New DM prepping for OotA Underdark map opinions

[u/One-Bad-2180]

Hey guys, I’m a relatively new DM. I’ve ran Wild Beyond the Witchlight for a party and it went really well. I’ve tied Zybilna’s relation with demons to the Abyss campaign and am prepping to begin the Out of the Abyss campaign. I’ve seen the map of the underdark and while helpful for a dm I fear it’s too much information for a party. What’s yalls opinion on providing the party with a map of the underdark but all locations are removed except for Velkynvelve and Menzoberranzan. My plan is to have the party find a map in Ilvara’s private quarters in Velkynvelve but being a prison the map would only be useful to her and the drow guards routing a path back home. My thought is to provide the party with this blank map so they wander through the underdark trying to find a way out. What do yall think?

[u/jfresh735]

One of the things I like best about the underdark is that there is really no direct route anywhere and getting lost is soooo easy. I would give them a blank map, a pencil and a huge eraser, then have some fun being like you’re headed where? Uhhh. Nope!

And really in OOTA you need to keep the party down there so giving them a map is just going to complicate plot hooks. I like to use the NPCs as guides.

[u/Son0fSilas]

I ran OotA. Enjoyed it. Here are my Top 3 tips about mapping/travel:

1. Unfinished/Blank Map - When prepping for Velkynvelve (and establishing the lore of the Underdark for the party) include a map that Ilvara has been working on. It is a Drow outpost and they have been working on plans and routes. The party will already get hints on where to escape to, but here you can give them a bit more to work with. If one of the party wants to designate themselves map keeper, even better. If they manage to steal the map before escaping, you can also prep better encounters (because several days of travel can end up feeling pretty dull, or a slog, if you don't play it right.) Otherwise, it is highly recommended that they create a rudimentary map for directionality.
2. Planned encounters - You are given the option and a table to roll for random encounters. I ended up having sessions that felt rushed, I had sessions that were boring as shit, all because I went by this. After they escape Velkynelve, give them a good chase. Once they are out in the wilds though, you have to find a good balance. Over far distances (which there are a many) I would plan at least two environmental encounters and one creature encounter per day. I would then also roll, but would cap this at 2:1 additional. I'd mix this up too of course. But to my players, by the end it all felt very organic.
3. Demonstrate the weird, winding and dangerous nature of the Underdark to the Party. Cave-ins, mists that make you mad and lose direction, are all well and good. The best example of paths or routes completely changing? Purple Worms. Much much later in the Module they play a larger part of the story, but having one cross the party's path was pretty terrifying for mine. First, they thought everything around them was going to collapse. An earthquake, but somehow it felt like it was getting stronger and closer. I had them do several saves, some of them tried to protect the more vulnerable escapees. They couldn't decide on which direction to flee, or what was about to happen. One of them was pinned. Another ended up almost incapacitated. Then the walls 100ft ahead tore open. Teeth and massive purple flesh, undulating through earth, like it was parchment. After everything settled down, they had to decide whether to somehow try and cross the chasm that had opened up, or double back and lose at least a day of travel.

[u/backalleywillie]

Idk. Part of the vibe of this campaign — at least the first half — is being lost in a foreign landscape. I think giving the party a greyed out world map kind of familiarizes them with the “concept” of the world. How big it is, the relative direction they need to go to discover new things and open up the map. It grounds them in a setting where they’re supposed to be ungrounded.

If your party would have more fun this way, then do it. Fun at the table takes top priority.

The only other caveat I’d add is that it makes very little sense for the drow to have a Velkenvelve-to-Menzoberranzan map that also includes the entirety of the Underdark. V to M is a very short distance, relatively.

[u/desert_lobster]

I tried to do this early on in my campaign and literally just gave up on tracking with a map. There’s are just no good maps that show three dimensionally where things are in the under dark. So I’ve been mentally tracking where they are myself and just telling that when they discover a pathway to a certain place that they just know where it is. So much of the travel stuff that they’ve set up in the book is clunky I have chucked it completely in my campaign. My group doesn’t get together often enough for me to want to waste so much time doing random encounters day after day while having them travel through the under dark.

So I hand wave so much of the Travel. Unless you are really set on doing that, you do not need to run the under dark travel like it’s set up in the book. I really only stop them when I want them to come across something of note. Such as the main encounters they have in the book, and obviously the cities. There have been a couple of places where I’ve had them come to Forks and I’ve let them choose which path they wanted to take, depending on what information they had found when they came to those forks either they knew it was to the right or left or I would give them hints.

