New DM here. Out of the abyss will be my first campaign! I'm absolutely in love with the story and has truly grabbed my attention. I hope I can do my players justice.
Just finished running this; 2.2 years and 88 sessions! Was a blast. Bud, we both have that same misprint 🤠. Never seen another until now. For fun I tracked down the cover artist at his booth during an MTG tournament to get it signed. He had never seen one either. My recommendations to any dms running: 1.) Study the whole book cover to cover twice before running. Seriously. 2.) Decide which demon lord is doing what, where, when, and how you plan to foreshadow them. 3.) Plan the 2nd half of the campaign early (Assembling the dark heart). Specifically, memorize the components of the dark heart, that way you can hint at default locations for the them organically during the 1st half. If they already have ideas on where to get the ingredients before needing them, it will kick off a very strong sandbox start to the 2nd half of the adventure. Their player agency will take over and you can kick back and just let them steer the entire end of the campaign. You'll be very surprised where they take you trying to find those 6 McGuffins 😂. 4.) Don't be afraid to make tons of cuts or add stuff in, pick only the content your players will love and trash or heavily modify the stuff they don't want to do. Use your gm instincts for this. 💪
Excellent Video! I was seeking a concise description of the skeleton of the plot for the purpose of seeding future NPCs and planning how I would reveal certain motives. This video delivered. I think the text itself should have contained a summary of the overall arc of the campaign with key plot points and the antagonists' motivations and strategies. I am often forced by time constraints to only extensively prepare a chapter at a time and having overall plot knowledge beforehand makes overall pacing much easier.
Lowkey kinda dope that you got your hands on a misprint. Ironically, it might actually have a decent resale value one day in the near future if you keep it in good condition. Cheers!
I have not been a huge of WoTC releases for 5E, but this is one of the better ones by far. Great review, I just wish they would provide better / bigger maps for some of these campaign books.
Wait wait wait... You managed to get your hands on a upside down underdark campaign ?? Do you see the Pattern? This is a Legendary item... be aware of strange whispers or nightmares when in hold of It.
My rules box set came with several smeared pages some sections were actually missing and 200 pages were upside down. After a long wait I was able to get my money back and decided to buy the rerelease with the Ltd edition covers. Not sure how this even happens considering how most products are super high quality.
Working through your back catalogue & this is a nice walkthrough as usual. Like many products from the 5e era this feels far too cartoony for my tastes. Infantile character names, silly place names, talking animals, a menagerie of different creatures - gives it the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon designed solely to sell toys rather than a believable fantasy setting.
Hi Bud, thank you for the detailed review. I think yours has been the best synopsis I’ve heard as I’m a new DM and love it. Would you be willing to do a review with the “finer detail”? If i need to become your patreon member first to suggest this I will. Thanks for your hard work
🤔 one thing I don't get.. what level are the characters ment to be in each chapter? And depending on what way they go they won't play each chapter back to back.
That will definitely need to be adjusted for party size. I had a party of 8; I felt that a slow progression to 5-6 was good during the escape from the drow and darklake sections. I think they were lvl4 at Slubludop, 5 at Neverlight, 6 at Blingdenstone. I think it is nice to give the party time to breathe/flesh out character motives/do downtime activities/etc during the brief chapter when they are on the surface before Bruennar's summons. This is a good time to let them address backstory stuff, hunt down their nemesis, and get a little stronger. I had them hit 8 before their descent into Mentol-Derith and will bring them to 11 before their first fight with a weakened demon lord. 5e's CR system gets considerably less accurate as party size increases. Especially considering how as party size grows, it becomes more difficult to use attrition entertainingly. I use the UA rules for "extended resting" to accomplish gritty realism and attrition without compromising session pacing. A party of 8 at level 11 can mop the floor with a many single demon lords. I suggest adjusting for large parties by having the demon lords summon some appropriate fiends to balance the action economy. For instance, I will likely have Demogorgon fight with a Barlgura or two who are already invisible and attack the back row of the formation in the first round of the fight. I think if you have 3-5 players, the suggested levels in the text create a good challenge without too much modification.
New DM here. Out of the abyss will be my first campaign! I'm absolutely in love with the story and has truly grabbed my attention. I hope I can do my players justice.
I fully intend on DMing this adventure! This is the best, most comprehensive GM guide/story summary I've seen :D
Benjamin Headlee cheers dude! Don’t forget to sub if you already haven’t.
That book is cursed, what a perfect defect to use for a review. I want one :D
Just finished running this; 2.2 years and 88 sessions! Was a blast. Bud, we both have that same misprint 🤠. Never seen another until now. For fun I tracked down the cover artist at his booth during an MTG tournament to get it signed. He had never seen one either.
My recommendations to any dms running:
1.) Study the whole book cover to cover twice before running. Seriously.
2.) Decide which demon lord is doing what, where, when, and how you plan to foreshadow them.
