Role Play
“They as players steer the avatar and it’s their decisions, their actions, their activities that bring the resolutions to conflicts, not their characters (in the meta of course) hence it doesn’t matter which character you are using all that much as their mechanics are not involved outside of combat.” (gamersdungeon 2017)
The distinction between player and character, between table and game hadn’t been fully realized yet. Skilled play was lauded and players were expected to use their past experiences to inform their next characters’ decisions. Avoiding a specific trap upon returning to a dungeon with a new character was probably in poor form, but testing for that specific kind of trap was encouraged.
Time keeping was also blurred between the table and the game. Generally, a day or a week in real life would be analogous to a day or week passing in the game, as seen in the opening text. Counting out loud at the table was a QTE (Quick Time Event) where the party had to respond with their action before it was too late.
“The movement distance in the dungeon is 1" to 10’ over a turn of 10 minutes duration while exploration and mapping are in progress.” (Gygax 1978)
Dungeon exploration used to be as structured as combat rounds. The party would indicate their action for the next 10 minutes, whether that was tapping, poking, or simply moving. In this way multiple PCs could be caught by the same trap if they were moving together.
Gargoyle Lair
1e
Normally a 4 hd monster, this gargoyle attacks as a 12 hd monster with 6 attacks and bonus damage.
Temporal stasis makes the gargoyle immobile until the door opens, meaning llistening at the door is useless.
||Fighter|Gargoyle|
|To Hit %|75%|65%|
|Dam % dealt per round|6% (4)|38% (22)|
|Rounds to win|16|3|
|Power Ratio|5.33|
5e
Somewhere along the way, I don’t think it was taken into account that the original gargoyle was not a standard one from the monster manual and as a result lost much of its power.
||Fighter|Gargoyle|
|To Hit %|70%|20%|
|Dam % dealt per round|30% (19)|3% (3)|
|Rounds to win|4|38|
|Power Ratio|0.10|
At minimum, I would give the gargoyle two additional claw attacks and increase its to hit bonus to +10, giving it a 50% chance to hit.
Complex
1e
These doors are part of the trick door category. Searching for a secret door here would only reveal that it was there 33% of the time, but not the method for opening it.
The text says “in a shaded room, a number of bolts will be fired” but I can’t tell which rooms are shaded, if any. You could do all 10 to make the center four seem important. You could do just the secret door path. You could do the secret door path plus the one west room to give a hint there’s something extra there. The last door in the middle four rooms isn’t designated as a spear door, but it’s the only false door in the dungeon that is not something else.
The probability for this is a bit nebulous since we don’t know how many tries it’ll take to discover the method for each door. But let’s say this player has experience opening Gygaxian doors and knows various methods but not the order. It would take on average 22 tries to find every door and 28 tries to open every door. The fighter will save 50% of the time, meaning they would take 129% (75 hp) damage by the end. The falling door will deal 17% (10 hp) damage when triggered.
It’s unclear if the bolt is real or a manifestation of magical energy that dissipates, only that there are unlimited charges.
5e
The fighter will discover the doors 25% of the time.
50% of the time one character in each area makes a dex save. The fighter will save 10% of the time, meaning they would take 59% (67 hp) damage by the end. The falling door will deal 9% (10 hp) on a failed save. The fighter will save 35% of the time.
Statue
1e
As written, there is no gem dust on the floor, presumably the trap resetting demons have cleaned after previous adventurers. Any large gem will fit in the palms regardless of value. The fourth hand does not have a depression in its palm. If the gem of true seeing is lost, detect invisibility and presumably other spells such as true seeing do not work, only careful manual searching will locate it.
Credits
David C. Sutherland III 1978 Tomb of Horrors Cover Art https://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/2016/05/dave-sutherland-iii-thursday.html
D&D Theory: Why Old School? https://www.gamersdungeon.net/?p=1124