Considering running 1E AD&D Temple of Elemental Evil RPG campaign

I moved to a new area last year, in another state, and have only in the last month started to explore more of the town I'm now in. There is a game store nearby and the owner was receptive to my idea of running a 1E AD&D game. I've been mulling what to run, since it will probably be newbies to the game (5E players most likely). I had thought maybe B2: Keep on the Borderlands (which is really a mini-campaign) or B4: The Lost City (another mini-campaign). However, after thinking about it, I think a Temple of Elemental Evil campaign is what I'm gonna aim for and this has to do with the additional fan modules like Joseph Bloch's (aka The Greyhawk Grognard on YouTube) T0: Towards Hommlet and T5: Beneath the Temple of Elemental Evil modules that lean more into the relationship between Lolth (the gaoler) and The Elder Elemental God Vilp-akf'cho Rentaq (the imprisoned).

Anyway, I think I'm going to incorporate the encounters in The Deklo Grove and Black Jay's ring into the adventure (assuming the players take the bait). I may do some other things like Ami's sickness/swamp lotus and maybe an encounter with Zaxis the Bard, especially as in T0 which has the players part of a caravan moving from Narwell on The Wild Coast through The Gnarley Forest and stopping at Hommlet. As bandit encounters are the main thrust of the module (each group representing different factions in the Temple), it should make for an interesting change of pace for players who are probably used to humanoids and monsters being the sole bad guys in 5E.

 

Sounds like fun. Good luck and hope the group has fun.

 

I've never played/run it myself. What I've heard is that people generally love the Hommlet/Moathouse stuff, and think the temple proper is kind of a drag. So having some third party stuff to spice it up sounds like a good idea. Oh, and I agree with the Greyhawk Grognard that the elder elemental god thing is more interesting than making it also Tharizdun like the 2E module did.

Make sure you have Rannos and Gremag try to con the players into buying their fake holy water.

 

Yea, I get into it quite a bit with people over later alterations to the canon. Most of them are boneheaded, to say the least, and disrespectful to Gygax and others at worst.

The EEG being the same as Tharizdun is asinine, just as making Iggwilv the same as Tasha the Laughing Mage and Natasha the Dark. Iggwilv is a demigod at least according to Gygax (if not a lesser goddess, given her inability to interfere directly in the Crook of Rao incident in WG6: Isle of the Ape), at least 16th lvl of both High Priest AND Arch-Mage power of because of the fact The Demonomicon of Iggwilv in S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth has 7th lvl Cleric spells and 8th lvl Mage spells, and is canonically blonde haired by Gord the Rogue: Artifact of Evil novel which was published by TSR. Gygax said she's at least 23rd lvl in level (so, ~16/23) which makes her FOOKING powerful and way older than her son Iuz the Old. In fact, I'd bet she's an ancient Suel who managed to take the path to Apotheosis instead of becoming a Lich.

Tasha the Laughing Mage at least had a sort of decent background given by chatdemon on CanonFire! (IIRC), though he made her too low in level since she has to be at least 12th lvl to cast Legend Lore which is in The Lore of Subtle Communication which is listed as her spellbook in Dragon Magazine #82.

Natasha the Dark is a creation of Roger E. Moore and was from The Dancing Hut adventure in Dragon Magazine #83 and was a 7/15 Illusionist/Mage, so not even the same KIND of dual-class spellcaster as Iggwilv.

Worse is they merged not just the 3, and used the description of Natasha instead of Iggwilv's real appearance, Gygax got dragged posthumously for supposedly being a creep with Tasha (named after the very young girl who asked for a spell involving laughter when she wrote him a letter in crayon and he created Tasha's Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter for her). This despite the fact Gygax hadn't been involved majorly with D&D since the 80s and wasn't consulted when WotC decided to merge the 3 characters for no reason other than being lazy schmucks.

Thus endeth my rant

 

If you run this, what rules edition are you using?

 

1st Edition AD&D, but with some homebrews and additional classes from Dragon Magazine like the Archer, Berserker, Necromancer, Savant, Cloistered Cleric, Witch, Charlatan and Jester.

 

Ah good ol 1st edition. Brings back good memories.

 

Oh yes, the Archer

 

Yeah, the Tasha stuff makes even less sense. For the RtToEE stuff, I can at least imagine that Cook was coming up with a Tharizdun module, and some manager told him the only way for stuff to get published was if it was a "Return to" module. (No idea if that's the actual story.)

But the Tasha stuff is just like, "what if instead of three characters, there was just one character?" Just makes the world smaller.

 

Was checking the 5E version of ToEE by Goodman Games and forgot they included some of the original Gygax info. His version of Hommlet is interesting as it includes 'fairgrounds'. I'm assuming this is where merchants come and set up on Freeday to sell their wares, or where festivals are held by various groups, especially those of The Old Ways.

 

I guess I missed this last fall, was getting deep into Marc's PalCo module.

I ran the ToEE mega-module in 1e back in the day ... 1985? It really is EEG's magnum opus. It does try the patience of players though, there is just a lot there. The advantage of B2 is if you just do the caves, you can easily finish in a weekend.

Would be interested to hear if you were able to get anything going there, and if so how younger players respond to some OG D&D.

 

That module was GREAT FUN to run! In addition to the now infamous Baba Yaga and a hut with chicken legs, it had tesseracts, MiGs, a Joseph Stalin tank, and of course Natasha the Dark and her sister Elina the Fair.

 

DO IT.