Another major announcement!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 3:28 am

Ok, another big thing came up recently.

We plan on having Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels completed by the end of this year, and things are moving along very well. We might even be ahead of the game for once!

Having learned a lot from all the mistakes (very few), inconveniences (very many), and setbacks (uncountable), we decided to look ahead each time we take a breath or a day off from Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels. Gotta come up for air once in awhile!

So we started talking about how to make the next release go smoother, easier, quicker, and with less setbacks and slow downs. At least as far as things we can control. Should a meteorite hit the planet, that's out of our hands.

And we discussed the fact that we were going to start up on Ruins of Undermountain IV: Lair of the Mad Mage directly after finishing Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels. We also noted that Ruins of Undermountain IV: Lair of the Mad Mage would feature Level 9 alone, Halaster's level, and that it would be a quadruple-sized poster map.

We were then going to go backwards and re-do Ruins of Undermountain II: The Deep Levels, which was released by TSR with an incorrect name (those are the mid-levels, not the deep levels) and with tons of mistakes and crappy writing. We were going to detail Levels 4, 5, and 6 in that one. It would be properly called Ruins of Undermountain II: The Mid-Levels.

Well, it's becoming an issue that if we release Ruins of Undermountain IV: Lair of the Mad Mage next, and then after that Ruins of Undermountain II: The Mid-Levels, the latter would be extremely anti-climactic.

Halaster's level is described in the original box set in this way:

"Below all this, amid the tunnels that lead into the Realms Below, lies a fabled treasure trove: The Mad Wizard's Lair. In reality, Undermountain's ultimate level is one big gauntlet of the nastiest traps the DM can devise..."

That's Level 9.

Well, after revealing that, who is gonna care about the rather mundane (in comparison) Farms Levels on Level 4, or Muirals' Web on Level 5? It's extremely anti-climactic. We'd be unveiling the ultimate level, only to then backtrack and detail somewhat minor levels.

So we decided to change the release order and instead do Ruins of Undermountain II: The Mid Levels next, saving Level 9 for last, as appropriate.

Level 9 is like Tomb of Horrors on steroids, times 1,000!

There are two other issues there. First, fans of Undermountain will be able to wander around Levels 7 & 8 and yet still be challenged when going back up to Levels 4-6. Assuming they make it through Levels 1-3 before we finish Ruins of Undermountain II: The Mid Levels. But if they survive Level 9, then going back to Levels 4-6 is pointless.

Also, there are computer issues. We need to upgrade motherboards, RAM, memory, etc in order to handle a quadruple-sized map. The double-sized map is working Doirche's bad-ass computer to the limit as it is, and he's got a top-of-the-line system! Doing a map twice that size is just too much. Considering the economy and the fact that we're having to spend almost $1,000 on art means computer upgrades will have to wait. And we don't want to put anything off. We want to keep rolling with the momentum when we release Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels.

So, that's the decision. After releasing Ruins of Undermountain III: The Deadly Levels, we're going to start on Ruins of Undermountain II: The Mid Levels, which basically replaces TSR's Ruins of Undermountain II: The Deep Levels and will properly detail:

Level 4: The Farms Level
Level 5: Muiral's Web
Level 6: Trobriand's Sanctum

And a few sub-levels for the adventures booklet.

Anyway, time for bed. More writing to do tomorrow.

Post by **Varl** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:18 am

Hmm. Want a controversial opinion on how to solve the anti-climactic issue? Don't rework RoU2: The Deep Levels. Leave 4,5, and 6 alone, and the anti-climactic issues end.

As it is, I think we might be taking on a bit too much at one time. That's just my opinion. Sequentially, yes, we are out of formation if we were to decide to rework RoU2 after RoU3, but I don't know guys, I'm okay with how RoU2 came out. Obviously, it wasn't a flawless product (what ever is?), and it could probably use a revision or three, but an entire rework? I'd rather see an expansion to it. A previously unknown sub-level or something. An area off of it only accessible by magic or something. Place a portal somewhere in RoU2 and voila! Instant sub-level.

