Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
New Undermountain book..your thoughts?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 6004957" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>I think it's an excellent product. However, you have to understand what it is and what it isn't.</p><p></p><p>It doesn't have encounters for all of Undermountain. Instead, it details a portion of the first level of Undermountain, and describes what the other levels might contain. </p><p></p><p>These detailed areas have remarkably little overlap with those in the original Undermountain set; a few classic areas are updated, but most of the encounters are brand new and placed in undetailed rooms from the original first-level map. (Minor changes are made to the map, but not that many).</p><p></p><p>The most disappointing thing about the book is that it isn't Book One of Nine. It suffers from not having maps for the deeper levels. The poster map for the Dungeon Level is great; I just would have liked more maps. The original boxed set actually had a similar* amount of rooms detailed, but had maps for the first three levels.</p><p></p><p>(* I can't remember off hand if my recollection is the original set detailed about 90 areas in total, ~30 on each level, or 90 areas on each level. If it's the former, then this book tracks pretty closely. Otherwise, it's about a third of the content).</p><p></p><p>The book is greatly helped by it abandoning the strict tactical format used by most of the 4E adventures. Instead, description becomes more key and monster statblocks are only detailed if the monster is not in the Monster Vault. (And even then, some of the monster statblocks are moved to the appendix). It makes it a lot more readable.</p><p></p><p>I do have to give special mention to the NPCs of the Yawning Portal Inn, which have a lot of nice hooks to use in roleplaying and quest formation.</p><p></p><p>It doesn't replace the original set, but stands beside it and Undermountain is much, much stronger if you have both products. Either on their own also works as the starting point to an Undermountain campaign, but I do give a slight nod to the original boxed set just for the extra maps and level encounters.</p><p></p><p>But if you can only get this one? Especially for the needs of your son, he should find it quite entertaining.</p><p></p><p>Cheers!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 6004957, member: 3586"] I think it's an excellent product. However, you have to understand what it is and what it isn't. It doesn't have encounters for all of Undermountain. Instead, it details a portion of the first level of Undermountain, and describes what the other levels might contain. These detailed areas have remarkably little overlap with those in the original Undermountain set; a few classic areas are updated, but most of the encounters are brand new and placed in undetailed rooms from the original first-level map. (Minor changes are made to the map, but not that many). The most disappointing thing about the book is that it isn't Book One of Nine. It suffers from not having maps for the deeper levels. The poster map for the Dungeon Level is great; I just would have liked more maps. The original boxed set actually had a similar* amount of rooms detailed, but had maps for the first three levels. (* I can't remember off hand if my recollection is the original set detailed about 90 areas in total, ~30 on each level, or 90 areas on each level. If it's the former, then this book tracks pretty closely. Otherwise, it's about a third of the content). The book is greatly helped by it abandoning the strict tactical format used by most of the 4E adventures. Instead, description becomes more key and monster statblocks are only detailed if the monster is not in the Monster Vault. (And even then, some of the monster statblocks are moved to the appendix). It makes it a lot more readable. I do have to give special mention to the NPCs of the Yawning Portal Inn, which have a lot of nice hooks to use in roleplaying and quest formation. It doesn't replace the original set, but stands beside it and Undermountain is much, much stronger if you have both products. Either on their own also works as the starting point to an Undermountain campaign, but I do give a slight nod to the original boxed set just for the extra maps and level encounters. But if you can only get this one? Especially for the needs of your son, he should find it quite entertaining. Cheers! [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
New Undermountain book..your thoughts?
Top