The Authority of the GM / DM

It's time for this subject to be covered. In 5e D&D (2014), the GM/DM has authority over the rules, the setting, and the game. It's important to discuss this with your players to stop / prevent any misuse of the rules by rules-lawyers. I'll be referencing the 5e core rule books. Note that since DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide) is intended for the GM, any instance of "you" or "you're" in the DMG means the DM/GM. Rules as written (RAW), below are entries where your authority as GM comes from. In some cases, I add emphasis on certain words or provide my notes or interpretation.

Player's Handbook

-PHB page 5: "One player takes on the role of the DM, the game's lead storyteller and referee." 

Note, the emphasis here on referee is mine. Reference page 4 of the DMG for the game's definition of referee.

-PBH page 6 How to Play "the DM listens to every player and decides how to resolve those actions."

-The GM's role is to decide how to resolve player actions.

-PHB page 6: "Your GM might set the campaign...on one (a world) that he or she created...Ultimately, the DM is the authority on the campaign and its setting, even if the setting is a published world."

A GM may create a low fantasy or middle fantasy, humancentric setting where the other fantasy races, class options, spells, etc., are not in a part of.

-PHB page 17: "Humans are the most common people in the worlds of D&D..."

This rule establishes race as a feature of the setting. The setting is under the purview of the GM.

-PHB page 17: "Not every intelligent race of the multiverse is appropriate for a player-controlled adventurer."

Races in the core rules are listed implying they are appropriate. The implication is that others are not.

-PHB page 45: "Twelve classes...are found in almost every D&D world..."

Here, classes are defined as features of the setting. The setting is under the purview of the DM, as supported by other rules presented in this list. Further, the use of the word almost meaning not all D&D settings feature these twelve classes. Therefore, class restrictions by the GM are acceptable by the rules.

-PHB page 165: "This chapter defines two optional sets of rules for customizing your character: Multiclassing and Feats...Your DM decides whether these optional rules are available in a campaign."

This rule is cited here for good measure. Also note that any instance of a variant rule may explicitly state in its description that the rule is available at the GM's option.

-PHB page 174: "The DM calls for an ability check when...an action has a chance of failure." And "For every ability check, the DM decides which of the six abilities is relevant to the task and the difficulty of the task." 

Based on these rules, the players do not choose when to role dice and the players do not determine the difficulty.

-Note that this passage also says "when the outcome is uncertain, the dice determine the results. Note however that the DMG page 236 and 237 gives the GM authority over the dice.

 

-PHB page 185 Roleplaying: "Roleplaying is, literally, the act of playing out a role...you as a player determine who your character thinks, acts, and talks."

This provides the definition of roleplaying in 5e D&D. The act of playing a role. You the player play your character, you do not, for instance, rely on outside influence such as die rolls or input from other participants or observers at the game. Consider referencing this definition when discussing metagame thinking (metagaming), DMG page 235.

-PHB page 186 Results of Roleplaying: "The DM uses your character's action and attitudes to determine how an NPC reacts..." "Pay close attention to the DM's portrayal of the NPC's mood, dialogue, and personality. You might be able to determine an NPC's personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds, then play on them to influence the NPC's attitude." "Interactions in D&D are much like interactions in real life..."

-This portion of the rules gives the player instruction on how to treat NPCs and what to expect from the game and the GM. The game fully states that the player should treat NPCs and approach conversations like they would in real life, to pay attention, and to play on the DM's portrayal to affect the NPC's attitude, and that the DM uses the player's actions and attitude to determine how the NPC reacts. The game mechanics and dice rolling are not described as necessary here.

 

-PHB page 186 Ability Checks: "Your roleplaying efforts can alter an NPC's attitude, but there might still be an element of change... Your DM can call for a Charisma check at any point during an interaction if she or he wants the dice to play a role in determining an NPC's reactions."

- Rules as written, charisma checks are entirely at the discretion of the DM and not at the game or the rules or the player(s). "Your DM can call for a...check...if he wants the dice to play a role..." In other words, it's the DM's character and they don't have to let the dice influence their character.

-This rule, in combination with pages 4, 236, and 237 of the DMG, the PCs are not entitled to a speech roll. The GM can resolve social interactions with roleplaying only. The rule says "Your DM can..." not must, and "if he" in reference to the DM "wants the dice..." and not when the player wants the dice. Further, the charisma rules are called upon when there might be an element of chance. The real questions are why would there be an element of chance and who decides this, and how much does chance affect the outcome?

 

Dungeon Master's Guide

*Reiterated for good measure, since the DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide) is intended for the GM, any instance of "you" or "you're" in the DMG means the DM/GM. This is supported by the monster manual page 4 which describes the Monster Manual and the DMG as books for the DM - just so we're clear.

-DMG page 4: "And as a referee, the DM interprets the rules and decides when to abide by them and when to change them."

-See also DMG page 235 "The rules serve the GM, not vice versa."

-Interpret: Some players may argue that something is permitted by the rules by virtue of what the rule is not expressly written to forbid. For example, a player may argue that the fireball spell creates a boom or shockwave because their interpretation of "explosion of flame" in the spells' description, and they may justify this as "well the rules don't say fireball doesn't cause a boom." As the interpreter of the rules, the GM may, and for fairness's sake should, interpret the rules to permit only what they are expressly written to permit and that anything not expressly permitted is therefore forbidden by virtue of their omission. To simplify this, rules are written to describe what something does, not what something doesn't do. RAW, fireball does fire damage, not thunder damage. Further, thunder damage is described as "concussive" like a shockwave, fire is not. A GM may therefore fairly rule that the boom of a fireball is flavorful, not mechanical, unlike a spell like Shatter.

-When to abide, when to change: When and by what criteria is up to the GM. Some GMs might err in favor of fun. This may occasionally seem selective or break immersion. I advise that GM's consider the internal logic of their setting, meaning what makes sense for the setting and tone of your game, which will ensure more rulings that are impartial and fair. This is beneficial for believability or verisimilitude. Per page 235 of the DMG, rules serve the GM, therefore the GM may change rules that do not serve them.

