The Terrible Trouble at TragidoreA side-quest where a small contingent of our beloved heroes tackle probably the most critically panned module from D&D past: The Terrible Trouble in Tragidore.

Hey there! In case you missed it, here’s the intro to Jon’s new D&D Campaign “Big Fish” You can check out all “Big Fish” content on this nifty landing page.

Years ago, Jono ran the Drunken Step-Dad of all D&D Modules “The Tomb of Horrors” for us (and you can read the epic 4 part retelling of that particular adventure here) and it was great. The old school, seemingly off the cuff vibe of it was a delight.

While I do have a pen and paper pedigree (today’s theme is alliteration), my time with D&D in any form has been limited to the past few years. That means that there are all these great little pieces of in-game and out of game lore that I know nothing about.

I don’t know the pantheon of The Forgotten Realms, I don’t know about the Lords of Waterdeep or the comings and goings of Baldur’s Gate. Hell, throughout most of my life I didn’t even know what a Beholder was.

Also though, I know nothing about the out of game history. I don’t know what THAC0 really means (it’s like Armor Class or something). I don’t know about the classic modules or why they’re so beloved (or in this case, disliked). I know that the “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” is batshit sci-fi insanity-meets fantasy but I’ve never gotten a chance to play it.

To Hit Armor Class 0.  Your THAC0 started at 20.  Naked AC was 10, and best AC is -10.  So a level 5 fighter with a THAC0 of 16 needs a 10 to hit AC 6.  Easy as fuckin pie.  It was changed in 3rd edition, though how it stuck around in 2nd baffles me to this day.  In 2nd edition saving throws went down as they got better as well.  One of the design decisions they made for the 3rd edition release was “if a number goes up on your character sheet it should be a good thing”.  Why would anyone care about all this?  You should probably edit this out.

Nope, going to leave it in. I don’t know, maybe because stats going up is a lot easier to get your head around? Wait a second, in old editions did some stats go up while others went down as you leveled? That’s super weird.

Yep.

Anyways, when we don’t have at least 4 players available for a session, Jono has decided to run some classic modules for us. And this brings me great joy. It’s like getting to see some of the history of the game.

So What’s All the Trouble?

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