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I picked up the Undermountain book this weekend, and my feelings on it are mixed, but more good than bad in my opinion. I've always been a huge Undermountain fan - both boxed sets, all three adventure modules, the Skullport book - and so my expectations were pretty high. There were good and bad things.
First the Bad:
Some bad editing here and there, but that is typical these days.
They include a town called Spiderhaven on Level 3, but the map of the town doesn't correspond to anywhere on the old Level 3 Maps. Not a deal breaker, but an annoyance. The same goes for Belkram's Fall and the Pit of Ghaunadar (two shafts that connect a bunch of levels) - they didn't do a good job of fitting these locations onto exisitng maps.
The maps for the Seadeeps, the Caverns of Ooze, and the Terminus level were way to small.
The storyline was not that impressive -
The Good:
IT IS UNDERMOUNTAIN!!!
They finally give a sideways view of Undermountain and the relative locations of most of the levels.
They use some recognizable stuff from the older box sets and adventures.
The FR Atlas software had a map of Level 5, large parts of which (with some minor adjustments) are used in this adventure.
For those of you who remember the 2nd Box set and its adventures - Fidelio the cursed Paladin is back again.
The open-ended nature of Undermountain - they adventure gives some sinister hints of future occurences, but leaves the end hanging. In a way this is good, since the end of the adventure sees the PCs at about level 10. DMs have a lot of room to expand and come up with their own eventual BIG ending. Also, the shaft known as Belkarm's Fall is given as a major thouroughfare of the old dwarf kingdom. They talk about as-yet-undiscovered side rooms and dungeons along its length - great for dropping small sub-dungeons and other adventures into. IN a way, this also plays into a positive for my comments about the "too small" maps from above. They give room to expand those maps and add in whatever you want.
They give a map of Arcturia's lair, along with a few details.
They give a map of Halaster's "Lair".
That's all I can think of for now. I have yet to finish reading through the entire thing.
I liked it, but I feel like they kind of had to come up with an adventure "framework" to get to the good part, which is to publish a campaign framework for UnderMountain complete with updates to what power groups are where and what they are up to currently.
There is nothing wrong with the adventure component, but its definately more freeform than the other "Expedition" adventures. I was actually pretty happy with the overview, because to me, that means this is useful for more than just "an" adventure in UnderMountain.
Some of the posters at Candlekeep wondered if what Halaster saw might:
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I liked it, but I feel like they kind of had to come up with an adventure "framework" to get to the good part, which is to publish a campaign framework for UnderMountain complete with updates to what power groups are where and what they are up to currently.
There is nothing wrong with the adventure component, but its definately more freeform than the other "Expedition" adventures. I was actually pretty happy with the overview, because to me, that means this is useful for more than just "an" adventure in UnderMountain.
** spoiler omitted **
Some of the posters at Candlekeep wondered if what Halaster saw might:
** spoiler omitted **
Exactly! Ultimately, I feel much the same way. I like the free form nature of this, and I've already come up with some ideas as to what could follow.
The way I see it, maybe the PCs can ultimately perform some heroic actions that lead to Halaster's resurrection and subsequent foiling of the plot. OR, maybe they will have to find a replacement for Halaster as Lord of the Underhalls - maybe by finding a way to free the Skulls of Skullport so they can roam all of Undermountain and then use it as a phylactery the way they use Skullport itself currently.
Wow, this would have made a great FR AP.
Just some thoughts.
Re: Spoilers mentioned above, about two notable wizards in FR.
WTF????????????????????
I haven't played FR in a very long time, but I have some very strong reactions to those spoilers.
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I bought it and really liked it. Unfortunately I can't compare it to the original boxed sets, but it feels right.
Something I couldn't understand at all, was the artificial attempt to make Undermountain a core adventure. If you find FR specific information on any second page you start wondering why the whole adventure wasn't published as a FR adventure in the first place.
But then you realize that there is already this year's three part super adventure, so WotC probably felt that the FR quota is over-fulfilled... ;-)
Greetings,
Günther
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I bought it and really liked it. Unfortunately I can't compare it to the original boxed sets, but it feels right.
Something I couldn't understand at all, was the artificial attempt to make Undermountain a core adventure. If you find FR specific information on any second page you start wondering why the whole adventure wasn't published as a FR adventure in the first place.
But then you realize that there is already this year's three part super adventure, so WotC probably felt that the FR quota is over-fulfilled... ;-)
Greetings,
Günther
Yeah, their attempt to make it a world-neutral core adventure failed miserably.
So, did anyone but me purchase this?
I'm workin' on it...
Hey, Expedition to the Demonweb Pits is pretty much a Planescape adventure (which, by nature, means it CAN be run in Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms pretty easily). I think the "generic" thing is to broaden the sales base, but with the names they had on this, there was not way it wasn't going to be Realms adventure.
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Reading through a bit more, I just noticed something else. The map for the Yawning Portal Inn doesn't show the Well entrance, and with good reason. According to said map, the common room is only 25 feet wide or so. Meanwhile, the Entry Well is stated as being 40 feet in diameter. One of these days, the folks over at WotC really need to invest in someone who knows how to proofread.
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I'm excited by the reviews so far. I have an Age of Worms campaign starting at some point in the future and am basing the campaign in the Realms. I really didn't like the Champions Belt adventure so planned to incorporate some Skullport/Undermountain in its place. In looking at the table of contents on Expedition to Undermountain it seemed as if it was somewhat modular which had me excited to be able to pick and choose sections to fill-in to Age of Worms. The death of Halaster and doom on the horizon fits in well to the overall premise of the Age of Worms. Ordered my copy and have not yet received it. Definitely anxiously awaiting its arrival.
I haven't read through it, but I was quite annoyed at the fact that they had text over the top upper middle of the Level 1 map.
I did notice the lack of the well also, but I haven't read it so I figure they tied it in somehow.
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I haven't read through it, but I was quite annoyed at the fact that they had text over the top upper middle of the Level 1 map.
I did notice the lack of the well also, but I haven't read it so I figure they tied it in somehow.
I wasn't too concerned about the maps for levels 1, 2, 3 or Wyllow Wood. I have to boxed sets with the full versions of those.
As for the Entry Well, as I posted earlier, they kind of screwed that one up. Since I was already planning on doing some extra mapping to expand some of the lower levels (The Farms, The Caverns of Ooze, and the Terminus level to be precise), I figured I'd just develop my own version of the Yawning Portal - complete with the Well and the stables they mention.
There is a map to the Yawning Portal that one of the people at Candlekeep has done here: