[D&D 4E OOC & Recruitment] The Tomb of Horrors! aka Rocks fall, everyone dies

Jam Warrior

Somewhere under a lost and lonely hill of grim and foreboding aspect lies a labyrinthine crypt. It is filled with terrible traps and not a few strange and ferocious monsters to slay the unwary. However it is also rumoured to be filled with rich treasures, both precious and magical! And something about an unkillable demilich still haunting the halls but nobody concentrates on that bit. A significant settlement has grown up at the base of the hill, turning selling stuff to the greedy and stupid adventurers that attempt to raid the crypt into a thriving industry. They do not offer credit as they rarely see a repeat customer.

You are a greedy and stupid adventurer! That or you're incredibly arrogant and all those other guys only met a horrible death because they simply weren't as great as you are.

So. I'm looking for five, 9th-level characters to throw themselves into the meat grinder that is the Tomb of Horrors, recently all 4th-ed up and given away as a freebie via the RPGA.

Note. This adventure is old skool. Gygax himself made it as a tournament dungeon. The 4thing up of it has softened the edges a little but it's still very brutal and out to kill you. Fair is not the word. Make your guy, but don't take too long over it or get too attached to him as his life expectancy on crossing the threshold of that dungeon isn't exactly peachy.

Assuming we get enough applicants I'll pick a balanced starting party at random. If (when) casualties occur I'll drop in new players from any excess applicants as I see fit.

Play by post. Rolls on invisible castle or similar. Standard point buy stats and starting gear. If it's in the CB it's legal. No character backgrounds (let's not pretend your creations for this have any depth now).

Oh, and for obvious reasons, if you've played or read this classic dungeon before please stay out. It's no fun if you know what's coming :P

I'm sure I've forgotten stuff so ask away if you have any questions.

Tofystedeth

awesooooome

Chanus

Tomb of Horrors is the best thing.

smeej

Already familiar with everything in it but I will watch with glee.

Wizards released a big brutal follow up to Tomb of Horrors recently, also.

Jam Warrior

My only worry is as to whether there are enough innocents who don't already know the details of The Tomb on the forum.

Foolish Chaos

Bah. I ran the 3.5 adventure a few years ago.

I've heard the 4e version is actually a series of adventures?

deadonthestreet

When you say "no backgrounds" do you mean "don't pick a background for the +2 to a skill"?

Fondor_Yards

Hmm I've never run in a ToH game before, so by some sort of D&D law I have to join this don't I?

Jam Warrior

There are confusingly, two identically named products. One (this one) is a fairly faithful update of the classic Gygax dungeon and was given away free via the RPGA. The other is some kind of super-adventure/mini campaign featuring themes and encounters inspired by the original and is for sale.

KamikazeCommunist

Fondor_Yards wrote: »

Hmm I've never run in a ToH game before, so by some sort of D&D law I have to join this don't I?

Same here, guess I'm pretty much obligated to apply.

Jam Warrior

deadonthestreet wrote: »

When you say "no backgrounds" do you mean "don't pick a background for the +2 to a skill"?

Yup. In a non-roleplay heavy one-shot adventure it's just a freebie and I'm mean so no freebies!

Tofystedeth

I've heard of it, and heard people tell little snippets, but otherwise I'm fresh.
Thinking of making a paladin.

Fondor_Yards

Clearly we all must role strikers, and charge headlong to see how far we get before we die. We'll get rid of the traps russian style, by throwing waves of bodies at them.

Phyphor

We will defeat the [strike]killbots[/strike] traps by throwing wave after wave of our own men at them!

Never played ToH, definitely signing up

Keldonus

Heard about this, never played. Sounds like a blast.

What about equipment? Standard gold for 9th level?

Tofystedeth

Fondor_Yards wrote: »

Clearly we all must role strikers, and charge headlong to see how far we get before we die. We'll get rid of the traps russian style, by throwing waves of bodies at them.

But if I roll a nice beefy pally you can throw me through 2 or 3 traps before I run out of meat to shield you with.

streever

I would love to sacrifice my heroic Mike Moustaches! Originally created for a SEARCHERS OF THE UNKNOWN 1 page RPG session, I will create him as a level 9 rogue. It won't be really intensive I imagine, with no RP and quick death?

Kay

I have never played the Tomb of Horrors.

Maybe I'll roll a striker.

smeej

Foolish Chaos wrote: »

Bah. I ran the 3.5 adventure a few years ago.

I've heard the 4e version is actually a series of adventures?

It's more of a sequel to Tomb of Horrors and yeah involves numerous tombs and adventures (four, I think) ranging from level 10 to 22-ish.

And it's pretty brutal. I really want to run it one day.

