Tomb of Horrors
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| Tomb of Horrors | |
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| Code | S1 |
|---|---|
| Rules Required | 1st Ed AD&D |
| Character Levels | 10-14 |
| Campaign Setting | Greyhawk |
| Authors | Gary Gygax |
| First Published | 1978 |
| Linked Modules | |
| S1 S2 S3 S4 Return to the Tomb of Horrors |
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Tomb of Horrors is a 1978 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, written by Gary Gygax. It was the original tournament dungeon used at the Origins 1 convention[1]. The Tomb of Horrors is a 2002 novelization of the adventure written by Keith Strohm.
Numbered "S1," the module was the first in the "S" (for "Special") series of modules. It was followed by S2: White Plume Mountain, S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and S4: Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. Although part of a series for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, the four modules had no connecting plot or theme. Tomb of Horrors is one of the most famous Dungeons & Dragons modules.[2] It was also the first module to include a numbered series of drawings, each of which would be shown to the players upon entering a certain area or encountering a certain fate.
The Tomb of Horrors is infamous among players of the game as a "killer dungeon," filled with all manner of extremely deadly traps and monsters that are capable of easily wiping out high-level parties of player characters. Indeed, some players consider Tomb of Horrors to be "unfair"; many of the traps within largely ignore game mechanics and story logic in their operation[3].
The plot of the module is that of a simple dungeon crawl; the evil demi-lich Acererak was said to linger on in his ancient tomb in undead form, and the characters were to survive the deadly traps and fight their way down to the demilich's inner sanctum and slay him once and for all. In 1998 a sequel was produced, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, which significantly updated the plot of the original.
Tomb of Horrors was ranked the 3rd greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game.[4]
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[edit] Updates
Wizards of the Coast released an updated version of the original module as a free download for Halloween 2005.[5] It retains much of the original content, updated with content from the Dungeons and Dragons supplement book Libris Mortis. The update was designed using the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition rules.
See also: List of Dungeons & Dragons modules
[edit] Novelization
Tomb of Horrors was made into the novel The Tomb of Horrors by Keith Francis Strohm for the Greyhawk Classics series. The book was published by Wizards of the Coast in 2002.
[edit] References
- ^ Lawrence Schick. Heroic Worlds (Prometheus Books, 1991).
- ^ Against the Giants by Ru Emerson. skewedperspective.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-25.
- ^ Turnbull, Don (June/July 1979). "Open Box: Dungeon Module Review" (review). White Dwarf (Issue 13): 16-17. Games Workshop.
- ^ Mona, Erik; James Jacobs (2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon 116.
- ^ Adventures: Tomb of Horrors (revised) from Wizards of the Coast
- Gygax, Gary (1978). Tomb of Horrors. TSR.
- Gygax, Gary [1983] (2005) revised by Bruce Cordell Tomb of Horrors (Revised). Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on 2007-03-07.
- Erik Mona, James Jacobs, and the "Dungeon Design Panel". "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time." Dungeon #116 (Paizo Publishing, November 2004).
- Strohm, Keith Francis (2002). The Tomb of Horrors. Wizards of the Coast. UK ISBN 0-786-92702-X. US ISBN 0-786-92727-5.
