Running Undermountain

[Awakened]

I'm starting a campaign in Waterdeep soon, and I want to make Undermountain available for adventuring. I've heard a lot of criticism aimed at the 3.5 edition, and was wondering if it was better to just buy the boxed sets off of ebay or something and convert those?
I'm not sure about the idea of "1st level Undermountain", although I've never played the dungeon before, I kind of was interested in presenting it as a looming possibility for later adventuring.
How have people run 3.5 undermountain in their campaigns? What level is the best for the PCs to be when they start the trek?
Just interested in hearing what you veterans have to say about such an iconic location.

 

[Awakened]

Whoa, actually, upon googling, I ran across mention of someone who did something similiar. Gaiden's Undermountain story hour. Does anyone have the link to that?

 

[Faraer]

I'm not sure about the idea of "1st level Undermountain", although I've never played the dungeon before, I kind of was interested in presenting it as a looming possibility for later adventuring.

I'd do that. As a dangerous dungeon with a lethal reputation, it's better suited to mid- and high-level adventuring than low; it's only written for levels 1–10 because of edict from above. So I'd start with other adventures, with rumours of Undermountain to build it up; lead the PCs into it around 6th level, combining the original boxed set and Steven Schend's adventures with Expedition (they complement each other); and perhaps work in Eric Boyd's Waterdhavian adventures in Dungeon #126–128.

 

[Awakened]

Thanks for the links and ideas on Dungeon adventures! Tremendous help! 4.00 for a pdf beats 30 over ebay for the boxed sets
Well, for my purposes, at least

 

[freyar]

Don't forget Return to Undermountain (mostly by Matthew Sernett, I think), free on the WotC site (and 3.5E).

 

[Rhun]

I own the original UM and UMII...they were definitely too deadly for 1st level play (I probably had at least 3 or 4 low-level TPKs in there). I don't know about the new version, but be prepared for a lot of work. Relatively few of the chambers were detailed, and PCs have the tendency to drift into those area. This means as a DM, you either have to populate the dungeon on the fly, or do lots of work ahead of time.

 

[Awakened]

I saw this back in the day and forgot about it! Wow, this does a lot of help. How many levels does undermountain have, I wonder?

 

[Rhun]

I saw this back in the day and forgot about it! Wow, this does a lot of help. How many levels does undermountain have, I wonder?

I believe it is supposed to have 9 levels, IF I remember correctly. I can check tonight when I get home.

 

[Awakened]

I'm definitely downloading that pdf, 4 bucks is a steal.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Well worth it IMO. That said, I think that the first UM boxed set, the trilogy of UM adventures by Steven Schend, and the flavor text on remaining levels in the Waterdeep: City of Splendors book and the Expedition to Undermountain book are better than the second boxed set or the rest of EtUM. I'd use those as the core of your campaign.

The original boxed set recommends 6th-8th level PCs; I'd say that this is a fine range. Waterdeep is a large, interesting, and relatively safe city (no Erelhei-Cinlu this!), so it has many opportunities for low-level adventuring. I'd use the city as the PCs' initial adventure site and "build up" Undermountain's reputation through rumors and the like (this is done quite effectively in the source material). Then, when the PCs enter Undermountain, the players will be trembling every step of the way, and you can get some nice tension and mystery going (especially if many of the rumors are, say, just plain wrong... ).