Guide to out of the abyss [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

mgshamster

2016-09-07, 02:48 PM

I really don't understand what you mean by "OotA pretends to be a sandbox, but it really isn't" and "if the PCs take some paths, quests become obsolete or meaningless."

I've been running this adventure for some time now; my PCs are almost to chapter 11. I have not seen or experienced any aspect of those statements that's true.

As far as the sandbox statement, the PCs are free to pick their own path, which is kind of the definition of a sandbox. They're only limited by the tunnels, as compared to overland travel where they can go in any direction. You yourself give a recommended path, which by itself lends credence to the idea that it's a sandbox - if it wasn't, you wouldn't have to recommend a path for the DM to force upon the players!

As far as going out of order, so far the only quest I've seen capable of going obsolete are the two miniquests in Blingdenstone that have the PCs travel to Gracklstugh and Neverlight Grove, and that's only if two things are true: 1) they've already been there (making it a "backtrack" mission, also bringing in aspects of Chapter 10 earlier than expected), and 2) if the GM has set a time table to the Fetid Wedding and the PCs don't have the time to get back to those cities.

Nothing else in the first six chapters will make anything else go obsolete or become meaningless.

Funnily enough, the path you recommend makes one of those conditions true! If they chose Blingdenstone first, they'd have an in-story reason to travel to both Neverlight Grove and Gracklstugh beyond the starting NPCs (assuming they survive).

I've seen this claim in another review, and there they gave the example of missing the rise of Demogorgon - that will not be an issue at all. There's a general feeling of "the demon lords are coming" and the PCs have no idea which one is the big boss and which one isn't. Even though my players have encounter two different aspects of Demogorgon (in Slubludop and Gracklstugh), they firmly believe that Zuggtmoy is the big bad for this adventure.

I've read every campaign log I can find and have talked to many other GM's who run this game, and not one of them has run the first half of the campaign like any other. All of them (including me!) have had no issues with the campaign by changing the order or taking away the sandbox aspect of the game.

In my game, the players went in this order:

1) Velkynvelve
2) Homebrewed side quest introducing Yeenaghu
3) Oozing Temple*
4) Gracklstugh (Here they sent some of the NPCs home)
5) Neverlight Grove
6) Silken Path
7) Slubludop
8) Hook Horror Hunt
9) Lost Temple of Khaem
10) Blingdenstone

They chose not to go to the surface, instead sending some of the NPCs home while they went to seek out "the Great Library of the Underdark."

11) Mantol-Derith
12) Revisit Oozing Temple* (now an underwater temple)
13) Gravenhallow

After Gravenhallow, they may try to go to the surface, which will bring them back to Chapters 7 and 8.

*One of my player's backstory involved guarding a temple near the underdark (it's how he got captured). I set up the Oozing Temple to be connected to the temple he was guarding. He also never knew why he had to guard it, only that it was his family's responsibility. In Blingdenstone, he discovered that his old temple was the entrance to Gravenhallow, where they may find information on how to stop the demon lords.