AD&D: Tomb of Horrors

Tomb of Horrors was created by Gary Gygax originally for "tournament" play. Designed to test experienced players with elaborate mechanical puzzles and instant-kill traps, it epitomizes Gygax's approach to role-play: Rather than a tool for telling stories, he saw the Dungeons & Dragons games, which he co-created, as a series of puzzles for logical-minded players to try and "win." You can see the connection between early role-playing and the PC "adventure games" genre really clearly in this module, I think.

I think Tomb of Horrors is a great way to introduce this mode of antagonistic, hierarchical play to students before exploring how the "Indie RPGs" and "story games" of the 2000s popularized more collaborative approaches to storytelling. Even students familiar with Fifth Edition D&D will be surprised how much role-playing has changed.

Some notes on methodology and intent:

• These packets (AD&D DM package and AD&D player sheets) are all taken from materials scanned and available on Internet Archive.
• DMs have a lot of reference material to wrangle – a map, tables, combat rules, monster descriptions. The goal of this exercise is not to play AD&D perfectly according to the rules. It's to emulate the experience of being a DM in a game with so much supplementary material. When do DMs fall back on reference material and when do they make a judgement call for the sake of moving the game along ("Just give me a d20")?
• Traditional AD&D has a hierarchical structure: The DM has knowledge the players simply don't have access to until the DM introduces it (often as a gotcha in a moment of black comedy). To try and recreate this dynamic, it's important that non-DM players don't look at the DM packet before the game session.
• The player sheets, combat rules and magic rules have been simplified for the sake of creating something that is playable in an hour, but I've tried to preserve the spirit of those systems. In general, any rules that appear on a "yellow looseleaf paper" background are my own hacks of the original AD&D rules.
• Player characters will almost certainly die during play; this is part of the intended experience. You might want to prepare your students for this, though.
• AD&D did not have safety mechanics like the X-card or Lines & Veils, but I've included a reminder to use the X-card anyway. I think it's good to have a consistent safety mechanic across the class, no matter what kind of game is being played.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was released from 1977 to 1979 (it was a series of three books) as an update to the original Dungeons & Dragons, released in 74. Tomb of Horrors had been first run by Gygax at Origins in 1975, and was revised and released as a commercial "module" for AD&D in 78.

Prep:

• Several days to a week before running the game, ask students to volunteer as DMs. You'll want one DM for every group of up to four PCs (player characters). Make the DM package available to them so they can go over it ahead of class. They don't need to memorize it; they'll mostly want to read over the "Legend of the Tomb" page and acquaint themselves with the beginning of the adventure. PCs should not look at the DM package.
• Before class, print physical copies of the DM package using your employer's ink, one per DM. Some of the pages are images of the tomb's locations that DMs can hand out to their players during play, so it's good to have them on paper. Plus, I think the feeling of rummaging through a stack of reference materials is important to the experience.
• You'll also want to print physical copies of the player sheets pdf, again one per group.

Running:

• Split up DMs. Assign each DM 2-5 players. Give each DM a copy of the DM packet and each group a copy of all four player sheets. Make sure each group has at least one set of polyhedral dice, too: Ideally 2d10, 1d20, and several d6s. Your students will probably have your own, but I like to have extras on hand just in case.
• Hand out some kind of player markers (I used simple, generic player tokens in various colors) and invite PCs to create a map of their adventure as they play on the graph paper included in the DM package.
• Invite students to pick their characters from the pre-printed player sheets. The selection includes a Magic-User, Cleric, Paladin and Thief. Stats are already filled in; references for their items, spells and skills are in the DM package (the DM is welcome to share them). Students can fill in their character's name and (if they like) description.
• Tell the DMs they can start by reading their players the Legend of the Tomb, then proceeding to the Mound.
• Give groups 45 minutes to an hour to player and be on hand to answer questions about the rules.

Discussion:

• Some good starting questions are to ask, "Did any group have a Total Party Wipe? Did any group survive until the end?"
• Jon Peterson, in his book The Elusive Shift, refers to the original D&D as “a toolbox,” not a game, suggesting that it was up to players to use the tools the game provided to create a full game experience. To what degree is that true of AD&D?
  
• AD&D (and the DM package) is full of information: to-hit tables, numbers, reference material for exactly how equipment works. What is this good for, and what are its limitations?
• What video games does Tomb of Horrors most remind you of?
• What was missing? What weren't there rules or reference for?