I was prophetic in the usual way with my last (and first!) post. The group ** did ** break up but it was because of divorce as opposed to the other options I listed. That’s the way prophecy usually works – half-assed right by getting dumb lucky on some generality. Such is life and a half-lifetime of gaming :(

On the Tomb of Horrors:
It was a tough module. The group I DM’d through it made it out with some loot – only two deaths that they could afford to resurrect thanks to the final encounter payoff. What made this success possible where two rule-changes and a ton of smart playing. Change 1) Instant Death saves were very rare in my campaign – though they did happen from time to time. Just not near so often as they do by the official rules (1st and 2nd Eds). 2) I made Asceric (sp?) ** very ** old indeed. His style of magic went back to the time of the first sentient use of magic (in my campaign ‘history’) so that opened up many possibilities to morph spells by inventive players. Magic at that time was not so formalized and could be extensively modified on the fly – not “wild magic” but not so tame either. Anyway, it worked to the players advantage if they played smart and got a couple good rolls.

Kursor’s solutions would not have worked in my campaign but then every one is different. That’s why the game was so much fun for our group for so many years.

Vanyars DM was an idiot – guess that kept him from killing the party as a player. . .

Other final comments:

Mystek, I’m jealous. Your group may have had more fun than mine did!

No more gaming for me. Life really sucks sometimes.

Party On!

-Global

But some few months ago, we decided to, finally, play some modules. We tried once Undermountain but it was too boring for us, who prefer heavy roleplaying. This spring, we´re trying the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. I think it can be still an experience, despite our age (closing to 40 now) and our “matureness” on RPGing.

Tomb of Horrors: Any DM that let this module go easy on the PCs needs help. The best success any party ever had was 2 PCs **really** dead and one more that should have been but rolled 03% when anything higher would have been life-ending failure. Also there was a male paladin who had to feminize his name after venturing in the Tomb.

A general note on all of these modules: I have been a player and/or DM in all but a couple and everyone of them had to be at least slightly re-written to be playable. Sometimes this is due to poor editing but often to flex the utility of the module to the House Rules and other quirks of the gaming group.

Ravenloft was perhaps the best written – alas for the poor DM who ran our group through it; our party happened to decide to crash in the back through the chapel window and came upon the Sunsword first thing. Paladin w/a Sunsword vs Strahd – no match especially when the Paladin wins the initiative. Then follow the gaseous Vamp to his “bed” and put an end to the threat.

After reading comments above I am compelled to look for an old copy of U1 just to read.

Last comment: Anyone play 3.x or 4th Ed D&D? I really like how easy the modules are to adapt *back* to 2nd edition. The feats and powers make great ideas for magic items the players have never encountered before. Alas, if I lose just one more player (getting married or having kids or moving away pursuing a career, etc) there will be no more gaming for me :( Growing up really sucks in some ways!

On-line gaming is not for me. I lost track of an entire 3-day weekend once a few years ago – didn’t even pee for something near 15 hours (I know, TMI) – so decided I cannot handle that drug. Best I stick to table-tops and minis.

Thanks everyone for the nostalgic trip. . .
-Global

M

29. The Assassin’s Knot, 1983 (L2): Not a bad module. Underrated actually. City/town adventures were always fun to run.

27. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, 1981(U1): This was truly a well-written module.

25. Dragons of Despair, 1984 (DL1): When I ran this, the players ran like hell from the dozen black dragons until they realized that they were all hatchlings! Rofl

23. The Forgotten Temple of Tharzidun, 1982 (WG4): I never thought much of this module. I felt that it was a real letdown after S4. It seemed like a weaker module and a step down for the characters.

22. The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, 1982 (S4): Definitely one of my favorite modules to run. Very well written with the final monster controlling one of the characters (and the player ran it excellently after I sent him a note telling what happened to his pc). Plus having a Monster Manual (1 1/2) inside the module made it a really nice treat.

18. The Hidden Shrine of Tamochan, 1980 (C1): An old classic.

16. Isle of Dread, 1980 (X1): All I remember from running this module was Umlat, tribal cleric. I had a riot running that NPC. I kept remembering the old Billy Crystal routine with the natives saying, “Poowaypoo, poowaypoo…” Lol

9. White Plume Mountain, 1979 (S2): I played in this module. The three powerful items were nice. My character wound up with the third item (not Blackrazor or the trident). I can’t remember what it was. :/

6. The Desert of Desolation, 1987 (I3-5): Not a bad trio of modules. This took the better portion of a year to complete this set.

5. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, 1980 (S3): The first module that I ever ran way back in 1982. I know… I’m dating myself. But you could add all kinds of stuff to the empty levels of the ship. So I added a gamma ray gun that could give your character Hulk-like powers or kill you. :)

4. The Temple of Elemental Evil, 1985 (T1-4): Village of Hommlet was fun, then I ran the characters through the T2 portion of the module. We never finished running this thing. It just seemed like it took forever for this module to come out. It was a running joke with players and Gygax.

3. Tomb of Horrors, 1978 (S1): A DM’s favorite module to take care of those characters that think they are gods. I ran it three times and did major damage to two of the parties. Only the third party managed to finish relatively unscathed.

2. Ravenloft, 1983 (I6): Probably my favorite module to run of all time! The maps were beautiful and the storyline was very well thought out. If ran properly, you could damage the party fairly easily.

1. Queen of Spiders, 1986 (G1-3, D1-3, Q1): An epic quest. However, as a player, I got very bored with the Drow portion of the modules. The Giant series was exciting but when you take on an enemy who’s basically immune against magic in their backyard, it’s gets tired fast. I ran the Giants series and played in the Drow series. I was going to run Q1 but it never got off the ground.

Modules not on the list: I9 The Cup & Talisman of Al-Akbar adventure was very fun to run. I ran two separate groups at the same time and they eventually met and sparks flew. Going after an artifact is always fun.

I know that I’m leaving out some other modules but it’s late and I’m half falling asleep!

M

After killing so many unseen servants we started to joke that they were going to form a union in the after life and come after us. The party never picked up anything the unseen servants did. If they could not pick it up due to weight then it was left for later and Augury spells were used to determine if it was safe to move.

At the level the party is for this adventure they should not have died at all.

Same for the Throne of Bloodstone. While we never finished that module the Lich in that game was a joke. We had 25th level characters. The party again flew about half way up the tower. Used passwalls to get into the tower and then rock to mud to drop the ceiling on the Lich. The look on the game master’s face was price less.

Things like this keep me playing in person RPGs over computer versions.

As for my favorite S2 White Plume Mountain. I’ve run through it and run it both. Currently I’m running my son and his friends are running through it. When the got Blackrazor it was great. The sword took over the fighter that picked it up. The party managed to stop him before he killed anyone (Hold Person spells are great). They then used an Unseen Servant to slid it into its sheath and then bag it (my son got the idea from watching me play).

I’m waiting to see how they do with the lava/mud pit challenge.