Tales from the Yawning Portal: DMing the Tomb of Horrors

Tomb of Horrors has always been a favorite of mine to run as a session or two for fun. When Tales of the Yawning Portal popped up with a 5th edition version, I had to get it and run it. Luckily my group was totally on board for a different experience for a few sessions, so away we go.

I've run ToH in multiple systems and I have seen the ins and outs. I know all the tricks. I know what fun looks like and what frustration looks like. ToH is a great experience dating all the way back to Gary Gygax's original group. Let's take a look.

My game was run with 5 players, although we swapped out a couple of players along the way. It lasted about 3 sessions of about 4 hours each. All of the players started with multiple 14th level characters, so they could switch to new ones as characters died. My party ran no rogues, which was just weird.

This is all my opinion. Your game may go differently, your gaming group may have different problems and successes. I'm not going to argue that I am right about any of this in the context of your game. As always, do what works for you.

Here's my recap of the good and the bad at a generic spoiler-free level.

GOOD

• I set expectations that this is a PC-killer dungeon. Players were told to make several PCs and be prepared for them to die. If you don't set this expectation, your players will likely get upset.
• I let all options from my list of playable content into the game.
• I let the PCs have all the mundane equipment they can carry 3 uncommon and 1 rare magic item of choice, and one totally random magic item from all the tables in the DMG.
• I relaxed the rules for spells -- no preparing, no selecting. You get your spell list. Spell slot limits still apply.
• I had a banner map printed (https://www.bannersonthecheap.com/) and covered all of the area with labeled cardstock stuck on with mounting squares. It was OK, but I would prefer a different approach that I give in the spoiler section. I oversized all of the squares and made them weird shapes to attempt to hide secret passages.
• I explained that all skill checks require a complete description of what you are doing, what you are touching, where you are looking, etc.

BAD

• I gave the party maximum HP at every level. This turned out to be too much. Average HP at every level would have been better.
• I let them be level 14. This is great except there are too many "I win" spells for casters. If I had to do it again, I would stick with 10th level (or lower) characters, giving a maximum 5th level spell in play.
• I think some players had seen the ToH before, so I should have modified it more. Having a preprinted map didn't allow for that. 
• I never use a DM screen. For this one, I should have, and probably should have slipped a copy of the map with notes to it.

For here on down, we're talking specifics so SPOILER ALERT!!!

• This adventure isn't polished for ease of use. The wording is often confusing for encounter descriptions, the text to read aloud is difficult and easy to stumble on. I understand that a lot of this is from the original version, but it makes it difficult for your typical 5E DM. Prepare in advance.
• Rests aren't addressed very well. Can the party take a short rest or long rest in the tomb? My recommendation is that short rests are allowed in the tomb. If the party wants a long rest, they have to leave the tomb, because of magic that disrupts sleep.  If the party leaves the tomb for a long rest, everything resets.
• There is a brief blurb on ethereal and astral plane. Unfortunately, I had to change this form my party. If you teleport, misty step, dimension door, or any other similar spell, not only does a deadly demon appear immediately and every time, it can attack you no matter what planar state you are in. It is the only way to avoid teleport cheats to bypass everything.
• The whole tomb is full of secret doors that lead between areas. If you show an overarching map of the tomb, the party can pretty easily start to figure out where to look for secret doors. It is probably best to use a map for just the current area, and remove it once the party moves on Of course, this means managing a lot of smaller maps, but the effect would be much better for confusing the players, especially when one of them gets teleported to another section.
• Use a 5ft square map. Mine was 10ft squares and it made it difficult to manage initiative-based "escape the trap before it kills you" segments.
• Adjust the pit depths and sizes to get the effect you want for your party. 5E jumping and climbing are different, so adjust accordingly. For me, this meant making them require help from an ally with a rope and possibly a grappling hook. It is more of a flavor thing.
• Character death is going to happen. Have a plan for how players get new characters into play. I just let them join the party where they are.
• Check all the monsters and scale for the party in play. For every 50% increase in party size over 4, you have to more than double HP/damage. Combat should be deadly. I didn't scale anything and the combats were all one round. It was boring and uneventful.
• Improvise details, change the directions that rooms are oriented, even change the order of some of the rooms. ToH is well-known and easy to research. Be prepared to run it for people who already know some of the secrets. Swap the entrances (Areas 1, 2, 3) and some of the details about how they look.
• Prep handouts. The riddles are good. A key either on the map or as a handout is good for area 10. The word 'wend' through my players for a loop, assuming it was 'wind'. In text, it would be clearer, rather than spoken.
• Area 14's gender changing archway is pretty old school. I would probably replace it with something else. Gender isn't binary and this mechanic requires it to be. A lot gamers don't use alignment, so that change may be hit or miss too.
• I had to prod the party several times. In particular, getting them to area 17 required a bit of a hint to keep searching.
• Area 18 was a little confusing. My party long-rested, so it reset, giving away its secret. Another good reason to not allow long rests in the ToH.
• The corridors between 21, 22, and 23 were very confusing and impossible to convey when using a map. I would replace the whole trap with a trapped corridor. In each direction after reaching the crossroads, half way down the hall a group of tentacles emerge and start grappling and strangling the party. I would make this a Dex save to avoid them and a Strength(Athletics) check to break free. It gives strong characters a nice chance to shine.
• For the door at 24, I allowed the party to investigate an idea of the shape of the slots in the door, indicating they had a point at the tip. This was enough to prod them onward.
• Area 33 was confusing without a map. The southern section of the room starts to go up. Basically if a party members doesn't drag a PC out of the area or they don't move out on their own, they are crushed. This really only makes sense if the door closes and locks behind them to this area? 
• In general, adding more mechanisms to keep the party from hanging back or easily leaving the dungeon would be great. There are some traps that automatically reset that aren't easily bypassed that helps.
• The efreeti that appears in area 30 grants 3 wishes. I would set some limits:
• All wishes must be made within 10 minutes. After that, he vanishes.
• The wishes cannot reveal anything about areas 32 or 33. It is blocked by antimagic fields.
• The wishes cannot be an "I Win" spell. 
• Or course, they cannot wish to change any of the above conditions or for more wishes.
• Acerak needs to be tougher. I gave him the ability to automatically succeed on 3 saves / long rest. He probably needs to have a deadly attack. I would give him a kill attack that takes a save. On a successful save, the target loses half of their hit point max. On a failed save, the character is dropped immediately to zero hit points. That captures the demilich that I think Acerak should be from the old AD&D days. I might be really corny and allow the save using any saving throw, and set the DC at 15 to 17.  That gives Acerak a 50% chance of killing a PC per round.
• If the cursed gem of wishing makes it in with Acerak and a wish is made, the party dies at the end of the round. The wish my party made actually generated another demilich to fight. This is how my game ended with  TPK -- two demiliches and a party killing gem explosion. It lasted a little longer because of death ward and one party member was a half-orc. 1 hit point saves from death did nothing really.