The Village of Hommlet: Greyhawk's Starting Zone | D&D Walkthroughs
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- čas přidán 27. 06. 2024
- In this episode, we take a look at one of the first Dungeons & Dragons adventures. Created by Gary Gygax, the Village of Hommlet helped set the standard for low level D&D adventures and teased a future super adventure. Join us next time as we explore Hommlet's sequel, the Temple of Elemental Evil.
Music & Footage: Troika 2003 TOEE video game
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:43 Hommlet
12:30 Moathouse
17:22 Outro
Random Clips: Grodog (Castle Greyhawk), NASA (Forest Fire), Mock Man (Walkthroughs), Gene Reddick (AR Hommlet), Toegoff (TOEE Board Game), Kenzer & Company (Hackmaster), 8-Bit Theater, 2WarpstoNeptune, Blackgate (Chainmail), AzeCos (Dragonlance), Hark! A Vagrant
Random Game Clips: The Winslinator (Cloudy Mountain), DruidofCormanthor (TOEE), TheGamerDarius (TOEE), JustPlayJared (Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga), damneddirtyapez (Tabletop Simulator) - Hry
DMed this c. 1987. The group made it past the initial group of frogs, only to have the leader fighter Killian have the spider in the tower drop on him, roll a 20 to hit, and he rolled a 1 saving throw for poison. He convulsed and died as the rest of the party hacked the spider to bits. The short-lived Killian was commemorated though: the term "Killian's god-killer spider" entered our role-playing lexicon and came to mean a critical hit and a crit fumble saving throw combination.
Playing in Eberron, I had a character that was a Dervish/Swashbuckler mix (and was one of their horse riding elves). I had Dex galore, buffs, and we were using action points that would let you add D6s and some feat that meant I could reroll one save per day except on a 1. My Jump was crazed by itself, but add the action dice and the reroll, the odds of failure were very minor.
We ended up having to cross a chain of chunks of rock floating in a lava obstacle (forget the module it was in, but it was a WOTC Eberron module) and one of the characters had used magic to advance (our cleric) and it seemed like he was about to get in a nasty fight by himself, so I left form the last rock to try to land on the solid ground. Anything but a 1 or 3 would fail and only 1 would prevent me from using action points to reroll. You know where this is going... a natural 1. Can't use any action points, can't use my reroll from the feat.
But hey, I'm a 13th or 14th level character using mostly D8s for hit points, have some CON bonus, and am at full hit points (no injuries).
However, in an unusually accurate depiction for D&D rules (where your high level fighter used to be able to swan dive off a 100' cliff, shake it off after he lawn-darted the landing, and would still be able to fight), the damage for lava was *many*, *many*, *many* dice. As it turned out, a median-ish roll was enough to surpass my HP total and my negative 10 HPs, killing me outright (even if we didn't have the massage damage rules in play where 50 HPs loss forced you to save or croak it).
That's gotta be pretty close. I only got one failure, but it was a failure wrapped in so many ways to not fail except on a natural 1, it feels in spirit very similar to your outcome.
Yeah, the beauty of poison in the first two editions; save or die. The only thing more terrifying were the level-draining monsters. "Yes, we defeated the Vampire, but during the fight every member of the party took a hit and lost two levels; and we gained enough XP to recover about 10% of that first lost level. Yay us."
I deeply appreciate your dedication to crediting the artists who provide the imagery used in your videos. As an industry professional I am frequently disappointed by the number of channels that do not do this. Good on you.
And I deeply appreciate all of your efforts over on Roll20!
According to Jon Peterson in his book "The Game Wizards", the character of Rannos Davi, the tenth level thief, is a thinly veiled representation of his D&D co-creator Dave Arneson, with whom Gygax had fallen out most spectacularly. Rannos is described in the module as "slow, fat, clumsy and placid", and will always sell you substandard goods at inflated prices. His partner Gremag likely is a parody of Dave Megarry, another former gaming colleague with whom Gygax had fought.
