D&D: Adventures in the Sewers

[GlowingFauxPas]

A) I'm a novice DM, do you guys have any recommendations as to how much to gross out my players if I am sending them into the sewer systems below Sharn? When does it become too much to be enjoyable? Should I aim to have them make disgusted faces, or not?

B) Do you have any particular suggestions for sewer music?

[Caliphbubba]

A) I'm a novice DM, do you guys have any recommendations as to how much to gross out my players if I am sending them into the sewer systems below Sharn? When does it become too much to be enjoyable? Should I aim to have them make disgusted faces, or not?

B) Do you have any particular suggestions for sewer music?

It entirely depends on a couple of things:

your players and what they would enjoy. Do you think that describing every little bit of detrius and waste is going to enhance their game experiance? Are they apt to enjoy that level immersion?

What kind of tone do YOU want to have for your game? One or two graphic descriptions can be great for setting tone, but after awhile they just slow things down. In my circles its an old DM trick to drag things out because they don't have the entire nights game planned out enough so it can be over done.

good luck

[Trellan]

I can't help much from the music side of things, but in terms of grossing out your players, I have a bit of advice. If you do decide to gross them out in some way, be sure it's something they see rather than something humiliating that happens to them.

I only mention this because it seems like it would be an easy trap to fall into while trying to get a reaction from someone in a sewer. It might feel like a good idea to gross someone out by covering them in filth or some such, but I can assure you the player has a good chance of reacting poorly since their beloved heroic avatar is more or less being disgraced.

Instead, I would suggest a few tidbits here and there (since it is also important to remember not to overdo it). Maybe mention how disgusting some remains they find are, or a monster they are fighting is covered in infected wounds (and all the oozing, gross adjectives which accompany that) due to constant exposure to sewage. This also allows you to simply reel it back in if people are looking a little bit too disgusted.

tl;dr version: less is more and don't humiliate the characters.