-DMG page 4: "...but the rules aren't in charge. You're the DM, and you are in charge of the game."

The DM is in charge of the game, therefore, the GM may permit or forbid metagaming, rules discussion, establish house rules, decide which supplemental books are permitted if any, etc. To be fair, this is the sort of thing you want to discuss with your players early on to establish expectations. 

-DMG page 4, How to Use This Book: "The last part helps you to adjudicate the rules of the game and modify them to suit the style of your campaign."

-DMG page 4, "Part 1: Master of Worlds": "Even if you're using an established world such as the Forgotten Realms...The world is yours to change as you see fit and yours to modify as you explore the consequences of your players actions."

-DMG page 5: "As a referee, the DM acts as a mediator between the rules and the players. A player tells the DM what he or she wants to do, and the DM determines where it is successful or not..." and "the rules don't account for every possible situation...How you determine the outcome of this action is up to you."

These two rules give the GM liberty about how to resolve actions.

-DMG Page 9: "Your world is the setting for your campaign. Even if you use an existing setting...it becomes yours."

The GM has purview over their setting just as the players have agency over their characters.

-DMG page 9, section "It's your World": "The assumptions sketched out above (reference section Core Assumptions) are not carved in stone...You can build an interesting campaign setting by altering one or more of these core assumptions..."

Rules as written, the GM may define the assumptions about the world. For example, the GM may ground the world in realism. In other words, fantasy does not mean anything goes.

Additionally, a GM may restrict classes, races, etc. Such things may exist in the setting, but they may not be adventuring classes, races, etc.

-DMG page 235: "The rules serve you, not vice versa."

In other words, rules are meant to serve the GM. Rules that do not serve the GM are subject to change by the GM per DMG page 4.

-DMG page 236: "Dice are neutral arbiters...The extent to which you use them is up to you."

-DMG page 236; Definitely read the section "The Role of the Dice" on page 236 of the DMG which describes using the dice a lot, using the dice a little / for combat only, and using the dice somewhere in the middle: "One approach is to use the dice as rarely as possible. Some DMs use them only during combat and determine success or failure as they like in other situations."

-Rules as written (RAW), the 5e DMG effectively makes ability checks optional.

-Also reference PHB page 186 Ability Checks which states that the DM can call for a Charisma Check if he wants the dice to play a role in the NPCs reactions meaning charisma checks are not compulsory in social interaction.

-DMG page 237: "Remember, the dice don't run your game, you do." and "At any time, you can decide that a player's action is automatically successful. You can also grant the player advantage on any ability check...By the same token, a bad plan or unfortunate circumstance can transform the easiest task into an impossibility, or at least impose disadvantage."

Here, the rules provides precedent for the GM ruling that actions are impossible.

DMG page 238: "It's your job to establish the Difficulty Class for an ability check or saving throw when a rule or adventure doesn't give you one. Sometimes you'll even want to change such DCs."

This rule says the GM determines the difficulty when the rules don't, and even when the rules do.

DMG page 239: "...In other cases, you decide whether a circumstance influences a roll...and you grant advantage or impose disadvantage..."

DMG page 239: Variant: Automatic Success. This variant rule allows the GM to call for an automatic success if the DC is less than or equal to the relevant ability score. 

DMG page 241, "Ignoring Inspiration" is a section that says the GM may ignore this rule and not use inspiration in their game.

-DMG page 242, Resolution and Consequences: "You determine the consequences of attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws..." 

There are three subsections: Success at a Cost, Degrees of Failure, and Critical Success or Failure. In other words, the rules grant you the GM liberty to use these, and these are not labeled as optional, therefore they are core meaning one can assume the game intends the GM to take such liberties.

-Success at a Cost: "When a character fails a roll by 1 or 2, you can allow the character to succeed at the cost of a complication or hinderance." 

-Degrees of Failure: "Sometimes a failed ability check has different consequences depending on the degree of failure."

-Critical Success of Failure: "Rolling a 20 or a 1 on an ability check or a saving throw doesn't normally have any special effect. However, you can choose to take such an exceptional roll into account..."

-DMG page 244 Social Interaction: "Some DMs prefer to run social interaction as a free-form roleplaying exercise, where dice rarely come into play..."

The rules as written grant a GM liberty to run social interactions with dice or without dice.

-DMG page 245. 3 Charisma Check: "...call for a Charisma check."

The DMG seemingly instructs the DM to call for a charisma check when this or that occurs; however, this contradicts the advice given elsewhere, such as 236, 237, and 242 of the DMG which support the GM using their judgement to adjudicate actions of the players and applying the rules of the game. Therefore, I take this as advice not instruction.

-DMG page 260 Absent Characters: "If a player is absent for a session, the player's character misses out on the experience points."

-DMG page 261 has rules for awarding experience for noncombat encounters, for milestones, or for advancing players based on other criteria such as sessions, completing goals, etc. None of these are identified as optional within the rules, and so 5e is intended to permit the GM to award XP for anything.

-DMG page 263 GM's Workshop: "As the GM, you aren't limited by the rules in the PHB, the guidelines in this book, or the selection of monsters in the Monster Manual."

-One interpretation of this passage is that the players are limited to these three core rulebooks but the GM isn't, and so rules found in supplemental books as Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, or Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are optional and at the discretion of the GM.

-Another interpretation is that the GM can create their own content, and this chapter provides guidelines on how to do that. Further, the GM is permitted to change monsters.

-DMG page 287 Restricting Class Access: "Without changing the way a class functions, you can root it more firmly in the world by associating the class with a particular race or culture."

In conjunction with previous rules about the setting being under the purview of the GM, the GM can essentially restrict classes from the game by tying them to races that aren't available in your setting.

