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Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/strong> Learn more about Dungeon of the Mad Mage here<\/a> The super dungeon has arrived! Continuing our Waterdeep exploration, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> is our next installment, designed to take our PC\u2019s from level 5 to 20. Where Waterdeep: Dragon Heist<\/em> had our adventurers working through political intrigue above ground, Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> has our PC\u2019s exploring through 23 levels of Undermountain, an ancient dungeon found under Mount Waterdeep. Undermountain itself started as a mine and dwelling of dwarves that formed an alliance with elves. In the centuries after the dwarves were driven out, it became the home of drow, duergar, powerful wizards, criminal groups, and convicted felons. Enough denizens to keep our PC\u2019s busy!<\/p>\n The Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> book itself is rather large to fit details about all 23 levels as it weighs in at over 300 pages, well above Wizard\u2019s of the Coat\u2019s recent Dungeons and Dragons supplements. 90% of the book is the dungeon itself, with only a few pages of a bestiary and no other appendices for us DM\u2019s to use. Also, no box text! No big descriptions to read to our players to help set the mood; no big speeches ready for the NPCs they may encounter. The information is presented in the overall presentation, just not called out, making it easier to find. I\u2019m personally on the fence with this, as I\u2019ve been able to move away from using box text myself, relying on my own experience to drive my word choices. However, I know many that use the box text religiously, and are probably really missing this option.<\/p>\n Many of the dungeon levels in Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> feature multiple factions, and there\u2019s a little bit of a connection between the levels. In addition, clearing the dungeon will take some time, and there are discussions presented of the ways in which the levels may change after\/if they are \u2018cleared\u2019 by the PCs. This may require the PCs to go up and down between levels, but a series of level-locked gates will allow some skipping around.<\/p>\n While each level is mostly freestanding, there are some thematic components between the levels. Everything here is controlled by Halaster Blackcloak, the mighty mage who has been living in Undermountain since before Waterdeep was a city. The PCs will see his spies, see statues of him, see simulacra of him, see construct versions of him, etc., etc. He also put many of the more noteworthy occupants of the dungeon in the dungeon, although for most of them this backstory will be invisible to the players. Anytime there\u2019s some random out-of-place thing that may or may not make much sense, it is chalked up to Halaster being crazy.<\/p>\n Ultimately, I can\u2019t see relying on Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> as the only book for a \u201ccampaign\u201d involving the groups I play with. Yes, there are some great standalone dungeon ideas that I want to incorporate. However, I see the groups I play with wanting more plot and cohesion, which just isn\u2019t present in this book. With that being said, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage<\/em> is still a great resource for DM\u2019s who are in need of throwing together a dungeon crawl for their PC\u2019s on the fly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage Dungeon of the Mad Mage is an epic fantasy adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, written by … and published […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1935,169],"tags":[55,336,3521,56],"class_list":["post-50164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-reviews","tag-dungeons-dragons","tag-epic-fantasy","tag-headline","tag-wizards-of-the-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDungeon of the Mad Mage is an epic fantasy adventure for Dungeons & Dragons, written by … and published by Wizards of the Coast.
\nBy Dave Pierson<\/em>
\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/roleplayerschronicle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/PsqeYFr25s.png\")
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\nPurchase Dungeon of the Mad Mage here<\/a>
\nFind other Dungeons & Dragons posts here<\/a><\/p>\n