3.) Plan the 2nd half of the campaign early (Assembling the dark heart). Specifically, memorize the components of the dark heart, that way you can hint at default locations for the them organically during the 1st half. If they already have ideas on where to get the ingredients before needing them, it will kick off a very strong sandbox start to the 2nd half of the adventure. Their player agency will take over and you can kick back and just let them steer the entire end of the campaign. You'll be very surprised where they take you trying to find those 6 McGuffins 😂.
4.) Don't be afraid to make tons of cuts or add stuff in, pick only the content your players will love and trash or heavily modify the stuff they don't want to do. Use your gm instincts for this. 💪
This is very good, as a newbie DM who can't afford every book your run through's are a great help, keep it up.
Cheers! More D&D to come very soon. Don't forget to sub etc.
Excellent Video! I was seeking a concise description of the skeleton of the plot for the purpose of seeding future NPCs and planning how I would reveal certain motives. This video delivered. I think the text itself should have contained a summary of the overall arc of the campaign with key plot points and the antagonists' motivations and strategies. I am often forced by time constraints to only extensively prepare a chapter at a time and having overall plot knowledge beforehand makes overall pacing much easier.
SparrowhawkTheKind cheers dude - glad you enjoyed it. Don’t forget to sub if you haven’t already.
Lowkey kinda dope that you got your hands on a misprint. Ironically, it might actually have a decent resale value one day in the near future if you keep it in good condition. Cheers!
I dunno... I kind of wish that it was a normal copy as it doesn't match the rest of my set.
Love your videos, very calm and informative
Glad you like them! That is an old one though - I think I have improved a *lot* since I did Out of the Abyss.
@@BudsRPGreview I am debating running it soon so this was very helpful. Would love some more %e content down the line
@@jeevesosiris There may be some coming, but maybe not for the edition you are expecting.
I have not been a huge of WoTC releases for 5E, but this is one of the better ones by far. Great review, I just wish they would provide better / bigger maps for some of these campaign books.
Great video ! Lots of very interesting information I can use!👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Wait wait wait... You managed to get your hands on a upside down underdark campaign ?? Do you see the Pattern? This is a Legendary item... be aware of strange whispers or nightmares when in hold of It.
Yes DMs only videos.
My rules box set came with several smeared pages some sections were actually missing and 200 pages were upside down. After a long wait I was able to get my money back and decided to buy the rerelease with the Ltd edition covers. Not sure how this even happens considering how most products are super high quality.
Yeah, those early 5E books had real quality control issues.
The disclaimer holds no water with me, snowflakes at my table will break down in tears and I will point out that Wizards did it!
Working through your back catalogue & this is a nice walkthrough as usual. Like many products from the 5e era this feels far too cartoony for my tastes. Infantile character names, silly place names, talking animals, a menagerie of different creatures - gives it the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon designed solely to sell toys rather than a believable fantasy setting.
Hi Bud, thank you for the detailed review. I think yours has been the best synopsis I’ve heard as I’m a new DM and love it. Would you be willing to do a review with the “finer detail”? If i need to become your patreon member first to suggest this I will. Thanks for your hard work
You know what? I actually just joined the patreon, thank you for your insightful reviews and hard work
🤔 one thing I don't get.. what level are the characters ment to be in each chapter? And depending on what way they go they won't play each chapter back to back.
pepe trump unlike Storm Kings Thunder, it doesn’t give you much in the way of info on that.
That will definitely need to be adjusted for party size. I had a party of 8; I felt that a slow progression to 5-6 was good during the escape from the drow and darklake sections. I think they were lvl4 at Slubludop, 5 at Neverlight, 6 at Blingdenstone. I think it is nice to give the party time to breathe/flesh out character motives/do downtime activities/etc during the brief chapter when they are on the surface before Bruennar's summons. This is a good time to let them address backstory stuff, hunt down their nemesis, and get a little stronger. I had them hit 8 before their descent into Mentol-Derith and will bring them to 11 before their first fight with a weakened demon lord.
5e's CR system gets considerably less accurate as party size increases. Especially considering how as party size grows, it becomes more difficult to use attrition entertainingly. I use the UA rules for "extended resting" to accomplish gritty realism and attrition without compromising session pacing. A party of 8 at level 11 can mop the floor with a many single demon lords. I suggest adjusting for large parties by having the demon lords summon some appropriate fiends to balance the action economy. For instance, I will likely have Demogorgon fight with a Barlgura or two who are already invisible and attack the back row of the formation in the first round of the fight.
I think if you have 3-5 players, the suggested levels in the text create a good challenge without too much modification.
buddy got a 5e Xanathar's guide glued the same as you book here.
A little digging around on the web reveals it is not as uncommon as I thought.
Yep. Seen one missprinted bok in the store just like yours. Told the empoyees of course
Man. You lost me at "Pudding King"
Lost you... how?
my copy of The Cruel sea is similarly misprinted. Though less applicable to 5th ed - i’d use GURPs …
Your book is worth at least 10x normal value, lol.
Wow i hate spockymike
?
I am sure I sound like a nutter here, but your hands don’t match your voice.
Thanks for the great review.
I have no idea what that means, but thanks anyway!
Is the video voiced over? I think the voice inflection doesn’t match the hand motions.