Great video, and brings back good memories. I still have the original copy of this module somewhere.
😏
That elemental bag of Lays "air", freaking funny.
My friend and I had to pause the video and laugh for a few minutes.
I would give your comment two thumbs up if I could
I was going to say that
great minds think alike
Wow, he used the age old laugh track joke about bags of chips containing more air than chips...how many comedians did that joke before 2010? 5? 6?
@@ndowroccus4168 perhaps he should have used a bottle of American beer for water instead
To me, the appeal of Hommlet is as such:
1) The town is very well detailed and feels alive and endearing
2) The set-up allows for both a straightforward dungeon crawl combined with a surprising amount of intrigue going on between the NPCs.
3) There is something of a mystery going on for those that pay attention; when the PCs first arrive, it just sounds like some bandits are operating out of the Moathouse. PCs go, clear it of bandits and monsters and start looking for loot. That's when they find the secret doors and clues of other occupants. Delving deeper into the dungeon reveals the secret cult which plans to take over Hommlet. Wiping out the cult should also reveal clues that Hommlet has been infiltrated by spies, leading to a spy hunt when the PCs return.
4) Comfy AF
I remember running this module when AD&D came out.
Yeah, changes were made. A number of punishments for player success were removed. Even as a kid I felt the 10th level assassin deal was a dick move.
Thanks for the walk down Amnesia Lane!
I mean yes, an assassin being sent to kill the party isn't unreasonable. But it really should have been adjusted to be level appropriate. Otherwise, it's a dick move. So, typical Gygax.
@@Bluecho4 Yep ... especially because there SHOULD BE an "exponentially lower number" of relatively high level characters ... and whatever people might say, 10th level is quite an achievement!
Omg, memories - the Temple of Elemental evil, the Inn of the Welcome Wench...memories.
Adam Russell oomloo
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I DMed this back in the 80s as part of T1-4. I remember being appalled at the treacherous hirelings waiting at the inn - they easily had the potential to wipe out a trusting party of beginners. Also I remember one of the PCs dying in the very first fight, with the giant frogs in front of the moathouse. It didn't take long for the players to realise how deadly this place was.
If you're worried about the dangerous NPC's, give them lots of chances to notice how sketchy they are. Then if they ignore all the signs, it's on them when the consequences fall on their heads. Or have them be friendly enough with Jaroo that some animal assistance or helpful healing is available. A good NPC-betrayal is just too good to appall yourself out of!
@@existenceisrelative Your advise is about 20 odd years too late. SAD
Those giant frogs have eaten a lot of 1st level characters over the decades.
@@dr.winstonsmith We once had a TPK in a cavern system in Fortress Badabaskor (sp? - Judges Guild) - our low level party encountered a handful of white apes... the meat shields went down rather fast, then the second line combatants and the cleric held a bit longer... but there were still 2 or 3 coming at my wizard, the last survivor. I'd had a wand I picked up somewhere and I had the command word, but no idea what it did, but I was about to be eaten... so ka-blam. The problem was it was ice storm which has a ludicrous area of effect and that put my character in the target area just like the white apes. I got all the apes, but my L3 wizard was not going to sustain the damage an ice storm could dish... total wipe.
So even the animals and amphibians and so on can be fairly dangerous at lower levels.
Have we mentioned that the culture Gygax fostered started the whole "DM vs players" idea?
Not sure how you figure that. The DM was presenting complex tricks, traps, and opportunities to get killed if you weren't careful, thoughtful, well equipped, wise about when to pull back and regroup and get new allies, and it helped to be lucky. The players often didn't do their part (as younger folk, we were all brash and not half as careful at our choices than we ought and we paid for it).
There can never really be DM vs. players. The setting is made up. The rules can be changes to suit the GM's campaign. The GM can obviously arrange for the PCs to be killed quite often with little recourse. Characters and the GM are not on the same plane.
On the other hand, if your DM was a jerk, you got another one or one of your friends got the books and started running things.
