First-time DM herePeople in my area have been hankering for a D&D group, so I figured I'd show my favourite game franchise some love by using the same premise as Avernum; the party is in a vast underground region that was colonized as the result of an empire banishing criminals and anyone else they didn't like there. Kinda like Australia if the prisoners were left to govern themselves.Anyway, what would be some good directions to take the players in this world? I do eventually want the players to find an exit to the underground which kicks off an interesting chain of events, but I figure the players would feel kinda misled if I told them the premise only for me to undermine the premise right away, so I'm wondering what people might want to do here that gives them a taste of the underground lifestyle.Like, hearing the premise of a poorly life in the underworld, what notions pique your interest?
Are you just basing it off 1?
>>97941343It'll take inspiration from 3 as well
Exploring. Put something good/interesting enough that they might actually choose to go down rather than up. Usually there's stuff deep down that justifies the exploration. The area was colonized, there must be a reason why.
>>97941355>no 2Understandable since the ayys kind of fit in poorly
>>97941884aw, but it was fun exploring the ancient ruined cavern-cities in 2
>>97941752It's literally just a prison colony (though most people these days are descendants of people sent there), there's no exchange of any kind with the surface.But, giving the underground some undiscovered secrets could be a good idea.
The main constants I remember from that series are the traps that explode like taliban IEDs, the random interactable objects that will make you horribly sick if you touch them, and a lot of attention to describing how things smell and/or irritate your nostrils. Also you best put in the Friendly Spider bros
>>97941925Oh fuck yesYou're right, I have to put in the friendly spiders
>>97941752Maybe hammer home the idea that the settled regions are unsafe outside the few walled settlements, and very prone to attacks. Have the group be refugees pushed into unmapped cavern systems by (Bandit? Nephilim? Monster?) raids occupying their village.
>>97941924>It's literally just a prison colonyWhy in that location? If it was made from scratch, it sounds like a big endeavor for no real reason. Honestly it doesn't sound very convincing. I'd advise you to at least pull a Gothic and have something that needed mining in the deeps, or any kind of resource really.>there's no exchange of any kind with the surfaceMaybe not now, but there could have been. In any way, there must have been something worth stopping and living for.
>>97941982I think you're misunderstanding. The surface Empire literally just chucks miscreants/rebels/criminals/political undesirables into a portal that dumps them into the bowels of the earth, and the portal is one-way only. They didn't choose to go there, they were forcibly exiled. (title card)
>>97941925And fungal everything including mushroom wine and beer
>>97941201I think you need some way to differentiate weapon materials if you care about that side of the setting, in the vidya it's kind of a big deal and IMO it really makes the world come into its own
>I do eventually want the players to find an exit to the underground which kicks off an interesting chain of eventsNot to mention sunburn.
>>97941201blatantly rip off escape from new york/LA and see if anyone notices.
>>97942508even 'day' light! canonically the main source of light is bioluminescent fungus on the ceiling
Break up the underground nation into smaller nations and statelets. It's boring having everything unified. Add the Zork Great Underground Empire to it, aeons or mere centuries after it fell. Use the Forgotten Realms Underdark sourcebooks from 1e, 3e and 5e. They're full of cool ideas (like faezress as a source of mutation/magic power/illumination/sickness).
>>97944157In Avernum I guess cities are almost city-states of sorts and are a pretty big deal
