''The Ruins of Undermountain'' is a

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for the

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a ...

campaign setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...

for the second edition of the ''Advanced

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

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. The set was written by

Ed Greenwood Ed Greenwood (born July 21, 1959) is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the ''Forgotten Realms'' game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for ''Dragon'' magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold ...

and published by TSR. It featured box cover art by Brom. and was published in 1991.

The set consists of a 128-page booklet titled ''Campaign Guide to Undermountain'', a 32-page booklet titled ''Undermountain Adventures'', 8 double-sided loose-leaf monster statistics pages, 8 double-sided heavy-stock "adventure aid" cards, and 4 color fold-out poster maps. It uses the same Brom cover art as the box cover itself, with interior art by

Karl Waller Karl Waller is an American artist whose work has appeared in comic books and roleplaying game, roleplaying and collectible card games. Early life and education He graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Pennsylvania School of Ar ...

and cartography by

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, Steve Beck, and David Sutherland. This book contains detailed information on the dungeon Undermountain, including non-player characters (such as

Halaster Blackcloak ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a ...

) that can be encountered within the dungeons or in the city above it, as well as

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and

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that can be found. The book also keys the maps to what can be found in various locations and contains expansion guidelines for creating future adventures and deeper parts of the dungeon. The set provides the "first three levels of the original dungeon of Undermountain, beneath the city of Waterdeep". The entire Ruins of Undermountain is purported to be the "deepest dungeon of them all" with nine levels and fourteen sub-levels. It contains two books describing the Undermountain complex. The larger is the ''Campaign Guide to Undermountain''. It includes Undermountain history and other related information. The second book contains adventures, monster descriptions, maps, and other products. There are over 350 rooms per level, but not all are detailed: "even with approximately 25 areas of interest on the first level, 26 on the second level and none on the third, a remarkably high percentage of rooms are left completely undetailed". The ''Undermountain Adventures'' booklet describes seven adventures designed to be used within Undermountain, but can be used in any dungeon. The booklet also contains a "Monster Guide" of statblocks and descriptions of monsters not otherwise featured in the boxed set, and a description of the city of Skullport. The booklet has a detached cover, with cover art by

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, and maps of some of the encounters on the inside, with cartography by David Sutherland. The monster sheets detail 11 monsters in the Monstrous Compendium style: elder orb beholder, death kiss beholder-kin, darktentacles, ibrandlin, scaladar,

sharn Eberron is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') role-playing game. The game is set primarily on the continent of Khorvaire following a vast destructive war. Eberron is designed to accommodate traditional ''D&D'' elements an ...

, slithermorph, flying snakes (flying fang and deathfang), steel shadow, and watchghost. The cards are adventure aids for the Dungeon Master, detailing traps, encounters, treasure, and sundries that can be placed in the midst of adventures. The maps detail the first three levels of the ruins of Undermountain; level three takes up two of the maps.

Publication history

Shannon Appelcline commented that "''The Ruins of Undermountain'' (1991), located under the City of Waterdeep, was one of the first real "mega" dungeons — though it trailed Greyhawk's own offering, ''Greyhawk Ruins'', by a year."

Reception

The adventure was ranked the 17th greatest adventure of all time by ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

'' magazine for the 30th anniversary of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game in 2004. Keith Eisenbeis reviewed the module in the February 1992 issue of ''

White Wolf Magazine ''White Wolf'' is a game magazine that was published by White Wolf Publishing from 1986 to 1995. History While still in high school, Stewart Wieck and Steve Wieck decided to self-publish their own magazine, and Steve chose the name "White Wolf" a ...

''. He noted the appearance of the product materials, especially the maps, as exceptional, but the remainder of lesser quality. Overall, he rated the product a 3 out of a possible 5.

References

* Greenwood, Ed. ''Ruins of Undermountain'' ( TSR, 1991)

Contents

Publication history

Reception

References

Further reading