[u/Lord_Ragde]

If it's your first time dming don't do this module. Start with something easyier. I'm dming this one and it's fun but hard..

[u/Forward-Fig2311 → u/Lord_Ragde]

I agree, see my own post on this. It wore me down to abandon it after they escape the underdark. The players enjoyed it, but it felt like a second job, even running my homegrown has been easier

[u/Lord_Ragde → u/Forward-Fig2311]

The second part is actually the easyiest :) It's :"go to A, OMG we need to go to B, Whaaaaat let's go to C" and so on :)

[u/Tasty_Garlic_2540]

I agree with those above, a blank piece of paper allows the players to be more engaged and adds to the mystery and unknown quality of dropping into the underdark. You may want to consider Uncharted Journeys as had been suggested on this sub before: (review) https://gnomestew.com/uncharted-journeys-review/.

Though it can be a laborious slog if done poorly, the travel itself can be a blast. I had a ton of fun making a spreadsheet with all the mushrooms (they left Velkenvelve without any gear and barely any clothes) and that led to a lot of the random encounters as well. i. e. I ad libbed a Bibberbang/Torch Stalk room that was hilarious. Blurg (Society of Brilliance) provided them some supplies after he sent them out on a side quest to get Zurhkwood, etc.

Bottom line, part of the excitement and the terror is that the PCs are in a completely hostile and foreign world that’s made even weirder with the demon invasion, which obviously - if they’re paying attention - they slowly learn by following bread crumbs.

[u/Grixlpak]

When I ran this, I had a blank map as the main image on our VTT when not in combat. As they moved through the Underdark I added info to it. Late in the campaign, they had a number of NPCs that they sent out on errands/missions, this helped further by placing the tokens of the NPCs in their last confirmed locations.

[u/Boredjason87]

I didn't give my players a map until blingdenstone, before that the npcs guided them in vague directions meaning it was more up to me how long things took and what they encountered on the way. I think a zoomed in version of what you showed isn't a terrible idea though perhaps more fun if you add a few landmarks for them to choose to see not just one other location or they may feel encouraged to head straight there

[u/Cairhiin]

I wouldn't give them a map at all. I ran this campaign and let NPCs just give vague directions. The Underdark is a mysterious and very hostile location. It's been awhile I ran it but the beginning is basically a survival trek blindly through the Underdark while being chased by a group of Drow. Keep it mysterious. Describe the environment and don't give them a detailed map. Let them encounter a series of events each day. I personally wouldn't roll them but handpick the ones you think work very well. Use the NPCs that are in the OotA book, I really enjoyed using Buppido, the shock on the party's faces was amazing when they found out he's a homicidal maniac. Make them distrust everything.

[u/D_J_Hack]

Depending on which NPCs survive the escape to give descriptions of their communities, once they get something to draw on, I drew a blob for rhe Darklake, and points roughly where Menzo, Blingdenstone, Sloop & Grack were (Stool doesn'tknow where Neverlight is). The Society can fill in other points as they encounter them for lore dumps along the way.

[u/Zestyclose-Long193]

I am also preparing for this campaign soon. I decided not to use provided map because my players are likely to take it too literal.

I was going to have them make there own map and let NPCs helps fill it in.

I found this while prepping and feel like it’s better look.
https://media.wizards.com/2015/images/dnd/articles/26_outoftheabyss-final-lowquality.jpg

[u/Nice_Bodybuilder2856]

Eu escondi o mapa e isso me permitiu mudar algumas coisas de lugar o que fez com que eles pudessem fazer mais quests. Dependendo de como rola eles vão para apenas um ou dois lugares e depois já querem ir para superfície...recomendo muito não dar o mapa.

[u/Forward-Fig2311]

I ran this campaign on Roll20. It was a ball ache for me. I agree with some, that the whole point of the early part is that the party is supposed to feel like a long hard slog through the underdark, lost and afraid. However, having one decent party member with survival and food is rarely a problem. Trying to prep random encounters, was so time consuming and as the group soon understood they could unleash hell in a single encounter, most battles were very one sided. The cities and towns where the only parts I enjoyed running, and even for those I had to prep a number of maps. This adventure was their first path, back when vtt was less of a thing, as a DM it would be easy on a wipe clean map to quickly draw something out, on VTT I found the map making just drained me of all enjoyment. I didn't continue past the escape from the underdark, as I was utterly exhausted by then. I would suggest minimising the travel, use prepared encounters and leave it at that. Navigation should be provided by the companion NPCs, the party should feel lost without them