You know what I hate?

[Dog Moon]

Stop deluding yourself. Undermountain sucked ass. Lots and lots of ass.

I liked the parts that were detailed. Had they kept up that quality for the entire thing [aka, empty rooms], it would have rocked like nothing else could compare to.

 

[rounser]

I feel hemmed in by adventures that give you no flexibility, no elbow room.

You just modify the map a bit with new areas, and there's your flexibility. That's a lesser evil than including a big map full of empty.

If the dungeon were a movie, the first thing that would end up on the editing room floor would be empty rooms, or rooms with features that slow down play for no payoff in terms of enjoyable play, such as "may as well be empty" rooms...what my brother aptly calls "cabinet contents" dungeons.

 

[Psion]

You just modify the map a bit with new areas, and there's your flexibility. That's a lesser evil than including a big map full of empty.

That line of reasoning MUCH more easily plays to my point. The Undermountain book was large and well written; The maps were just bigger than they needed to be. If empty room bug you so freaking much, I'll lend you my sharpie and you can make them into hallways between the keyed rooms.

 

[Melan]

Stop deluding yourself. Undermountain sucked ass. Lots and lots of ass.

I ran it for some friends in college. I borrowed it from a buddy, and my friends all wanted to play, so I decided I'd pull out undermountain and we'd play that. Imagine my horror when the PCs went right instead of left and the room they entered was completely empty. Aaargh!

Undermountain taught me more about improvisation than any other single product. Running it was messy, it was chaotic, and my players loved it.

 

[DM_Jeff]

FYI -- I loved those compilations. I use them often, along with the old Mystic Eye Games' Foul Locales. Didn't you do some work on the Warlords of the Accordlands as well?/threadjack

Great to know! Yes, I wrote all the spells & feats (IIRC) and a bunch of other stuff for Warlords. I didn't write the adventure book, so there may be some empty rooms in there.

-DM Jeff

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

You could simply "close off" the unlabled rooms? :\

 

[Master of the Game]

I wrote all the spells & feats (IIRC) and a bunch of other stuff for Warlords.

Absolutely amazing stuff by the way. I haven't read the adventure book, but I reviewed the other three on my blog (here, here, and here). Some of the best gaming material Ive read in a very long time.

 

[jmucchiello]

Do those opposed to incomplete areas include adventures where a tunnel runs off the edge of the map and the author states that it leads further into the underdark and is beyond the scope of the module?

 

[catsclaw227]

Do those opposed to incomplete areas include adventures where a tunnel runs off the edge of the map and the author states that it leads further into the underdark and is beyond the scope of the module?

I am not a big fan of this, but I can improvise this if they PCs happen upon it. The tunnel can have a cave-in or can simply lead further and further down until to gets too small to squeeze through.

 

[Master of the Game]

Do those opposed to incomplete areas include adventures where a tunnel runs off the edge of the map and the author states that it leads further into the underdark and is beyond the scope of the module?

This doesn't really bother me. Those are outside the scope of the module and easy to get rid of.

What bothers me is room upon room of empty space.