-DMG page 235 Metagame Thinking: "Metagame thinking means thinking about the game as a game...Discourage metagame thinking by giving the players a gentle reminder 'what do your characters think?'"

-Roleplaying is defined in 5e in the PHB, page 185 (for reference). The player determines how your character thinks, acts, and talks. The 5e rules instruct the DM to discourage Metagame thinking, and so it's reasonable to conclude that it's poor roleplaying to allow knowledge of the game rules which the character does not possess to determine how your character thinks.

-Per page 4 of the DMG, the DM is in charge of the game. You the GM cannot prevent metagaming because you cannot control how the players think, but there are no rules that state the GM must facilitate metagaming. In fact, per page 235, Rules Discussion, you the GM might need to set a policy on rules discussion at the table. Your rules discussion policy may be no rules discussion at the table, and so you are not obliged put the game on hold to discuss the rules or GM rulings. To that end, if the player has questions like "if I do this, will the rules let me do that?", you do not have to answer the player's metagame thinking question about how the rules work or how you will make a ruling. Instead, give the player that prescribed gentle reminder as above. 

-DMG page 4 "As a storyteller, the DM helps the other players visualize what's happening around them." You describe the scene, not how the game rules will work in a given scenario. 

-DMG page 235 Table Talk "Decide how you feel about a player sharing information that his or her character wouldn't know or that the character is incapable of sharing..." Is the game a game, a roleplay exercise, or both? Is it more one or the other? Do you think it violates the spirit of a game if players communicate out-of-character knowledge? 

-I cannot find any rules that explicitly permit the GM to award (bonus) XP for good roleplaying, or to penalize XP for bad roleplaying or metagaming, 

Monster Manual

-MM page 4: "The Monster Manual, like the Dungeon Master's Guide, is a book for the DMs."

Therefore, any instance of "you" in this book is addressing the DM, not players. Further, the GM having control of the game per the DMG page 4, may also instruct the players that they should stay out of this book and forget everything they know about it.

-MM page 6 Modifying Creatures sidebar: "Feel free to tweak an existing creature..."

DMs are not limited to monsters as written or vanilla monsters. No restrictions are given.

-MM page 7 Alignment: "The alignment specified in a monster's stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster's alignment to suite the needs of your campaign."

Rules as written, a GM may decide that all goblins, orcs, etc., are evil in their setting.

Videos About Modernism and Post Modernism in D&D

 A video essay on why lore or canon is important to fiction and art by @Sargon_of_Akkad
https://youtube.com/watch?v=15ldPeA6K7c

Video Essay on Morally Grey Fantasy by Sargon of Akkad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUrcThckf1I

A video essay on the death of the Orc by Sargon of Akkad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVklPxByNVY

a discussion about representation in D&D by the Potcast of the Lotus Eaters featuring Sargon of Akkad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zEVFPGjWo8&t=702s

The Demystification of Fantasy by ThePonderingoftheorb (Sargon of Akkad alt channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8rweGOsT9Q

Stop Being a Spoilsport by Sargon of Akkad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJQiB-gWqdc

D&D Out of the Abyss - Part 1 Sloobludop

*Yes, part 1 means we're still in part 1 of the campaign, though Sloobludop can be visited later too but it will be in ruins or in the process of being rebuilt following the final scenarios presented in this chapter of the book. These final scenarios are important for establishing the stakes of the campaign.

What is Sloobludop (Sloo blu dop)?

• Appearance: Rickety towers connected haphazardly by bridges of planks which stand out among seaweed with phosphorescent spots.
• Society / culture: Village of 500 or so kuo-toa (fish-folk). Madness is common to their people.
• Politics: Sloobludop has a theocratic government to Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.
• Economy: Trade (fishing and diving) and ferrying services.
• PCs can resupply here or hire a guide for Darklake.
• Religion: Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother is the established religion.
• Leemooggoogoon the Deep Father is the new controversial religion causing the conflict.
• Military: Militia formed of all able-body members of the village.
• Conflict: Currently, there is a lot of religious tension over a new religious faction that has formed to Leemooggoogoon, the Deep Father.
• The Drow will not pursue the players here. Reduce pursuit by 1 for every day spent here.

Major Locations

• Gates: Walls on the north and south, each have a gate guarded by 4 kuo-toa whips. The walls are actually nets with sharp fishhooks fixed into them like barbed wire.
• Docks: On the west side. There are several docs with keelboats moored at all times. It is patrolled by five groups of three kuo-toa monitors lead by one kuo-toa whip.
• Shrine of the Sea Mother: In the center of town is the shrine to the Sea Mother, and is a central feature of the town. Visitors are expected to make offerings or regurgitate. 4 Kuo-toa monitors stand guard. 2d4 Kuo-toa worshippers are present at any time.
• Ploopploopeen's Hovel (home) is adjacent to the shrine and contains as treasure the various offerings made to the shrine. It is attended by 4 kuo-toa.
• Altar of the Deep Father (Leemooggoogoon): The altar is located near the docks. 6 Kuo-toa work here to arrange offerings which are usually living creatures sacrificed on the altar, or ones own blood. Non-kuo-toa humanoids are captured immediately and delivered to the archpriest.
• Bloppblippod's Hovel (home) where a duergar prisoner is kept as an offering.

The Two Factions and Notable Characters

1. Established faction of Blibdoolpoolp the Sea Mother.

• Leader: Ploopploopeen (male), archpriest. Leader of the village.
• Lieutenant: Glooglugogg, kuo-toa whip and son of Ploopploopeen

2. New, controversial faction of Leemooggoogoon the Deep Father

• Leader: Bloppblippod (Blop blip pod), archpreist and daughter of Ploopploopeen. 
• She is mad, sadistic, and bloodthirsty. She believes her new god will rise and bring glory and lead her people.
• She has recently professed to having powerful visions of Leemooggoogoon and declared him the new god of her people. She has been granted powerful magic and new followers have flocked to her.
• Lieutenant: Klibdoloogut, kuo-toa whip and keeper of the Alter of the Deep Father
• Prisoner: Duergar weapon smuggler named Hemeth. His intent was to cut a deal to sell weapons to both factions and profit off both sides of their conflict. He is now a bound and beaten sacrificial offering. If the PCs for save him, he is willing to return the favor if the PCs are captured in Gracklstugh.
• Note that it's important for the GM to understand that Leemooggoogooon is actually Demogorgon, chaotic evil demon prince. This is not a nice religion at all.