The Ender

TOMB OF HORROR WAT?

LOLZ IMMA KICK THIS GAME'S ASS!!!!

TROGGOTH SKULLBASHER

DRAGONBORN BARBARIAN

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Character Sheet

DarkPrimus

This is the original, lovingly and painstakingly ported over to 4e? Count me the fuck in. Brb making a character.

The Ender

For those who haven't played Tomb of Horror before: this scenario is hilariously awesome, but you absolutely must buy into the whole 'losing is fun' thing to have a good time.


Oh. And don't touch the glowy orb!

Chanus

The Ender wrote: »

For those who haven't played Tomb of Horror before: this scenario is hilariously awesome, but you absolutely must buy into the whole 'losing is fun' thing to have a good time.


Oh. And don't

touch the glowy orb!

Don't give away secrets! GAWL!

KamikazeCommunist

Character completed, here goes nothing!

Kreth Kalla
Githzerai Avenger


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The Ender

Don't give away secrets! GAWL!

It's not really much of a secret anymore. And besides that, it's the one part of the tomb that's just plain no fun.

Chanus

The Ender wrote: »

Don't give away secrets! GAWL!

It's not really much of a secret anymore. And besides that, it's the one part of the tomb that's just plain no fun.

Being no fun IS the fun!

The Ender

...Are we actually going for an all-striker party?

'Cuz that would be priceless.

DarkPrimus

Bronzestone Tunnelfoe

Dwarf Rogue


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The Ender

FUCK YES

Foolish Chaos

The Ender wrote: »

Don't give away secrets! GAWL!

It's not really much of a secret anymore. And besides that, it's the one part of the tomb that's just plain no fun.

I thought this adventure was for ToH virgins?

And man, the 3.5 version at least was hardly... fun. Unless you liked waiting around while the rogue took step by step to spot/search/disable *step* spot/search/disable.... :P

Hilariously brutal though, it totally was

DarkPrimus

The Ender wrote: »

FUCK YES

I can make up an entire stable of Dwarf characters if need be. Shit, I'll make an entire 5-man party of them, that way I can just play by myself! :P

mightyjongyo

I would totally play, except i don't have ddi so i think it would take me forever to take a character to level 9 just to see it die.

The Ender

I thought this adventure was for ToH virgins?

What? I didn't see that part of the OP.

EDIT:

Whoops. My bad.

:oops:


I'd like to point out, though, that ToH has been around for, what, at least a decade now? Any spoilers for it's contents are pretty much past their expiry date; you can probably count the number of D&D players who haven't at least read the module by now (or other people's experiences with it) on one hand.

And man, the 3.5 version at least was hardly... fun. Unless you liked waiting around while the rogue took step by step to spot/search/disable *step* spot/search/disable....

Hilariously brutal though, it totally was

That's why you have to buy into the whole 'losing is fun' thing. If you try and play to win (constantly making perception checks, checking every single tile for a trap trigger, etc), the adventure just becomes dumb.

You have to run into it guns blazing, content in the knowledge that you're randomly going to get hacked to bits.

Kelor

The Ender wrote: »

I thought this adventure was for ToH virgins?

What? I didn't see that part of the OP.

EDIT:

Whoops. My bad.

:oops:


I'd like to point out, though, that ToH has been around for, what, at least a decade now? Any spoilers for it's contents are pretty much past their expiry date; you can probably count the number of D&D players who haven't at least read the module by now (or other people's experiences with it) on one hand.

I don't know, I think you'd find there's a lot of people like myself who jumped on board in 4E and have only heard about how awesomely lethal it is.

Kay

Also, given what the OP says, I think the point is to kill as many characters as possible and rotate in new ones, so ToH Newbies are the way to go! (Like me. I wanted to make an avenger.)

Tofystedeth

Is there much combat in ToH? Like, would it really matter what powers you chose for character besides maybe utility and healing?

Chanus

It's mostly traps/hazards.

Also, it's like a meat grinder for characters anyway... so you may not want to worry too much lest you start having feelings for your character that would not be compatible with having it ripped from your hands :P

The Ender

Chanus wrote: »

It's mostly instant, spectacular death!

Also, it's like a meat grinder for characters anyway... so you may not want to worry too much lest you start having feelings for your character that would not be compatible with having it ripped from your hands :P

fixed.


There are a.. erm... couple of bad guys to fight too.

Chanus

Well, yes, there are... a few...

smeej

The Ender wrote: »

I thought this adventure was for ToH virgins?

I'd like to point out, though, that ToH has been around for, what, at least a decade now?

Tofystedeth

HAL THE PAL(adin)
Am I doing it right!?

link moved cuz putting on the character removed my awesome color.