''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' is a boxed set

adventure module An adventure is a playable scenario in a tabletop role-playing game. These can be constructed by gamemasters for their players, and are also released by game publishers as pre-made adventure modules. Different types of designs exist, including l ...

for the ''

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Several different editions of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the ga ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

released in 1998 by

TSR, Inc. TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had bee ...

Plot summary

This module expanded significantly upon the plot of the original ''

Tomb of Horrors ''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 chal ...

'', revealing that the tomb of the first adventure was merely an antechamber to the

lich In fantasy fiction, a lich (; from the Old English , meaning "corpse") is a type of undead creature. Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "The Empire of the Necromancers" (1932), had used ''lich'' as a general term fo ...

Acererak This is a list of characters from the Greyhawk campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. A Acererak Acererak was a powerful wizard who became a lich, and later a demilich. Publication history Acerera ...

's true resting place, and the demilich "slain" in the first adventure was both decoy and key to proceeding further. The dust from the destroyed skull opened a way to the cursed city of Moil in a

pocket universe A pocket universe or bubble universe, also colloquially called pocket dimension is a concept in inflationary theory, proposed by Alan Guth. Description It defines a realm like the one that contains the observable universe as only one of many infl ...

of eternal darkness and ice, and beyond that to Acererak's fortress hovering at the edge of the

Negative Energy Plane The planes of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game constitute the multiverse in which the game takes place. Each plane is a universe with its own rules with regard to gravity, geography, magic and morality. There have been various offi ...

itself. Acererak is revealed in this publication to be near the completion of a multi-thousand-year project to achieve

god In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

hood, powered by

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

s consumed over the years. He now needs only three additional souls to complete the process, but they must be of exceptional purity and strength; to this end he constructed his tomb to serve as an ultimate challenge for heroes, hoping to winnow out all but the very best. He would then consume them when they reached the center of his fortress, where his own undead essence resides in his

phylactery Phylactery () originally referred to tefillin, leather boxes containing Torah verses worn by some Jews when praying. In Mandaeism, some different types of phylacteries are known as ''zrazta'' and ''qmaha'', a list of which can be found at list of ...

. If the

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s fail to defeat Acererak in the course of the adventure they themselves could wind up serving in this role.

Publication history

''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' is set in the ''

World of Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''— Dave Arnes ...

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...

and is a sequel to

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

's 1978 module ''

''. Part of TSR's "Tomes" series for AD&D, the boxed set included a reproduction of the monochrome version of ''Tomb of Horrors'', along with an introductory note by Gygax. The new materials for the boxed set were authored by

Bruce R. Cordell Bruce Robert Cordell (born 1968) is an American author of roleplaying games and fantasy novels. He has worked on ''Dungeons & Dragons'' games for Wizards of the Coast. He won the Origins Award for ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' and has also wo ...

. Illustrations for the main adventure book were by

Arnie Swekel Arnie Swekel is an artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games. Background Swekel was born May 2, 1964, and grew up in River Rouge, Michigan. After graduating high school he briefly attended The Center for Creative Studies (now called Coll ...

and Glen Michael Angus, with illustrations by Swekel and

Phillip Robb Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

in the "Maps & Monsters Book".

Reception

Gary Gygax contributed a preface to the adventure, and although he was initially apprehensive that he wouldn't be able to offer "much in the way of a rave," he was pleased after he read the sequel: "The new material is really excellent. ''Return'' is a whole mini-campaign, not some rehash of previous work ... It offers more by far than the old ''Tomb of Horrors'', and it is more deadly too." ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' was ranked as the tenth greatest ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventure of all time by ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

'' magazine in 2004, on the 30th anniversary of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game. ''Return to the Tomb of Horrors'' won the 1998

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...

for ''Best Roleplaying Adventure''.

Reviews

*''

SF Site SF may refer to: Locations * San Francisco, California, United States * Sidi Fredj, Algeria * South Florida, an urban region in the United States * Suomi Finland, former vehicular country code for Finland In arts and entertainment Genre ...

References

External links