I think it'd be a lot less work to add a small sub-dungeon to RoU2 than to revise it completely imo.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 4:09 pm

I'm not too concerned about a re-make of RoUII being lots of work. It's a labor of love and I'm actually really excited about it. Granted, we're jumping ahead here. We have a few months left before we wrap up RoUIII. But I like to plan ahead.

I agree and disagree on RoUII (the official published box set). Granted, there were a few things I did like about it. Wyllowwood itself was cool. But the insane lesbian-like druidess hunting through Wyllowwood for her undead husband to gain forgiveness was such crappy Dragonlance style soap opera, it made me sick.

It gave us a cool new monster. Wraith spiders were awesome. The rest were basically boring variant monsters (greater mimic...it's bigger than a regular one!

) and a bunch of fish and some new molds. Eh.

The new spells were boring as well. A variant of grease, a variant of create water, a variant of Tenser's floating disc or whatever. Eh.

The NPCs were silly. Aside from the aforementioned druidess, there was Ezzat, yet another lich ex-apprentice of Halaster's, with a very sloppy time line given to him. Which shows the writer did no homework at all, just churned out some crap. And of course, he fell in love with a priestess of Lliira and now he's a good guy and he's out to hunt down Halaster.

Then there is Garrick Oakspear, a 20th level thief, who is also elven. It says that Halaster cast charm spell after charm spell until one got through his elven resistance. They have him act as an automaton, not a charmed person. The entire idea is idiotic. First, he gets a saving throw once a week, having a 15 INT. As a 20th level thief he has a saving throw of 7, or a 70% chance each week of throwing off the spell. Then Halaster would have to re-capture him and cast on average 10 charm spells to get past his natural 90% magic resistance against charm spells, then hope he didn't also make his saving throw (70% chance of that!), otherwise Halaster has to start all over again. The way they have it written up, Halaster is going to have to dedicate one of his clones to full time service just keeping this thief under charm!

And if that wasn't bad enough, they made him a voyeur who is smitten by the lesbian druidess and who spies on her.

And let's not forget Spite and Kumar (which always makes me think of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle). Kumar is an ogre mage, and Spite is wizard who takes the shape of a 12 year old boy. They are "as close to allies as is possible for their kind".

Lots of homo-erotic nonsense going on in Undermountain, based on TSR's take.

Oh hell...emergency call came in. I'll finish the post later, since I haven't gotten to my main point yet. Yeah, I know, I'm a blabber mouth. Or is it blabber fingers?

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 6:59 pm

Wow, what a day!

Anyway, back to where I left off.

Even the maps were absurd in the original RoUII. A cavern that just so happens to be shaped exactly like a scaladar? Can we say "contrived"?

They did nothing interesting with Muiral. They didn't even use Trobriand, but rather wasted his level with a bunch of failed robots. It was basically a junkyard come to life. Boring. Trobriand has so much potential, and TSR did not even attempt to tap into it. Trobriand doesn't even appear in his own level!

Sure, you could pull bits and pieces out of the whole mess. I can pull useful bits and pieces out of roadkill, but that doesn't mean the entire roadkill is a worthy dinner.

So the main thing is that RoUII had such potential, as did Trobriand, Muiral, and others, but it all went nowhere. We were robbed. Literally, as I paid for that crap.

I was so excited when the second Undermountain box set came out, and after it came out I was more disappointed than I've been with any other product ever done for AD&D. Even the dreadful Great Glacier supplement was nowhere near as disappointing, and you all know how I love to rip on that one! I am convinced that TSR just hired anyone cheap to do the second Undermountain product, so that they didn't need to pay big bucks to Greenwood, and the people they hired just phoned it in, cobbled together from some rejected crap they had stashed away somewhere. You can feel how sterile, boring, and uninspired it is.

So it's just too juicy, interesting, and exciting a project not to jump on. Plus it buys us time because Level 9 is gonna be a massive, massive project. We really don't even have the computer power to do the maps, plus we have to devise a system for how to do the maps by hand first.

All in all, I think this is even more exciting than going to Level 9 first.