Just wanted to thank you, this is one of the most comprehensive resources on Undermountain that I've seen. I especially like that you break up encounter videos with videos that teach basic concepts of running a dungeon using the design of undermountain as an example.
When you mentioned cleaning off the alter - that is exactly the type of thing my players would do - assuming they knew the god was a “good” one. That being said I often reward things like that at my table so they would have “meta” clues in a sense. I could see the average party just skipping it though. I would likely say something like “it’s hard to determine all the detail with the graffiti” this would certainly trigger a prestidigitation.
It's funny; when I looked back at this section after the fact I realized that 1) I may not have been giving players enough credit and 2) the mere fact that the GM mentions it might give off that meta clue. I had a player who played with me since junior high who knew my "tells" inside and out; he would never admit until after the fact! So then the question becomes; do you set up situations that are meta tells which are the opposite of what the players might expect? Or is this unfair? And finally 3) what is the cultural import of seeing an altar defaced? In the real world, say in a war torn village, if soldiers come upon a church or mosque or temple that's been defaced, do they ignore this or do what they can to set things right? And is this an opportunity for the opposing forces to set up a booby trap, hence soldiers are trained to ignore this? Back to D&D, if the players get that 24 hour secret door detection for cleaning an altar, you can bet they'll become the "altar cleaning specialists" in the future! Until, of course, it releases some demon from it's pocket dimension prison!
@@DDHomebrew Yes to all of this lol. I think it's a fine balance between putting things in the adventure you know the players will interact with and putting things that "make sense" - I definitely know how to push my player's "buttons" based on previous play - for instance they always go out of their way to help any enslaved people, so I often make it a "hard choice" and see how that plays out. Man, I love RPGs!
@@BanditsKeepActualPlay Those are the best choices: my memory is a bit dim since this was the 80;s, but I had some players captured and enslaved in a mine; classic D&D in those days. The players had an opportunity to escape but leave the other slaves behind: knowing that their chances might decrease if they didn't go now. The group wanted to escape and come back with reinforcements, but they knew some slaves would be punished for their escape: and not in a pleasant way! So they sent one player out, took the punishment themselves: the old battle to the death combat in the arena, Captain Kirk style. Again, this was the 80's. That player died! Then the escaped player came back with the cavalry. And best of all, the players came up with the idea themselves. And believe me, they were very satisfied to punish the evil guys at the end, and they had a quest to bring back their dead friend.
Thank you so much for these Mad Mage videos. They help me a lot. (I started running this campaign about a month after you started releasing videos for it.) Your advice is super insightful and show your experience as a seasoned DM.
Hey Kevin, great video! These old school dungeon's, they really take me back. There is an old school mega dungeon coming out, but can't remember the name at the moment. It's an official 5e product coming out later this year. The speaking with dead and finding keys and secret rooms, some of this should never be told to a party, it's part of the growing process, as your character levels up, so does your mind. Sometimes it is just better to let the players make mistakes. As a DM you will learn how to catch them when they do fall. Watched a 2 hour and 40 min video on Dark*Sun, took me awhile, by Michael Snow. Great information in that video, one thing I did use was the Carrikal from the video. Going to give it to the a group grimlocks in my one shot. Thanks Kevin you have a wonderful day! Carrikal: 10 gp 4 lb 1d8 slashing versatile (1d10). A large jawbone from a creature is lashed to a haft. The jagged edges are sharpened, forming two forward‐facing axe heads.
Thanks for the comment Matt; sorry I took so long to respond. I looked at that Dark Sun video, though I admit I didn't get through the whole thing. That carrikal is a cool weapon: you get 3 attacks; one from each axe head, then an automatic 1D3 damage from the teeth along the handle. Very cool!
@@DDHomebrew I thought you were mad at me : ( lol. The Dragons Paw is the one with 3 attacks, I left the stats at the bottom of the comment, it's a battle axe. Found on fandom more info, if you roll a one with these primitive weapons there is a chance it will break, critical hits on primitive armor can break also. My one shot is coming along nicely, need to buy dungeondraft and finish it up. It's been a epic week of videos, Gunk vid that's a monk with a gun, chasing rules how many times you can dash. Found an audiobook on Dark Sun, normally can't do audiobooks, to boring, The Black Rat Inn. Literally I have a million things to share with you, but another day, lol.
@@mattnerdy7236 I hope you're joking about being mad! I wish I still had the Dark Sun books; I've lost a lot of material over the years because I barely had time to run standard D&D, much less that setting. Lost a few boxes of material and a ton of miniatures from moving over the years and giving stuff away. I always liked the "dying world" concept: sort of a fantasy version of the post-apocalyptical setting. I used to run frontier settings for a different twist on this concept, though Dark Sun had such an elaborate backstory and mythos.
@@DDHomebrew I figured you are busy, just a joke. Didn't expect you to watch that 3 hour video, just wanted to share where my inspiration was coming from. I'm a huge Dark Sun fan, friends were always afraid to play, to easy to die back in the day. Because you brought up the Dragon Paw, looked up double scimitar, going to use that for stats. It's says in the official description a masterpiece, that is the same to me as masterwork. So in my mind anything that cost 100 gp or more is a masterpiece level of workmen's ship. Anytime you want to talk just hit me up. I should see it, alerts are on.
These videos have such comprehensive analysis.
They're upping my game a lot.
Thanks for the great content.
Thanks! Glad I could help. I'm learning a lot about this module and dungeon design by digging deep on each level.
Just wanted to thank you, this is one of the most comprehensive resources on Undermountain that I've seen.
I especially like that you break up encounter videos with videos that teach basic concepts of running a dungeon using the design of undermountain as an example.