I don't see that there was a 'DM vs. players' at all. The world was tough, you had to be smart, think on your feet, and have a bit of good luck to become one of the survivors.
The first three dungeons I remember playing were Hommlet, The Keep on the Borderlands, and Isle of Dread. The most fun I ever had in my life at that time, I was 15-16.
First off: Great video! Very well presented!
THE VILLAGE OF HOMMLET is a fantastic module from a time when D&D meant adventures where it was possible to die easily if you made poor decisions. It was also a time where you could be very creative, as you were expected as a DM to always bring something to the table yourself. Modules were "quick fix" games for a DM. You didn't have to do as much of the designing and set-up yourself. If you read the book, you could then run the adventure without too much work on the DM's part. That didn't mean that there wasn't work that needed to be done by the DM still, but just less than if you had to create an adventure from scratch.
Another way that modules were helpful to Dungeon Masters was that they helped DMs figure out how to construct adventures. It's a must-have for those interested in making maps for RPG games. THE VILLAGE OF HOMMLET set the standard for mapping out towns, cities, etc. The map of Hommlet still holds up well today. It's not a full-color, digitally colored, overly textured kind of map that you'd find in modern RPG games. Instead, it's a map that is all about CLARITY. It looks great in b&w, and it's easy to read, with every building labeled on the map for fast referencing. It's not overly detailed, but everything that a DM (or player) would need is there. Why some might look at such a map and think of it as being merely "simple," it is 100% useful, and the sort of map that lets you interact more by using some of your own imagination on some of the details. Personally, I prefer those kind of maps to over-rendered maps that can be visually confusing. Many RPG map makers learned the basics from the maps in this module.
AD&D modules evolved from the early modules like KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS and THE VILLAGE HOMMLET. They became more complete, with fully developed plots, passages to read the players, appendix monsters with stats, etc, etc. Good DMs knew then how to use these older modules by taking them for what they were, and incorporating them into their own campaign settings. You could cherry pick somethings, leave out others, add your own NPCs, take some out, or whatever. HOMMLET was a good starter module for DMs who already had an understanding of how to run a game. For a brand new DM though, THE SINISTER SECRET OF SALTMARSH had better training wheels.
The memories I have of being 12 and entering into the Keep on the Borderlands adventure I will cherish forever.It was the start of a hobby I have kept at for more than 30 years now.Many epic battles and much loot later,and I still love D&D.Some very good times indeed.
Gygax: I need a cool quote for St. Cuthbert ::ponders:: Oh, here's one!
::channelling Teddy Roosevelt:: "Preach quietly but have a large cudgel handy"
Gygax: I'm sure no one would notice!
Gary did a lot of that.
Including getting just about every aspect of medieval weaponry wrong.
But hey, it was 1974, we were kids, and this was the coolest way to use up a weekend.
@@imapseudonym1403 we have way more resources than was around in 1974. Basically he had a local library. And only what was written before 1974 there.
@@imapseudonym1403 Lots of historians and archaeology types thought that too in 1974. It wasn't just Gary.
Best starting adventure ever!! I started out in ADnD and used this many times over the years, updating it along the way. Our last group that ran it was amazing and maybe the best time ever running this.
I started with the story of them getting to Hommlet via texts. I started them out on a long road when they met some merchants telling them there was a castle several miles ahead. Its located on the border. From there they heard of the Village of Hommlet in need of adventurers and they would have to travel through the White Plume Mountains, and then they would find the Village. The story took them through a swamp and they saw a black dragon rise from the waters and flew away, to crest the mountains and see the village below. They loved the text messages leading up to the beginning because I sent them out in blocks from one location to another.
The Temple was the first module I ever played in, 1986, and have ran it a few times over the years. It is probably the best module, except for The Tomb of Horrors, ever made for D&D. The Temple has so much detail, maps, npcs, and basic description to make it very playable today. The Village of Hommlet was also fun and very detailed. When we defeated the Temple we were so pissed at the town of Nulb we went back and burnt it to the ground! Ahhhhh the memories.
