A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

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Daedin

A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:38 am

I figured that I would make a seperate place for this.

Using the Homebrewery, I've decided to try and do a 5E styled manual for the Underdark, just for the hell of it and to see how it turns out.

The artwork is all placeholder for now, and I'm still unsure about some of the organization.

Right now I've decided to tackle the drow, since there's a ton of information to sift through and try and summarize and customize for Arelith, without crossing the FOIG border.

The final goal, and hope, is to have something that new (and old) players might have fun reading through and get inspiration from, as well as colecting in one place a bunch of base lore that is scattered a bit all over the place.

Here's a link: http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1ygx7Iqx

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Durvayas » Sat Mar 04, 2017 6:01 am

If you want help, I'd be happy to assist.
Plays: Durvayas(deleted), Marco(deleted), Hounynrae(NPC), Sinithra Auvry'ndal(rolled), Rauvlin Barrith(Active), Madeline Clavelle(Shelved)

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Sun Mar 05, 2017 6:15 pm

I've finished the entry for the Drow. I'm aware there's a ton more information about them all over the place, but this was my attempt at an Arelith centric, summed up version.

Thanks to Durvayas and a few other players for some of their input and corrections, and if anyone else spots stuff that is glaringly wrong or missing, let me know!

The link will be always the same, as the document is saved in real time:

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1ygx7Iqx

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:34 pm

I've begun work on the duergar and there are a few things I have doubts about that I was hoping veteran duergar players could help me with:

- Tradionnally, have Arelithian gray dwarves had the whole "diabolical" blood as a big part of their identity? Some lore doesn't reference it at all, and the one that does is very vague about it. What do they mean by "diabolical bloodline"? Actual devil blood?

- The quills and barbs instead of hair and beards. From my time playing in the UD, I seem to remember duergar characters sporting actual beards, not only visualy, but in their descriptions. Would that have been the general trend, up until today?

-Were duergar introduced as playable races at the same time as gobins and kobolds? Were they already a thing by the time Grond was put in?

- Was Jhared's trading post there before Grond?

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Hunter548 » Mon Mar 06, 2017 4:49 pm

Daedin wrote:- Tradionnally, have Arelithian gray dwarves had the whole "diabolical" blood as a big part of their identity? Some lore doesn't reference it at all, and the one that does is very vague about it. What do they mean by "diabolical bloodline"? Actual devil blood?

- The quills and barbs instead of hair and beards. From my time playing in the UD, I seem to remember duergar characters sporting actual beards, not only visualy, but in their descriptions. Would that have been the general trend, up until today?
Both of these are 4e lore.
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Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:21 pm

Obrigado, senhor Hunter.

That makes sense and jives with the notion I had of them. Good thing I barely included it in what I wrote already.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Freyason » Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:58 am

Excellent work so far, really looking forward to new entries :)

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Wed Mar 08, 2017 2:40 pm

Freyason wrote:Excellent work so far, really looking forward to new entries :)
Thank you!

I have finished the duergar section for now, though I fear I might have missed or overlooked a lot, mainly because the Arelith stuff was written mostly from memory.

Next I will do some revision and rewritting of the orog section, and then move forward from there.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Nitro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:24 pm

The "Duergar characters" section is almost unreadable due to the dark skull image in the background, would suggest moving it a bit.

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:25 pm

Nitro wrote:The "Duergar characters" section is almost unreadable due to the dark skull image in the background, would suggest moving it a bit.
Curious..for me it doesn't show any overlap. The image is well below the text.

Are you seeing it on a cell phone?

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Nitro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:57 pm

Nope, widescreen computer monitor, 1920x1080.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Freyason » Thu Mar 09, 2017 6:29 pm

are you using chrome or firefox to see it?

Nitro
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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Nitro » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:35 pm

Tested both, issue only appears in Firefox.

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Thu Mar 09, 2017 10:57 pm

Booo firefox! You used to be great!


