The Tomb of Horrors

>or any of the previous editions?
3.5 It was all one massive "Fuck You" to the players. Let them know this going in.

LOTS old school bullshit traps made by sociopaths.

Red herrings because fuck you.

Tiny critical details.

Surprise! You're dead!

I sent them in with a naked cleric who used all their starting gold in diamond dust for raise-dead. It wasn't enough.

>What tip can you give me to make the adventure more fun for my players?

Let them know that there's a bunch of old-school description->question->probing->HAHAFUCKYOUYOU'REDEAD! sort of play. Tell them it's like a puzzle they have to unlock. Remind them it's ok to die as long as some get out.

>What experiences have you had DMing/playing that were memorable?
The gargoyle royally fucking up their shit. It's the first combat they had and instead of attacking the meat-tank in front, it walked past, and stood in the middle of the squishies who couldn't do jack shit without dying instantly to it.

The bullshit doorway puzzles were so bullshit I bypassed it.

One player thought she could outsmart the game maker and had some stone-pass / walk through stone spell. Yep. The rock is special and blocks you. OH! And that triggers demons popping in, because fuck you.

In that fight, the poor guy who made an assassin and spent THREE turns just looking at one of the demons made his big attack... and simply missed.

> as this fairly new group has a few first time players in it.

You dumb fuck. This is a "classic" module to put scars on your veterans. Don't throw fresh meat into the grinder, you'll just sour them to D&D forever.

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OP here also forgot to add I am looking for creative reasons as to why the PC's are there in the first place and how to incorporate the pile of random pre gen's I have for the numerous deaths that will inevitably ensue?

All I had so far was to have the PCs start as captives aboard a massive Ship full of other captive adventurers. The captain of the ship is a wealthy evil merchant who has had 20 of some of the toughest adventurers across the world captured / arrested and brought aboard his vessel. The legendary resting place of Acererak is rumored to have appeared on an uncharted island in the middle of the ocean, and the Merchant plans the use to slave adventurers to retrieve the Skull of Acererak. The group who can bring back the skull to him will win their freedom, the rest will die attempting to loot the tomb.

Any thoughts or suggestions on that premise? I figured there could be some magic field at the tomb entrance preventing more than 4 people entering at a time so that when a player dies, they pick the next pre-gen from the pile to come filing in from the camp outside.

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>>52645454
>The bullshit doorway puzzles were so bullshit I bypassed it.

I was also thinking of bypassing that particular area because it seemed like a real time sink and not very fun and just sort of bullshit. good call.

>You dumb fuck.
lul

>This is a "classic" module to put scars on your veterans. Don't throw fresh meat into the grinder, you'll just sour them to D&D forever.

the newbies have already played through a few sessions with me and are obsessed with the game and expressed desire to try ome old school content. Since I dont think they are quite ready for 1st or 2nd ed. I figured this could be a cool one. I also forgot to mention this is a one shot from our regular night as some people couldnt make it, so these guys are all well aware that they are going to die often and that there will be a large selection of pre gens for them. I see it as an opportunity fr them to try new classes and experience what higher level play feels like. Thank you for all of your input!

>>52644557
>they see his dic

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>>52645577
checked and wut?

>>52644557
Make sure they know this isnt a role-playing game.

They are trying to solve a puzzle. The players, that is. There is little involvement from the actual characters, as you are generally meant to rely on the player, not character, knowledge.

You are meant to punish players for not knowing what they character does. They are supposed to be punished by not knowing how the environment looks or how to interact with it properly.

They are supposed to have fun, in the same way you have fun playing dwarf fortress. It is the constant and interesting deaths that makes it fun, not succeeding, and not playing a role-playing game. Never ask people to make up a character. Ask them to make a character sheet with build they think can help them survive this. If they start making a background story, immediately stop them - don't let your players waste their time.

Dont ever use it as anything but a stand alone. It is not fitting for a campaign, for all the above reasons.

>>52645639
Fuck the 9ABCDEFG secret doors.

See the first hallway? See that pit HALFWAY on two squares? Fuck that noise. Especially since it never happens again. It just instills a distrust for the rules in the players. Put it in one square other other.

