Tomb of Horrors
Encyclopedia
Tomb of Horrors is an adventure module
written by Gary Gygax
for the Dungeons & Dragons
(D&D) role-playing game
. It was originally written for and used at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax designed the adventure both to challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign, and to test players who boasted of having mighty player character
s able to best any challenge. The module, coded S1, was the first in the S-series, or special series of modules. Several versions of the adventure have been published, the first in 1978, and the most recent, published for the D&D fourth edition, in 2010. It also served as the basis for a novel published in 2002.
The module's plot revolves around the tomb of the demi-lich Acererak
. The player character
s must battle their way past a variety of monsters and traps, with the ultimate goal of destroying Acererak. Tomb of Horrors is considered one of the greatest Dungeons & Dragons modules of all time, as well as one of the most difficult. The module has influenced later Dungeons & Dragons products, and was followed by three other (unrelated) modules in the S-series: S2 White Plume Mountain
, S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
, and S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
.
is said to linger in his ancient tomb in undead
form. Originally a powerful lich
, he has (unbeknownst to the players) become a demi-lich, a more powerful form of undead that has transcended the need for any physical body apart from its skull. Player characters must survive the deadly traps in the tomb and fight their way into the demi-lich's elaborately concealed inner sanctum to destroy him once and for all.
The module is divided into thirty-three encounters, beginning with two false entrances to the tomb, and ending with "The Crypt of Acererak the Demi-Lich". Example encounters are the "Huge Pit Filled with 200 Spikes" (section 20), or encounter 22, "The Cavern of Gold and Silver Mists": "The mists are silvery and shot through with delicate streamers of golden color. Vision extends only 6'. There is a dim aura of good if detected for. Those who step into the mist must save versus poison or become idiots until they can breathe the clean air above ground under the warm sun." The module ends with the destruction of Acererak, without any postscript.
for official D&D tournament play at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax developed the adventure from an idea by Alan Lucien, one of his original AD&D playtest
ers, "and I admit to chuckling evilly as I did so." Gygax designed the Tomb of Horrors modules for two related purposes. First, Gygax explains, "There were several very expert players in my campaign, and this was meant as yet another challenge to their skill—and the persistence of their theretofore-invincible characters. Specifically, I had in mind foiling Rob Kuntz's PC, Robilar
, and Ernie Gygax's PC, Tenser
." Second, so that he was "ready for those fans [players] who boasted of having mighty PCs able to best any challenge offered by the AD&D game."
In 1978, TSR, Inc.
published the module with a monochrome cover, revised and updated for use with first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module included a twenty page book, a twelve page book, and an outer folder; the original printing featured a two-color cover. The module features a book of illustrations to show to players as the adventure unfolds. Tomb of Horrors was republished in 1981 as a thirty-two page booklet with identical text but a new, full-color cover. The module has been described as the first of a series of high-level scenarios, and was included as part of the Realms of Horror abridged compilation produced in 1987.
In 1998, the module was reprinted as part of the Return to the Tomb of Horrors
module—a substantial expansion and sequel to the original adventure, written for 2nd Edition AD&D rules. Wizards of the Coast
released an updated version of the original module as a free download for Halloween 2005, retaining much of the original content; the updated content is from the Dungeons & Dragons supplement book Libris Mortis
. This updated version was designed for use with the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition rules. Tomb of Horrors was also adapted into a novel of the same name by Keith Francis Strohm for the Greyhawk Classics series published by Wizards of the Coast
in 2002.
In July 2010, Wizards of the Coast released two adventures bearing the Tomb of Horrors name. One is a hardcover super-adventure written by Ari Marmell
and Scott Fitzgerald Gray, which builds on and expands the legend of the original Tomb using the canon of Return to the Tomb of Horrors as a starting point. The second Tomb of Horrors is a conversion and update of the original module for 4th Edition rules, written by Scott Fitzgerald Gray and released to members of the RPGA as part of the DM (Dungeon Master
) Rewards program].
magazine in 2004. Dungeon Master for Dummies, which lists Tomb of Horrors as one of the ten best classic adventures, posits that many of the adventure's traps would kill a character just for making poor choices. Lawrence Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, calls the adventure "A very difficult scenario".