Scenarios

There are several scenes or scenarios presented in the book. I have listed them in chronological order with minimal summaries.

1. When the party arrives within one hour of travel of the village, they are ambushed by Kuo-toa worshippers to Leemooggoogoon and captured.
2. Following the previous encounter, the characters meet Kuo-toa worshippers to Blibdoolpoolp led by archpriest Ploopploopeen who will rescue the PCs if they were captured. Ploopploopeen has a proposal for the PCs.
3. Ploopploopeen, archpriest of the Sea Mother, proposes to use the PCs as bait and infiltrate the rival faction under the guise of a peace offering. If PCs refuse, Ploopploopeen will use them anyway. The goal is to disrupt the other factions' rituals to create an opportunity for the worshippers of the Sea Mother to behead the leader(s) of the rival faction and return order to the village. 
4. Ploopploopeen with escorts (optionally, and the PCs) visit the shrine of the Deep Father. 
5. Members of the two factions fight on the shores and docks of Darklake while a ritual is performed to sacrifice several offerings with the intent of calling forth the Deep Father.
6. Demogorgon rises from Darklake. All witnesses make a check / save against madness. Demogorgon reaches the shores in 4 rounds and begins attacking Sloobludop.
7. Escape Demogorgon. If escaping by land, mad kuo-toa may attack the PCs. If by water, ixitxachitl attack.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Part 1 Darklake

*Yes, with Darklake we're still in part 1 of the campaign book, although Darklake can be visited in part 2 of the campaign.

What is Darklake?

• The name Darklake is a misnomer. It's not a lake, it's a network of waterways and canals that spans 100 miles. Some of them are connected by falls and locks. The locks were built by duergar engineers.
• Darklake is dark. The only light is what the PCs bring.
• The water of Darklake is unsafe to drink. It is not recommended to swim in Darklake.
• Darklake is impossible to navigate unless you've spent years learning to navigate it. The Kuo-toa (fish-folk) offer ferrying services, but they only speak Undercommon.
• One the west shore is Gracklstugh. On the east shore is Sloobludop (sloo-blu-dop). On the north shore is Mantol Derith; however, Mantol Derith's precise location a secret and so we'll avoid mentioning this settlement at all until part 2.

Traversing Darklake

Anyone traversing Darklake by keelboat or raft can do so at a rate of 1 mile per hour or 8 miles per day.  This requires rowing. Any more than 8 hours of rowing a day for an adventuring party is considered a forced march. This means that a navigator who is knowledgeable of Darklake can traverse Darklake in about 2 weeks which is faster than walking around it.

Player Characters should be advised not to cross Darklake on their own. If players dare to travel Darklake, they should stick to the shoreline. Should they leave the shoreline, navigation checks should only be allowed with a map.

Note the Drow will not pursue PCs on Darklake. Reduce the pursuit level by 1 for every day that the players travel across Darklake.

Encounters

If on a watercraft, the book recommends rolling for encounters every 4 hours on Darklake (2x per day) where a 1 to 13 on a d20 (65%) means no encounter. If swimming, roll for an encounter once per hour. Consult the book for the table of encounters. For the interest of expediency of play, I would suggest one or two encounters per week of travel.

Terrain

The encounter table asks the GM to roll on the terrain table to randomly generate the terrain (like finding rapids or an island). Details for some terrain results call for situations requiring ability or skill checks to safely avoid some harm. Assume that a navigator who is knowledgeable about Darklake will not put the party into one of these dangerous scenarios and overrule these results. Consult the book for the table.

Crafting a Raft

Characters who want to create a raft must spend the crafting time or downtime. Materials must be at hand, or else they must be foraged, like Zurkhwood fungus for its wood stocks and Trillimac for its leather caps that can be made into strips to lash wood together. The raft has half the HP (or durability) of a Keelboat.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Exploration

There is one table in the book that will be very valuable for the whole game, but is too literal and precise for my taste, so I have modified it. My modified table shows you the distance from one location (settlement) to any other in weeks of travel. It replaces the need for a map of the Underdark.

Location	Velkynvelve	Sloobludop	Gracklstugh	Neverlight Grove	Blingden-stone	Menzober-ranzan
Velkynvelve	-	1 week	4 weeks	5 weeks	4 weeks	4 weeks
Sloobludop	1 week	-	3 weeks	4 weeks	3 weeks	3 weeks
Gracklstugh	4 weeks	3 weeks	-	2 weeks	3 weeks	4 weeks
Neverlight Grove	5 weeks	4 weeks	2 weeks	-	3 weeks	3.5 weeks
Blingden-stone	4 weeks	4 weeks	3 weeks	3 weeks	-	1 week
Menzober-ranzan	4 weeks	3 weeks	4 weeks	3.5 weeks	1 week	-

Traveling to any location takes at least one week, and frequently three or more weeks. Therefore, I recommend simplifying travel by treating one turn of travel as one week rather than one day unless your players are really into daily exploration. Treat fractions of a week as negligible, except see travel pace and failed navigation.

Travel Pace: For simplicity, players can travel slowly to extend the travel time by 1 week or fast to reduce it by 1 week (minimum 0.5 weeks treated roughly the same for purposes of running the game). Keep in mind the advantages and disadvantages to fast, normal, and slow paces.

