The Underdark is a traditionally terrifying space in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons, and that often leaves it feeling under-explored and under-utilized in various campaigns. In all fairness, it's really easy to forget about unless you happen to really like the Underdark and the groups that inhabit it.
The Underdark is both incredibly vast and all too small at the same time, which can make it hard to run a fascinating campaign in for an extended period of time. However, just because it's difficult doesn't mean that it's impossible and if you set it up right, the Underdark can create an absolutely fascinating campaign setting.
10 Set The Session Mood 𝓰
The first step you can take to create a truly immersive Underdark campaign is to deal with your situation in real life first. As ironic as that might seem, you can set up a great atmosphere in real life by carefully 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:picking where you hold your session.
Preferably, you hold the session somewhere that's dark where everyone is using candles or small lights to see. Although if you opt to play at night, say in someone's backyard, make sure that you don't disturb the neighbors.
9 Picking The Right Enemies🌄
On the surface, you could claim just about any enemy you'd like to face off against your players, but the same doesn't hold true in the Underdark. However, it's not the end of the world because the Underdark has some absolutely fascinating and terrifying enemies to call its own.
Drider🦋s, Nothics, Earth Elementals, Spiders, and more can all easily be found roaming the Underdark around the outskirts of cities and in the more deserted areas. Take some time to flip through the monster manual or search online to find the perfect cr💙eature for each situation.
8 Lolth's Influence
The gods of Dungeons & Dragons don't touch the Underdark for the most part, which means that Lolth reigns remains supreme and uncontested in the Underdark. At least, that's how it is traditionally, but that doesn't mean it has to be that way for your campaign.
Consider just how much influence you'd like Lolth to exert over your Underdark campaign if any at all. The more influence that Lolth has the more likely your players are to run into areas that are generally unfriendly to most outsider groups.
The more unfriendly, the more you'll probably want to consider 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:how to handle a player's character death.
7 🔥 Friendl🐎y And Unfriendly Species
Traditionally the Underdark is an area that is not frequented by the species on the surface, that is to say, most surface dwellers will probably never visit the Underdark. As such, when your players are building their ꦅcharacters you should probably have a heavy hand in giving them advice or even restricting which species they can pick from.
A High Elf would, more than likely, not be treated as warmly as a Drow or Duergar would be, and they'd need a very good reason for wandering into the Underdark in the first place. If your player is insistent on using a surface-dwelling race you can't say you didn't warn them this way.
6 🐈 Traversing The Underdark
The Underdark typically is comprised of large cities and established areas that are connected by a set of tunnels, however, you might want to consider the size of the Unde⛄rdark and just how your𒐪 players are going to get around. Is your Underdark one large and interconnected area? Or does it consist of pockets that are entirely unconnected sans the surface and magical means of entrance?
If it's the former you may want to think about if it's viable to travel on foot or if there are other ways to get around. If it's the latter is teleportation common or are these areas happily isolated from one another?
5 🦂 Setting Up Dungeons ෴
It's a lot easier to have dungeons built down than built up, so it's fairly likely that dungeons are going to be a regular presence throughout the Underdark. It could be one that starts on the surface and built down or one that starts in the Underdark and weaves through and below.
As such, you probably want to set your players up for the idea that dungeon delves are going to be a fairly regular experience throughout the camp🌸aign.🐭 If you need to, consider looking up dungeon layouts online or plot your own using graph paper or online software.
4 Conside🐻ring Campaign Length
It may end up being relatively difficult to stick in the Underdark for a long-term campaign, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. If you can get creative with it and help to keep things interesting you can definitely 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:carry out a long-term campaign in the Underdark.
That doesn't mean you have to keep your players isolated in the Underdark, but it should probably be the central setting for your campaign to take place in. A short-term campaign would be much easier to execute, but it might be harder to explore everything you'd like and have built up.
3 The Underdark Environment 𓂃
Be honest with yourself, unless there is exceptional magic going on, the Underdark is not going to have a forest growing in it. As such, it's worthwhile to consider what kind of plant life your players would find growing in the darkness.
In real life, there are quite a few plants that would readily grow in the darkness, such as lichen, moss, alga♉e, mushrooms, and a handful of other plants and flowers.
You can also consider that the Underdark is more than just one large cave and may play host to a crystal grove or even an underground lake with the smallest bits of sunlight filtering through. Perhaps your players may even come across buried and ruined civilizations or dungeons that begin on the surface and end somewhere in the Underdark's depths.
2 ജ No Night And Day
While you'd use the sun's place in the sky to tell you what the time is on the surface the same cannot be said about the Underdark. In the pitch black, you really can't tell what time of day it is, so there must be otherwise that the Underdark tries to tell time to ensure that things run smoothly.
Perhaps hourglasses or water glasses are incredibly prevalent throughout the Underdark, or maybe they've made something entirely new. The Underdark doesn't have to run on the surface time, and you're free to get as creative with it as you'd like.
1 Outside Sources ꦆ 🙈
Don't be afraid to use outside sources for ideas throughout your campaign. If your players recognize where it's from, chances are they'll just get excited that they know the reference. If you need a good starting point, the Legend of Drizzt Do'Urden books are a great.
They will lend you some insight into not only the Underdark's environment, but the way Underdark culture and society functions as Wizards of the Coast has established it. It helps that the books are pretty easy and fun to read as well.