dungeon of the mad mage is a descent
into the darkness and the madness that
lays beneath this city of Waterdeep I
talked to Chris Perkins Keith Welch and
Mike Merle’s but what makes this
adventure unique tell me about dungeon
of the mad mage all right so that’s
under mountain so like we thought we’re
doing a heist film not a lot of combat
right well I mean this potentially
combat but it’s more about
problem-solving and interaction and we
want to kind of balance that with like
here’s undermount it’s full of fighting
water deep dungeon of the mad mage is
part two it is a continuation of water
deep dragon heist basically water deep
dragon heist
takes you through levels one to five
after which time we assume that most
players will be anxious to leave the
city proper and go out and adventure
somewhere if you want to keep the
adventure local then water deep dungeon
of the mad mages for you because it goes
from level six to twenty and it is a
deep dive into under mountain the
largest dungeon in faerun which just
happens to sit beneath the city of
Waterdeep what is so cool about this
adventure is that it is every floor is a
different setting and there there are so
many things in this book that you
probably wouldn’t find anywhere else in
the Forgotten Realms there’s a lot of
unique stuff there’s a lot of classic
stuff Pallister black cloak who is the
titular mad mage of under mountain is
your almost stereotypically
archetypically
crazy wizard character and that gives us
license to do lots of fantastically
crazy things in this adventure and tie
things into under mountain that you
would never expect to find in a dungeon
make it distinct give it a real distinct
flavor and feel and lean on
hih Laster as much as we could and
really make him the centerpiece that he
is the master of this dungeon what does
that mean if
go poking around in his his home turf
every level of the dungeon has a map in
the product and every level of the
dungeon is like a character in and of
itself it’s got its own personality its
own distinguishing characteristics its
own villains its own themes the the
dungeons within under mountain those
dungeon levels are sort of suffused with
pallister’s presence throughout them and
you’ll have situations constantly where
you are reminded going through this
dungeon that house tour is watching you
which I really like there is a there’s
there are places where there are statues
of him that will come alive and just
laugh at you or say rude things to you
there are portraits of him that’ll watch
you really classic I mean the thing with
Alaska is is he trapped in under
mountain or is he imprisoned in there
and that’s one of the interesting things
to consider is what what can he leave
would have what would happen if he got
out what would happen like what’s he
actually up to there is a method to his
madness and there there is something
he’s up to something he’s not just
wandering around and gathering monsters
and luring adventures down just for the
fun of it but I guess for him it’s
probably fun but he’s an incredibly
powerful individual he’s incredibly old
and understanding what he’s up to I
think is one of the the big mysteries
ever the Forgotten Realms it’s the kind
of thing that sort of people like
elminster probably put some time
pondering over and someone like Derna
and keeping an eye on the place it’s
probably useful for the world as a whole
you tell story in a dungeon by putting
things there that are more than just
simply obstacles that are meant to be
interacted with on some role-playing
level so there are creatures in the
dungeon that are complex that they’re
not necessarily meant to be killed they
can be reasoned with or they want
something and if you give them that
something they’ll give you something
else
but what happens
what we try to do is when you meet one
of these things it propels the story in
a certain direction you now have
something else to look out for in the
dungeon it’s asking you to complete a
task or to take something somewhere or
to find something that’s been lost and
suddenly you have a new motivation what
Chris has tried to do is build
relationships with in the dungeon itself
that you don’t just have a room of five
frost giants I know you might just have
a few religious monsters and stuffing
that’s gonna happen but when possible
think them as what does this group want
do they have enemies in the dungeon who
are their allies what are their plans so
really giving DM is a lot of different
ways to approach the dungeon and a lot
of potential the stories to play out
very differently depending on what the
group does and that’s I think is fun
about it this idea that nothing exists
in a bubble and as a DMS what I like
that’s always been the challenge to me
running a giant dungeon
it’s how you keep it fresh and in some
ways the done dungeons are nice because
they can strain the player choices but
on the other hand dungeons dungeons can
be very difficult because they’re at
their best when they feel like they’re
they’re dynamic environments so that’s
what Chris is really aim for in the
design and working with the design you
know working with the writers and
designers just to make fun around and
really come to life by a very nature a
dungeon is a more contained space
whereas Waterdeep you can literally go
any direction you want within the
confines of city and open up any door
and find god knows what in under
mountain you kind of know we prescribe
what’s in every room we know what’s
behind that door we’re gonna tell you
what’s behind that door and that’s what
they’ll see when they get there and
their choices are do we go right left up
down through that portal or not through
that portal so the the nature of a
dungeon is more constrictive than than
just being in the open city and it is
the opposite these two they are a pair
of opposites there there are certainly
some areas that feel like a very
traditional like we’re in a dank stone
dungeon and the walls are wet and it’s
dark but there’s also there’s there are
floors that have beautiful forest scenes
or there are floors that are all that
are sort of aquatic themed or they have
inch
