It’s tempting to answer “pick a module that doesn’t suck and run that instead,” but that wouldn’t be very helpful.
My biggest issue with the adventure is the almost total lack of player agency through the first like half of the adventure. The entire underdark sequence is just a long series of disastrous events the PCs can’t avoid or prevent, punctuated by long stretches of overland travel. It starts with the players in prison, and after they escape they’re railroaded from one underdark city to another, where they get captured, and escape when a demon lord shows up. Rinse and repeat. Honestly, I’m not really sure what can be done about this. It’s a glaring flaw with the design of the adventure, and short of a total rewrite, you just kinda have to live with it. But at least if you know to expect it, you can brace yourself for it.
Adding to that, unless you’re a master story teller all the insanity effects of the Demon Lords start to feel samey. Oh another city where some of the leadership is mad and others are trying to fight against it? By the fourth one my players were rolling their eyes. Fancy locations (which aren’t even all that fancy) won’t cover up a very repetitive story.It starts with the players in prison, and after they escape they’re railroaded from one underdark city to another, where they get captured, and escape when a demon lord shows up.
OOTA is overloaded with interesting NPCs and it is worth establishing connections between some of them and the players. The dire times depicted should inevitably result in emotional partings and losses.I am going to start DMing Out of the Abyss soon, does anyone have any advice?
Rather than rewrite, or live with, you just let players step off the railroad and encounter the material in whatever order flows from there. You focus on the means and motives of the many groups depicted, put in motion by the Underdark-shattering actions of Lloth.It’s tempting to answer “pick a module that doesn’t suck and run that instead,” but that wouldn’t be very helpful.
My biggest issue with the adventure is the almost total lack of player agency through the first like half of the adventure. The entire underdark sequence is just a long series of disastrous events the PCs can’t avoid or prevent, punctuated by long stretches of overland travel. It starts with the players in prison, and after they escape they’re railroaded from one underdark city to another, where they get captured, and escape when a demon lord shows up. Rinse and repeat. Honestly, I’m not really sure what can be done about this. It’s a glaring flaw with the design of the adventure, and short of a total rewrite, you just kinda have to live with it. But at least if you know to expect it, you can brace yourself for it.
Changing the order does nothing to fix the problem of every town being “ some of them are going mad because of the demon lord, but some of them aren’t yet. They capture you and prepare to sacrifice you to the demon lord. The demon lord appears and destroys everything, but you manage to escape.Rather than rewrite, or live with, you just let players step off the railroad and encounter the material in whatever order flows from there. You focus on the means and motives of the many groups depicted, put in motion by the Underdark-shattering actions of Lloth.
Read the books Homeland and Sojourn (particularly the latter, though it only makes sense in the context of the first) by RA Salvatore.I am going to start DMing Out of the Abyss soon, does anyone have any advice?