The tome of horrors

So Im going to run pic related this weekend for my group. This will be the first time i have ran this crawl.

Any advice on how to run it?

Also if you did run it how did it go?

It's a shit dungeon.

It was written as a "fuck you" to people saying dungeons should be harder and more brutal than how Gygax ran them, which was already brutal and unfair.

It's intentionally shitty and deadly in un-fun surprise you're gone ways.

People die, a lot. Generally without warning, or signs it's a bad idea, or recompense.

If you run it, have multiple backup parties with similar stats ready for the PCs so they can go back in.

Frankly the best way to run it without it being an exercise in suffering is to have the PCs wake up in clone bodies with all the memories of their last selves up to the moment they died, and go back in with knowledge, so they can at least do it without feeling they're metagaming.

An asshole wizard decided to force a party into an unfair game where they can't leave until they win, even if they die.

>Tomb of Horrors
>fix'd

It depends, if you want your players to complete it ask them to roll 2-3 characters.
I would say to follow the original module, since it's really lethal. Player's can't even use extradimemsiomal powers without summoning demons to hunt their characters.
Also, don't worry of they all die, that's pretty much the intention, just have fun. Obviusly don't use this adventure in your campaing.

>Frankly the best way to run it without it being an exercise in suffering is to have the PCs wake up in clone bodies with all the memories of their last selves up to the moment they died, and go back in with knowledge, so they can at least do it without feeling they're metagaming.
you heard the user, OP. darksouls dungeon is go

What system are you running it in?

If it's the 5E version in Yawning Portal my advice would be to increase the pit damage to 4d10 for the spikes and 6d10 for the poison. They're a little too easy as it stands. Also boost the combat encounters so there's always just enough enemies to outnumber the party. They're a little too easy as it stands.

You also have to erase all your modern game design codification. Note the pit traps for example you don't get a Dex save if you fuck up and fall into them. You just fall in and take damage. Also the party doesn't just get to roll perception to find the secret door. They have to check each area themselves by hand and interaction.

I honestly wouldn't allow any skill rolls at all in this type of dungeon they just don't work.

It's frustrating and laborious but that's exactly the point. This dungeon is designed to murder players and you'd be doing a disservice to it if you didn't.

Op here.
I know it is a very hard crawl and I will be running it as a side game. I think im only going to give the players one shot at it maybe two in a sorta way this poster saidIm in the air about 2e or 3.5. My players know 3.5 much better but I feel like this should be a 2e crawl.

Yeah I'd run it in 2E if you can.

It's much easier to run in that system as you don't have to rewrite how things like skill checks work , it's already built for it.

Forewarn everyone that it's a meat grinder of a dungeon, and let them know that they should have backup characters rolled up, unless they're high-level characters going in with access to resurrection magic.

Play the 3e or 5e versions; there are no "no save, you just die" moments in there but the tomb is still a challenge. Personally I think the Gygaxian horror of no-save effects is part of the Tomb's charm, but it's not for everyone.

(you can probably play the 4e version if you want for the same reasons, too, but I have no experience with it)

At several points the players might find a way out of the Tomb after having gotten lost, and decide that they don't want to go back in. Allow this.

And of course - have fun!

And now if you'll excuse me, I have to deal with a jerk in my next post.

>It's a shit dungeon.

You're a shit player.

>It was written as a "fuck you" to people saying dungeons should be harder and more brutal than how Gygax ran them

No. It was written in response to Gygax's players having achieved basically ultimate power by that point, with monsters no longer being a threat to him. So he made the Tomb, which has almost no monsters and is instead loaded with traps.

You also have to understand that the mindset of D&D players was COMPLETELY different at the time. It was approached more like a game of Super Mario. The expectation was that the vast majority of player characters would die during the course of the adventure, and that players would frequently be rolling up new ones the way Mario just loads up a new life.

Hence why the original Tomb came packaged with 30 pre-made characters.

(This is also why, for example, the Paladin is so much better than the standard Fighter in early editions, and intentionally so. You'd need to roll very well to meet the Paladin's prime requisites. Such luck wasn't likely to happen multiple times, so the Paladin has perks to make it more likely to stay alive).

>It's intentionally shitty and deadly in un-fun surprise you're gone ways.

Again, this is only the case because the mindset of D&D players has changed dramatically since the 70s and early 80s. It wasn't intended as this, and that some players see it that way today isn't indicative of shitty design at the time, just a changing mindset in the game. No one got attached to their characters at character creation in the early days of D&D. They got attached to characters who actually managed to survive.

>They got attached to characters who actually managed to survive.

original player here, from 1980
this is the essence of AD&D

ToH made our deaths epic legend, to which we still reminisce about today