Tomb of Horrors

Tomb of Horrors

1981 Tomb of Horrors cover reprint; art by Jeff Dee depicts adventurers battling a demi-lich
Code	S1
TSR product code	9022
Rules required	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
Character levels	10-14
Campaign setting	Greyhawk
Authors	Gary Gygax
First published	1978 (1975)
ISBN	0-935696-12-1
Linked modules
S1 S2 S3 S4 Return to the Tomb of Horrors Tomb of Annihilation

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 challenge the skill of expert players in his own campaign and to test players who boasted of having mighty player characters able to best any challenge. The module, coded S1, was the first in the S-series, or special^[1] series of modules. Several versions of the adventure have been published, the first in 1978, and the most recent, for the fifth edition of D&D, in 2017 as one of the included adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal. The module also served as the basis for a novel published in 2002.^[2]

The module's plot revolves around the tomb of the demilich Acererak. The player characters must battle their way past a variety of monsters and traps, with the ultimate goal of destroying Acererak. Tomb of Horrors was considered the third greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by the staff of Dungeon in 2004.^[3] The module has influenced later Dungeons & Dragons products, and was followed by three other (unrelated) modules in the S-series: S2 White Plume Mountain, S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.