Anyway. I've completed the gnoll section to the best of my ability. Harder to do than I expected. If any pro hyena lovers spot stuff that is wrong or missing, let me know!


Also, miesny has volunteered to do the Svirfneblin section, so I'll be tackling the goblins in the next few days.

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:32 am

Finished the Goblin section.

Yet again, if anyone spots any glaring mistakes or things missing that should really be included, let me know.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Jagel » Wed Mar 15, 2017 10:00 am

Daedin, you're a star.

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Sun Mar 19, 2017 2:58 pm

Thank you Jagel!

Also, the kobold section is done. I barely touched most of the wiki source text on this one, since it was all very spot on and well written.

Still, and again, let me know if something is wrong.

Outcasts are up next.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Skibbles » Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:11 pm

This is quite something. Very cool.
Irongron wrote: [...] the super-secret Arelith development roadmap is a post apocalyptic wasteland populated with competing tribes of hand-bombard wielding techno-giants, and strewn with the bones of long dead elves.

So we're very much on track.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by miesny_jez » Mon Mar 27, 2017 11:15 am

Finished the Svirfneblin section, hopefully I didn't mess up anything

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Thu Apr 20, 2017 8:43 pm

Finally got around to doing the Outcast section.

http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/B1ygx7Iqx

Once more, let me know if I screwed anything up.

Also, question to those who have been following:

Should I add entries for imps and ogres and deep imaskari?

For now, I think the next goal will be an entry for Andunor itself...which I expect to take me a whole lot of rewrites and a barrage of questions for a bunch of people.

Daedin

Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Daedin » Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:32 pm

Did the first pass at Andunor's section. I still need to fact check a lot of the information I put in there, as I think not all of it is entirely accurate. If anyone spots something like that, feel free to let me know. It will be apreciated.



Also...I will have to do the Outcast section all over again because the Snuggle a Bugbear homebrew thing bugged and I had not saved it elsewhere and now it is all back to square one Snuggle a Bugbear Snuggle a Bugbear Manatee.

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by gilescorey » Sat Apr 22, 2017 6:39 pm

Daedin wrote:Snuggle a Bugbear Snuggle a Bugbear Manatee.
same

Also I really liked the Outcast section, I had read it prior. Very cool!

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by BillyBoy08 » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:07 pm

Great work! Thank you!

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Beneidalus » Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:43 pm

Y'know, it's funny how La'Laskra keeps popping up in OOC information like this, regarding the Underdark. Has always appeared to have very marginal support from the player base, and only sticks around, by virtue of those that do play that deity, being very outspoken.

That aside, absolutely love the layout and 5e aesthetic!

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Re: A Player's Guide To The Underdark (Work in Progress)

Post by Durvayas » Thu Mar 29, 2018 7:25 am

Beneidalus wrote:Y'know, it's funny how La'Laskra keeps popping up in OOC information like this, regarding the Underdark. Has always appeared to have very marginal support from the player base, and only sticks around, by virtue of those that do play that deity, being very outspoken.

That aside, absolutely love the layout and 5e aesthetic!
The guide doesn't mention Kiaransalee(an oversight perhaps), which has roughly the same amount of support from the playerbase. In fact, it is necessary to mention la'laskra in OOC information like this, because, like kiaransalee, it doesn't feature in the design of the module at all in any obvious fashion.
Without people being informed, they might make the mistake of not knowing other drow faiths are an option; The vast majority of people who go to make their first drow who are new to the server know only of lolth, because she's the main one mentioned in the books that made the drow so popular. The guide is correct in mentioning the decline of lolthite power, because you can look at the server now, and see it. Daedin is merely providing examples here.

So I don't see your point Beneidalus, aside from what can be percieved as a thinly veiled suggestion to remove La'laskra.

I am in agreement however, with your praise of the layout.
Plays: Durvayas(deleted), Marco(deleted), Hounynrae(NPC), Sinithra Auvry'ndal(rolled), Rauvlin Barrith(Active), Madeline Clavelle(Shelved)

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