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• Drizzt Do`Urdens Guide to the Underdark
Retail Price: $20.95
Amazon Price: $14.67
Description
The sinister Underdark of the Northern Faerun is finally revealed. Read what the famous Drizzt Do`Urden has gathered in his report to Luruar. Cities of drow, beholders, illithids, cloakers, duergar and other subterranean races are detailed. Also included is a map of the Underdark.
Release date : 11/01/1999
Reviews: 1
Total Rating:   (8 of 10 stars)
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Reviewed by MasterAO on 11/09/1999
Rating:  (8 of 10 stars)
Reviewed by Bobby Nichols, catdragon@mindspring.com
The physical: 128 page perfect bound book. The map is large and is attached to the cover though it can be folded out to look at it. I haven't removed the map yet because I don't want to -- though at times when I was reading the book I really, really wanted to.
What's inside: a small section on surviving in the Underdark (get the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide for this (unfortunately it is OOP and a 1st edition product), don't rely on DGttU), a nice section on the major civilizations of the Underdark, and 13 city descriptions.
The cities were described in one of two ways. Either there was a long description or a short description.
The long description consisting of an abstract, a history, the ways in and out, the layout and architecture, the population, the rulers (both obvious and inobvious), the defenders, its defenses, the production and trade, special and unique sites, an places of danger. Additionally, it describes the area around the city, places of interest, danger, and history.
The shorter descriptions are in the format of abstract, who rules, who really rules, population, major products, armed forces, notable mages and sages, notable clergy and churches, notable guilds, equipment shops, adventurer's quarters, important characters, surface connections, and local lore. Additionally, like the larger format, the shorter format also detailed interesting places of note around the city.
A side note: This was the thing I liked least about the book, the two different formats. I wished they had kept the short format for all the places. Sure it wouldn't had been as much detail, but more could have been fit into the book. As it was only 13 cities left me wanting more.....
Okay, that is the facts. Now my opinion....
What a great book! if you have adventurers that like to delve deep, or you are going to be throwing your PCs into the Underdark, this book is a must! Additionally, reading about the societies of the duergar, the cloakers, the mind flayers, and everyone else was fascinating! It was a great read!
Additionally, for those of you that disliked Menzoberranzan, or thought that city was vanilla, check out Chad Nasad! Wow! A city built on spider webs calcified by the Demon Queen of Spiders herself!
The realms lore, like any of Eric's (and Steven's) products was immense. I got the feeling that the Underdark was its own Realm, with its own history and events. There is enough here that you could make your own full-fledged campaign. Additionally, Eric described the Underdark as three realms: the Upper Reaches, the Middle Reaches, and the Lower Reaches. His description broke up the immensity of the Underdark into pieces that my mind could wrap around. This was the most daunting thing that I had with the Underdark, and having it resolved for me was worth the price of the book.
The realms lore is incredible. For instance, what happened to the orc/tiefling crossbreeds that escaped Hellgate Keep? Or where did the Unseen of Waterdeep come from? How do the races of the Underdark react to the shielding spells of the shoon around Anauroch? What are the phaerimm doing about it? While the book does not explicitly answer all these question, it sure does hint a lot. And I mean *a lot*. |
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