Oh how I remember this. I used to love browsing new modules at my local hobby shop. I spent much time reading about and playing D&D and AD&D in the early eighties thru the early nineties. Good memories
My first, albeit indirect, exposure to D&D. I was sitting in my school library, back in 1982, & overheard a kid narrating a scene from this very module-just outside the Inn, IIRC. Something about it just mesmerized me, & I was hooked from that point onwards.
This channel is about to blow up in popularity. I really love these kinds of videos.
Right? I haven't played in years but the video on DragonLance sucked me in. I never played those modules, I read the novels, but exploring those games brought back tons of great memories. I wish these guys would go deeper into those, wasn't there a flying castle and a Death Knight?
@@robsmsh there was a small module but at first it was considered an artifact that you couldn't obtain kinda like Baba Yaga's walking hut
Unfortunately, this didn't age well.
@@goodbuddy7607 For sure. D&D is getting more and more popular but this channel isn’t getting the same treatment.
@@goodbuddy7607 In what respect?
It would be really cool if you did a series of the ”Queen of the Spiders” supermodule. These walkthroughs are made super well, extremly informative and very easy to follow along, good work!
These videos remind me why I rolled so many characters back in the day. Felt like an accomplishment to get to 3rd level.
Our GM would kill 1st and 2nd level characters with a certain abandon. When you got to third level, you were a survivor and time had been invested, so there were a few more opportunities to avoid getting killed (but still beaten up). It kind of made sense because by then, you've gotten attached to the character and they've had an impact in the game world by then too.
DM It All and Seth Skorkowsky (sets high standards)may be the best adventure-review channels I've been made aware of.
That miniature @ 16:45 hit me so hard in the nostalgia.
Not for early D&D, not for classic modules, but for those glorious, pre-painted official minis of which I bought hundreds, one (or more) booster pack at a time.
Then my parents purged said miniatures and I only managed to save those which few which I had separated from the horde of WotC minimen I had amassed.
Ouch. Thanks mom.... :0(
From back my campaign when Bush...Senior, was still president my lore was: 200 years ago the Moathouse was a remote outpost in the far flung wilderness. It was taken over by the Temple of Elemental Evil and used as a base to launch a war south into Barovia, and Averoigne. St.Cuthbert was the first Paladin who launched his crusade and detroyed the Temple, then pushed all the way back to the first source of the evil, The Caves of Chaos. The southern nobles all chipped in and paid for the creation of the Keep on the Borderlands, and Hommlet was basicallly a crossroads town that grew as the Keep grew. In the last 100 years Hommlet became known as "the adventurers village" as adventurers headed into the Borderlands would stop here. Now 100 years later, the provinces of Barovia and Averoigne to the south have all but forgotten about Hommlett and the Keep. Most of the NPCs are retired adventurers (or at least they say they are) who have plumbed the depths of Lost Caverns, and Lost Cities, and lost Towers, (and whatever other modules you have), or at least they SAY they have plumbed their depths. Hommlett is now alot like a failing tourist trap trying to live off its long past reputation as the Adventurer's Village. However ake no mistake, due to its being on this crossroad Hommlett is extrememly important to the Lords and barons to the South, and currently the Viceroy of Verbonoc has recently been throwing alot of money, and gaining alot of loyalty, to wrest political control of Hommlet...and from the Keep, and from there he can control all expansion into the Borderlands and create a new kingdom for himself and control the world!
This is my absolute favourite Dnd channel, and i am not even joking.
You deserve, waaaaaaay more views.
as a dm, i love this chance to know what to expect from these modules. i feel like there's such a wealth of old material that can be used even today, and this series lets me know a lot without having to plumb the depths myself.
While most of the old modules aren't great, parts of them can be repurposed into an existing campaign or game world. And let's face it, you can never have too many village maps.