Lighting: most of the Underdark is dark imposing penalties (i.e. disadvantage) on ALL actions or checks that require sight for those who rely on darkvision. Nightlight is a type of phosphorescent fungus present in some places which sheds light half as well as a torch. Also see faerzress below. In any given area, roll a 1d6. The area is lit on a roll of a 1 to 3, and dark on a roll of a 4 to 6.

Guides: Any NPC could conceivably act as a guide, depending on the NPC, and so navigation is automatically successful if they guide you. This can encourage PCs to be friendly or offer money.

Wandering Encounters: Roll three per week if you're generous, though in the Underdark their chances of occurring are one roll per day and one per night of travel. Wandering encounters are important for making travel in the Underdark feel risky. For each encounter:

1. Roll for terrain as the terrain varies greatly. See the book or make your own.
2. Choose or roll the encounter. See the book or make your own.
3. Roll or determine NPC reaction (attitude) to the PCs, including hostile, indifferent, neutral, or friendly.
4. Roll starting distance, direction of travel. Determine marching order.
5. Roll for surprise, or rather Stealth and Perception.

• Allow the players every chance to avoid combat by hiding, using speech or trade, or some other tricky, creative thing they can think of that could reasonably succeed.

Fixed Encounters: I'm not a fan of the idea of fixed encounters in the Underdark, and ones in the book might have a family-friendly-ier tone than I like. I would add it to the random encounters or make it a reward that the characters can discover with effort, say by learning rumors and following them.

Actions. Below is a list of actions that the player characters can make while traveling. Player characters are limited to one action per travel turn (or 1 action per week).

Navigating: Call for one check per week of travel. For game purposes, navigation is not about successful navigation, rather, it's about effective navigation. On a failed navigation check, the player characters add a few extra days to their trip (treat as narrative only for the purposes of running the game) though several failed navigation checks (say 3) can add up to an additional week. Additionally, a failed navigation check can be interpreted as the player characters finding more challenging or hazardous paths that make resource collecting harder and make encounters more likely and/or less fortuitous.

Foraging: DC 15 to find edible food; 20 in some places. Success means wild edibles (mushrooms) are foraged for a single person for the week. Alternatively, permit the players to make several foraging checks per week, one for every day. Edible fungi and one inedible, exotic fungus are listed. Other exotic fungi are omitted. Needless to say, Underdark fungi are fantastic. You can get creative.

• Barrelstalk: can be tapped like a barrel and drained of water.
• Bluecap: it's spores are like flour and can make sporebread.
• Fire Lichen: can be ground into a spicy paste. Can also be fermented into liquor.
• Ripplebark: resembles rotting flesh. Can be eaten raw or roasted.
• Trillimac: the cap is like leather for crafting, the stalk can be soaked in water and become like bread.
• Waterorb: sponge-like, squeeze out water
• Zurkhwood: spores are edible, stalks are like wood for crafting.
• Nightlight: lights up half as well as a torch. If uprooted, goes out in 1 round.

Tracking and Hunting: Players who track game (usually monsters) spend a day. May be better off relying on wandering monster encounters. Creatures slain can yield an amount of food based on size. Tiny: 1 day of food for one person; small 4; medium 16; large 32. Meat not properly preserved spoils the next morning. Alternatively, player characters can employ Counter-tracking to cover their tracks.

Crafting: Most crafting efforts produce makeshift or improv-quality goods. Zurkhwood is a type of mushroom that resembles wood and can be foraged. Assume crafting can only be done while stationary (at camp). Making anything complex distracts a player from effectively keeping watch. Trillimac has a cap that resembles leather and can be used as parchment or paper. Giant Spider silk can be used as rope.

Mapping: If characters have the tools, mapping is possible. By relying on a map of a route between two locations that they have previously made, they can travel that route without having to navigate.

End of standardized actions. What else can your players think to do?

Faerzress (pronounced fae-er-zer-ess probably): a magical ethereal substance like a mist or lingering radiation that glows and permeates some chambers and tunnels of the Underdark. If spells are cast in the presence of faerzress, on a d20 roll of a 1, something goes wrong with the casting.

Madness: There are horrors in the Underdark that stress the mind and challenge spirit. Madness is tracked on a scale of 0 to 3. Characters begin at 0 and add 1 for any time they witness something weird, have prolonged exposure to faerzress, or receive psychic damage. At 1, they suffer madness for ten minutes; At 2, one week; At 3, until treated, usually magically. When mad, the character expresses strange behaviors or speech, and actions are generally penalized (disadvantage).

Death: What happens if someone dies? Suggestions for resurrection are a scroll of raise dead can be found as treasure, the faerzress can mysteriously revive someone but add 1 to their madness, and any dead left behind can be collected and raised by pursuing Drow who want to capture them. Replace characters by introducing new PCs in a random encounter, convert an NPC into a PC, or new characters might be meet and recruited in a location (settlement) of the Underdark.

Drow Pursuers: The Drow captors from Velkynvelve are actively pursuing the PCs during part 1 of the campaign. The lead priestess has taken their escape personally and wants to capture them. The pursuit is tracked as a number on a scale of 0 to 5. On a 0, the pursuers have been evaded. On a 5, the Drow forward scouts have encountered the PCs, and the main Villains are 1d6+4 rounds behind. Players begin at 4. Add 1 for every day the players travel at a slow rate, engage in combat, certain random encounters. Subtract 1 for every day the players travel at a fast pace, employs counter tracking to cover their tracks, cross terrain that obscures their tracks, or if the part split up. Adjust the pursuit by + 1 or - 1 if the players do anything that would reasonably affect the pursuit, including meeting any Drow in s settlement or publicly discussing their escape and pursuers. If captured, the PCs will be taken either to Menzoberranzan or Velkynvelve, whichever is closer. The Drow Pursuers conveniently meet the PCs at the exit of the Underdark for a climactic confrontation at the end md of Part 1 of the campaign.

