Our group just got through playing the Ghost Tower, for the first time I might add, and afterward I found out that this adventure was supposed to be timed and graded. Just as a player, I realized that our group not only would have failed but we would have gone over the three hour time limit as well.

I was kind of shocked and amazed that this adventure had such a small time limit. It was extremely fun and a great challenge. The thing that irks me about it is that we aren't newbies but had a difficult time with some of the encounters and we went way over on time in the dungeon. Three hours to defeat a Ghost Tower just seems far fetched to me. Maybe, I don't get it but we had decent characters and searched through most of the dungeon in a fairly decent time. At least until we ran into the Medusa. But, we still would have gone over that time up until that point.

Anyway, I'm throwing this out there to ask if anyone else believes that the time limit is a little far fetched. Unless we had a map, or the DM giving us hints I don't believe there is any way we could have finished within the time limit. So, I'm asking you guys if any of you feel the same way.

What do you think?

Bear in mind a lot of the AD&D modules were originally for tournaments. I think only the C series were kept close to the tournament format.

Part of it was simply seeing how far you could get. But also bear in mind, for nerds back then, AD&D was sort of competitive sport. Sort of like Magic: The Gathering or even Fantasy Football/Baseball are today - people would constantly play AD&D and so were really good at it, from a competitive angle.

First, there are some modifications to the module for tournament use.

Second, most groups fail at tourney modules.

I ran D&D tourneys for almost 3 decades in SoCal and NorCal and tourneys players get really good at moving smart and fast through the dungeons. Lingering is death, combat is a time suck and keeping people alive is secondary to victory.

I love them and DMs need to be trained to be extra fair and impartial, but even then tourneys aren't for everyone. Competitive D&D is kickass, but doesn't hit the "fun button" for all players.

Quote from: Spinachcat;632328First, there are some modifications to the module for tournament use.

This is a big one. Did you run the tourney version or the more fully fleshed out version designed for campaign use?

Even in the tournament version the players have to stay on goal, avoid as many combats as possible, and not spend time searching for loot if they hope to finish. Run as a typical dungeon crawl the time limit will never be met.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;632407This is a big one. Did you run the tourney version or the more fully fleshed out version designed for campaign use?

I will second this, Ghost Tower is not meant to be run with all the rooms if you run it as a tournament.