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## About This Content
## D&D Classics: S1 Tomb of Horrors
In the far reaches of the world, under a lost and lonely hill, lies the
sinister Tomb of Horrors. This labyrinthine crypt is filled with terrible
traps, strange and ferocious monsters, rich and magical treasures, and
somewhere within rests the evil Demi-Lich.
This adventure was originally used for the Official Advanced Dungeons &
Dragons tournament at the FIRST Origins Convention. Included herein are
background information, the Legend of the Tomb, and possible locations for the
tomb on the World of Greyhawk map. Also included are DM notes, characters
specially designed for the module, and numerous illustrations to be shown to
the players.
For characters levels 10-14.
Product History
S1: “Tomb of Horrors” (1978), by Gary Gygax, is the first “Special” adventure
for AD&D. It was likely published in fall 1978.
Origins (I): It Came from California. The story of “Tomb of Horrors” begins
with Alan Lucien, a D&D player from Orangevale, California, near Sacramento.
He’s a minor luminary of early D&D days who received special thanks for
“suggestions” in Supplement I: Greyhawk(1975); one source suggests he might
have contributed spells. In The Dragon #22(February 1979), Lucien was lauded
as a “D&D Contributor” when he was listed as one of the invitees to the first
D&D Masters tournament, held at Winter Fantasy 3 (1979) in Lake Geneva. (He
did not attend.)
However, Lucien’s biggest contribution to the D&D game can almost certainly be
found in “Tomb of Horrors”. Sometime around 1975, Lucien sent Gygax an
adventure set in a tomb that reportedly featured a lich as the final monster.
This encouraged Gygax to create his own “Tomb of Horrors”. He credited Lucien
with “inspiration” for the idea.
Origins (II): Mr. Suitcase. Gygax’s main purpose in creating “Tomb of Horrors”
was to take his players down a peg. He was most intent on creating a challenge
for Rob Kuntz’s PC, Robilar, and for his son Ernie Gygax’s PC, Tenser.
Gygax’s “expert players” were both able to survive the tomb. Robilar famously
brought in a squad of orc hirelings as trap-finders; they died in the first
hallway, but Robilar still made it to the finale with Acererak and managed to
stuff piles of loot into his bag of holding before escaping with his boots of
speed. Although one report incorrectly claims that Tenser killed Acererak, the
truth is that “when Tenser saw the nature of the tomb he simply retired from
it not caring to risk life and limb for whatever treasure it might hold.” He
still did get sometreasure: a ring of telekinesis and an auto-death poison.
Terry Kuntz’s Terik is also reported to have taken the better part of valor!
“Tomb of Horrors” wasn’t Gygax’s only adventure of this sort. He had “a lot of
equally difficult places in the Greyhawk Castle”. But, those were many levels
down, while “Tomb of Horrors” was the adventure that characters could walk
into … and be obliterated moments later.
That’s probably why “Tomb of Horrors” was the adventure that Gygax used to
carry around in his briefcase, ready for “fans who boasted of having mighty
PCs able to best any challenge”.
Origins (III): Origins. The wider public saw “Tomb of Horrors” for the first
time on July 25, 1975 when it was run as the D&D tournament at Origins 1
(1975) in Baltimore, Maryland. Groups of 15 players came together to play
random characters that were assigned to them in alphabetic order. They ranged
from a 4th-level fighter to a 12th-level magic-user.
The scoring system was very simplistic in this primordial tournament: each
party was judged based solely on how much loot they managed to take out of the
“Tomb”. Afterward, Gygax picked the most valuable player out of the most
successful group. The winner was Barry Eynon, another minor luminary of D&D’s
young days. He was a member of the large Michigan gaming group whose
adventures were chronicled in John Van de Graaf’s Ryth Chronicle(1975-1977)
‘zine. Probably due to his success in “Tomb of Horrors”, Eynon was also
another invitee to that first D&D Masters tournament. (He didn’t attend
either.)
Beginning the D&D Adventures. In 1978, Gygax decided to turn the original
“Tomb of Horrors” into an AD&D module. It was given a new “S” code for special
adventures — which probably just means it was a one-off. It was part of the
first wave of seven D&D adventures, all of which were adapted from tournaments
and all of which were published under the AD&D rules. The other six were the
three “G” Giants adventures (1978) and the three “D” descent adventures
(1978), which were released in July and August respectively, at Origins 4
(1978) and Gen Con XI (1978).
With that said, the exact publication date of “Tomb of Horrors” is somewhat
problematic. The product lists on the back covers of those first seven
adventure and their stock numbers all suggest that “Tomb of Horrors” was the
seventh adventure, probably released in Fall 1978. However, some sources
prefer a June date for “Tomb of Horrors”, while Gygax in 1998 noted it as
“first of the adventure ‘modules'”. This historian prefers a fall date for
“Tomb of Horrors”, based both on the trade dress and the fact that The Dragon
#19(October 1978) advertises the three Giants adventures and calls them “the
first three releases in a new series of playing aids” without mentioning “Tomb
of Horrors” at all.