Don Turnbull reviewed Tomb of Horrors in issue No. 13 of the magazine White Dwarf
, and gave the module a rating of 10 out of 10. Turnbull commented on the adventure's difficulty, noting that the dungeon is "sprinkled extensively with subtle, insidious and carefully laid traps, and it will be a fortunate adventurer who manages to avoid them". He felt that the illustration booklet would add a great deal to the adventure's atmosphere and felt that the pre-generated character roster was useful. Turnbull noted that the module is "very hard and will be hard for the DM to learn in advance, though this is an essential prerequisite of running it properly for it is much more subtle than the G or D modules", and he said that this module has in common with those modules an "excellent format, for instance, and the comprehensive way in which the scenario is introduced. TSR's high quality has not been in any way compromised, and in S1 it has even been improved upon."
Wayne MacLaurin of SF Site describes the module as "a classic" and a "must have" for gamers, saying that when he played the game in high school, most of his group's characters quickly died. MacLaurin explains that Tomb of Horrors is a classic not because of its difficulty, but because it was the first module that did not involve killing large amounts of monsters; it was a "collection of puzzles and maps." Its focus on traps rather than monsters was a surprise to gamers at the time. One technique some players used to get past the deathtraps was to drive cattle ahead of them, which Lore Sjöberg
of Wired
described as "a bit less than heroic", noting that in Lord of the Rings Gandalf did not send "50 head of cattle into the Mines of Moria to serve as Balrog bait."
Tomb of Horrors has also influenced later Dungeons & Dragons products. Jason Bulmahn
used the module, as well as Indiana Jones
, as inspiration for some of the traps in the 2007 D&D supplement Dungeonscape. The computer role-playing game Icewind Dale
, developed for Windows
by Black Isle Studios
, was influenced by the module; Black Isle Studios division director Feargus Urquhart
said, "We wanted something that reminded everyone of their first foray into dungeons like the Tomb of Horrors, with traps around every corner, and the undead crawling out of the walls."
Adventure (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, an adventure or module is a pre-packaged book or box set that helps the Dungeon Master manage the plot or story of a game...
written by Gary Gygax
Gary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
for the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
(D&D) role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
. It was originally written for and used at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax designed the adventure both to challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign, and to test players who boasted of having mighty player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s able to best any challenge. The module, coded S1, was the first in the S-series, or special series of modules. Several versions of the adventure have been published, the first in 1978, and the most recent, published for the D&D fourth edition, in 2010. It also served as the basis for a novel published in 2002.
The module's plot revolves around the tomb of the demi-lich Acererak
Acererak
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Acererak was a powerful wizard who became a lich, and later a demilich.-Publication history:...
. The player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s must battle their way past a variety of monsters and traps, with the ultimate goal of destroying Acererak. Tomb of Horrors is considered one of the greatest Dungeons & Dragons modules of all time, as well as one of the most difficult. The module has influenced later Dungeons & Dragons products, and was followed by three other (unrelated) modules in the S-series: S2 White Plume Mountain
White Plume Mountain
White Plume Mountain is an adventure module for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, written by Lawrence Schick and published by TSR in 1979...
, S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre...
, and S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1982 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The 64-page adventure bears the code "S4" and is set in the World of...
.
Plot summary
Tomb of Horrors is set in the World of Greyhawk, a D&D campaign setting. In Tomb of Horrors, the adventurers encounter a number of tricks and traps while attempting to penetrate the tomb of a dead wizard. As the scenario begins, the players are told that the evil wizard AcererakAcererak
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Acererak was a powerful wizard who became a lich, and later a demilich.-Publication history:...
is said to linger in his ancient tomb in undead
Undead (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, undead is a classification of monsters that can be encountered by player characters. Undead creatures are most often once-living creatures, which have been animated by spiritual or supernatural forces....
form. Originally a powerful lich
Lich (Dungeons & Dragons)
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lich is an undead creature; a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means.-Dungeons & Dragons :...
