The Mystery of the Underdark	New Rules for Underground Play	The Denizens of the Underdark	The Underground Campaign	Using This Information
-	-	Dungeoneer's Survival Guide	-	-

Most AD&D@ game players began their gaming careers with a
few hesitant steps into a dark dungeon somewhere in the myriad
of gaming universes. Although later adventures took them
through vast wildernesses and teeming cities, it is to dungeons
that adventurers often long to return.

It seems that beneath the earth lurk the most fearsome (and
thus, most exciting) foes, the most fabulous treasures, and the
most mysterious locales.

Yet, after a time, many DMs run out of exciting ideas for
dungeon adventures. The monsters all seem to lurch mechanically
along in the same manner, and one 10-foot-wide corridor
looks pretty much like the next one. Variety and challenge are
often missing in these campaigns.

This book will change all that. Herein you will uncover vast
realms and encounter underground cultures and dungeoneering
mechanisms unlike any you have ever experienced.

The Mystery of the Underdark

All AD&D game players have had experience with stone
dungeons carved by long-forgotten artisans. Many have ventured
through subterranean caverns carved by rushing water or
slow, grinding ice. Perhaps they have even sailed down an
underground river or journeyed through a sulfurous labyrinth
beneath an active volcano.

Within these pages, you will find descriptions of all of these
underground settings, and more. Vast cities and advanced cultures
await discovery; creatures live here whose eyes have never
seen the light of day. How were these underground realms
formed? Who controls them, and how? The answers to these
questions and more await you in the realms of sunless mystery.

New Rules for Underground Play

The AD&D game system already provides rules for a great
number of player actions, ranging from combat and movement to
barter and negotiation. Many situations arise, however, that have
not been addressed by the rules until now.

Can a character who is not a thief climb a rough stone wall?
What if a PC, thief or not, has to fight a creature and cling to the
wall at the same time? Or combat an opponent atop a swaying
footbridge? Can your heavily laden character possibly jump that
yawning chasm? All these unusual situations, and many more,
are covered by rules introduced in Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide.

How much use is a mule in a dungeon?
And what about that river -- is it possible to swim underwater to avoid the monstrous sentries you hear down the bank?
Those shiny stones over there -- are they worth anything? Read on for the answers!

Player character proficiencies were first introduced in the
AD&D  OA book.
The DSG reintroduces those proficiencies and adds many more that are
uniquely suited to adventuring in the dark regions of the underearth.
With the addition of these proficiencies, a whole new area
of adventure can be added to the AD&D game.

An assortment of new rules beckon-rules to make the underground
reaches as wide open for adventuring as the forest or
meadow that surrounds your characters’ home village.

The Denizens of the Underdark

The underearth--the region of caverns and realms beneath
even the deepest of dungeons--is teeming with life. Many cultures
have been there for as long as life has existed in the sunny
reaches above. Other races have been driven there by violent
conflict with kindred races of the surface.

Where do these races live? How do they interact with each
other and with outsiders? What do they have to offer a group of
adventurers from the surface? Creatures such as the drow,
duergar, kuo-toa, and myconids are revealed in their natural
environments-environments virtually unknown to even the most
experienced adventurers from the surface.

The histories of these fabled races are also treated briefly, as a
reference for the DM. Many adventures can be
drawn from these histories, providing a wealth of conflicts and
challenges for many gaming sessions to come. There are also
detailed random location ahd encounter generators, allowing for
exciting adventuring with little or no preparation time.

The Underground Campaign

The DM receives a great deal of attention in the latter half of
this volume. A section is devoted to the intricacies of the underground
campaign, and is full of suggestions for designing adventures
to challenge (and perhaps throw a scare into) your players.

Map making is addressed in some detail, with guidelines for
creating realistic 3D portrayals of many different
levels of dungeons, caverns, and castles. Advice on how to stock
your underworld with logical and appropriate creatures is also
given.

Maintaining a strong, highly motivating story element is an
important part of a DM’s job, and this is covered within these
pages. Suggested conflicts, always the first step in a powerful
story, are presented along with comments on generating your own.

The ultimate random element of any game is the players. How
do you handle players who always try to do the exact opposite of
what you want? What if your campaign has gotten out of hand
because of too much treasure or powerful magic in the hands of
the PCs before they’re ready to handle it? Must such a campaign
be discontinued, or are there ways to salvage it? These topics
are all covered in this tome.

Using This Info

The first section of this book includes information for player
and DM alike. This mainly consists of the expanded rules for
underground play, spells, character proficiencies, and new items
of equipment that come in handy during adventures underground.
 

The latter portion of the book contains information tailored to
the DM’s needs. Here are listed the cultures, creatures, and treasures
of the underground, together with the pertinent notes on
how to play them. Players should avoid this Forbidden Territory,
or face the wrath of the DM.