I have several Undermountain boxed sets, adventures, sourcebooks, etc. Most notably, the Ruins of Undermountain boxed sets plus three later supplements, Halls of Undermountain for 4e, and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
Of these, which products do you feel are the best Undermountain sources, and which would you stay away from?
Actually, I think 4E Halls of Undermountain is pretty good. It only covers a narrow slice of the 1st level IIRC, which doesn't deliver on the fantasy of a megadungeon that goes down, down, down. But what it does, it does well.
Generally, all Undermountain products have good and bad parts. IMHO you should treat them as a buffet, and mix and match the parts you like to create your version.
I once owned the first 2e Undermountain boxed set (Ruins of Undermountain?). Personally, I did not like it and either sold it or returned it for store credit.
Funny thing. I own the 5e version of Undermountain, but have never run it. I have, however, used several of the levels in other adventures, pulling out this or that level as needed. As a source of a bunch of dungeons? It's fantastic.
I recently went through the 5e book in preparation for DMing it, and I’m wondering if I should acquire and look at older editions too. I’m considering picking up the 2e Maddgoth’s Castle module as that part of the 5e book left me wondering about some of the details. I could make stuff up of course, but I also find it interesting to research how something evolved over time and what the old lore is.
The 2E versions by Greenwood are very wordy, but the maps are great. If you use the old versions, I strongly suggest reading them ahead of time and making abbreviated notes for the rooms. While the summation will cut out a lot of detail, it should make actual play go a lot quicker.
I have them all (save the 4E version), but alas, I have not run them and only know them from reputation and the skim I've done of the sets. Past the 1st box set, it tends to get a bit zanier with each iteration - below Skullport how deep you want the dungeon to go will greatly depend on how much gonzo content you can stand.
I recently went through the 5e book in preparation for DMing it, and I’m wondering if I should acquire and look at older editions too. I’m considering picking up the 2e Maddgoth’s Castle module as that part of the 5e book left me wondering about some of the details. I could make stuff up of course, but I also find it interesting to research how something evolved over time and what the old lore is.
I'm not sure how much detail there is in the 5e version, but if you were hoping for some more background all the 2e module says is "the mad wizard created a miniature floating castle for some unknown reason".
The background to the actual adventure is verbose, overly-elaborate nonsense (surely there isn't a limitless supply of gullible and apparently defenceless wizards in Waterdeep?) but that shouldn't impact on the players as presumably they won't find out most of it.
There are also the castle's strange, magical powers, and the usual list of spells that don't work against them for arbitrary reasons. It's necessary for the adventure to take place, but they could have just made it a lower level adventure rather than nerfing higher-level PCs hard-earned abilities.
The adventure itself details the cavern area the castle is in, which is 9 areas (plus a few sub-areas). There are a few nice touches here, such as
a medusa who prefers to capture adventurers and get them to adopt interesting and dramatic poses before petrifying them.
Getting into the castle is a challenge, and the interior itself only has 13 rooms. Things are a bit quiet inside, which the adventure itself acknowledges by including an afterword about how you can spice things up a bit.
The organisation of the module is terrible, and I'd forgotten how much I hate having important information for the DM included in the read-aloud and nowhere else. If I ever ran it, I'd have to re-write the castle so it wasn't such an anti-climax.
I'm not sure how much detail there is in the 5e version, but if you were hoping for some more background all the 2e module says is "the mad wizard created a miniature floating castle for some unknown reason".
The background to the actual adventure is verbose, overly-elaborate nonsense (surely there isn't a limitless supply of gullible and apparently defenceless wizards in Waterdeep?) but that shouldn't impact on the players as presumably they won't find out most of it.
There are also the castle's strange, magical powers, and the usual list of spells that don't work against them for arbitrary reasons. It's necessary for the adventure to take place, but they could have just made it a lower level adventure rather than nerfing higher-level PCs hard-earned abilities.
The adventure itself details the cavern area the castle is in, which is 9 areas (plus a few sub-areas). There are a few nice touches here, such as
a medusa who prefers to capture adventurers and get them to adopt interesting and dramatic poses before petrifying them.
Getting into the castle is a challenge, and the interior itself only has 13 rooms. Things are a bit quiet inside, which the adventure itself acknowledges by including an afterword about how you can spice things up a bit.
The organisation of the module is terrible, and I'd forgotten how much I hate having important information for the DM included in the read-aloud and nowhere else. If I ever ran it, I'd have to re-write the castle so it wasn't such an anti-climax.
Wow ok, that sounds a bit underwhelming … thanks for sharing those details!
The 5e book doesn’t say much either about why or how the castle was created. I was mostly wondering about Maddgoth themself. In the 5e book, Maddgoth is absent but it says they might come back if the characters linger long enough… but there is scant detail about the owner of the castle. I was wondering if maybe the 2e book provided more on that specifically.
… thanks for sharing those details!