, he has (unbeknownst to the players) become a demi-lich, a more powerful form of undead that has transcended the need for any physical body apart from its skull. Player characters must survive the deadly traps in the tomb and fight their way into the demi-lich's elaborately concealed inner sanctum to destroy him once and for all.
The module is divided into thirty-three encounters, beginning with two false entrances to the tomb, and ending with "The Crypt of Acererak the Demi-Lich". Example encounters are the "Huge Pit Filled with 200 Spikes" (section 20), or encounter 22, "The Cavern of Gold and Silver Mists": "The mists are silvery and shot through with delicate streamers of golden color. Vision extends only 6'. There is a dim aura of good if detected for. Those who step into the mist must save versus poison or become idiots until they can breathe the clean air above ground under the warm sun." The module ends with the destruction of Acererak, without any postscript.
Publication history
Tomb of Horrors was written by Gary GygaxGary Gygax
Ernest Gary Gygax was an American writer and game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of role-playing games....
for official D&D tournament play at the 1975 Origins 1 convention. Gygax developed the adventure from an idea by Alan Lucien, one of his original AD&D playtest
Playtest
A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and flaws before bringing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise....
ers, "and I admit to chuckling evilly as I did so." Gygax designed the Tomb of Horrors modules for two related purposes. First, Gygax explains, "There were several very expert players in my campaign, and this was meant as yet another challenge to their skill—and the persistence of their theretofore-invincible characters. Specifically, I had in mind foiling Rob Kuntz's PC, Robilar
Robilar
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, Robilar is a powerful warrior who serves as commander of Rary's forces in the Empire of the Bright Lands...
, and Ernie Gygax's PC, Tenser
Tenser
In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Tenser is an archmage who actively seeks to rid the Flanaess of evil...
." Second, so that he was "ready for those fans [players] who boasted of having mighty PCs able to best any challenge offered by the AD&D game."
In 1978, TSR, Inc.
TSR, Inc.
Blume and Gygax, the remaining owners, incorporated a new company called TSR Hobbies, Inc., with Blume and his father, Melvin Blume, owning the larger share. The former assets of the partnership were transferred to TSR Hobbies, Inc....
published the module with a monochrome cover, revised and updated for use with first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module included a twenty page book, a twelve page book, and an outer folder; the original printing featured a two-color cover. The module features a book of illustrations to show to players as the adventure unfolds. Tomb of Horrors was republished in 1981 as a thirty-two page booklet with identical text but a new, full-color cover. The module has been described as the first of a series of high-level scenarios, and was included as part of the Realms of Horror abridged compilation produced in 1987.
In 1998, the module was reprinted as part of the Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Return to the Tomb of Horrors is a boxed set adventure module for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game released in 1998 by TSR, Inc.. It is set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting and is a sequel to Gary Gygax's 1978 module Tomb of Horrors...
module—a substantial expansion and sequel to the original adventure, written for 2nd Edition AD&D rules. Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
released an updated version of the original module as a free download for Halloween 2005, retaining much of the original content; the updated content is from the Dungeons & Dragons supplement book Libris Mortis
Libris Mortis
Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead is a book which is an official supplement for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game...
. This updated version was designed for use with the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition rules. Tomb of Horrors was also adapted into a novel of the same name by Keith Francis Strohm for the Greyhawk Classics series published by Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games...
in 2002.
In July 2010, Wizards of the Coast released two adventures bearing the Tomb of Horrors name. One is a hardcover super-adventure written by Ari Marmell
Ari Marmell
Ari Marmell is an American novelist and freelance role-playing game writer.-Novels:His first novel, Gehenna: The Final Night, was published in 2004 by White Wolf Publishing...
and Scott Fitzgerald Gray, which builds on and expands the legend of the original Tomb using the canon of Return to the Tomb of Horrors as a starting point. The second Tomb of Horrors is a conversion and update of the original module for 4th Edition rules, written by Scott Fitzgerald Gray and released to members of the RPGA as part of the DM (Dungeon Master
Dungeon Master
In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the Dungeon Master is the game organizer and participant in charge of creating the details and challenges of a given adventure, while maintaining a realistic continuity of events...