I played through this and the temple of elemental evil way back in the day. I didn't think that we would ever finish that adventure. Thanks for bringing back the memories of all the good times
This is the genius of earlier modules; you can run them, even with the same group of Players, at different times and get different stories and outcomes. I ran T1 when the 1981 'new' version (cover art and trade dress I guess) came out. I have since ran it multiple times over the 4 decades I've been DM'ing and every time I do, the story goes in a new direction. Sometimes only slightly, but other times....wowzers! Almost like "Oh, great, some 3rd level PC' just started the Greyhawk Apocalypse End Times. Wonderful...". ;)
..
You just don't get that kind of "surprise" with the newer adventures (and by newer I mean "adventures written past the half way mark of 2e AD&D...about 1994'ish").
Sandbox (ish) versus Railroads. The railroads are given to minimum GM prep and for players to be served up entertainment rather than contributing direction and agency to their characters and thus to drive events in the world over time. Convenient, passive, and you know the module is always balanced for their level, unlike the randomness of sandboxes - sometimes you need to flee or hide in a sandbox because you've bumbled into something far too dangerous for your capabilities.
How this channel doesn't have more subscribers, is WAY beyond me. So much amazing D&D content and knowledge.
Gygax style was 100% influenced by Sword & Sorcery, like Conan, that's why his adventures were so cruel. However most players want a High Fantasy setting, like LoTR, and because of that this old adventures seem so deadly and diabolical, but as a fan of Sword & Sorcery, his style and the likes of Fighting Fantasy actually make me enjoy way more this old modules. Great video !
Great vid! Village of Homlett was the first dungeon I played, back in 1982. Keep on the Borderlands was the first I ever (tired to) DM, in the same year. Both are classic models that I have borrowed from since then when I make my own dungeons. One of my favorite parts of Keep is the "rumor table," and I still use variants on that mechanic. The idea of the catch phrases for characters (like Saint Cuthbert's) is also a fav -- it can make the character come to life and that kind of stuff is all over in fantasy lit. Writing down one or two for each important NPC makes them easy to improvise later.
I used to have a file card for each key NPC. In addition to some notes on their goals and their mannerisms, I used to try to find a celebrity or the like they would resemble and a voice that would be a known actor or public figure. That gave me almost an instant sense of the NPC's way of acting towards the party (Christopher Walken... Robert DeNiro...etc).
Great analysis! If you’re taking requests, Against the Cult of the Reptile God.
I got that adventure module.
12:45 I've run the Moathouse a dozen times in multiple editions. It's a fantastic way to start a campaign. I have a 4' by 4' full colour map that I laser printed like 8 years ago hanging on my wall. Ready to go.
Impressively well done. Great job! FYI, the village plus local dungeon trope was established via Blackmoor village and dungeon, and subsequently baked into the 1974 rules as the expected starting situation. Gary Gygax also wrote an article in Europa 6-8 that further expressed the idea, and of course the sample dungeon in the Holmes 1977 - for many their first experience of D&D - also presented a village (Portown) and dungeon, though Portown was only generally described.
GOG has the video game of the Hommlet to Temple of Elemental Evil. Greatest module to RPG game conversion ever.. except for the horrendous bugs that killed it.
Thanks for the in-depth look at all these old modules. As someone who started with 5e, it's fascinating to see this hobby's beginnings.
It turns out the old "GM vs the players" trope originated with the creator of the game. I always wondered why the modules were always geared so antagonistically instead of just telling a story. And why most GMs just shake their heads and say, "I’m not going to do what the module says here. And here. And here." lol
Because gygax thought he was dm God and enjoyed having power over peasants lol but seriously he saw it as dm vs players as a battle of wills
Love each and every one of the video's you have put out, this one specifically was informative and interesting to learn about as a new dnd player.
never knew the temple of elemental evil had such a history.
Great job covering this classic. Really like the presentation and way you walked through the adventure. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more deep dives of these classic modules as well as a little bit of D&D history.
