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Tomb of Horrors Planning & Prep (Patreon)

Published:
2024-05-10 14:44:33
Imported:
2026-06
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Videos

Content

PDM on how he prepared for running the Tomb of Horrors for his group. You will be shocked when you hear how it turned out. Enjoy!

Files

Previews only

Tomb of Horrors 1

Comments

Bagel-Man

Excited to watch Professor!

Timothy S Wattigny

Gp for xp doesn't just encourage heroism; it also encourages murder-hoboism.

Brett

Awesome work!

Scott

Now I'm even more nostalgic for old school D&D.

Bark Madly

Great job, PDM! Bag o' Holding on Acererak and then dump into sphere of annihilation is just brilliant! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

Megatron

Absolutely amazing content!!! I love this channel!!!

Jim Van Cura

This is great information. I have this one and a few other AD&D modules that I'd love to play. I doubt you used THAC0, so how do you convert to a modern ascending AC system?

Justin Watson

I noticed the philosophical dissonance you talk about between AD&D and 5E playing through Goodman's Temple of Elemental Evil's 5E conversion. Goodman did a great job, but we as 5E Superheroes with intricate character sheets are very mismatched for the style of play our DM, who is a great guy who has been playing since the 80s expects in the Temple. As a result it's been a little frustrating as creeping, skulking and just surviving with characters who are designed to unleash barrels of whoop ass feels weird. Also, as a 5E wizard, being stuck with cantrips after one or maybe two encounters feels lame as hell in 5E. One of my favorite aspects of Deathbringer is the, "cast as much as you want--don't roll a one," dynamic. So much more fun and engaging than ticking off spell slots and having to wheedle long rests when they make no sense to the story that's happening.

MrGunn

Dear Professor: Great video, I was amused by Step 1: Read Wall of Text Many Times. Old school modules were not laid out well and are not easy to read. There have been so many improvements with modern module design. In my opinion, modern games like D&D 5e with its passive abilities really miss an essential element that makes the old style of play so compelling. The essence of Old School Renaissance (OSR) game play is the player / GM interaction, with the GM describing the environment, the players asking questions and using their wits to solve problems, and the GM making rulings, instead of relying on rules to make decisions about the outcome of the player's course of action. It has been my experience that OSR play promotes out of the box thinking, which is very beneficial to young people and encourages them to use critical thinking skills to solve problems in unique ways. The critical thinking skills I learned while playing RPGs have yielded real world benefits my entire life. One question for you PDM and the brain trust here; are not the 'right precautions' a form of meta-game play that detracts from the suspension of disbelief and provides unfair advantage? If you are playing character driven campaign and not a one shot, how would a player with a Level 1 PC justify bringing a 10' (3m) pole or pigs or any other weird thing? I have played with folks who have loaded their character's backs to breaking with 'adventurering gear' but their character has never been near a dungeon. Thoughts? Thanks for this fantastic video, I very much enjoyed this discussion and especially your description of the difference between modern and OSR gameplay. Looking forward to the next installment. Best, MrGunn PS: For more cool Tomb of Horrors related content, check out Wyloch's Armoury craft build out of the entire tomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_kk0GMloxE PSS: Thanks again for this awesome content, this is the kind stuff I became a patron for.

MrGunn
>>137664275

@Justin Watson Interesting take. While 5e can be a fun diversion, in my opinion it is missing something. I recommend you ditch 5e and switch to games that capture that older style of play like: Old School Essentials, Shadowdark, The Blackhack, Five Torches Deep or the Black Sword Hack.

Lemonsaurus

I've been waiting for this!

Justin Watson
>>137664275

I run PDM's Deathbringer with a heavy dose of my own houserules for my wife, brother-in-law and kiddos. Rules light works great for the kids, and it's high trust so I don't get a lot of pushback when I make a call in the moment. I'm only playing in the ToEE 5E campaign because my neighbor wanted to run ToEE for our adult D&D group. I agree with you about 5E but I'll happily play it with people I like, as long as someone else is doing the heavy lifting behind the screen. I don't like it enough to DM it.

Robyn Derme

Hey Doc, just a quick FYI, the D&D Campaign Case: Creatures has hard plastic disks with cling-on stickers for the monsters, not cardboard.

