U is for Underdark: Digging for Gems in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guid

Grognardia says
"The DSG is also notable for having first introduced the term "Underdark" to D&D, which has proven remarkably resilient, surviving both as an appellation and as a concept virtually unchanged through multiple editions of the game, a feat even the Outer Planes have not managed."


This is remarkable as D1-3 were released prior to 1986. Now I don't own a PDF version of D1-3 to check, but I'll take James M's word for it.

The Underdark. Of all that is good and bad in D&D. Good - mysterious and evil drow, dark caverns, and lightless civilisations. Bad - cliche city!


I still remember my first Forgotten Reams book, that introduced me to Drizzt. Sadly, it's Drizzt I think of first before anything else when I hear the term Underdark. He's the only character I can name from R A Salvatore's series. Wasn't there a human barbarian and a girl raised by a dwarf and a halfling?


There they are...

This was my Australian / UK cover

Ah, by the wonders of wikipedia and the first google image to appear, the characters were:


Drizzt Do'Urden

Wulfgar

Regis the halfling (what no link, how unimportant)

I don't even know who you are, poor Regis the halfling

Bruenor the dwarf

and his adopted daughter Catti-brie

So what does the DSG say about the Underdark. Backpage...

"impenetrable darkness of the underearth"... no that's not it, "this book opens up grand new vistas in the realms of the underdark" - hey where's my capital U!

Ah, there you are... Underdark.

But in the the DSG it is Mike Breault who first gives it the name, May 12, 1986.

And thus with the DSG, the Underdark was codified... ummmmm

Gems we should take

1. Underdark, as first termed in the DSG

On a sad collectible male obsessive note, I finally finished today my physical acquisition of all the Dragonlance Modules with the purchase of D11 from eBay UK.

It was attempting to limit my obsessive nature that I started collecting the Dragonlance modules, just them, that's all, just to read, things I could never afford as a child, ... then I went for all the BECMI modules (some electronic, when once you could legally purchase them; many physical, except Immortals, not yet...) then I thought, what about the great AD&D A1-4, T1-4, G1-3, D1-3, Q1 and then I went what the F***, let's buy anything and everything, but slowly, if I can! If the wife lets me. Luckily I have Fun Fund. £30 / month I can spend on crap, without upsetting the missus. Over time, that's a lot of crap!