We lit the moathouse on fire. Lot of the upstairs loot burned up, but at least our passage to the basement was quick and easy!
Looking forward to more in the series. Very well done. Presentation was spot on.
Homlet and ToEE take a ton of work to run, but they are some of the best adventures and settings ever created.
This was a great summary of a module I always wanted to play, and a great reminder of how much I enjoyed the music from the Troika Games version.
Thank you
You might have struck a nerve on the algorithm. Recommendations sent me here! Great!
Great video! I'm thinking about running this module and ToEE as an entry to a Greyhawk campaign and I'm very thankful for your guide😊!
I'm glad both this and temple didn't come out too late of each other. As I mentioned before, this channel puts in a lot of work into its videos and you dudes deserve a lot more attention. Keep it up~
Hey thanks for making these videos. This channel one of the few channels on my actual notifications list. I really appreciate the effort put into making knowledgeable videos with interesting content that aren't clickbait.
Waiting for a red hand of doom episode
Absolutely love these videos
Thank you for this video. I am getting ready to run ToEE from the Goodman Games box set and found this very helpful.
It was a good module, I padded it out substantially though, as my players would have plowed through it way too easily. I did crazy soft-hearted things like allow first levels to always start with maximum hit points. Some of those NPC names were around the party for a long time, and Lareth became a dark elf cleric who always managed a quick escape (Curse you meddling kids and your dog). From time to time they would find him behind other schemes they came across, and he tended to level up just a tiny bit faster than they did.
So glad I found this channel. Your videos are professional and your research is top tier. Love your channel.
My first DnD character was a Cleric of St. Cuthbert who regularly whacked people with my holy symbol. Who knew I played perfectly into Hommlet
These videos are a dream come true. I hope someday you do all the classic D&D modules.
@ 2:57 -- In the first edition Fiend Folio, they presented the four Elemental Princes of Evil. These beings were demi-gods and of Evil Alignment.
The Temple was probably dedicated to their worship.
never playd it in a session. but i loved the pcgame. the soundtrack still sends shivers down my spine.
"From my point of view, Lays Chips count as Air!!"
"Well then you are lost!"
Great vid. Brings back fond memories.
I loved Hommlet, and in most of my campaigns I used it as a town simply because it was already made and easy to slip in. And in a story I wrote a few years ago about a game designer, I even slipped in a dig as the main character was doing the first of a two part adventure, slipping in "for more details see the next adventure".
Doing so as a dig at GG, as it took him 6 years to publish the "Temple of Elemental Evil", while my character was already almost finished with the next adventure.
How about the 2nd greatest module of all time? An adventure that spawned a campaign setting all of its own - Ravenloft?
These videos are high quality, informative and interesting. Subbing and eagerly awaiting more.
I love these videos!!! PLEASE MAKE MORE
Great video! I am running this module in a Pathfinder game. It was perfect, I could fit it into my campaign, add a couple of my specific bad guys, and now the party has a base of operations. Fitting ToEE as a next adventure fits my plot perfectly with a few minor changes.
I have played this, and later ran this as campaign a long time ago. This to me was a fond favorite.
Can't believe I just found this channel. I love your videos. Keep them coming please!
I’m new to the whole D&D multiverses and this is a good video thanks.
Great as usual. Thanks
Great content. Underrated RPG channel.
Subscribed. Stellar work my friend.
I never read this before, but I played the 2003 game and impressed how faithful they kept to the back story/character info.
Most modules back in the day was. There a dungeon over there. Go for it. With some interesting NPCs floating nearby.
I only just found this video, thanks for posting it. After many false starts, I am finally running a modified Temple of Elemental Evil using D&D 5th Edition. My Players are 4 sessions in now, and I am slowly revealing Hommlet to them - and the NPCs.
You are amazing brings me back to 1978-1984
Always loved this module. Thanks for sharing. Subcribed!
i feel like Robilar is the reason we have so many meat grinders
You have some of the best DnD vids on CZcams imo.