So glad this helpful to your game!
When you mentioned cleaning off the alter - that is exactly the type of thing my players would do - assuming they knew the god was a “good” one. That being said I often reward things like that at my table so they would have “meta” clues in a sense. I could see the average party just skipping it though. I would likely say something like “it’s hard to determine all the detail with the graffiti” this would certainly trigger a prestidigitation.
It's funny; when I looked back at this section after the fact I realized that 1) I may not have been giving players enough credit and 2) the mere fact that the GM mentions it might give off that meta clue. I had a player who played with me since junior high who knew my "tells" inside and out; he would never admit until after the fact! So then the question becomes; do you set up situations that are meta tells which are the opposite of what the players might expect? Or is this unfair? And finally 3) what is the cultural import of seeing an altar defaced? In the real world, say in a war torn village, if soldiers come upon a church or mosque or temple that's been defaced, do they ignore this or do what they can to set things right? And is this an opportunity for the opposing forces to set up a booby trap, hence soldiers are trained to ignore this? Back to D&D, if the players get that 24 hour secret door detection for cleaning an altar, you can bet they'll become the "altar cleaning specialists" in the future! Until, of course, it releases some demon from it's pocket dimension prison!
@@DDHomebrew Yes to all of this lol. I think it's a fine balance between putting things in the adventure you know the players will interact with and putting things that "make sense" - I definitely know how to push my player's "buttons" based on previous play - for instance they always go out of their way to help any enslaved people, so I often make it a "hard choice" and see how that plays out. Man, I love RPGs!
@@BanditsKeepActualPlay Those are the best choices: my memory is a bit dim since this was the 80;s, but I had some players captured and enslaved in a mine; classic D&D in those days. The players had an opportunity to escape but leave the other slaves behind: knowing that their chances might decrease if they didn't go now. The group wanted to escape and come back with reinforcements, but they knew some slaves would be punished for their escape: and not in a pleasant way! So they sent one player out, took the punishment themselves: the old battle to the death combat in the arena, Captain Kirk style. Again, this was the 80's. That player died! Then the escaped player came back with the cavalry. And best of all, the players came up with the idea themselves. And believe me, they were very satisfied to punish the evil guys at the end, and they had a quest to bring back their dead friend.
@@DDHomebrew Awesome!
Thank you so much for these Mad Mage videos. They help me a lot. (I started running this campaign about a month after you started releasing videos for it.) Your advice is super insightful and show your experience as a seasoned DM.
Thanks so much Jadon! I do these to help DM's like yourself. I hope you and your group are having fun!
Love the videos. Keep up the good work
Glad you like them!
Hey Kevin, great video! These old school dungeon's, they really take me back. There is an old school mega dungeon coming out, but can't remember the name at the moment. It's an official 5e product coming out later this year. The speaking with dead and finding keys and secret rooms, some of this should never be told to a party, it's part of the growing process, as your character levels up, so does your mind. Sometimes it is just better to let the players make mistakes. As a DM you will learn how to catch them when they do fall. Watched a 2 hour and 40 min video on Dark*Sun, took me awhile, by Michael Snow. Great information in that video, one thing I did use was the Carrikal from the video. Going to give it to the a group grimlocks in my one shot.
Thanks Kevin you have a wonderful day!
Carrikal: 10 gp 4 lb 1d8 slashing versatile (1d10). A large jawbone from a creature is lashed to a haft. The jagged edges are sharpened, forming two forward‐facing axe heads.
Thanks for the comment Matt; sorry I took so long to respond. I looked at that Dark Sun video, though I admit I didn't get through the whole thing. That carrikal is a cool weapon: you get 3 attacks; one from each axe head, then an automatic 1D3 damage from the teeth along the handle. Very cool!
@@DDHomebrew I thought you were mad at me : ( lol. The Dragons Paw is the one with 3 attacks, I left the stats at the bottom of the comment, it's a battle axe. Found on fandom more info, if you roll a one with these primitive weapons there is a chance it will break, critical hits on primitive armor can break also. My one shot is coming along nicely, need to buy dungeondraft and finish it up. It's been a epic week of videos, Gunk vid that's a monk with a gun, chasing rules how many times you can dash. Found an audiobook on Dark Sun, normally can't do audiobooks, to boring, The Black Rat Inn. Literally I have a million things to share with you, but another day, lol.
@@mattnerdy7236 I hope you're joking about being mad! I wish I still had the Dark Sun books; I've lost a lot of material over the years because I barely had time to run standard D&D, much less that setting. Lost a few boxes of material and a ton of miniatures from moving over the years and giving stuff away.
I always liked the "dying world" concept: sort of a fantasy version of the post-apocalyptical setting. I used to run frontier settings for a different twist on this concept, though Dark Sun had such an elaborate backstory and mythos.
@@DDHomebrew I figured you are busy, just a joke. Didn't expect you to watch that 3 hour video, just wanted to share where my inspiration was coming from. I'm a huge Dark Sun fan, friends were always afraid to play, to easy to die back in the day. Because you brought up the Dragon Paw, looked up double scimitar, going to use that for stats. It's says in the official description a masterpiece, that is the same to me as masterwork. So in my mind anything that cost 100 gp or more is a masterpiece level of workmen's ship. Anytime you want to talk just hit me up. I should see it, alerts are on.
I loved Dark Sun as well. I think I'll look for it on eBay. I'm working on doing a Livestream coming: you may be the only view er but that's OK!
Good stuff!
Thanks!
If the chunks are of ore, they could have mitheril of any concentration. Probably not obviously valuable to most people.
A nice idea!