First time DMing

[TheMeMan]

Here's the gist:

I'm going to be running sometime in foreseeable future a campaign for the first time, and need a bit of advice. I have most of the rules down pat, and don't really need help on that end. What I need, however, is a bit of advice on how to make things interesting.

The basics:

It's going to be an Underdark campaign. I'm doing this for two major reasons: First, it's relatively easy to make contained maps. Second, our groups only visits to the underdark in past campaigns was short visits that amounted to nothing special. Third, it provides plenty of nasty surprises that the group will need to get around.

The major problem I've been trying to figure out, however, is how to make spelunking interesting. To give a bit of background:

1) The story begins in a mining town.
2) The party is led to the Middledark through a massive pit (3 miles deep, and yes I have mapped it out to scale with 5 foot squares) that they must descend.
3) There are many offshoot caverns within this pit that I have mapped out so far if the party so chooses to go through them for various reasons. However, if they want to they can go straight down.

This is the first major challenge they will need to get through. I've worked it out, and plan on making it somewhere between 2-4 sessions just to get to the bottom, with various rewards for getting there.

The problem I am having, however, is making it an interesting descent. The caverns I have that split from it have fights and the like, and there will be some encounters in the pit itself, but actually climbing down 3 miles worth of cave can easily be boring. Does anyone have any advice on how to make the various skill checks and descent interesting? Keep in mind, there is no fast traveling from one end to the other (Although I might make movement a bit faster in between battles than the base speed).

Any help in the matter will be helpful.

Edit:

I'd also like to point out that Wizard an the like's levitation shenanigans will not exactly be tolerated. Anti-Magic zones will be placed within the pit (I have that mapped out, it's not going to simply be DM fiat). There will be spiders and webs to stop flying type characters, once again in set locations. I'm going to warn the players that there will be no easy way down, with hints to the like.

[Reltzik]

The key to making the descent interesting is to make the players care what's on the road down, and not just the destination. Give them interesting locations (such as a place of natural beauty, or a buried and lost temple to goodly forces) and force them to defend them against despoilers, or compelling villains that are more than just "here's the evil thing the BBEG, and here's the encounter where you get to smack him down for it." Or give them a few good mystery sidequests that have short, decent stories and yield up memorable loot that they'll be using several levels from now. Perhaps put a few NPCs or even a town of deep gnomes there, permanently; make them a base of operations and people they can care about. The players should remain aware of the overarching goal, but should frequently take their eyes off it to look at what's at their feet.

In a strategic sense, any path they can walk DOWN is a path that monsters from below can walk UP. That means the path they blaze today might be an invasion route tomorrow. Give them hints (supply caches, small runes chiseled in Undercommon) that this is already being planned. That makes the path more than a way between points A and B; it becomes a liability and future battleground.

In a more monomyth sense, the descent should be a threshhold, with many trials and barriers across their paths. Ideally, overcoming these barriers should require more than the application of skill checks or class abilities; the characters should be fundamentally changed by them, made more suitable to the trials ahead and less suitable to the world they've left. They're leaving civilization; force them to leave behind civilized ways. Give them supply issues and force them to eat the same disgusting mold-or-whatever that supports the denizens of the underdark. Pit them against a encounter that forces them to choose, as a tactic, to find a way to fight without light sources. Have them run into an NPC from above that tried to adapt to the new reality of the Underdark... and couldn't.

[OracleofSilence]

Similar to what Reltzik said, there is a reason that the Underdark is inhabited almost exclusively by evil races, and it is only partially because of the whole darkness metaphor.

The Characters should need to make genuinely gut wrenching decisions. Perhaps, on the way down, their food supplies are lost, and they are forced to kill good animals such as blink dogs or even unicorns to survive, or less significantly, merely steal supplies from fellow travelers in a similar plight. As they go further and further into the Underdark, the should become more and more callous and willing to do genuine evil so they can survive. Eventually, they may even be fully inoculated against such acts, and then, and only then, are they forced, to genuinely see what they have become. Perhaps an encounter with Drow or Duergar depending on their previous reactions, or, if they "adapt" particularly well, they could be forced to encounter previous friends of theirs going into the 'dark to search for their lost comrades.

The Underdark should feel like the enemy, and a particularly beguiling one at that. Players should be slowly, slowly slipped into the role of antiheroes at best, and real villains at worst, and then given a shot at redemption, but with the underdark constantly trying to pull them back into their old ways.

As for villains, I particularly enjoy distorting fantasy stereotypes to throw players off. Have them meet (for example) a heroic drow, and his compatriots that have fled their homeland. However, these supposed heroes may be shocked by the characters behavior and decide to hunt them down to bring to justice for their crimes. Alternatively, give them unspeakable allies. Abolethic Savants may decide that the party will be useful for destroying a near by Mindflayer nest and decide to hire the party to work for them, and in return for faithful service supply safe houses, information and long forgotten spell lore.