I wish u had more vids. I jus binged them all in one hungover day after Halloween lol.
Since some of the graphics you used for this video came from the Temple of Elemental Evil computer game, I would like to recommend that relatively inexperienced DMs who want to do a great job of running this adventure might want to try playing through ToEE first. Yes, it's got technical issues (a wit of my acquaintance once joked, "Hey, did you here they're coming out with a ToEE sequel? It's called 'Return of the Bugs.'"), but it provides a lot of great ideas for, first, engaging with the villagers and second, providing motivations for both traveling to Hommlet and exploring the moathouse. ;)
Like countless others, I have a sentimental love for the old stuff. In the case of Hommlet, my very first character died his very first time out in the first few minutes of my first game, when he was bitten by the spider in the turret at the Moathouse. I had to sit and watch the others play for two hours. Still, I was hooked. That said, the lack of real motivation, aside from "fortune and glory" is glaringly missing from several of these older modules. I'm actually working on a one-shot of Hommlet right now, just as a 50th Anniversary celebration of the game. I've already given my players the backstory that one or more of them belongs to a noble house, from which a magic heirloom has been stolen. That heirloom? The staff of striking currently in the hands of the big bad occupying the Moathouse dungeon. It's been spotted in the area, which brings the PCs to the village. As to all the random bandits and humanoids mulling about the location, those have become rival mercenaries trying to retrieve the staff for rival houses. These blank spots can be filled in pretty easily with just a little bit of thought.
Can I make a request/ suggestion? I believe a module called "Old man Katan and the incredible edible mushroom band" would be an amazing video on this channel. Keep it up with this great work you guys are doing.
How has this channel not blown up yet. Seriously super underrated
This was the first module that my brother and I played in together, back in 1982. We each brought sizeable parties to the game, which joined together for about 9 members. The village traders killed a couple of them. When we got to the Moathouse, for some reason (I can't remember why) my brother temporarily took over my paladin (who was the leader of the party and quite a bit overpowered). The next thing I knew, he had been gnawed apart by a mass of giant rats. (I was left somewhat unhappy because of this, and it pains me to this very day :-).
Afterwards, the undeterred remainder of the party (a ranger, two paladins, cleric, and a thief IIRC) made their way to the final encounter with Lareth (et. al), and were thoroughly defeated, though the ranger and thief escaped somehow.
While the captured party members were then taken away, the ranger and thief joined forces with Elmo to track them to their ultimate destination, the City of Skulls in the lands of Iuz. And that, was a rousing adventure. I'll never forget it, because that visit to the City of Skulls was when I first experienced full immersion in roleplaying. What an amazing experience!
We ended up recovering the captive party members, by the way, and the slain paladin's soul was saved. I ended up playing the ranger as my primary PC for some time thereafter, though the DM kind of rebooted us for that campaign.
Favorite starting town for my all time fav campaign ToEE
I played the video game, and i remembered how well constructed the town was, so i searched for info on Hommlet to help a budding DM friend construct towns, this video was great, and im sure he will find it useful
Just to clarify something, what is meant by Elemental Evil had to do with the Elder Elemental God (of Against the Giants and Descent into the Depths modules). It was Elemental in the sense it was Primordial (in fact, Primordial Evil would have been a better name for it). However, when Gygax had to abandon his plans for D4 and instead approved Q1, he had to start removing elements from ToEE. It was Frank Mentzer who, using Gary's notes, made it Elemental (as in Elemental Planes).
Very well constructed
I still have this module in its entirety.
First place i played in around 1982, superb adventure.
Still one of the best intro adventures ever, but SO HARD for beginning players/characters. I think Gygax expected parties to be 6-8 strong, as opposed to the typical party of four these days. All of those humanoids & guardsmen beneath the moathouse is a TPK waiting to happen. Each guardsman is basically the equivalent of a 1st-level character, and there's about a dozen of them (not counting the leaders). When I played in this in high school, my party had to make several forays to whittle their numbers down sufficiently to win. Still, the detail of the town, wilderness, & moathouse are remarkable and is one of Gygax's best works. And it is the perfect springboard to something even greater...
