I can remember it vividly, the feeling at opening the poster sized maps of the most epic and huge dungeon crawl ever.... Undermountain. I got it second hand and the paper had a slight musty smell (fear... It smelled of fear) and was already had grease spots from fallen Wotsits and Pringles.
Oh how I cackled when I thought of the punishments I was going to meet out to my party (why do DM's always refer to the party they game with as theirs?*). They were going to work! Hours of torment and mapping on paper and arguments and sheer joy.
This THIS is what gaming is all about. Undermountain is, for me, one of the purest AD&D games ever, it's got all I ever looked for in a game setting. Endless dungeons, loads of scope for adding on bits, changing the traps, working it into any story and any setting you can think of.
The maps as, an aside are a work of art, I can stare and plan over a map, any map for hours. There is something beautiful in a well drawn map.
It's been a few years since I have played now, lots of moving house, job changes, country changes even... I am back in my old home town so I am going to dig it out of whatever box it's ended up in and start drawing up new plans, new evil, for whatever gamers I can gather together into a party.
Long live Undermountain!
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| Undermountain Map... The stuff dreams (nightmares) are made of |
*This is a philosophical question that possibly deserves further discussion on both sides of the DM screen. Please feel free to send in comments on if as a DM you feel like you own your party, or as a player you feel either owned, or more anarchically free?
Rich 2020
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