How would you do a Darklands book?

[BookBird]

Seems like quite a broad "region". We know it's layered, with vast spaces like Nar-Voth and the Vault of Orv, and those are already massive on their own. There are also some differences in the Darklands across continents, the haunted clockworks of Tian Xia. If you had to make a book touching on Darklands content for the Lost Omens line, how would you go about doing it?

[Brinebeast]

I would love to see a Darklands book. I think it would have to be two books though. One very robust "world guide" and one very robust "character guide" book. Obviously, this would still only be scratching the surface, but it would open up the Darklands for future exploration in smaller books and articles.

[Virellius]

Munavri, Drow, Svirnfeblin, Duergar center focus. Chapter on each of the layers like Impossible Lands splitting up the regions, with long sections within on major cities, like how Imp Lands did the various cities. The format worked very well imo.

Maybe throw in two more new ancestries?

[Morhek]

It would be nice to know what the Drow are up to. They've undergone some major events, including their discovery by the surface world and the redemption of Nocticula who was a major patron of a noble house. Did the noble house convert with her? Were they left bereft and absorbed by the other clans?

The upcoming Highhelm book also gives room to expand on the Duergar, as a contrast to what's happening to the dwarves closer to or on the surface. Give them a little more than We Made A Bad Deal With Droskar to work with.

[keftiu]

I increasingly think the Darklands are too big for any one book to tackle without pissing someone off.

What about a Highhelm-style book on a specific locale, perhaps one where multiple Ancestries might be found? The kind of place where you get the Protean cults of the Drow, but also a ghoul embassy might be in the nice part of town.

[BookBird]

There's certainly a lot of questions on the state of the Darklands in 2e. The Drow first and foremost could use an update following the events of Second Darkness and Nocticula's ascension. I'm wondering if this may also be the place to get information on the Sekmin, maybe even as a playable ancestry? Regardless, I do agree with the sentiment that it's too big to be just one book.

[Bizzare Beasts Boozer]

I would definitely want to go the route of basing each section around particular creatures or cultures, rather than geography.

(Yes, I basically want Darklands Revisted 2: This Time it's Darklandier )

This would give you more space to look at ancestries, as well as the people and monsters you might encounter that far down- without necessarily tying them to locations that are hundreds of miles from each other. I think this is particularly important because I'd love to see the Darklands expanded- any book that contains a chapter called "Haunted Clockworks" is going to get my money so fast.

I would also love to see more discussion of what surface-folk know (or think they know) about Darklanders. Let's you play more with players and character expectations, and if you can give the troglodytes a shocking twist, then why not play with other misunderstandings?

Personally I'd love to see it codified that the original Azruverda artwork is what people think it looks like after their game of telephone, and the updated appearance is their real look (or vice versa!)

[keftiu]

I desperately want info on Pan Majang. +2 from me on any and all Haunted Clockwork content!

[Bizzare Beasts Boozer]

Quote:

Pan Majang is ruled by a shadowy council of horrible half-undead, half-clockwork creatures

Always knew there was interesting stuff down there but I never actually looked into it!

[MMCJawa]

I would have the book divided into levels, with an emphasis on the Darklands region adjacent to the Inner Sea. I might devote a small section to the Darklands under other places, such as Tian Xia, Casmaron, Arcadia, the various oceans, etc. (Sort of hoping we get more Tian Xia Darklands info in the Tian Xia hardcover.

I would also have separate sections for ancestries, monsters, and player options.

Basically something not dissimilar to the original 3.5 era book, just expanded an updated.

[Bizzare Beasts Boozer]

A few people have mentioned ancestries... what are people after?

There's no question I'm in the minority here, but personally I don't want my players making characters from the Darklands, I like leaving it as a big question mark that I can plunge them in to with the unexpected and the alien.

However I'm not made of stone and if there are xulgath and Urdefhan then I will be excited.

[keftiu]

Bizzare Beasts Boozer wrote:

A few people have mentioned ancestries... what are people after?

There's no question I'm in the minority here, but personally I don't want my players making characters from the Darklands, I like leaving it as a big question mark that I can plunge them in to with the unexpected and the alien.

However I'm not made of stone and if there are xulgath and Urdefhan then I will be excited.

Drow remain hugely popular, and there's a lot of demand for them as a standalone thing. I'm probably the loudest cheerleader for Sekmin (Serpentfolk) to become playable, as I think they have a really fascinating place and perspective in the setting's history. Some folks really want Duergar and Svirfneblin for the sake of completeness. Extinction Curse accidentally made a lot of people sympathetic to the Xulgaths.

[Brinebeast]

The Darklands have several great options for Ancestries that have only been lightly explored or never explored. The list below includes many of the potential Ancestries I have been able to identify. Also, there are some populations not included on this list as we know there are Human, Elf, Iruxi, Hobgoblin, and Minotaur populations in the Darklands, just to name a few.

Caligni [Dark Folk]
Caulborn
Cave Goblin (Darklands Goblins)
Charda
Derro
Dire Corby (Darklands Tengu)
Drow
Duergar
Dwarf
Kobold
Mezlan
Mongrelmen
Munavri
Myceloid
Orc
Pech
Sekmin [Serpentfolk]
Svirfneblin [Deep Gnome]
Trox
Urdefhan
Vegepygmy
Wayang
Xulgath [Troglodyte]
Ysoki [Ratfolk]

[BookBird]

keftiu wrote:

Bizzare Beasts Boozer wrote:

A few people have mentioned ancestries... what are people after?

There's no question I'm in the minority here, but personally I don't want my players making characters from the Darklands, I like leaving it as a big question mark that I can plunge them in to with the unexpected and the alien.

However I'm not made of stone and if there are xulgath and Urdefhan then I will be excited.

Drow remain hugely popular, and there's a lot of demand for them as a standalone thing. I'm probably the loudest cheerleader for Sekmin (Serpentfolk) to become playable, as I think they have a really fascinating place and perspective in the setting's history. Some folks really want Duergar and Svirfneblin for the sake of completeness. Extinction Curse accidentally made a lot of people sympathetic to the Xulgaths.

I'd adore it if we could get playable Sekmin and Xulgaths in a Darklands book, though I'm cautiously pessimistic about the possibility. Beyond those the Drow are obvious, but I admit I don't much care for Duergar or Svirfneblin. Lots of people do though, so I'm hoping they're playable eventually.

[Perpdepog]

Caligni are my big ask in a possible Darklands book. I'd absolutely love for their culture to get the 2E once over. I like how the tension between Caligni and their owb masters is played out in the ruling castes' leanings to evil, while the more rank and file Caligni tend toward chaotic neutral at worst.
Also, I'd love to see something more thoughtful done with their theme of non-standard ability and how it figures into their culture. Entries like Dark Champion and Dark Dancer give glimpses of a society that, to me, reads as incredibly accepting of those with all kinds of physical and mental challenges that was forged and then twisted by the owbs into a utilitarian caste system, and I'd love to hear more about how that works, and also some pockets of Caligni culture that don't subscribe to the worship of owbs and how they differ from the norm.
Caligni are also one of the strongest links to the Foresaken, and I'd like another write-up about them as well.

[Yakman]

Forgotten Realms had a heckuva Underdark hardcover back in the 3E era.