Is it possible Dungeon of the Mad Mage was mis-marketed as an adventure when it should have been sold as an Underdark setting book? We've been playing through and running it as a straight dungeon adventure and it just wasn't working - even bringing in the cool story hooks on each level. The battles just don't have a lot of meaning, and the rewards were too few. SO the last couple sessions we decided to ignore the "defeat the level, gain a level" advice the book gives and instead just played it like a sandbox setting, and it seems to work MUCH better that way. We've pulled all the focus off of the "explore the levels" like it encourages you to do, and wove our own stories around the denizens and their lives.
It almost seems like that was the real intent of the book and somehow it got lost in the "adventure" marketing approach. Anyone else have a similar experience?
It almost seems like that was the real intent of the book and somehow it got lost in the "adventure" marketing approach. Anyone else have a similar experience?