A Theme Park Adventure with Mud Baths, Saunas, and a Kayak Ride

June 5, 2013 8:08 AM

Jason Thompson (previously on Metafilter), an Eisner nominee who writes about manga and draws comics based on H.P. Lovecraft stories, has created wonderful cartoon maps of some classic Dungeons and Dragons modules.

Tomb of Horrors : "S1 Tomb of Horrors is one of the most famous Advanced Dungeons & Dragons scenarios in the history of the game. It passed through several iterations, first appearing in Gary’s campaign as a dungeon designed to challenge his players’ high-level characters—and take them down a peg." (previously on Metafilter)

White Plume Mountain : "...White Plume Mountain wasn’t written to be published. I wrote it as a submission to persuade Gary that he ought to hire me [Lawrence Schick] as an RPG designer. Mission accomplished: Gary offered me a job..."

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks : "Vegepygmies and robots. What more could you need to hear? Let’s go!...."

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth : "S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth marked the end of the S series—and rightly so, because despite being based on a gilded-hole dungeon originally designed for a tournament in 1976, its updated version really belonged more to the ‘80s campaign-setting school of design...."

posted by magstheaxe (11 comments total)

This is epic stuff - many thanks for this.

I have fond memories of introducing my high level party to the meat grinder that is Tomb of Horrors. Their memories are good too though... I was (and remain) a nice DM.

We still laugh about the "inverted ziggurat" in White Plume mountain - which one of my regulars could not envisage... even with the printed booklet.
posted by artaxerxes at 8:40 AM on June 5, 2013

"11: Magic users and barbarians put aside their differences and agree to break everything"
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:41 AM on June 5, 2013

17. Magic-user impressed by Iggwilv's magc powers in creating an entire level of dry caverns beneath the water table of the river.

18. Keen-eared troglodytes prepare a welcome for adventurers arguing whether river is a confined or unconfined aquifer.

This is an eerily good recreation of what I recall AD&D games thirty years ago as being like.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:44 AM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

"2: Cavalier yet again has to leave horse outside of dungeon entrance"
posted by jeribus at 8:47 AM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

IIRC my very first D&D experience was with Tomb of Horrors, wherein my character promptly fell in a 100' pit, didn't take a lot of damage, but instead starved to death. :\

And still somehow I decided that I liked playing.
posted by epersonae at 9:08 AM on June 5, 2013

The illustrations are getting harder to follow; the paths traced have little to do with the narrative bubbles. But maybe it's just because he's doing less linear adventures?
posted by jiawen at 11:22 AM on June 5, 2013

They do, they're just positioned in an odd way, as not to obscure the setting of the incident too much... so 18 and 19 can be on the opposite sides of the map, but 17 and 20 right next to each other. There is also a =lot= of backtracking.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:36 AM on June 5, 2013

The illustrations are getting harder to follow; the paths traced have little to do with the narrative bubbles.

I find them no harder than tracing Billy or Jeffy's path from the school bus to the front door, and considerably more rewarding.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:39 AM on June 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

I ran Tomb of Horrors for my dudes and it's kind of great. Definitely worth a go if you can find the module - and apart from spell listings, 1e D&D is weirdly rules-light.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:11 PM on June 5, 2013

I'm not a fan of the OSR or D&D style play but this art makes me want to get into it. its so cool
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 5:08 PM on June 5, 2013

I am subscribed to the ADD and ADHD tag RSS. This was... somewhat unexpected.
posted by KTamas at 12:36 AM on June 6, 2013