Dungeons: There are three small dungeons in the Underdark: the Hook Horror Lair, the Oozing Temple, and the Lost Tomb. They have no fixed location in the Underdark; they can be placed anywhere by the GM, or discovered by luck or effort, say by learning about rumors and then following them. You can create and add your own too to break up the monotony of the game.

Warnings about Running Exploration: Exploring the Underdark in some ways must resemble the backrooms, if you're familiar with that concept. It sounds boring because exploring a nebulous and empty space for weeks at a time is lacking interesting dramatic conflict and it doesn't offer any sense of instant gratification or a feeling of progression that that is offered by other games or aspects of other games. I feel like it must have a very, very delayed sense of gratification, like boredom-torture or sensory-deprivation torture might have.

Further it lacks that sense of internal reward system where you do something and your brain rewards you with a hit of dopamine to encourage you to do it again. Effective gameplay loops take advantage of this. The Underdark by comparison is a game about earning things slowly. It is mechanically monotonous albeit flavorfully varied. It's conceivably a gauntlet of random encounters that have no value beyond novelty and material reward.

Therefore, I can only recommend that you speed-run or speedrun the exploration, or that you turn every encounter into an interesting and fun set-piece encounter where you establish a dramatic goal, an obstacle, and some stakes (stakes means consequences for failure) that the PCs presumably care about because their survival may be dependent on it. Give it a timer, a threat, and a treat.  Consider that there needs to be a good reward with an encounter or else the players may simply stop caring about encounters after a while. If an encounter isn't fun and doesn't offer valuable material rewards, it's probably worth skipping else the players will surely grow exhausted of the game.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Part 1 Velkynvelve

The player characters wake up with nothing but their shirts, manacled, in a shared prison cell noted as the Slave Pen in a Drow outpost by the name Velkynvele, an elvish word for hidden knife. The outpost is built 100 feet up in a large chamber of a cavern. The outpost is long and narrow. It is made up of some hollows in the cavern walls and in some very large rocky outcroppings resembling stalactites that are all connected by zurkhwood bridges and platforms and rock paths. There is a net of spiderwebs just below. Its exterior is dimly lit by prosenescent fungus called nightlight which grows out of the walls. Do you really need a map of Velyknvelve? It's pretty small. Just use theater of the mind. Here's a list of the key locations.

• Priestess Quarters (lead priestess only). The room is decorated nicely with things of monetary value. The player characters equipment was taken when they were captured and is stored here.
• Shrine of Lolth. Has a giant statue of a spider and is littered with silk pillows. The other priestess quarters here.
• Soldier Barracks (x2). The soldiers work in shifts, and so there are always some resting soldiers here. All soldiers and elite soldiers have a chest for storing their personal possessions with some minor value by their bunks, and for storing their equipment when they're off duty.
• Elite Soldier Barracks (x2). The elite soldiers work in shifts, and so there are always one or two resting soldiers here.
• Quaggoth Den. The Quaggoth are worked in shifts, and so there are always some resting Quaggoth here.
• Slave Pen. Closed by a heavy iron gate. The prisoners are kept here. There are no comforts other than chamber pots. Has an anti-magic field in place.
• South Watch Post. Manned by two soldiers.
• Northern Watch Post. Manned by two soldiers.
• Guard Tower positioned to look straight into the Slave Pen. Six extra sets of weapons and armor are stored here.
• Main Hall (an all at once meeting hall, mess hall, kitchen, and food storage)
• 100 ft Waterfall and a pool below. An acidic grey ooze (monster) lives in the pool and eats the waste created by the outpost.
• Lift (or an elevator for readers in the USA) with room for four or 800 lbs. The lift, made of zurkhwood, is suspended by a rope (spider silk) by a zurkhwood arm. The rope coils in a winch that is manually operated and requires a lot of strength to crank by two operators, usually Quaggoth. It takes four rounds for the lift to be raised or lowered.

Undercommon

One of the challenges of playing in an Underdark campaign is the language barrier in the Underdark. While in fantasy, the common language is referred to as Common, the Underdark has another language called Undercommon. Common is rarely spoken or understood down here! That means your player characters will have to rely on their other known languages such as dwarvish, elvish, gnomish, etc.

Fellow Prisoners

The book prescribes ten other non-player characters as prisoners. Their inclusion suits the efficiency of the Drow, but it's a lot for a GM to manage, so give yourself permission to consider them optional. Let them serve as movie extras. Create your own NPC prisoners if you prefer.

What's important about fellow NPC prisoners is that the player characters are not assumed to be knowledgeable about the Underdark, but the NPC prisoners are. Therefore, NPC prisoners can provide foundational knowledge of major Underdark locations which the PCs will need. In other words, the PCs don't know where to navigate to after they break out, but the NPCs do. The NPCS can also foreshadow some of the challenges to come, such as madness and the appearance of the demon lords.

Prisoners Knowledge

• Velkynvelve: Who's in charge here, what to watch out for, the goings-on and Velkynvelve drama, that the delivery of supplies from Menzoberranzan is days overdue, and that a contingent of soldiers from Menzoberranzan is due any day to collect the prisoners and take them back to make them into slaves.
• Miscellaneous about Major Locations of the Underdark: Sloobudop and Darklake, Gracklstugh, Neverlight Grove, Blingdenstone, Menzoberranzan
• Dangers in the Underdark: madness, other hazards, monster species and demons, the difficulties of survival and exploration in the Underdark, things to forage
• Other rumors, news, gossip

Velkynvelve Captors

There are nineteen Drow (pronounced row as in row your boat with a D in front) in all. A Drow is an evil variety of elf. Four of them are named. The rest are generic soldiers. Here's what's significant about the named Drow.

