One of the wordiest adventure modules we’ve had up until now, this was actually released in a limited fashion in 1979 as a competition module at Origins ’79 under the title: “Lost Tamoachan: The Hidden Shrine of Lubaatum”, but the mass market version was this 1980 version (with a color update for the cover later on). 

Tamoachan is a really detailed module, with immense descriptions of each area as well as visual aids for each room in the dungeon. The dungeon itself is a reverse dungeon in the sense that you start at the bottom and need to go up to reach freedom rather than exploring down as is the case in most adventures. The setting is Greyhawk and more specifically in the Olman islands which are introduced in this module, a clear one for one lift from Mayan, Aztec, Olmec and other mesoamerican cultures.

The party is stuck underground, inside a pyramid and goes from room to room in order to find freedom. In a kind of Haunted House style each room has a different danger and puzzle to fix in order to move on to the next one. Full of undead and even stranger things (the Gibbering Mouther makes his debut here, for example), the pyramid is really a temple complex, with different areas dedicated to different gods, both good, evil and neutral. Added to this setup are a bunch of really cool illustrations to help players visualise their surroundings. A fun adventure for sure.