wailord.
300skitty.png094gengar.png015beedrill.png
* Serena died as Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her Poke'mon were Gengar and Mismagius. She was given a Lovely Kiss.
Regarding the demon face at the start of the module... our party chucked a stone into the mouth, noted that they didn't hear it land, and decided to invistigate elsewhere instead.
Now ... they players all have some familiarity with the 1e version of the mod. They may not have played it, but they have all heard about it from people who have... so I wasn't expecting anything out of that bit of the scenery anyway.
"Nice assumptions. Completely wrong assumptions, but by jove if being incorrect stopped people from making idiotic statements, we wouldn't have modern internet subculture." Kerrus
Practical gameplay runs by neither RAW or RAI, but rather "A Compromise Between The Gist Of The Rule As I Recall Getting The Impression Of It That One Time I Read It And What Jerry Says He Remembers, Whatever, We'll Look It Up Later If Any Of Us Still Give A Damn." Erachima
Thank you all of you for your responses. Individual responses are below, but first I have some general questions I would like to pose to all of you. My questions are inside the SBLOCK below. Be warned, there are spoilers.
My favorite trap, the Devourer, is pretty well built for a 4th edition version. It doesn't insta-kill anyone who climbs in anymore, but it does stun them and does an incredible amount of damage each turn the person remains there. If they can save vs. the stun they can try to pull themselves out, or others can reach in to try and pull the person out (taking damage in doing so), but if neither of these are achieved within just a few turns that player will disintegrate as expected.
My question regarding the Devourer is how to run it. The mechanics of the trap (called a cursed location in the module) are well outlined but there is no advice on what to describe to the players. I decided I would secretly inform the player who climbed in of what is happening to him or her, but what do I tell the others? Do I tell them the player is dying and needs their help? Do I tell them nothing? Previous versions of the tomb tells the others nothing, suggesting to them that it might be a portal of some kind instead of a death-trap. This is what makes it one of my favorite traps and it is what I want to do, but I am still a little vague on how to do it. I would really apreciate some insight on this perticular trap and how you have run it yourselves in the past.
My second question at the moment is what do you do when the party gets split up? Yes I know with the fear of death inspired in them it is unlikely the party will willingly part ways but considering some of the traps in the dungeon, it is entirely possible that they do unintentionally (ie. someone gets telported to the begining in the nude and that such thing). How did you handle situations like these?
Zinger . . . 10/90 - If he bussed his don as a scum rolename cop while faux dug his grave attacking the claimed cop d1... well, if he fooled us all to lylo he deserves to win.
Soon is a funny creature with a highly variable pupal state, after which it becomes the beautiful creature known as now. Sometimes this metamophosis takes as little as a day, and sometimes it takes several months. Occasionally, the creature enters hybernation after chrysalis begins, and it may be several seasons before the metamorphosis is complete. Occassionally, the creature dies while in the pupal state without warning, and waiting for now to emerge becomes a lesson in futility. This is also seen in the creature known as later, and waiting for both soon and later to become now can be a frustrating process.
Will add that I think Zinger is just a new 'type' of mafia player that doesn't really play by our standards and therefor still leaning towards town for now based on the way he plays in other games and it's seemingly the same (and I can't really see him as scum in all of them).
The sun rises – and then is blown away by the fierce wind.
All over the world, dark clouds cover the sky. The atmosphere is covered in a dark iron curtain of cumulus. Thunder pours from the sky as if it mere rain and it hails daggers onto the ground. The people hide in fear, of whatever ungodly evil has been summoned by some fool.
The Great Guardian of the Sky, RAYQUAZA, has been summoned.
And he has come for Silly Dragons!
(Right Click - > View)
RAYQUAZAAMEN.png
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Silly lay dead, once known in life as James, Town Aligned.
Now that Silly is dead, there is a calm. Once again all is right with the Heavens above.
But on Earth violence remains. King of Dominaria weeps over the loss of the one of his heart. He decides to end it all. He grabs an Arbok and shoves it onto it his neck. “BITE ME – END ME!” The snake does as asked and fills KoD with an exotic, incurable venom. He collapses.
Enraged and vicious, the snake systematically begins killing KoD’s poke’mon. Gengar and Beedrill are brutally slaughtered in an attempt to fight back. Skitty wisely tries to run away, but is easily taken out after Ekans discovers an underground gopher hole to pop out of. With great wide unhinged jaws, the snake swallows Skitty whole.
In great sorrow after the death of his owner, Silly, Wailord begins to look for his own lover – Skitty. It is a little known fact but whales and cats actually can interbreed in the pokemon world. Here is a graphic image illustrating this relationship.