[TheMeMan]

That sounds great actually. So far, other than the starting town, the mines leading to the pit, a deep gnome settlement at the bottom(With the entrance to which being effectively invisible due to some clever perspective tricks and illusion magics, as well as other forms of magic), several maze-like labrynths branching off the pit, chambers, etc.

For encounters, I have as followed planned out:

A Kuo-Toa Leviathian that has been long forgotten and trapped within a small deep pool of water in an offshoot patterns. Eats whatever washes in or drops in, but is mostly in a sort of hibernating state. Going into the water will alert it of your presence, and begins an encounter with it.

A Giant-Cockroach nest with the mineral warrior template added to it. There will be giant maggots throughout the various chambers, and will attempt to burrow to the main chamber if attacked and not killed (Creating at the end about a 20 maggot, 5-9 giant cockroach fight, depending on level).

A chamber with a couple dozen statues with one being a Lith that guards the treasure within. The Lith will be attempting to move through the chamber, freezing it's position among the statues to confuse the players.

A true labrynth filled with some decent loot and lots of monsters and the like.

A deep and remote chamber with two Portal Drakes guarding a hoard(Which is a sidequest given by the Gnomes). I'm not sure on the exact details of this one.

Further, there will be missions and the like given in the few small settlements that exist in said pit.

I have also made a recurring character out of the Psionic Goblin race "Blue" in the Psionics handbook. He's mostly a trader/collector and tolerates the existence of the races from above ground for the most part. He will be a way to unload some of the uneeded items. I'm trying to work in a story arc involving him. Possibly involving a small and recent Goblin settlement about 1/4 of the way down that I have mapped.

The basic concept I have going is that the "Pit" is a relatively recent discovery. Originally it lead into a cavern that was isolated from any other tunnels, so nothing could escape out into the settlement above. It is almost completely unmapped, save for a very treacherous and dangerous route straight to the bottom. The Gnomish settlement at the bottom is in limited contact with the town topside, mostly through Gnomes go up or down. Only a handful of people (The living members from the original expedition to the bottom) have ever been to the village at the bottom. The Gnomes come and go on a relatively rare basis, and the townsfolk don't know how they actually get up or down the tunnel. The Gnomes, being extremely clever folk, creating a "portal" of sorts between their village and the cavern at the top. The door is exceedingly well hidden, and if found can only be traversed by those who know the gnomish words to actually open the door itself. It's effectively their little secret, and are extremely reluctant to tell anyone from either the Underdark or the top races. Only a single person knows anything about it, and all they know is that it exists, not where to find out or how to open it.

Also I have a LE Kobold trader in the town above. He's there because of some rather special circumstances(Involving his brood being destroyed completely through events from a former campaign), and bought his way into the town. He's left mostly to himself, and is tolerated being there for the time being. He's a collector of magical goods and the like.

As for the food and supplies, they will be extremely limited. They may run into someone willing to trade, but it'll only be a few nicknacks that the individual can use.

My main problem right now is that the group's first and often only course of action is "Kill it!". I'm trying to add a bit of diversity to the game, and some tough choices. I like the idea that they may be forced into doing something that are unpalatable in the Underdark, and choosing the lesser of two evils(Or three, or four).

The idea is that it is going to be dangerous. Failure is not an option, else you are dead. Solid preparation will be a must.

[Reltzik]

On how to get people of the "kill it!" persuassion to be less killhappy:

First, try for a capture mission. "This person has information that we MUST know. Take him alive and bring him back for questioning."

Next adventure, let them do the interrogation but tell them you'll have to. "One of the guards knows the pass code for the day. If you can get it out of him, you should be able to bypass the defenders at the gate."

Have these prisoners spill their guts, dropping valuable clues like the composition of enemy forces, secret rooms with treasure, etc. After a few of those, the players should start taking prisoners on their own initiative simply to know in advance what the layout of the next room should be like. Reward the first time they do this on their own, and then let them get something useful, say, one time out of four.

Then give them advance warning via questgiver that so-and-so villain won't be cooperative as a prisoner and won't break under torture, but if you talk to him BEFORE attacking you might get the information out of him. Throw a few of these in and soon the PCs will be talking before attacking, on their own initiative.

Sure, you can go the "standing behind a Wall of Force and impervious to attack so let's just talk" schtick or the "An encounter so obviously nasty that the PCs know it's a wipe so will talk their way out of it," but that's giving the players too little and too much credit, respectively.


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You've clearly worked out the natures of the challenges from the "what do they fight" and "what rewards might they get" angle. I suggest going over them again, this time with the questions "what tough decisions will I force them to make" and "what will the emotional impact be."