Like all of the original D&D adventures, “Tomb of Horrors” was originally
presented with a monochrome cover. It was reddish in color. The adventure was
then reprinted in a second edition with a full-color cover (1981), with the
new edition having a green border.
Adventure Tropes. “Tomb of Horrors” was TSR’s first “killer dungeon”. As
Lawrence Schick says, it was intended “not to challenge the intruders but to
kill them dead”. This clearly reveals Gygax’s intention to provide problems
that nigh-invulnerable characters might not be able to deal with it; it was
probably also a terrific model for a tournament adventure. Other than these
unique situations, killer dungeons had somewhat limited utility, even in those
early days of roleplaying. Today, the killer dungeon trope probably seems more
important than it really was primarily because of its publication of one of
TSR’s earliest adventures.
“Tomb of Horrors” also reveals a few other tropes of early D&D gaming:
It was the GM vs. the players. This wasn’t cooperative storytelling, it was
competitive play; the GM worked to offer the players a challenge that was
fair, but still daunting. There was the possibility that the players would
succeed, and there was the chance they would fail.
It was about players, not characters. The number of monsters in “Tomb of
Horrors” is actually quite low. And of course there was no skill system in
these early days of D&D. So where was the challenge in “Tomb of Horrors”? Most
of the puzzles, tricks, and traps in the adventure require the players to
figure out the best course of action themselves, rather than just rolling
dice.
Both of these tropes were quite iconic of the early days of D&D gaming.
“Tomb of Horrors” is also notable because it’s quite high-level, at 10-14.
That matched D3: “Vault of the Drow” (1978) as the highest adventure to date
for AD&D. It wouldn’t be surpassed until the publication of the Bloodstone
Pass Saga (1985-1988), which upped AD&D play from the 10th-14th level range
which marked its ceiling for the first several years of play.
Accessories: The Handouts. “Tomb of Horrors” is the first D&D adventure to
contain player handouts. 20 of the 32 pages in the original adventure are
taken up with an “illustration booklet” that contained pictures that showed
players what was present in various rooms. Given its early date, this may also
have been the first professional handout in the industry.
Exploring Greyhawk. This adventure is very lightly set in Greyhawk. Actually,
it gives six different potential locations in Greyhawk for the Tomb — from
the plains of Iuz to an off-shore island. The Origins run of the adventure
used the Vast Swamp as its setting, which was also the location settled on by
the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Game Setting(1983).
The Tomb only became truly integrated into the Greyhawk setting in later
supplements, particularly, Return to the Tomb of Horrors, which created a
whole society around the Tomb.
NPCs of Note. “Tomb of Horrors” introduces the demi-lich Acererak — the
second great villain of Greyhawk, after Vecna. However, much like the Tomb
itself, Acererak didn’t become a major part of Greyhawk lore until the release
of Return to the Tomb of Horrors.
Acererak was also the first example of the demilich monster.
About the Creators. Gygax was of course the co-creator of the D&D game. His
six Descent and Giants adventures were also published in 1978, but “Tomb of
Horrors” was of an earlier pedigree given its 1975 origins — and is thus one
of the earliest existing example of Gygax’s adventure design.
Converted by: Michael Davey
Released on May 23, 2019. Designed for Fantasy Grounds version 3.3.7 and
higher.
Requires: An active subscription or a one time purchase of a Fantasy Grounds
Full or Ultimate license and a one time purchase of the 2E ruleset.
Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
CPU | 1.6 GHz or higher processor | 2.0 GHz or higher processor |
RAM | 1 GB RAM | 4 GB RAM |
OS | Windows 7x , 8x or 10x | Windows 7x , 8x or 10x |
Graphics Card | Graphics card recommended | DirectX or OpenGL compatible card. |
Direct X | Version 9.0c | Version 9.0c |
SOUND CARD | a sound card is required for voice communication using external programs like Google Hangouts, Skype or Discord. | a sound card is required for voice communication using external programs like Google Hangouts, Skype or Discord. |
HDD Space | 500 MB available space | 2 GB available space |
Minimum System Requirements | Recommended System Requirements | |
CPU | 1.6 GHz or higher processor | 2.0 GHz processor or higher |
RAM | 1 GB RAM | 4 GB RAM |
OS | 10.6.8 or newer | 10.6.8 or newer |
Graphics Card | Graphics card recommended | DirectX 9.0 compatible video adapter |
SOUND CARD | A sound card is required for voice communication using external programs like Google Hangouts, Skype or Discord. | A sound card is required for voice communication using external programs like Google Hangouts, Skype or Discord. |
HDD Space | 500 MB available space | 2 GB available space |