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The Underdark: Bigger And Better Than Before
Underdark is a great addition to the D&D game; it is as much a new campaign setting as a supplement on underground role-playing sessions.
I dug into the new Underdark book, by Rob Heinsoo and Andy Collins, about a week ago, and I think it's one of the best books of new game game content that Wizards has released since their Eberron campaign setting last summer. Like a lot of current D&D supplements, it retails for $29.95, and should be pretty easy to track down at your local book or comic store.
The Underdark has long been a staple of D&D fiction - a world beneath the world, where the greatest of dangers lurk in the shadowy recesses of caverns and tunnels. From a gameplay perspective, it has also always been a nice excuse for how crafty dungeon masters can keep their players wandering around through endless tunnels for weeks. It's the Underdark! Anything can happen down here.
Alas, I always felt that previous explorations of the Underdark fell short of truly delivering on the promise. Ultimately, the Underdark just felt like another dungeon locale, with little in the way of the standout features and exciting personalities that made aboveground adventures so compelling. I'm a pretty story-driven DM, so the idea of running my players through endless corridors of nameless monsters doesn't do much for me.
That's why I like the new 4th edition Underdark book so much. As I mentioned above, Underdark reads almost like its own campaign setting. The unique races of the place, including drow, mind flayers, troglodytes, and beholders, all have dedicated entries and unique locations, cities, or nations to which they are tied. Extensive sections on the Feydark and Shadowdark with equally fleshed out locations and races allow for fun transitions back and forth between the normal world and both the nature-driven and shadow-driven analogue planes. The Underdark, as a whole, feels fleshed out and filled with opportunities for exploration.
The other major plus is the mythology that Wizards has placed behind their Underdark setting. A mad, dangerous god of toruture and imprisonment named Torog acts as an overriding foe for the setting, and the birth and formation of the Underdark ties in closely with his existence. As an added plus, this twisted being is fully detailed with stats for anyone who wants to include him as a end-of-campaign boss.
New monsters, campaign arcs, and most importantly, a deep imagination for underground role-playing ideas are at the core of the book. I think it's a great supplement to check out if you have any interest in running your group through some serious dungeon-crawling in the coming months.
Any fellow DMs out there been exploring some of the 4th edition content in recent months? Any favorites?
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