Running an underground campaign

[Grogg of the North]

So something I've been thinking of running is a campaign based on the novel Metro 2033. The campaign would be set primarily underground with the surface being extremely inhospitable. Life is hard; there aren't enough supplies and if monsters are trying to get in from the surface then its something from below!

My question is if there are any sources out there for a primarily underground/underdark campaign. There's a small snippet in the DMG dealing with stalactite/stalgmites and cave-ins. Is the Underdark book useful if I'm not going to be dealing with Forgotten Realms?

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Underdark is a good source; the FR aspects can be easily filed off. For adventures, Night Below is the classic Underdark campaign, though you can also get a lot of ideas from the old D1-3 series (Descent in the Depths, Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, Vault of the Drow).

 

[Dwimmerlied]

Regarding the FR Underdark book, there's about 20 pages that have specific underdark environmental rules, which might be helpful. More than the DMG offers, but perhaps the only thing that might be useful to you. Underdark specific monsters are included; The elder brain, giant cockroach, half-illithid to name a few. Will you be using them? If so, that might help. The extensive underdark region by region breakdown is the meat of the book, I guess this won't be much use. Other than that there's the standard fare; campaign specific feats, prestige classes and spells.

 

[ImperatorK]

Drow of The Underdark (3.X book) might also be useful. It's more non-setting specific (other than being set in Greyhawk).

 

[Grogg of the North]

I've looked through DotU and currently I'm not sure how much influence the drow will have in the campaign.

Would Races of Stone be worth looking at? Or is that more about living on top of a mountain instead of beneath it?

 

[ImperatorK]

RoS deals partially with dwarves, so there is some underground related material.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

If you don't mind third-party material, there's a fabulous little book, mostly monsters with a few character options, called Monsters of the Endless Dark. (Goodman Games, written by Jon Pollom.) It's very flavorful, written much like a journal with the stat blocks in the margins, so you could copy the pages and just cut out the monster stats if you wanted your players to find accounts of some of the weirder things in the Underdark.

 

[skinnydwarf]

I ran a 2e game like this once. The previous generation of adventurers had failed to save the world, and the Blood War raged on the surface. Taking a page from Earthdawn, the dwarves opened up their cities to the "good" races, and so you had humans and some elves, halflings and gnomes all running around underground. The PCs were part of a tunnel patrol, which typically consisted of the core classes.

I wouldn't think the description of the Underdark in the FR Underdark book would be useless. You could just use that as the basis for your campaign map.

Also, I second the recommendation of Monsters of the Endless Dark. That was a fun monster book.

 

[Warbringer]

Have you considered using GammaWorld? or possibly even DarkSun as a backdrop? Darksun actually would translate fairly easily, as its essentially a resource poor environment.

 

[ranger69]

Dungeonscape

The Dungeonscape book is useful for underground settings.