New Project Updates!

Public discussion of the extensive development of new levels in the Ruins of Undermountain.

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Halaster Blackcloak
Lord of Undermountain
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New Project Updates!

Post by Halaster Blackcloak »

Hi everyone!

Well, here's some updates.

Level 7 is done, as has been the case for some time now. I did have to go back and add a new monster and a new room, and it is a fun one! For the DM. The players, well...they're gonna hate me for this one, trust me! :twisted:

I've been bouncing between Level 8, the sub-level and the adventures booklet while writing. Just adding stuff as the inspiration takes me. Sometimes I'll wrap up a room on the sub-level when an inspiration hits me for an as-yet undeveloped room on Level 8, so I run with that.

Here's how I plan the levels. I write an general outline of what the level is about. So, for example, Level 8 is known as The Slime Level and deals with all sorts of slimes, oozes, jellies, and other nasty surprises. Level 7 is dominated by Arcturia and her new creations, so that's what the theme is.

I then detail rooms for that level, writing in new monsters, magic items, and spells as I go along. Usually I pre-plan what each room should contain, although that often changes as the writing comes to life.

I split the rooms up to include rooms dealing mainly with monsters and combat, rooms dealing mainly with mysteries and role-playing, and rooms dealing mainly with tricks and traps. That way I assure a good mix of mystery and problem solving, role-playing, and combat.

With Level 7 wrapped up, I am, as I mentioned earlier, bouncing between Level 8, the sub-level and the adventures booklet. I had a major, major breakthrough of sheer inspiration when I decided to insert a tribute to my original group of players from my first delving into Undermountain back in 1991. It won't mean much to anyone outside that campaign, it'll just seem like some creative writing. At least I hope so! :shock: :wink: But it means a lot to me to be able to weave in memories and tidbits of history linking this release to my first Undermountain campaign.

I had to re-do a chunk of rooms, a room complex if you will, for the sub-level. Just did not seem up to par, and I will scrap a room and re-imagine it from scratch 5 times if I feel it isn't up to par with the rest. It's the perfectionist in me.

#@

All 12 Areas of Interest for the sub-level are done and finalized, as are 12 of the 23 rooms, with the rest panned and noted out (with the exception of 3, which I'm awaiting creative inspiration on). Aside from those 3 to-be-determined rooms, all I need to do is take my hand-written notes for the other rooms and type them up in Word, and polish them from notes into readable text. Time consuming, but not difficult.

Level 8 has a large chunk of the rooms planned, around 23 of the 48 combined rooms and areas of interest.

All of the new magic items (all 31 of them), all of the new monsters (all 30 of them), all of the new spells (all 30 of them), and most of the new NPCs (all 8 of them) are written and finalized. There may be some additional new spells or NPCs or magic items if the need arises, but I think we have more than enough already. If I need one for a particular reason I'll add some, but it looks like that's close to the final numbers for each category (new monsters, new magic items, etc).

That's a lot of new material! :shock:

The adventure booklet is going to detail essentially 3 minor sub-levels. These will be roughly the size of the Lost Level, or slightly smaller. The sub-level for the adventure ________'s Grave (and that's the only clue I'm giving!) is going to correct a serious wrong done by TSR, and it fits so flawlessly into existing canon that it just works great! DMs can use it or ignore it as they see fit, but I think it adds a deeper flavor to the campaign setting. Oh dear Orcus, I'm giving out too many clues! :twisted:

Two of the adventures are outlined, and just need final writing (ie polishing it into final form).

We have 12 new Nadrun's Doors, several of which I simply cannot wait to spring on a set of players! They are devious! :twisted:

Unfortunately, the random room generator we designed may have to be re-done from scratch, since I never did get them from Doirche, and he's been MIA for the longest time. He also has the write ups for the dungeon dressing cards, which he was handling. So that may need re-doing. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

There are only two ongoing problems. One, of course, is the artist issue. Even the one we tried paying ended up being a total flake and never managed to create single piece even after getting several hundred dollars up front. Luckily (for him) I got a refund and fired him. Back to looking! I dread that the most because it drains my spirit, being a thankless, almost fruitless task.

And the other is, we need a new cartographer until we can get in touch with Doirche. The maps (for Level 8 and the sub-level; Level 7 is done) need some serious updating, and it's getting to where I can't update them anymore without having them converted to Illustrator format. So anyone who has time and experience with Illustrator, please let me know. If no one does, I'll have to go to the cartographer's guild website and ask around.

Overall, there are over 160 pages written so far, and there's going to be probably almost double that when we're done. Not sure with the font size and 3 column spread how many that comes to (in the final format), but I use Verdana size 8 for all my original writing (which is pretty small) and already we have over 160 pages with small margins (top, bottom, and side).

I'm figuring the final product will be near 300 pages, 4 full sized maps, 30+ new magic items, 30+ new monsters, 30+ new spells, about 12 new NPCs, maps and details of 2 full levels (one being double-sized), 1 major sub-level, and 3 minor sub-levels, 12 new Nadrun's doors, at least a dozen new plug-and-play rooms, the revelation and identity of one of Halaster's as-yet unrevealed apprentices, the inclusion of at least one artifact and one relic, and some other surprises.

So yeah, this is going to be one giant-ass release when it's all said and done. :shock: But I really want it to be mind-blowing. :wink:
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Tarrax Ironwolf
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Post by Tarrax Ironwolf »

Wow! That is some serious update!

Hal, I sent you the last few creatures back at the end of Oct in 2010 and never heard from you again. I assumed you thought that they weren't good enough and decided not to use them and didn't need my art work any longer.

I'd be more than happy to continue doing the art work as I have been having a strong hankering to keep drawing. But if you want to find someone else, I'll completely understand.
"We played Dungeons & Dragons for three hours! Then I was slain by an elf." -- Homer Simpson

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Halaster Blackcloak
Lord of Undermountain
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Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:47 am
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Post by Halaster Blackcloak »

Tarrax, I wrote you a few times but never heard back. I knew you had some stuff going on with moving or a new job or something, so I figured I'd wait to hear back. Zip me an email so we can catch up. Loved the stuff you did so far! :)
The Back In Print Project - Where AD&D Lives Forever!

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