About Undermountain Untitled Document

About Undermountain


Undermountain is a Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) campaign played online using Roll20. DnD is the classic roleplaying game of monsters and magic. RPGs are games where players describe their character's actions as they attempt to defeat enemies, solve mysteries, and most of all ... survive.

Players cooperate in a group to improvise a story. The aim of the game is simply to tell a fun tale and to banter while creating lasting gaming memories. The Dungeon Master narrates the external elements of the story and controls the Non Player Characters. Each player describes their own responses as part of the narrative. They should aim to play as their character, suspending disbelief as they battle Trolls, Orcs, Undead, and all manner of fiendish enemies.

Players use the character sheet on Roll20 and the dice rolling mechanisms on that website. The DM will tell players which rolls to conduct. Often these rolls are based on core attributes such as:

DnD is a D20 system so lots of rolls rely on that die. A 20 is normally a success. A 1 is normally a failure. Everything in between depends on the circumstances and the capabilities involved.

The Undermountain campaign uses the Forgotten Realms high fantasy version of DnD. This is the Tolkien-style world loosely based on medieval societies but abounding in fantasy elements. The campaign itself will center on the legendary Undermountain complex, a huge dungeon created by the Mad Mage, Halaster. It sits underneath the huge city of Waterdeep - host to intrigue, deception, and adventure. Waterdeep is part of the continent of Faerun.

Faerun is home to dozens of different fantasy races. The campaign will not use the reductionist approach that sees all races reduced to the same generic elements. Instead, races flourish through their difference but do not assume that all representatives of a race are the same - an evil Human is just as likely as a good Orc.

Classes are important for DnD and this campaign. A class will identify the skills and abilities a character develops. The specialties they can master differ based on the class choice - magic users, stealth, power, charm etc. Beyond this, sub-classes are also important as they represent aspects of the class that lead a character down a particular path and make for a more interesting journey as their tale unfolds during the game.

Experience points are arbitrarily handed out by the DM. XP represent the growing understanding and master of techniques and abilties. Once a character has enough experience points to gain a level they advance in capability based on their class and sub-class. For this campaign, characters begin at Level 1. Perhaps they will become mighty enough to reach the DnD standard of true greatness at Level 20.

The campaign uses three main resources: Roll20, Discord, WhatsApp. Roll20 is for the in-game action like dice rolling and viewing and manipulating positions on a dungeon map. It is also where the core modules are hosted - Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Characters are created on Roll20 using the Charactermancher which offers access to races and classes in most of the core DnD 5e books. Check with the DM to confirm if an obscure character combination is available in this campaign. Discord is for the in-game discussion. It is the VOIP tool used for announcing what is happening both by the DM and the players. WhatsApp is the coordinating tool and also acts as the place to discuss campaign issues in-between sessions including things like discussing what happens during downtime when not adventuring.

Alignment is an inelegant tool under DnD traditional approaches. This campaign rarely considers alignment with the exception of certain in-game material effects such as Protection From Evil type events. To replace alignment, the campaign focuses much more strongly on the morale dilemmas associated with competing factions the players encounter. This is true both in Dragon Heist and through Undermountain itself.

Player death is possible. In some cases this could be a horrible and permanent player death. Players should try to avoid dying. If they do, there may be powerful but demanding denizens of Waterdeep they could consider asking a favour from - and incurring the subsequent debt. Or the character may just die and their tale comes to an end. A player may choose to create a new character should that happen.

Combat is fairly complicated in DnD. There will be simplifications at times so here is a link to a website which explains it all in quite some detail. It gets easier with practice.

Spells are an important part of DnD. Here is a link to a website which explains it all in detail. It gets easier with practice.

Rest is an important part of DnD. The more comfortable and longer the rest, the more effect it has. A short rest of about an hour is a pause which gives characters a chance to regain some of their powers. A long rest for eight hours offers a replenishment of health and restoration of powers. Clearly, resting for eight hours in the middle of the dungeon can be difficult. So getting in and out of the dungeon is another important element of the game.

There are lots of other rules in DnD. The proper application of those rules is important. But, having fun is much more important. So if a player can convince the DM that something deserves a bonus/reward/alternative outcome then go for it. Much more fun to explain why something ridiculous could happen than to scour the rulebooks looking for an obscure mention.

Good luck. Have fun. Banter well. Adventure boldly.

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