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Undermountain as a Skill Challenge
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7204804" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[MENTION=32659]Charles Rampant[/MENTION] I've done something similar with Dragon Mountain (link in my sig). However, I think you what you have here goes TOO far into abstraction and loses out on the unique FLAVOR of Undermountain. Basically, you've created "generic megadungeon crawl" rules for a style of play that doesn't involve lots of mapping – but there's nothing about <em>Undermountain</em> specifically in there. What it amounts to is throwing dice without much story.</p><p></p><p>Look at it from a player's point of view:</p><p></p><p>Ranger: "Ok, I rolled a 16 on the Departure Table. What does that mean?"</p><p></p><p>DM: "You can give advantage to the next player to roll on the Events Table or Arrival Table!"</p><p></p><p>Ranger: "Oh, is that all? OK, I guess I'll give the Wizard advantage."</p><p></p><p>DM: "OK, roll on the Events Table, Wizard..."</p><p></p><p>Wizard: "Oh no! A natural 1!"</p><p></p><p>DM: "So, you wander and wander through harrowing tunnels and just can't find the portal you seek. At last, weary from your travels, you find the stairs down to the portal. The entire party gains a level of exhaustion."</p><p></p><p>All Players: "Wait, what? We have that goblin guiding us, right? Wait, can't I make a Constitution saving throw to resist the exhaustion cause I'm tougher than the Wizard? Hmm, the Underdark is my favored terrain, can't I mitigate our exhaustion somehow using my Natural Explorer feature? Well, why don't I just cast <em>rope trick</em> and we can rest off that exhaustion before proceeding? Yeah, maybe we should just go back to the tavern, and rest off our exhaustion, then come back and hope for luckier rolls later?</p><p></p><p></p><p>Personally, ugh. It falls into the same trap as 4e skill challenges originally did – stripping out the narrative from the mechanics. Again, personally, I want narrative & mechanics tightly grasping hands and working together. One way to accomplish that is to bring the IDENTITY of Undermountain more strongly into your tables (again, see my skill challenge from traveling through Dragon Mountain, in my sig, as an example).</p><p></p><p>When I think about Undermountain, I would want to include:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Various monsters have occupied different areas, with layers of history to the dungeon that PCs can discover and use to their advantage - if you want another role you could have one be the Historian or even the Cartographer.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halaster performed magical experiments that likely changed how magic works in some areas, created living spells, or magical traps.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halaster placed magic portals throughout Undermountain, so finding/using/protecting/claiming those should be part of the exploration.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 7204804, member: 20323"] [MENTION=32659]Charles Rampant[/MENTION] I've done something similar with Dragon Mountain (link in my sig). However, I think you what you have here goes TOO far into abstraction and loses out on the unique FLAVOR of Undermountain. Basically, you've created "generic megadungeon crawl" rules for a style of play that doesn't involve lots of mapping – but there's nothing about [I]Undermountain[/I] specifically in there. What it amounts to is throwing dice without much story. Look at it from a player's point of view: Ranger: "Ok, I rolled a 16 on the Departure Table. What does that mean?" DM: "You can give advantage to the next player to roll on the Events Table or Arrival Table!" Ranger: "Oh, is that all? OK, I guess I'll give the Wizard advantage." DM: "OK, roll on the Events Table, Wizard..." Wizard: "Oh no! A natural 1!" DM: "So, you wander and wander through harrowing tunnels and just can't find the portal you seek. At last, weary from your travels, you find the stairs down to the portal. The entire party gains a level of exhaustion." All Players: "Wait, what? We have that goblin guiding us, right? Wait, can't I make a Constitution saving throw to resist the exhaustion cause I'm tougher than the Wizard? Hmm, the Underdark is my favored terrain, can't I mitigate our exhaustion somehow using my Natural Explorer feature? Well, why don't I just cast [I]rope trick[/I] and we can rest off that exhaustion before proceeding? Yeah, maybe we should just go back to the tavern, and rest off our exhaustion, then come back and hope for luckier rolls later? Personally, ugh. It falls into the same trap as 4e skill challenges originally did – stripping out the narrative from the mechanics. Again, personally, I want narrative & mechanics tightly grasping hands and working together. One way to accomplish that is to bring the IDENTITY of Undermountain more strongly into your tables (again, see my skill challenge from traveling through Dragon Mountain, in my sig, as an example). When I think about Undermountain, I would want to include: [list][*]Various monsters have occupied different areas, with layers of history to the dungeon that PCs can discover and use to their advantage - if you want another role you could have one be the Historian or even the Cartographer. [*]Halaster performed magical experiments that likely changed how magic works in some areas, created living spells, or magical traps. [*]Halaster placed magic portals throughout Undermountain, so finding/using/protecting/claiming those should be part of the exploration.[/list] [/QUOTE]
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