) Rewards program].
Reception
Tomb of Horrors was ranked the 3rd greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by DungeonDungeon (magazine)
Dungeon Adventures, or simply Dungeon, was a magazine targeting consumers of role-playing games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons. It was first published by TSR, Inc. in 1986 as a bimonthly periodical. It went monthly in May 2003 and ceased print publication altogether in September 2007 with Issue 150...
magazine in 2004. Dungeon Master for Dummies, which lists Tomb of Horrors as one of the ten best classic adventures, posits that many of the adventure's traps would kill a character just for making poor choices. Lawrence Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, calls the adventure "A very difficult scenario".
Don Turnbull reviewed Tomb of Horrors in issue No. 13 of the magazine White Dwarf
White Dwarf (magazine)
White Dwarf is a magazine published by British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Initially covering a wide variety of fantasy and science-fiction role-playing and board games, particularly the role playing games Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest and Traveller...
, and gave the module a rating of 10 out of 10. Turnbull commented on the adventure's difficulty, noting that the dungeon is "sprinkled extensively with subtle, insidious and carefully laid traps, and it will be a fortunate adventurer who manages to avoid them". He felt that the illustration booklet would add a great deal to the adventure's atmosphere and felt that the pre-generated character roster was useful. Turnbull noted that the module is "very hard and will be hard for the DM to learn in advance, though this is an essential prerequisite of running it properly for it is much more subtle than the G or D modules", and he said that this module has in common with those modules an "excellent format, for instance, and the comprehensive way in which the scenario is introduced. TSR's high quality has not been in any way compromised, and in S1 it has even been improved upon."
Wayne MacLaurin of SF Site describes the module as "a classic" and a "must have" for gamers, saying that when he played the game in high school, most of his group's characters quickly died. MacLaurin explains that Tomb of Horrors is a classic not because of its difficulty, but because it was the first module that did not involve killing large amounts of monsters; it was a "collection of puzzles and maps." Its focus on traps rather than monsters was a surprise to gamers at the time. One technique some players used to get past the deathtraps was to drive cattle ahead of them, which Lore Sjöberg
Lore Sjöberg
Lore Christian Fitzgerald Sjöberg is an internet humorist, co-founder of the Brunching Shuttlecocks humor website and author of The Book of Ratings...
of Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
described as "a bit less than heroic", noting that in Lord of the Rings Gandalf did not send "50 head of cattle into the Mines of Moria to serve as Balrog bait."
Tomb of Horrors has also influenced later Dungeons & Dragons products. Jason Bulmahn
Jason Bulmahn
-Career:Jason Bulmahn became the managing editor of Dragon in 2004 and is now the lead designer of Paizo Publishing and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The Beta version of the Pathfinder RPG received the gold ENnie award for "best free product or web enhancement" in 2008...
used the module, as well as Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
, as inspiration for some of the traps in the 2007 D&D supplement Dungeonscape. The computer role-playing game Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. Released on June 30, 2000, it takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting, and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition...
, developed for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
by Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios was a division of the computer and video game developer and publisher Interplay Entertainment. Black Isle Studios was a division that developed computer role-playing games, and also published several games from other developers. It was based in Orange County, California, USA. The...
, was influenced by the module; Black Isle Studios division director Feargus Urquhart
Feargus Urquhart
Feargus Urquhart is a Scottish computer game developer and CEO of Obsidian Entertainment.-Career:Urquhart is best known for his work at Interplay Entertainment, particularly as leader of Black Isle Studios...
said, "We wanted something that reminded everyone of their first foray into dungeons like the Tomb of Horrors, with traps around every corner, and the undead crawling out of the walls."