Appendix d12: Underdark Grottos

Wizards of the Coast · Sep 14, 2012

To help DMs add further detail to their adventures underground, Jason Sholtis (of The Dungeon Dozen) has provided the following table -- in the spirit of the 1st Edition DMG's appendices, charts, and random encounters! This week: Whatâ??s in that out-of-the-way Underdark grotto?

Read Appendix d12: Underdark Grottos on D&D Insider here!

Toyon · Sep 14, 2012

seriously? LAME.

JeffB · Sep 14, 2012

Ermm.. yeah, hope that anyone unfamiliar with Gary's excellent tables gets a bad impression of them because of this garbage article.

Troglodyte salami

Yora · Sep 14, 2012

We really don't need every single piece of content from the WotC site in this forum.
When they are 5th edition related, they are quite neat to have mentioned here.

But now that everything gets dumped here, I don't really feel like looking at them because most of it is unrelated spam advertising.

LostSoul · Sep 14, 2012

I liked it (and the Dungeon Dozen too). I think these are good hooks.

Morrus · Sep 14, 2012

Yora said:
We really don't need every single piece of content from the WotC site in this forum.
When they are 5th edition related, they are quite neat to have mentioned here.

But now that everything gets dumped here, I don't really feel like looking at them because most of it is unrelated spam advertising.

It's an RSS feed. It's either 'on' or 'off'. So it's all WotC news or no WotC news.

Moon_Goddess · Sep 14, 2012

<dreamland> Wouldn't it be nice if WOTC had seperate feeds, or tagged their posts... </dreamland>

Vyvyan Basterd · Sep 14, 2012

LostSoul said:
I liked it (and the Dungeon Dozen too). I think these are good hooks.

I liked it too. Even the cheesy humor made me fondly remember the humorous cartoons throughout the 1E DMG. Each of the entries either presents a good hook or strong visual. A grotto swarming with cockroaches would have my wife on edge for the rest of the game night, while just another side cave is easily forgotten and a waste of time to mention. Replace 'salami' with 'dried meats' and the one entry becomes less silly. But I won't knock the chart for being a little light-hearted in its presentation.

P1NBACK · Sep 14, 2012

I love this table (and the others like it from Jason). Evocative and original.

LostSoul · Sep 14, 2012

Vyvyan Basterd said:
Replace 'salami' with 'dried meats' and the one entry becomes less silly. But I won't knock the chart for being a little light-hearted in its presentation.

I think the best way to use these is as hooks for DM-generated content. They're useful as a springboard to fuel the DM's imagination.

When I read "troglodyte gourmet", I picture a vile worshipper of Torog flaying his victims alive to make his dishes, then feeding a pit full of writhing vermin (most likely giant centipedes).

Another one that grabbed my interest was the guy who was reciting the epic poem. Why? Is he under a curse? What will he do if stopped - will he attack, and if so, will the PCs fall under his curse if he's slain? What does the poem say - could it shine light on some other feature of the dungeon? Are the lines that contain valuable information earlier on in the poem, and will the PCs risk waiting around (wandering monsters) while he gets to the good parts?

Other people will come up with totally different ideas, questions, and answers, and I think anything that does that in a few lines is great.