• Two Priestesses: The leader of this outpost is a priestess of Lolth, the spider queen. She is cruel and ambitious as is typical of priestesses of Lolth. She's basically a psychopath, and she's armed with a scourge or whip which is a magic item. There is a lesser ranking priestess of Lolth who can be promoted in place if anything should happen to the first. When the PCs escape, this lead priestess will take it personally and will put everything else down to recapture them.
• Two Elite Soldiers: Of the five elite soldiers present at the outpost, two of them are favorited by the lead priestess. One of them was recently maimed and has fallen out of favor, and he's primed to sabotage the outpost or help the PCs to spite her. The other one is armed with a magic wand that shoots sticky globs of goo that can restrain and immobilize a single character per use.

Who else is at the Drow Outpost?

• Six Trained Giant Spiders guard the perimeter of the outpost which is surrounded with sticky their webs. Prisoners are occasionally thrown to them for food when the Drow want to make them an example to the rest of the prisoners.
• Twelve Quaggoths slaves: What is a quaggoth? They look like beast from Beauty and the Beast, but they're blue or blue-green, they're hostile towards those who don't man the outpost, and they have massive strength. One or two of them could be in any room or scene at any time.

Schedules

There are opportunities for players to take action. Feeding time, when bowls of thin mushroom broth are delivered, and labor, when players are taken out and forced to do manual labor and busy work for hours at a time. They can pick a pocket, palm or scavenge goods, or overhear conversations in elvish that might have valuable information about shifts and patterns, or weaknesses of the people here.

Prison Break

The PCs must break themselves out of prison. If your player characters have never done this, they might not have a clue how. NPC Prisoners can also give them hints or suggestions. Just outside the slave pen is the 100 ft waterfall to the pool below, and is the fastest way out. The campaign book offers two interesting scenarios that the GM can provide to assist the players.

• Scenario 1: Drow Saboteur. One of the disfigured elite Drow soldiers gives the players the keys. Then he distracts the guards with conversation for a few minutes while the PCs escape by jumping into the waterfalls.
• Scenario 2: Demon Intervention. Some flying demons are fighting, and their fight places them in the Drow outpost. They are completely indifferent to the Drow outpost, but the Drow raise a call to battle to defend the outpost and are distracted. The demons can conveniently slaughter a few guards and smash the cell door.

The Drow guards let prisoners of their cells in pairs to do hard labor. This gives them opportunities to scavenge and conceal objects that can serve as improvised tools (like bits of metal to bend into lock picks) to help them break out. This includes objects that can act as improvised weapons.

Where to?

At the floor of the cavern, the player characters can see some passages. Pick one and go. All passages will lead to at least one of the major locations, and so none of them will lead the characters to perpetually nowhere or to a dead end.

D&D Out of the Abyss - Introduction

TL;DR, I'm creating a blog post series about this book with the intention of making it approachable. This intro is going to be longwinded though. Every so often, my thoughts come back to Out of the Abyss (or OotA) published 2015 for D&D 5e. It was the first D&D adventure (or campaign) book that I owned. I read the whole thing, it's 200 pages and some change, but I never successfully ran it. It's left me with a feeling like I've left something unfinished, and I need to finish it. The reasons why I never successfully ran it are well, have you seen the damned thing?

OotA is not a campaign. It's just not. It's a campaign setting presented as a campaign. There are cool ideas here, but there's a lot of empty stuff in between. It's a massive sandbox with a focus on exploration and roleplay more so than combat. It's got an alien horror element to. It doesn't feature anything that is traditionally D&D or fantasy, and that means you can't rely on familiar tropes and generic fantasy. It's got no castles or treasure or goblins or damsels in distress. Instead, it leans into survival mechanics, and it introduces madness mechanics, and there's everywhere is dark. The setting is the Underdark which does not resemble any biome on planet Earth, and it's just not the type of setting that offers what most people expect in D&D which I assume to be either Critical Role style play, old-school style play, or something in between. This is a ten-year old book that simple doesn't get discussed on the internet. Not only that, but this is also not a book for beginner GMs!

I want to sell you on running this campaign book.

I plan to break this ten-year old book down chapter by chapter and simplify it for you, and present it in such a way that would make it appealing. Who else but me? Like I said, I read the damned thing! And it was an absolute chore, too. This book is dense and presents a lot of unique D&D material in a very dry way. It was an actual challenge for my AD&D-ass brain. Also, I might be one of ten people on planet earth who did read it. I'm serious. This is not a joke. Only ten people ever read it. No, this isn't a joke. Anyway.

What is the Underdark?

It's a subterranean network of caves and chambers that go as far and wide as the Sword Coast, maybe further, but the Underdark has layers meaning that it's got a third axis, so it's actually a lot larger than the Sword Coast. That said, it's also full of a lot of nothing, so it's a lot more empty than the surface world above. There are strange things down here. Strange and weird things like Ilithids AKA mind Flayers, Umber Hulks, giant worms, devil manta rays, crazy cultish fish men, fungus people, and demons. They also have inverted evil mirror-universe versions of familiar fantasy races. They have spider worshiping evil matriarchal elves called Drow, evil work-obsessed dwarves called Duergar, and a suspicious and serious variety of gnomes called Deep Gnomes or Svirfneblin (try saying that three times fast). All of these creatures are adapted to living in the dark and underground. They all have complex societies, and their societies have complex relationships with each other. Also note that everything is like thirty (30) days away from everything else in the Underdark. That's a lot of exploration and your player characters are assumed to know nothing about it!

We will take it one step at a time! So, don't be overwhelmed. You can trust me because I'm one of ten people on planet earth who read this book! When our powers combine, we can make this a kick-ass adventure module.

First, you have to ask if this is even something you want to run or play. It's not Dark Sun, but it's definitely different. It's not for everyone. Everything traditional about D&D is absent, or at the very least is not a main feature. It even plays differently by emphasizing exploration and survival. If you play D&D for fun heroic combat that makes you feel like a badass, that is not the Underdark. That kind of play is completely antithetical to at least the first half of this game. It's going to require people to actually be interested in something very different. If people aren't into that, then they aren't into that. It's niche.

