D&D 5E Out of the Abyss in my grubby hands (pic attached)

[Cadriel]

I'm not Sacrosanct but I do have the book, and basically: the format is, after the "you're captured by Drow" introduction, there is about 100 pages of Underdark hexcrawl. This includes a drow outpost, general hexcrawl encounters, four set-piece encounters in the "wilderness", and four locations (the Darklake, Gracklstugh, Neverlight Grove, and Blingdenstone). Each of the locations has serious stuff going on from the demon lords, but also is detailed in a way that you could use it without running the module as-is.

The second half includes Menzoberranzan among other places, but it's intended for the PCs to be leading a small expeditionary force, not really hexcrawling in the openness as a small party.

 

[Coredump]

The vast majority of magic item certs are for Expeditions, which take place no where near this module.

The 'encounter' certs and 'expedition' certs are delivered differently. I am talking about OotA certs....

 

[Sacrosanct]

[MENTION=15700]Sacrosanct[/MENTION]
Question for you! How readily do you feel Out of the Abyss lends itself to Underdark sandbox style play? Specifically, I'm running a mashup of Night Below and I'm wondering how much of Out of the Abyss I'll be able to use purely for cool locations, NPCs, and monsters?

Well, it's been years since I've looked at Night Below, but looking at OotA, it seems that most of the locations (the first half of the book) are detailed out as individual areas rather than a linear progression from the one previous. When you go through the campaign, you're probably only going to hit a few of these areas. So in that respect, it lends itself very well to drag and drop into any other existing campaign. Just modify the plot points as needed, which is pretty easy enough, and you should be good to go.

 

[steeldragons]

The 'encounter' certs and 'expedition' certs are delivered differently. I am talking about OotA certs....

Just out of mild curiosity and confusion...WTH's a "magic item cert"? Last I knew, "certs" was a breath mint.

What does it mean here/now?

 

[Queer Venger]

Owned!

 

[Quickleaf]

Well, it's been years since I've looked at Night Below, but looking at OotA, it seems that most of the locations (the first half of the book) are detailed out as individual areas rather than a linear progression from the one previous. When you go through the campaign, you're probably only going to hit a few of these areas. So in that respect, it lends itself very well to drag and drop into any other existing campaign. Just modify the plot points as needed, which is pretty easy enough, and you should be good to go.

Thanks, mate! I am sold

 

[Coredump]

Just out of mild curiosity and confusion...WTH's a "magic item cert"? Last I knew, "certs" was a breath mint.

What does it mean here/now?

DnD Organized Play (Adventure League) gives out Certificates for magic items. So when we get the adventure, we get a stack of certificates, one for each magic item.

 

[Daern]

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] I ran Night Below back when 3e first came out. Reading OoA I was totally thinking about that box. I think you could use alot of the pieces from it in Night Below, especially the abstract random encounter pieces in place of the super linear nature of the midgame of Night Below. It could make Night Below way better. That one suffered from serious slog syndrome on the middle levels.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] I ran Night Below back when 3e first came out. Reading OoA I was totally thinking about that box. I think you could use alot of the pieces from it in Night Below, especially the abstract random encounter pieces in place of the super linear nature of the midgame of Night Below. It could make Night Below way better. That one suffered from serious slog syndrome on the middle levels.

AD&D Night Below, yeah? Cool, great to hear that!

I've heard several folks comment about Night Below's middle section being weak, so I'm hoping to supplement it with a medley of Out of the Abyss, Gates of Firestorm Peak, touches from the 4e Underdark books, and some homebrew Underdark encounter tables.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=15700]Sacrosanct[/MENTION]: Does the book give descriptions for all the sites mentioned on the map? I'm specifically curious to know what the Gallery of Angels and the Maze Engine are.