Descension

I got out on 1d4chan last week and expanded the Descent into the Depths of the Earth entry.

The "D" series was seminal to the extent that pretty much every roleplayer is aware of it. Our family got a used copy of the D1-2 compilation in 1983-4; my little brother was technically its owner, but he didn't DM so I ended up with it. I would later run him and the other brother through a homebrew adventure which started on D1's main "two hex" map but minus the drow or illithids.

Because this ground is so well trod, I reckon about a full hundred sites have been posted - and mostly lost! - since the 1990s. And they are still at it! Here's an advice-thread.

For one standout in Lolth's side of the 'Web (heh) I found a better Players Map. Amazing it took until 2017 for someone to do this. Although I should retain the icons from the D-series original; I never liked that the GDQ bundle took them away. Also: for spies, icons are proof against anyone who knows Drow language or for that matter the Comprehend spell. Exalted-Deeds takes the... unique take, that Underdark spies there interfacing with the surface are using for their sooper sekrit map the main surface language - English being the standin for Greyhawkian Koine or maybe Keo - but with a cypher alphabet. So: icons! San'te Cuthberte, ora pro nobis . . .

For the DM's side, here is the full DM's Map, with recommendations on what to put in each one-hex, two-hex, six-hex. To the extent there exists a D-series / Drow-Vault Community, Dragonsfoot is it, and Maldin's Greyhawk is canon.

Over the next few days I hope to dissent from this community. Over the past year I've decided that my goal isn't to fill in the original design, if I can improve upon it first. I did rather a lot of this for Taladas and (especially) those other great elvish shadowlands, last May. I reckon the D series gots it comin'.

I'll be concentrating on - rather, around - D1 and D2. D3 is a whole separate issue: there's only one way in, and - from the Players Map run - two ways to get there. The caverns are no longer the sandbox, at D3; the Vault is the sandbox. I propose to treat these as if I was in Wisconsin in 1979: using the monsters available to the D1-3 encounters, with that map's ecosystem. Although I won't entirely ignore GDQ.