Right? People used to say this module was easy. I was like, in what universe? Go into this module with 4-6 ordinary 1st level characters (not supercharacters), and even using intelligent play instead of straightforward hack'n slash, there's like statistically no way to survive. Don't even get me started on the bugbears, basically a small army of 3rd level fighters. But I love that the gnolls are pissed off that they make less money and you can bribe them to desert.
@@ricardocastillo5485 We used to play parties of 6-8 characters and expect to lose several over the course of an adventure. It was very quick to create new 1st level characters and no-one put much effort into personalizing them until they reached 2nd or 3rd level. Also, AD&D was less brutal than Basic D&D, thankfully.
I used this module for my intro to DMing. The end fight was glorious!
Fighter: I block the doorway so nobody can get around me! Cleric, keep me healed! Mage, sleep as many as you can! Everyone else, missile them to death!
*hack* *slash* *hack* *slash*
Lareth: What's this? You dare challenge me?
Party: Prepare to die! blahblahblah! We're not skeered of you!
Lareth: Hold Person!
Fighter: Guys, I can't move! :/
Party: Heal! Sleep! *pew pew*
Lareth: Silence, 15'r! (on Fighters shield)
Party: :/
I had to fudge a little or Lareth would have wiped them. Experienced gamers can be a cocky bunch, even at lvl 2. :)
I never bought the Village of Hommlet but I did buy The Temple of Elemantal Evil back in the mid 80s which included the Hommlet adventure and it was such an amazing adventure but the problem was it was so big nobody ever wanted to finish it. It has to be one of the biggest dungeon adventures out there, the adventure module was nearly the size of an actual book.
I concur. And if the players start at lv1 you have to give them enough extra stuff to level up so that they CAN finish the adventure. If the players make bad choices it's not hard to have a TPK with a part of 6 lv6 characters.
I have a Dungeon magazine with a Hommlet adventure and map.
By the time I saw the village of hommlet in the store I had been playing for a about 3 years. Of course, I had started when only the original 3 books were out. My campaign world slowly grew as the new books were released.
These videos are great wish I found it sooner.
Nice job!
I love using the maps in these old adventures in my games. The content needs some changing to be a little more fun but I like using them as a starting point.
HAHA so true about Lays potato chips...when I was a kid...in the 70s..i had a friend who was excited about his bag of lays...at lunch he opened them to find...only air...thats perfect.
Discovered this last week, listening to the videos while editing my videos :)
loved this!!!!!!
The Temple of Elemental Evil. One of the first cases of "vaporware".
That was a long running joke in my group.
I realize I'm late to the party, but thank you for this video. I've been playing D&D since the 80s but rarely delved much into this classic module. (I think it's pronounced "VERR-boh-bonk".) I never thought about Hommlet being simply a great "home base" for low level players in an ongoing campaign, rather than just a story element in and of itself. That's a great idea for a prepackaged home base. :-)
I bought Hommlet when I was 16 and new to DMing; I was lost, had no idea how to run it. Like you said, it had no direction.
Good video. Thanks.
Caves of the unknown was the rarest B series module....it let you put in the monsters and treasure on the map....unique and fun
I think you may be thinking B-1 In Search of the Unknown. The Caves of the Unknown is originally from B-2 Keep on the Borderlands and it was just a place on the map and never detailed.
B-3 Palace of the Silver Princess also did the 'fill in the blanks' if I remember correctly.
@@swirvinbirds1971 I'm running the Palace of the Silver Princess right now, and no, it wasn't a "Fill in the blanks"module (Edit: I was wrong. It was.). It had two versions. The one with the orange cover is much rarer and VERY different. Much more disturbing, shall we say... With the ubues. Also, with two ghosts, I don't see how it was made for 1st to 3rd level....
Loved the Hommlet name drop in the Justicar series