It's also a MAJOR bummer and slow-down if they missed the secret door next to the false crypt. We spent ~30 minutes just talking about where they search next, pointless die rolls, and backtracking.

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>>52645650
>They are supposed to have fun, in the same way you have fun playing dwarf fortress. It is the constant and interesting deaths that makes it fun, not succeeding, and not playing a role-playing game. Never ask people to make up a character. Ask them to make a character sheet with build they think can help them survive this. If they start making a background story, immediately stop them - don't let your players waste their time.

They are all aware that this i going to be a very deadly session and that I have a large stack of Pre-gens for them to use. I have prepared a little flavor text to read at the beginning of the adventure to try and have it make some sort of sense and also taking >>52645745 advise on a removing a few of the unnecessarily un-fun time consuming aspects of the dungeon. I'll green text my opening dialog in a sec.

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>>52646181
> Rumors have been whispered in the ports across Telrune of a small island in the shape of a skull, shrouded in mist and fog and seeming to have appeared overnight in a mostly uncharted region of the Tempest Sea. You have found yourself a captive on ‘The Black Swan’, a large black-steel pirate vessel captained by ‘Belegost the wicked’, a dwarven Necromancer and hand of the Crimson King. You and the 20 other random group of adventurers had all been arrested at some point over the past year for using or associating with those who use arcane magic and were serving a life sentence in the catacombs beneath the great Castle Northeros. You were then relieved of your horrifying existence of mining deeper through the depths of the catacombs and placed as crew on ‘The Black Swan’ shoveling coal to keep the engines moving, told only that you have earned a chance at freedom.

You have spent weeks on the rocky and turbulent waves of the Tempest Sea without a hint of land in sight until one moonless night the fog parts to reveal the jagged cliff face of the island. It appears the rumors were true after all. It is after docking the ship and setting up camp on the dark beach that Belegost reveals why you were brought here.

It appears this is not just an uncharted island missed by previous explorers of the Tempest Sea. The Crimson King believes this to be the long lost Tomb of the great sorcerer Lich Acererak. Long rumored to have been lost or buried in the ancient sands of the Gray Wastes thousands of years ago, this tomb is said to contain some of the most potent and evil magic in all of Telrune. The Crimson King has invested Belegost to retrieve the Skull of Acererak to add to his vault of magic relics and is willing to free any of the adventurers who succeed in helping him in retrieving it.

Shameless self bump

Tomb of Horrors is straight out unfair, and it is not fun for the players. They don't wanna solve it, so unless you have them wanting to play don't bother for it will be very boring for them and you.

The dungeon is shit, one of the worst things ever made by Gary Gaygax. Because he made it after being taunted by a player on a convention who said all his dungeons can be passed. So please, don't force this very badly made dungeon on players unless they really want it. Also if you want it to be scary make them level 8.

>>52646190
By providing that opening crawl, George you literally just provided the backstory anon told you not to.

>>52644557
>out of the new Tales from the Yawning Portal book
This is why I can't stand the later editions of D&D.... I just can't stand the constant rehashing of old material that's sold as a new product.

>>52645454
>it's not fair! the post
Though I have to agree with this anon that it's a meat grinder for veteran PCs. Start at lvl1 and work your way up

They want to run it, I'm having them incorporate a drinking aspect where they have to chug their drink every character death

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>>52648163
I don't think I made it clear initially that only 2 of the players are relatively new(1 played about 10 sessions the ) . Myself and a few others have been playing for 20+ years. If it was the original tomb of horrors theres no way it would be fun for someone that new, but the 5e version is nerfed and I'm also taking out some of the time waster traps mentioned above like room 9abcdefg and some of the hidden doors to have it run faster. I just thought it would be a fun idea to use NPCs from the normal campaign world to set the scene for what's going to be mostly a laid back session. The new players are pretty open minded, wanted to give them a hand to try role playing different race / class combinations and experience higher level play for a night.

>>52647977
Nice dubs, and that crawl is forshadowing for things going on in the main campaign as this is still all taking place in my home brew world