Theo Dudek, Ultimate Game Master

The Tomb of Horrors. This module has memories for me because it was one of the first modules that was run for me when I started playing D&D. I was 8 years old and I was going around saying “Yes! I beat the tomb of horrors!” and telling people that it was a big deal. It was only later, when I read it, that I realized that the DM was totally going easy on me and didn’t use 1/4 of the deathtraps and insta-kills that were in the original module. -_-;;

I normally hate lowering the difficulty level of modules, but I have to admit I did the same thing and ‘modded’ Tomb of Horrors to run it at FanimeCon and AnimeExpo because EVERYONE KNOWS THIS MODULE. Even people who have never played D&D have read the review on somethingawful.com. If Gary Gygax is the William Shakespeare of D&D, this is his “Romeo & Juliet.” (”Isle of the Ape” is his “Pericles, Prince of Tyre.”) Everyone is eager to play the Tomb of Horrors, not realizing that this module shows Gygax’s core philosophy that THE DM IS ABSOLUTE AND HAS THE POWER TO TWIST THE RULES HOWEVER THEY WANT TO KILL THE PLAYERS. Or as Gygax says “THIS IS A THINKING PERSON’S MODULE, AND IF YOUR GROUP IS A HACK AND SLAY GATHERING, THEY WILL BE UNHAPPY!” (Hmm, I see that the term “hack and slash” was not quite developed by 1978 ^^)

Tomb of Horrors has almost no combat. It is all puzzles and deathtraps and dead ends. I cannot even begin to summarize all the strange things in this adventure. The magic archway which reverse your sex and alignment. Room 7, “the forsaken prison.” The “pit of flames and molten lava which will absolutely snuff them out.” The “huge pit filled with 200 spikes.” The green slime-brown mold double deathtrap. The evil wish gem which explodes, “absolutely killing any character within a 15′ radius with a wave of searing radiations and flames.” The false crypts like in an actual Egyptian tomb. I would say this is the cruelest module ever written, but I have read some Arduin modules. But it is kind of refreshing to read an adventure which makes no effort at challenge balance and making a “winnable” scenario. The “keep the controllers in the back and put the strikers in the front, and you’ll probably win, and you can sort of space out through the non-fighting parts of the game” combat strategy of 4e is soooooo basic compared to the crazed murderama which is this module. The other nice thing about this module is that it is incredibly nonlinear. There is no railroading, no string of fights; the players might easily never find the heart of the tomb (unless the DM is being really wimpy like my DM was when I was 8). Simply put: this module is not just high-level, it is difficult and open-ended, and I admire that. Does someone want to play in it? ^^

This is a good module if you can get into the mindset. I also own “Return to the Tomb of Horrors” for 2e which is just as hard and much longer (and has a lot more combat). The only bad thing about the module is the interior art by David Sutherland. But even so, he does a good enough job with the illustration/handout section showing the interiors of all the rooms in the module. I like these illustration sections and I’m glad they use them in 4e.