IC: Pre-fabricated D&D 3.5 Delve into the Depths
I forget the name of the module. It's acronym is Ditto. I think it was something like "Depth into the Thayan Oculus" or something that was Illithid and High Arcane class centeric. Anyway, that was in EARLY 3.5 days when we wrote that, when the ELH had a big fat SRD that predated the core SRD.
I'm interested in DMing my side of the module, which was the core four with prestige classes and social structures that came with it. Psionics were Santos's area, and Mervel did the architecture. I have no interest or ability to reproduce that, but I'd like to see if anyone out there is interested in a semi-flexible module that has very limited modular choices during character creation and leveling up. It's quite a shot in the dark, twenty years past it's mark to be made, but I think the second it what make the first appealing.
The gist, if you haven't played Undermountain in Waterdeep, is that there are four major players. The thieves, the mages, the guard and the temples. All of them have an inner circle; for instance the thieves with drow, and mages with mindflayers. Guards have the...I think Deep Dwarves???. Temples have the rebellion of the drow pantheon, which is integral back to the drow and the thieves. So each player represents a factional alliance, that among the surface have shared goal. If there was interest I'd want to develop the narrative to an assassins or harpers, and Thayan red wizards or (what would become) Mage's of the Arcane Order. Spellthieves would play well into the adaptation, my adaptation, since there's zero 3.75 as much as there is D&PF. Motivation would dictate the group's central tie. Gold, power, wanton action, peace, prosperity, reputation, or whatever else the group thinks is a good bound pact.
The module features heavy aberrations, traps, drow, and tanari (I forget the apostrophe's location). It can also feature many angels, dwarves, constructs and undead. It can also feature many human, elementals, dragons, and fae. You won't however, see many undead, nor really any vermin or animals worth specialization. Oozes are uncommon, but could be beefed up depending on the nature of the PCs.
The Mad Wizard is less of a character in the module and more of a means of exposition. As are the Masks.
It's a part dungeon crawl, part puzzle, part mystery, and part political rivalry. In the end (spoiler!) the factions you neglect most become least profitable, and that absence shows in the later chapters, while the factions you fight or support have the biggest impact. Traps are also more than rooms, you can find reasons for "craft: trapmaking" in certain sub-chapters. There's enemies and than there are opponents, the later can be more easily dealt with by wider variety of approaches. The former can still be kept prisoner, or given the guard "alive" (not dead), or converted. One drow even plays a pretty huge role in the Torm temple, who starts as a devotee to Lolth. If you kill the drow, the Torm temple chapter might be missed, but it's also possible to find work arounds.
It's a high magic setting. It's Waterdeep too! So political rivalry for thieves literally does pay. Temples have exclusive services for those with rating in the temple (using Complete Champion) and those clerics (there'd be one) that frequent the temple. The mages have their own scroll selection that some of which is quite unique. The guard have some fairly legendary items they can equip their candidate with.
There is, however, now ending this concept, the fact most builds, many base classes even, some feats entirely, do not mesh well with the module. Ditto helped this by hurting magic as a whole, which I thought sucked doubly over. Wild Magic or Antimagic never really paid off like they said it would. So I'd have to lift that, but at the cost of certain spells just not existing for clerics, and certain spells only accessible through the proper arcane alignment; also i.e. at more than just their gp worth in an open market, but how valuable they'd be to the specific navigation and exploitation. This lift, however, would make playing a non-fighter martial class fun, and also limit the cleric and wizard from what they'd end on in 3.7's Encounter based classes. So this would be heavily limited the pool to begin with, and then picking from what's in it to make your character. We can dibs, or free market these depending on the group of players' preference. I'd opt for a combination if consensus cannot be met.
So that's the background from a top down view. If that doesn't garner any reply, I'll be glad to let this idea go to the grave. If there's more questions, I'll be glad to elaborate.
Santos and I left on good terms. Mervel and I left on a cliffhanger. So in any case, I'll be using the module from memory, not as a manual. I never even received a copy at 2004's Legacy. So whether you played Ditto or not, makes no difference. If what I described above isn't ringing bells it doesn't need to. If something seems familiar, that's probably because it is, and in more than one adaptation. That's all to say it has structure, but most modules (of the time) share some basic tenants. It is a, free text, adventure at least.
The level span is...eeeh...the only sort of iffy part. If I red tag it, it'll probably go to 12. If I white tag it it'll probably go to 22nd. It starts at 4th, and then goes to 7th in the introduction. You get a sort of background selection, then go to initiation, and as the group meets they have a couples combats and a few discussions, and then time passes while the divide into their respective factions. Then the game starts. Pink tag is...okay...but I find this unsatisfying personally, as it disincentivizes players being distinct; a casualty of the prefabrication and death penalty. So I'd much rather white tag it or red tag it.
For those that haven't heard the term. Many, most in fact, D&D games are "red tag" by default. It means if you get your character killed, doesn't matter how or why, as long as you had chance to prevent it, your character is dead. Pink tag is the "three strikes you're out" or "Divine Intervention" and White tag is "it's not about death, it's about recovery". White tag being an early version of adventure mode. You can't "end" your character, they may "die" but like many protagonists this is just a side story that pays for the death. Instances of this are somewhat varied, but kensai can imbue their weapon, cleric and wizard can cast XP spells, rogues can UMD craft...whatever but with a high risk high reward fashion. There's literally a casino (two technically) that are built around the goddess(es). So White tag looks like down time for all but the dead character, and the dead character goes on their redemption arch, or side quest; which is mostly a conflict, resolution, renunion type. Red tag is very...hard to swallow but makes the game most exciting at the conclusion.
I think that's it. This is a bucket list thing I never thought I had, but sort of want to strike out or strike it off. It bites me like bug, and I need to swat it away, or give it what it wants once and for all. For the love of the game.
Timing wise, this is the worst time to ad, which why I'm ICing. If I know people will come, I'll make it though. If it's even half way bad, I'll just let it go buried without ceremony, and go onto fresher topics. I have my D&D books coming late this month and I'm going to sell them after my appraisal is done. I won't do it haphazard if I know I'll want some IP stuff, that's...REALLY essential to the Undermountain.
