How about something a bit darker, a bit more risque, a campaign more open ended with a distinct Underdark flair? With drow, duergar, derro, and dangerous denizens of the dark... the Underdark.

Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons 5E, or even free form would be acceptable.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:57, Sun 23 Sept 2018.

I would be interested in joining in on this game if it gets going.

Intriguing...

I’d be interested in playing

Be a bit more interested if it was 3.5 Ed myself.

I agree with Knight_Vassal, but I can play in Pathfinder.

*female drow archmage teleports in*
"Why Hello there, poor unfortunate souls. Maybe I could interest you in one of my ideas? It'll only cost you your souls, but what were you doing with them anyway?"
*summons hordes of fiends and steals everyone's souls anyway*

Ok but seriously, you want some open-ended sandbox underdark? Different races bound together into one unit? Go anywhere (or almost anywhere) when you want to? Go to different places and meet interesting and weird peoples and cities? And importantly, not get stuck in tunnel mazes or having a patron to hand out quests?

May I suggest... taking a ship upon the still waters of the Sightless Sea (pathfinder) or Sunless Seas (D&D) as privateers/traders.

All links should be SFW by the way, a video game trailer and some art.

Sunless Sea trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhIk2PqPU3o
I have not played this game but I've heard about it. The concept could work well here, taking a diverse crew (a pirate/trade ship is the type of place you can find characters of all types and races) of underdark peoples on a boat ride into the madness of the underdark seas and drow trade interests.

Take a drow ship of the sunless seas, say the one from warhammer dark elves:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals...a933d7f1a8f20910.jpg

Use some shadow magic to transfer the ship from the Underdark sunless seas to another sunless sea, or to the Sightless Sea (which is more ocean sized), or even to the surface at night to raid coastal settlements or trade with pirate towns. Dark fey lurk in forests of fungi wanting your memories, deep ones swim in the lightless depths wanting your flesh, eldritch apparatus of aboleth and mind flayer design stand on lone islands isolated from the eyes of the surface, yet menacing the surface with threats of total mental domination and the extinguishing of sun and stars, fiendish outcasts roam and make their own little fiefdoms, and restless shades of the dead dwell here, lost on the way to the River Styx.

The ship's captain could be a player, or if an NPC at least friends with all the PCs from her time before being a ship's captain. The drow pirate captain has the best hat of the whole group, that is why she is captain:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals...abcd9bc65a790f73.jpg


I would prefer pathfinder, but I'm open to 3.5 if someone can tell me why (EDIT: not getting an argument, just want to hear the reasons). I generally prefer pathfinder because no dead levels, more open and expansive SRD. Plus I got many of the books with ready to use stats. But I'm more interested in the fun stories and awesome moments one can do than optimizing builds. What level would be best? I don't think I have the time to GM this, but I would be interested in playing this and...
*looks around*
You guys are going to ask/press gang me to GM this, aren't you? Why do I keep getting ideas on freakin' Mondays rather than Fridays?
This message was last edited by the user at 20:46, Mon 24 Sept 2018.

If it's PF, I am interested for sure.

In reply to Gem (msg # 7):

If not GM, what about co-GM?

Drow pirates sounds considerably more interesting than I initially pitched, which can readily include everything I mentioned before.

I didn't mean to restrict it to drow only, just the captain. It'll be up to the PCs what race they are, and whether they're in league with a kingdom of the drow (think witch king malekith) or drow imperium (Yvonnel the Eternal and her Empire of the Mithral Roads).

You mentioned sandbox for me that sounds like the PC party is the captain of the boat and they can go/do whatever they want. Obviously we'll focus more on adventuring than trading, but dungeon delving ruins of ancient, aberrant civilizations, dao palaces, fiend strongholds, and even stranger beings and unearthing their artifacts to sell to the highest bidder sounds like it's the way to go. The illithids, drow and others don't mind so long as you keep your word. And that means the group doesn't have to be one race, they're just mercenaries pooling resources together. So a group like a derro alchemist, a duergar spelunker, a drow gunslinger, a deep gnome wizard, and a munavri (basically a human that was born underground through many generations) priest could all get together and go treasure hunting.

Besides, duergar beards are so fluffy that they are flotation devices and give a bonus to swim checks. :P

I dig it.

My preference for 3.5 is based in that I don't have as much experience with Pathfinder and that I don't know a thing about the Golarion setting.

Ah, well, pathfinder is basically like 3.5, with a few edits here and there (skills being combined into one, I think more feats, and non dead-levels). The SRD has basically everything.

Though I do use 3.5 stats since it has illithid and beholder stats while PF does not, but PF is compatible so 3.5 stats can more or less work here as well.

And yeah I'll probably run it as Shadow Sailors of the Sunless Seas.

Run it as a sandbox where you can go where you want, mainly as treasure hunters. I must warn you though I am an EVIL GM, and I won't give free skill points for swim or sailor checks you'll be doing while the ship is out at sea, though the main focus will be ruin dungeon delving on islands of the sightless sea. I'll see about taking inspiration from the game Sunless Sea but make it underdark themed and fantasy rather than victorian technology, but the lovecraft elements will of course be there. What's the underdark without tentacles?

But I won't play captain, I need a PC to volunteer for that, and a 2nd in command to take over in case the first captain is unresponsive or out of action. The ship will be guarded by an NPC though when you go out and adventure on the lightless islands of sunless seas.

Pathfinder is an improvement over 3.5. The only thing you won't have is Faerun specific Feats, Prestige Classes, ect. but otherwise you'll find the similar things that may have simply been renamed. It still suffers from the issues inherent in 3.0/3.5 but there's a reason it's so popular - the closest game to giving D&D a run for it's money (though D&D still commands dominance due to brand recognition). Even IP specific monsters can still be found in Pathfinder, just renamed accordingly. On a quick search, beholders are "Eye Kings" so finding updated rules for your favorite trademarked monsters isn't too hard.

Bit the bullet, made the game. Need to clean up setting information before releasing it though, might take a couple of weeks.

link to another game

I'll ask those who join to help a bit here and there, mainly in making sure the group is motivated to go treasure hunting and help the captain move things along. You don't have to play drow if you don't want to, this ship is multi-cultural and multi-racial.

Right now we have:
Sengoku as male drow swashbuckling captain
Drow pirate hat wench as first mate (my NPC)
Drow priestess of death goddess as second mate
Feel free to come up with your own ideas as to who and why you're joining up with a treasure hunting ship.