Out of The Abyss (Dungeons & Dragons)

This is another great product from the 5th Edition line. The book is suited for DMs, so my review will focus on their experience.There is a ton of material to chew on here, from the geography of the Underdark region to a host of well-written NPCs to a roster of the Demon Princes. The artwork is gorgeous throughout, but the information is sprinkled throughout so you'll need to sit down and reorganize a lot of the pertinent information for yourself.Likewise, the adventures are solid but generally require a good degree more prep work than, say, Princes of the Apocalypse. There are two dilemmas that DMs must address if you plan on running the campaign straight through. The first is that while they give you a nice introductory set-up (an opening prison scenario for new characters), you have to juggle a significant cast of characters to get things off the ground. A good tactic is to find the few NPCs that the party really engages with and find a way to kill off the rest. The second problem is that the Underdark is an amazingly deadly place. In previous editions it was considered a mid-tier campaign setting, so those 1st-level characters are in for a rough ride. If you have the type of players who want to fight to the death (I always seem to end up with at least one), you'll end up with a very short adventure. Emphasizing survival up front gets the party out the gate and allows the book to really work its magic.The demons themselves are varied, fun, detailed, and a great threat to any party. They certainly have a visceral punch that the villains of Princes of the Apocalypse lacked, and their impact seems more meaningful throughout the course of the adventure than the Rise of Tiamat series (where players can often feel led by the nose). One downside is that the campaign progression is much more linear than Princes of the Apocalypse, but the Underdark also represents an enormous playground for the party to get lost in. While you could run Princes of the Apocalypse as a GTA-style "do whatever you want" sandbox, Out of the Abyss will require a lot more deliberate planning to make sure that the party still has a reasonable shot of concluding the campaign. On the plus side it isn't nearly as linear as the Rise of Tiamat, and since the stakes are marginally lower you can allow them to fail at certain junctures without breaking your campaign world.No matter what you're looking to add to your campaign, this will give you something to keep your players on their toes.

I ran the first half of the adventure for my players; I used it as a bridge to get the PCs from 3d to 5th levels, between Lost Mines of Phandelver and Storm King's Thunder, which we're doing next.My verdict: Out of the Abyss is incredibly imaginative and exciting. Examples (spoiler alert): the drow outpost of Velkynvelve is made up of mostly hollowed out stalactites connected by walkways made of spider webs, all suspended over an enormous cavern, run by an arrogant drow priestess and her disgruntled (and possibly helpful) ex-boyfriend. Cool! The players have to escape from this outpost, with a collection of charming NPCs (my favorite: Shuushar the Awakened, a pacifist kuo-toa whose radiant enlightenment drives everyone crazy). My PCs managed to flee without their weapons, then had to fight minotaur skeletons using crude clubs made out of bones they picked up along the way. They then traveled to the kuo-toa city of Sloobludop (traveling there on the "Darklake" via a boat made from a giant mushroom cap) and saw it destroyed by Demogorgon, summoned by an insane kuo-toa ritual. From there they went to Gracklestugh, the City of the Gray Dwarves, where no one can be trusted, and they chased after a mad little gnome down tiny little tunnels by eating mushrooms that make you grow smaller. They were also befriended by a colony of wererats and found a red dragon egg at the request of an old fat cranky dragon working for the dwarves as a forge-lighter. NICE!!!!Is it too complicated, with a lot of prep work and modifications required? Is the 2d half a bit too much? Are there some details you have to blow off or fudge as the DM (eg drow pursuit level, exhaustion level, insanity)? Yes yes and yes. But the people who wrote this are just so incredibly imaginative. THAT is why I buy published adventures instead of doing my own. It's incredible stuff. I can't compare it to Princes of the Apocalypse, because I haven't read that one, but it seems somewhat more imaginative and more literate than Storm King's Thunder (which requires even bigger modifications by the DM in my view), and the milieu is different enough from traditional D&D adventures that it makes returning to something more traditional like STK seem fresher. Curse of Strahd I have skimmed and that one also seems excellent (easier to run and maybe even more immersive, but less varied). Anyway, I loved Out of the Abyss!UPDATE Nov. 2020: I have read or run almost every 5e adventure published by WOTC thru Icewind Dale. My players and I still believe Abyss to be the best, ahead of #2 Curse of Strahd and #3 Waterdeep Dragonheist. The 2d half of Abyss is more uneven than the first half, but it has some incredible chapters. For example, the players must sneak into the drow capital of Menzoberranzan, which is a fantastically dark and detailed place. Another example is a little vignette about a troop of malfunctioning modrons (little wordless robot guys) wandering desolately in the Underdark. And the final encounter with Demogorgon is an appropriate climax.