Underdark Adventures

[Lord Zack]

I was thinking of having three levels, each with it's own map. The Upperdark, Middledark and Lowerdark. In any case there would be variance in depth within a "level" as well, so color coding for depth seems like a good idea.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I was thinking of having three levels, each with it's own map. The Upperdark, Middledark and Lowerdark. In any case there would be variance in depth within a "level" as well, so color coding for depth seems like a good idea.

My "levels" are:

• The Halls - mostly dwarven passages, cities and mines -- dungeon crawls are found in the level.
• The Deeps - Natural caverns and such, this is the no man lands, lots of combat and monsters.
• The Underdark - Home of the drow and older things.
• The Vastdark - connections to other planes and forgotten creatures, Mindflayers mmostly.

 

[roguerouge]

Chapter four of this adventure path is set there, and Paizo maps are pretty beautiful: http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/secondDarkness

Also, check out the descriptions of the other adventures, as they may have explanatory articles about the Underdark and drow that you could use.

 

[Lord Zack]

Well actually I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to use the drow in this setting, the primary inhabitants of my Underdark are dwarves and goblins. While we're on the subject how often (w/regards to distance) should settlements occur?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well actually I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to use the drow in this setting, the primary inhabitants of my Underdark are dwarves and goblins. While we're on the subject how often (w/regards to distance) should settlements occur?

I follow the following rule of thumb:

• 5 to 20 miles out (up, down or sideways) are support settlements to a major city, normally these are five to ten in number and poplulations are as for towns in the DM Guide.
• 25 to 30 miles out (up, down or sideways) are the outpost settlements to the major city. These are villages and they are few in number and are found on the safer more travelled paths.
• 35 to 100 miles are the wilderness areas.

If you are color coding, this is easy done as zones around your cities.