MrGunn
>>137664275

@Justin Watson Ahh, makes sense now, you are not the one GMing 5e. Yep easy to be a 5e player, PITA to be a 5e GM. I applaud your use of DB, it is a great game, cannot wait until 2026 for the full version.

A Name Apart

Your party treated it more like the real life "An escape room is a time-bound immersive adventure experience. You and your team are locked in a room and are tasked with finding a way to escape" than a modern d20 game

MrGunn
>>137730367

@A Name Apart I like your comment, I had a similar thought, thanks for articulating it so clearly. I felt like PDM's players were just playing themselves and meta-gaming, which is fine for a one shot, but IMHO this deviates from playing a role in an RPG.

Jay

Interesting video. It seems your players just breezed through Tomb of Horrors. That isn't something I often hear. Never-the-less, you gave an excellent account and working explanation of the tomb, passageways, traps, and puzzles. Also, I tend to agree with you that 5E players might not do as well and would need a plot hook to get them to go inside the Tomb. Not always such as easy thing to accomplish if they are namby-pamby's who don't want to risk their precious characters....It's kinda the point...isn't it? These skits are kind of funny and remind me of some players I’ve come across. I was thinking they might be inspiration for some new Dungeon Craft videos if not just for a laugh. YouTube – Viva La Dirt League - Compilation of funny D&D skits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IRmGIAjJcQ

A Name Apart
>>137730367

Another thought I had is that in the old days people were not used to playing video games where they could see a version of their character on screen. So old school d&d was you truly imagining yourself rather than imagining your simulacar and video game character, which has less degrees of freedom

MrGunn
>>137730367

@A Name Apart Another excellent observation, I agree, D&D 4e was very much created in the vein of a video game. D&D 5e had some of the same designers, so some of the same 4e video game features were included in 5e. 5e combat has always pivoted around miniatures and the battle board with its grid. I was watching a video about how 5e discourages clever play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cMzxeiSNtU 01:12. The author states all 5e classes become the same after about 6th level because the PCs are 'Heroes' with heroic abilities and the game is tilted towards a hack, slash, loot, repeat form of play. The following video that talks about how to turn the tables on your players and how hack and slash can lead to a TPK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T94SVug8jms In old school D&D sneaking, skulking, ambushing, trickery, and 'RUN AWAY' were all very viable survival tactics; after all, Troy was not defeated by a frontal assault.

MrGunn
>>137764003

@Jay It's not that they are namby pampys, they just don't want to halt play for the two days it takes to roll up new characters and write their ten page character back stories. :D

Daniel Defazio
>>137664275

Thank you. That's helpful. As I am writing DB, I need to know its BEST attributes so I can focus on them.

Daniel Defazio
>>137664367

Re: the 10-foot poles--we can assume that players have heard about the Tomb from survivors and that pit traps in any dungeon can be expected.

Justin Watson
>>137664275

My experience has been in 3.5/Pathfinder and 5E where it seems that wizards are either useless of game breaking. In DB, Grimscribes are never useless, and never game breaking, they just have to decide for themselves how high their risk appetite is. It’s the definition of player agency. Love it. And every miscast is a memorable event. Our grimscribe hasn’t blown herself up yet, but she definitely summoned a Blue Slaad into the middle of an already tight combat and temporarily switched bodies with the plague doctor once.

Justin Watson
>>137664275

The plague doctor is my wife and we recently listened to Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, so she’s had a ball RPing cockamamie medical practice.

Atlas

Wasn't Tomb of Annihilation supposed to be the 5e translation of Tomb of Horrors? I love hearing how you run the games and how the players enjoy the game. I appreciate what you do! If you really want to give your players an interesting game, run them through Labyrinth of Madness. It's a high level, insane fun house dungeon. I don't really hear many people talk about it but it's pretty difficult.

Matt Thompson

Tomb of Horrors was the first module I ever bought. After only owning the Holmes blue box and playing B-1. Blew my 6th grade mind.

Dustin Hitzing

So I might have missed it… but how can you beat tomb of horrors with a ladder? I thought you were going to explicitly say how