castles within them you know because
because under mountainous is enchanted
and is magical
pretty much anything goes down there and
each level also has to your point a set
of bad guys potential allies critters
NPCs that you can interact with
sometimes those allies those enemies are
related to other events that are going
on through other parts of the dungeon so
as you continue your delve you might
meet creatures who are related to folks
that you met earlier or have have the
same family ties and are affected by the
adventures that you had on a previous
level of of under mountain there’s an
entire little Enclave down there skull
port where creatures live and you can
visit and trade with sort of underdark
denizens and sort of make shady deals
but it’s more than that
sohe Laster has this tendency has
apprentices who claim parts of the
dungeon who each have this strange
obsession that they settle on hell
astrum self wanders the dungeon he’s
incredibly powerful you might take that
lift down from the yawn and portal and
wander around a bit and just cross paths
with this incredibly powerful Archmage
and who knows what he’s gonna do to you
and there are portals that open up
throughout the dungeon that draw in
creatures from across Ferren and even
across the plains and these creatures
you might have a tribe of frost giants
or a group of them gets pulled into this
poorly end up in on a mountain and a lot
of them end up trying to claim power
part of the dungeon is in their own that
they mark out their territory I mean
obviously you’re in a dungeon so you
need to find food and water and secure
shelter
so naturally the monster groups monsters
that get pulled in might start fighting
amongst themselves there’s all of last
resort experiments and is his
apprentices weird experiments scattered
about treasure that either monsters have
brought in adventures are brought down a
whole Astra’s old old his objects the
stuff he gathered over the years he’s
been trapped in under mountain there
it’s a giant potential treasure chest
but it’s protected by like level after
level of
monsters literally pulled in seemingly
at random you never really know it’s
gonna be around the corner and you can
explore it and you come back it’s going
to changes the portals open up and more
monsters come in Alaska changes the
layout you know it’s it’s very it is a
somewhat unknowable place and going
there is a risk I mean it’s really
aiming for it powerful adventurers it’s
you can bring a first little character
on your Mountain but that’s not I mean
good luck the but you know it’s great
risks and great rewards but there’s also
it hasn’t because of that sense you know
a plaster and his apprentices there is a
sense of danger there like because again
no one really is quite sure what he’ll
Astor’s up to and and what his mash
nations are all building toward if
anything he might just be what he looks
like a random cursed powerful wizard
just doomed to wander the dozens of
levels of under mountain forever and so
it’s intended to be start-to-finish you
could do an entire campaign with these
two books which is pretty tremendous and
I can’t imagine like that the content in
Dungeon of the mad mage is so dense that
I I can’t imagine going through it and
in less than like eight months if you
play on a weekly basis there’s so much
stuff in there you are gonna have so
many adventures in this setting
you’re not even want to know what to do
with yourself what we’ve done is we’ve
taken a of a a large piece of every
dungeon detailed that fully and then
created these passageways that lead off
the map these branches that are
basically they lead to expanded dungeon
where the DM can basically say I’m going
to expand this dungeon east and create
my own content adjacent to what’s
detailed in the adventure so we give
every level the attention it deserves to
give you and your players several
sessions worth of game and then you can
decide on a case-by-case basis whether
to expand that level of the dump it out
or not because they are all so
completely different from each other it
is a joy it is so much fun and your
players are going to
be astonished when they move from one
level to another and it’s just a
completely different thing it’s nothing
like what they were in before they got
to completely change where they’re at
who’s the bad guy what’s the political
dynamic down here I think when the DMC’s
dungeon the mad mage and checks out the
various levels the urge to want to take
the characters through those levels and
and find the things that are there and
play and run the things that are there’s
gonna be almost overwhelming and I think
they’re gonna be giddy with excitement
particularly there’s a lot of fun stuff
down in the lower levels that is worth
the wait and if I were the DM of this
product I would be chomping at the bit
to get them down there and as quickly as
possible
Thank You Kate Welch Mike morels and
Chris Perkins for talking about dungeon
of the mad mage you can order that book
on teen DB on Comm we are the official
digital toolset for all things fitted
ition D&D I’m Todd kenric thank you for
watching A D&D campaign for levels 1-20. Waterdeep, Skullport, and twenty-three levels of Undermountain, each level more wild than the last. Halaster is waiting for you. #wotcstaff pic.twitter.com/WxPE9lrsjj

— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) June 3, 2018

Because of what you did, Sam. He saw you do it!

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) June 3, 2018

My girlfriend wants to know if theres going to be dragons.

— CajunDeathMetal (@CajunDeathMetal) June 3, 2018

Lots of dragons. #wotcstaff https://t.co/5pCkMIykIS

— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) June 3, 2018

I don’t get the appeal of Halaster and Undermountain, but I’m excited for Skullport and Waterdeep, and for the insane number of critters, traps, loot, and puzzles, that these books will surely contain!

— Mr. Dr. Bricing Wolf (@DoctorBadWolf) June 3, 2018

Halaster has a spelljamming helm now. Does that float your boat? #wotcstaff https://t.co/tiByd2owd2

— Christopher Perkins (@ChrisPerkinsDnD) June 3, 2018