I like to have certain sections of the underdark be constantly under the Darkness spell. Darkvision is so common that it never feels like you're in an exceptionally dark place like the name would suggest. Imagine not having a caster with Daylight in the party, and finding yourself surrounded by...you have no idea. But now it's initiative.
Magical darkness or other vision/perception altering effects being more commonplace in the underdark is a great way to keep players on their toes. It also leads to some fun unique encounters where the players have to think creatively to gain an upper hand.
The under dark is on the edge of known reality. It borders, the far realm, and the shadow fel. You can throw in things that are pure nightmare fuel or stuff that makes your skin crawl. Things that are truly alien. Reference HR Giger artwork for inspiration.
Nice one. I'm still looking for tips on how my players navigate through the underdark. A map/room like dungeon layout, giving them options for travel directions/moving to their quest goal without navigation, just random encounters
The Out of the Abyss 5E module has a pretty solid roll table with random encounters/ interesting terrain in underdark travel that you could use as a resource. Doing a full on dungeon map layout of the underdark would be a super daunting task unless you are focused on one particular area. I would recommend mapping the areas with specific encounters and "main story" elements you want and then filling the space in between with the random encounters like the ones in Out of the Abyss. Some advice though; I would not recommend using those roll tables for every day of travel if you plan on having the party travel for long amounts of time (weeks between major underdark locations). The tables are cool, but the constant rolling for long travel times can get a bit redundant and tedious. I have been running a campaign based in the underdark for our channel called Skygate (shameless self plug), and I used an altered version of that table for every day and night of travel at first. I then switched to using it only occasionally when travelling to avoid random encounter burnout. I hope this long winded response was helpful. Thank you for watching!
@@downtimeactivities945 Thanks. I'll take that into consideration. I am actually just roughly mapping out a small part of the underdark. Just a rough draft of what Biomes and enemies can be found in which area, in order to give the travelling some orientation, regional feel and flavor.
@@yced101 I like that idea a lot! Having biomes to give a feel for different parts of the underdark is cool way to set things up. Good luck and have fun in your upcoming adventure!
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I like to have certain sections of the underdark be constantly under the Darkness spell. Darkvision is so common that it never feels like you're in an exceptionally dark place like the name would suggest. Imagine not having a caster with Daylight in the party, and finding yourself surrounded by...you have no idea. But now it's initiative.
Magical darkness or other vision/perception altering effects being more commonplace in the underdark is a great way to keep players on their toes. It also leads to some fun unique encounters where the players have to think creatively to gain an upper hand.
The under dark is on the edge of known reality. It borders, the far realm, and the shadow fel. You can throw in things that are pure nightmare fuel or stuff that makes your skin crawl. Things that are truly alien. Reference HR Giger artwork for inspiration.
good stuff. very much underrated.
Thank you for the kind words!
Nice one. I'm still looking for tips on how my players navigate through the underdark. A map/room like dungeon layout, giving them options for travel directions/moving to their quest goal without navigation, just random encounters
The Out of the Abyss 5E module has a pretty solid roll table with random encounters/ interesting terrain in underdark travel that you could use as a resource. Doing a full on dungeon map layout of the underdark would be a super daunting task unless you are focused on one particular area. I would recommend mapping the areas with specific encounters and "main story" elements you want and then filling the space in between with the random encounters like the ones in Out of the Abyss.
Some advice though; I would not recommend using those roll tables for every day of travel if you plan on having the party travel for long amounts of time (weeks between major underdark locations). The tables are cool, but the constant rolling for long travel times can get a bit redundant and tedious. I have been running a campaign based in the underdark for our channel called Skygate (shameless self plug), and I used an altered version of that table for every day and night of travel at first. I then switched to using it only occasionally when travelling to avoid random encounter burnout.
I hope this long winded response was helpful. Thank you for watching!
@@downtimeactivities945 Thanks. I'll take that into consideration. I am actually just roughly mapping out a small part of the underdark. Just a rough draft of what Biomes and enemies can be found in which area, in order to give the travelling some orientation, regional feel and flavor.
@@yced101 I like that idea a lot! Having biomes to give a feel for different parts of the underdark is cool way to set things up. Good luck and have fun in your upcoming adventure!
love this vid
keep it uuup!
Thanks snart! I'm glad you enjoyed the vid!