DM: Scribbles a note “Without the rust it seems like a serviceable crown, but not too fancy.”

Note to lost heir: “You see the crown and you think as it… looks at you. This should be your crown. You wants it. They shouldn’t keep it from you. Steals it, hides it, it came here for you”.

DM: “Probably worth some gold.”

Ouch, just when you thought it couldn’t get more anti-player it turns into trap roulette.

You’d be playing rock paper scissors constantly before touching anything.

Quite interesting how the tomb is built for very specific features in OD&D, just to screw with players in a rush.

I can think of a few barbarian characters I’ve seen at my table that would have charged every single door. They may even have learned not to after the fourth or fifth time.

As for the orange gas, in second edition that might have been peak comedy but it being yet another ‘fuck you’ for OD&D players just adds a bit more to the general player hostility. Having to force a player to edit a character sheet to a ‘less optimal’ feels quite brutal. Definitely good to see the end of that sort of “prank”.

Given how modern editions are much less crunchy and brutal, it’d be hard to recapture the sheer brutality of the tomb. You could make it harder of course, but capturing the sheer antiplayer hostility and competitive grading is a special kind of difficult.

Though, competitive tomb raiding feels better than generic PvP in any case.

Too damn right. Community is what makes humans strong. Eventually from those communities we form institutions which build nations, which may even build empires and coalitions.

A human alone is just potential food for something else.