Resources for The Village of Hommlet and The Temple of Elemental Evil

[Beoric]

I was looking for discussions of The Village of Hommlet and the Temple of Elemental Evil, and decided to post a resource list. I haven’t got to reading or listening to all of these yet, so don’t blame me for quality issues.

If anyone has any T1-4 resources they would like me to add, post them here and I will update the list.

 

[Beoric]

Blog Posts:
Age of Dusk (T1)
Age of Dusk (T1-4)
Black Gate (T1)
Black Gate (T1-4)
Grognardia (T1)
Grognardia (T1-4)
Greyhawk Grognard – T1-4 (tag)
Mystical Trash Heap - T1-4 (tag)
Skulls in the Stars
Cave of the Dice Chucker - Relationship between T1, B2 and DMG 1e sample dungeon
Cave of the Dice Chucker - Greatest Hommlet Blog Post of All Time and Space - provides context and link to this comment section, of all things.
Paul Stormberg’s wilderness environ maps for the greater T1, T2, T3-4 region
DF mepher’s rendered versions of Paul’s maps
Settembrini’s rebuttal to Paul’s maps

Blog Actual Play Reports:
GoldDiggers' Adventures (first play report is here)

 

[Beoric]

Podcast Discussions:
The Dice are Screaming
Adventure Tourism
Dungeon Master of None

 

[Beoric]

Podcast Actual Play:
gg no re
Mighty Deeds
Five Games for Doomsday
WasabiBurger’s Actual Plays
Yung Grognard
Microphones of Madness
Adventures in Lollygagging

 

[Beoric]

Other resources:
Mystical Trash Heap - Activity Tables

 

[squeen]

Trent wrote up some tables a few years ago for the environment around the Temple on hIs Mystical Trash Heap blog.

 

[Beoric]

Trent wrote up some tables a few years ago for the environment around the Temple on hIs Mystical Trash Heap blog.

Added.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Question: why the need for all the supplemental material? Do you consider ToEE to be so unfinished as to require a whole book worth of extra stuff just to run it?

 

[Beoric]

Question: why the need for all the supplemental material? Do you consider ToEE to be so unfinished as to require a whole book worth of extra stuff just to run it?

A) Yes, ToEE is a mess, and also a total grind if you don't do something interesting with it.

B) In some ways, Hommlet is more campaign setting than adventure. There are a LOT of NPCs with the potential to do something interesting, but no guidance as to what they are actually doing. For instance, as @bryce0lynch always says, without more, Lareth will sit in his room waiting for the party to come knocking. It is interesting seeing how different DMs turn these NPCs into active elements in the adventure/campaign.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Yes, ToEE is a mess, and also a total grind if you don't do something interesting with it.

Follow-up question then: why run ToEE at all? Nostalgia? It's not like it's some unique, one-of-a-kind adventure or anything. There are better dungeons out there. Like, you can easily find a better-made, less-tropey dungeon that doesn't require a shit-load of prep work and supplementation... so why not run one of those instead?

 

[squeen]

Because T1 is rather awesome, and one wishes to follow through on its promise. Unfortunately, that always seems to means a ToEE partial/full rewrite.

 

[Beoric]

ToEE has great maps, and a lot of very interesting elements. Mostly it is just really poorly organized, and the first level in particular has too many nearly identical encounters.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Fair enough.

 

[grodog]

Because T1 is rather awesome, and one wishes to follow through on its promise. Unfortunately, that always seems to means a ToEE partial/full rewrite.

Slagging T3-4 seems the best solution to me, but I suppose it depends on how you fold-spindle-mutilate ToEE at the table, and what your players really latch onto.

Some other resources to consider for your lists:

- timrod blog posts on the relationships between T1, B2, and the DMG sample dungeon: http://unfrozencavemandicechucker.blogspot.com/search/label/sample dungeon
- Paul Stormberg’s wilderness environ maps for the greater T1, T2, T3-4 region at https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1135408#p1135408 (and following), with DF mepher’s rendered versions of Paul’s maps at https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/df15b96f75b64967b2a4fa4d1bb59025 and Settembrini’s rebuttal to Paul’s maps at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=17821
- Golddigger’s actual play reports begin with T1, at https://golddiggersadventures.blogspot.com/

Allan.

 

[Beoric]

Slagging T3-4 seems the best solution to me, but I suppose it depends on how you fold-spindle-mutilate ToEE at the table, and what your players really latch onto.

Some other resources to consider for your lists:

- timrod blog posts on the relationships between T1, B2, and the DMG sample dungeon: http://unfrozencavemandicechucker.blogspot.com/search/label/sample dungeon
- Paul Stormberg’s wilderness environ maps for the greater T1, T2, T3-4 region at https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1135408#p1135408 (and following), with DF mepher’s rendered versions of Paul’s maps at https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/df15b96f75b64967b2a4fa4d1bb59025 and Settembrini’s rebuttal to Paul’s maps at https://knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=17821
- Golddigger’s actual play reports begin with T1, at https://golddiggersadventures.blogspot.com/

Allan.

Thanks! I had seen Timrod's posts, but the others are new to me. All added to the appropriate sections above.

 

[Beoric]

- Golddigger’s actual play reports begin with T1, at https://golddiggersadventures.blogspot.com/

Allan.

I'm really enjoying these. Golddigger runs very active enemy NPCs, much more so than most of the other APs I have taken in.

 

[Beoric]

I added this to the list of blog posts:

Cave of the Dice Chucker - Greatest Hommlet Blog Post of All Time and Space - provides context and link to this comment section, of all things.