Second, the only things iconic about the Underdark are all controversial because California and Seattle said we must talk about certain things with -ist and -ism and -phobe (or as I say ist-ism-phobe). I am not going there. You're welcome. I trust that you're an adult and you understand that what we do in play is not... You know what, you're an adult (probably). You don't need to be lectured.

Index Card RPG (ICRPG)

This is not required reading, but if you haven't read the Game Master material in ICRPG, I genuinely believe you are a less good Game Master than you could be. ICRPG began as a mod or hack of 5e, and it's great. I can't prove this but I genuinely believe that the author of ICRPG has ADHD and I think his book shows it. His design philosophy says to me that he wants to reduce cognitive load by abstracting and simplifying the game and cutting unnecessary things. He has a minimalistic presentation for his settings and adventures that give you a structure to build on rather than give you everything there is to know, and everything is written with an engaging active voice. He's even got a mechanic called a timer die which he invented to make players hurry the hell up because he's impatient and he wants to get to the good stuff fast (that is ADHD 100%).

Like I said, ICRPG is not required reading. I reference ICRPG to let you know that I will be presenting OotA in a manner that might suit the design philosophy of ICRPG, though this is not indented to be a strict ICRPG adaptation of OotA, and I won't be converting anything. In fact, I'm going to treat this without consideration for the game system you're using (such as D&D). Like the author of ICRPG, I can draw, but I won't be putting in cool drawings. Shame I know. Well, maybe. No promises. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

OotA is a Two-Part Campaign

Out of the Abyss is divided into two parts.

Part one is a lot like Alice in Wonderland, except you replace Alice with D&D adventurers and you replace Wonderland with the Underdark. Basically, these adventurers begin in a prison, and they must escape. Then, they go from unusual place to unusual place that defies logic and reasoning, and meet unfriendly people who might just be crazy but you can't tell because you're not from here. Your player characters, like Alice, are searching for a way out! The Underdark is so complex however that they can't just navigate out like a maze (unless you choose to let them). Instead, they must visit the major locations, and they must ask around for someone who knows how to get out. It's up to the GM to decide where the exit is, who knows about it, and what the players have to do in order to receive that information. While the player characters are searching for an exit, they are being actively pursued by their former captors which adds tension and conflict.

Part two is different. In fact, the book recommends that once the players get out, give them another adventure or two as a palate cleanser and to fatten them up with resources. After some months, the dwarven kingdom of Gauntlgrym will contact the player characters. Gauntlgrym has heard of their adventures in and escape from the Underdark, and Gauntlgrym has an urgent task with epic stakes for them. Go back in and kill the demon lords. What are the demon lords? Well, in the D&D setting of Faerun, there's a hell. It's called hell. There's another place like hell called the Abyss. It's like hell, but shittier. The most powerful badasses of the Abyss are called demon lords. They have escaped form the Abyss and they're a dangerous, unstoppable threat. If they escape the Underdark and onto the surface, the Sword Coast is in danger. Go back in there. You're the most knowledgeable about the Underdark, it must be you! Gauntlgrym will give the players resources and send them back in. The players must now search for a way to defeat the demon lords, and fair combat is a death sentence. For completing this, they will probably be offered anything they want and then they can retire from adventuring.

The campaign can therefore be structured into two arcs, and each arc has one main goal. Main Goal 1 is to escape. Main Goal 2 is to defeat the demon lords and save the Underdark and by extension the Sword Coast. Knowing that these are your players characters main goals should also give you much needed perspective for planning and prep.

Interestingly enough, you could play the first part of the campaign and never come back to it, and just pursue some other adventures indefinitely. Or, you could have any mid-tier adventurers be recruited by Gauntlgrym to go into the Underdark and stop the Demon Lords without ever touching the first part of the campaign. You could also do the campaign from the perspective of people from the Underdark using exclusively Underdark races (or subraces as they may be). That's an interesting twist.

Gameplay Loop

So, in case you missed it while reading the last section, this game has a sort of gameplay loop. It goes like this. First, the player characters are in location A. They must explore and survive the Underdark to reach Location B. Then, they must use social interaction to find information. You give them a weird quest to complete or conflict to resolve. Upon completing it, they either get what they're looking for, or they get told how to find it, and the loop repeats. NPCs can also lie to the player characters, or they NPCs might be too mad to know they're not being honest.

Themes and Player Character Backstories

You'll also notice that this isn't really the sort of campaign that suits your typical farm boy who leaves his quaint village to become a hero type of story. It's not, and that's another obstacle to this game. The Underdark is rather alien. If your players are into backstories with unresolved conflict and proving themselves and becoming famous, that's not compatible with this setting and its tone and themes, or at least it will probably be very difficult to realize. The Underdark is weird fantasy, horror, and maybe even a little sci-fi. It's Alice in Wonderland. It's isekai. It's the Super Mario Bros. movie from the 1990s! It is a fish out of water story. Your character's stories are probably going to be more introspective, existential, and themed on sacrifice and answering a higher calling and completing hard but thankless tasks. Your player characters will be fighting hopelessness and dread. There are demons down here, and cultures that are predominantly evil. That's kind of heavy.

Conclusion

I think it's very weird that a company like Wizards of the Coast for 5e D&D came up with this campaign. We'll probably never see anything quite like it again unless they do Dark Sun. I mean it. Let me reiterate some things I discussed. No familiar tropes. Exploration is dominant, combat is not. All locations are really far apart. The tone and themes are heavy.

How can we spice this up? How can we make this fun and interesting? Honestly, that's up to you. I can give you some ideas, but you need to take a creative interest and you need to take some creative liberties. You don't need to use all the material in the book, and you don't need to stick to it strictly. Remember the two goals? You only need as much material from the book as you need to reach your two goals. That might mean that not all content gets used. Oh well. You might even want to fill it up with your own stuff instead. Maybe it can be post-game content if people aren't sick of the Underdark, and I expect that's a possibility.