At noticing the scent of Skitty in the vicious Arbok, Wailord goes nuts. He begins flopping around on the land and foaming from the mouth. He turns into some kind of suicide berserker and just throws his body haphazardly into anything. Mountains are crushed, caves are demolished, the earth is sundered. And Arbok is turned into a purple fruit roll up.
Meanwhile, KoD is suddenly feeling better! “I must have a natural immunity to snake poison or something. Wow…that was certainly sad and all, but y’know, I don’t think I’ll kill my – OH MY GOD IT’S A GIANT STAMPEDING WHALE!”
It was like dropping the Moon onto an ant. KoD never stood a chance.
…wait, maybe he did! The blowhole! KoD managed to become a modern day Jonah and avoid certain dead by smashing. He begins to live inside the whale itself, starting a farming community on the great beasts tongue. Mostly living out of self grown mushrooms plucked from his own horribly unhygienic body and drinking whale saliva to survive, KoD is…well, still suicidal. But clinging onto life.
However, one day the great beast yawns. KoD tumbles back into the digestive system. His skin is flayed away by acid. Miraculously, he survives as some kind of horrible walking pile of muscles. Then…in the most horrible, disgusting way imaginable…he manages to escape from the whale using a secret exit.
Of course, the local insects also like what came out of the whale’s secret exit. They find KoD and decide he’d be much better with several stings and bites. KoD becomes violently ill from malaria and begins puking. Unfortunately he loses a lung in the process and has to be rushed to the hospital. There he is put into an iron lung and locked away by the hospital staff, who promptly forget to feed him. KoD starts starving to death inside an iron machine that is keeping him alive against his will. Crying every day, he wishes just to die.
Then, one day, a young boy from a local charity group brings KoD breakfast. There’s eggs, orange juice, coffee…and a bran muffin.
KoD eagerly eats the breakfast, having begun digesting his own stomach before being given the wonderful gift of food. He saves the muffin for last. He takes a big bite and begins choking. He passes out and dies from lack of oxygen.
However, the EMTs finally heard KoD’s cry! They bring in the jaws of life and a deliberator. AMAZINGLY, they actually bring KoD back from the dead! KoD managed to survive the terrible curse of the muffin! All is saved.
Unfortunately, whales are incredibly fond of muffins too. Wailord shows back up seeking the muffin and grinds everyone in the hospital to a fine paste. KoD is now a pancake and was, before being smashed into a breakfast food himself, Jessie, Town Aligned.
Eventually Silly’s Wailord killed itself after realizing its life as a reality TV star was meaningless. Silly’s other Poke’mon, Zapdos died of a heroin overdose.
…
Serena is drinking coffee peacefully. It is a luxury she will not have often.
The big, puffy pink lips…yes, Serena must give this woman a lovely kiss!
The making out is passionate and forceful. There is tongue on tongue action.
During this ungodly nightmare of mankind/poke'mon relations, a mysterious move is made. Jynx yawns incredibly loud - popping her cheekbones...which turn out to be whirling blades of death. Shocked Serena tries to escape, but Jynx bear hugs her into submission. In an instant the Jynx whirls Serena's tongue into a bloody pile of dust. Slowly, the electronic blades go deeper and deeper up Serena’s throat until finally reaching the brain. A few slices here and there…Serena has been given an involuntary lobotomy.
She stares into space aimlessly. She is of the living but her spirit is gone.
The odd Jynx continues its plan. It vomits out several eggs into the now living corpse of Serena, via oral entry. They hatch into little Jynx maggots and begin to feast on Serena’s non-vitals. Slowly, the maggots begin to mature while eating out the inside of the still breathing, lobotomized Serena. They keep her alive in order to sustain the body as a food source – ensuring to eat an unimportant muscle, a vestigial pancreas…she’ll stay fresh longer if her heart still beats…
It’s too horrible to watch anymore. All you need to know is that she was Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her remaining Poke’mon, Gengar and Mismagius died alone in the wilderness.
Television informs you Glare has the orb now. It then flips to some local news about a ship being fired upon. Bored, you watch aimlessly until you hear a gunshot.
A random Suicine had it's brains blown out. The exit wound is the size of your fist. You try to apply medicine but you realize duct tape can't fix the hypothalmus.
...
TL;DR:
* Silly Dragons died as James, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Wailord and Zapdos. He was obliterated by Rayquaza.
321wailord.png145zapdos.png
* King of Dominaria died as Jessie, Town Aligned. His poke'mon were Skitty, Gengar and Beedrill. He was crushed by Wailord.
300skitty.png094gengar.png015beedrill.png
* Serena died as Lt. Surge, Town Aligned. Her Poke'mon were Gengar and Mismagius. She was given a Lovely Kiss.
that I think Zinger is just a new 'type' of mafia player that doesn't really play by our standards and therefor still leaning towards town for now based on the way he plays in other games and it's seemingly the same (and I can't really see him as scum in all of them).
