Thanks Brett!
Yeah I read that review and went out and plunked down the money for the Underdark Adventure Guide, then being the sneaky wanker that I am, went to a friends house and borrowed his WotC Underdark book so I could read'em both over the holiday.
My thoughts: The Goodman is not as pretty, but in the end, I ain't in this for pretty. I liked the WotC Underdark book, but geeze louise, I *HAVE* all of this material from my 2nd Ed. stash of Underdark box sets, novels, pamphlets and cereal boxes. Seriously, it's an ok book, but there wasn't enough meat on it.
The Underdark Adventure Guide, however is all meat and a spoon of mashed potatoes. (Are these just references due to the turkey slaughtering I did over the last two days?). It doesn't try to create the next "new and cool" underground race. It takes what's there and established and runs with it. Now I have cool Drow prestige classes, 3ed rules on drow prosthetics (which I'm surprised worked pretty good). The stuff in the back with the locales was pretty interesting. I thought there was enough stuff back there for a serious campaign, the GM just has to fill in the details in between.
In terms of just overall quality, I'd have paid the WotC price for the Goodman book and felt justified (THIS DOES NOT MEAN I WANT TO SEE BOOKS AT THAT PRICE!). The Goodman book is better and for players and GM's that already know a lot about the Underdark and want to expand it. It's a better buy. THe best part about the Goodman book is that it fits in any campaign.
That said, the WotC book is still ok, and of course it *IS* Forgotten Realms, so there's always something cool you can find in an FR book. I personally dig the Imaskari. The art is nice. The information was mediocre, there was a *LOT* of meta-plot in it, which is good and bad, but it's lacking in detail. That said, I still might get it, if only for the maps and stuff. I can't help but think that WotC is slipping in its quality, and other companies are doing their work better... and cheaper.
My 2 coppers. I'd be interested in hearing what other's think as well.