Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

If you want dungeon delving, Dungeon of the Mad Mage delivers in spades. This is classic megadungeon gameplay—enter a room, fight monsters, move to the next room, fight more monsters. Occasionally, you’ll run into a puzzle or a fetch quest, but combat is the main focus. Players who enjoy tactical fights and dungeon crawling will get the most out of this adventure. Story-driven players, however, may find it lacking. The plot is thin and spread across a massive dungeon, meaning even a single side quest could take dozens of sessions to resolve. If you’re here for the narrative, you might be disappointed. The best way to approach this adventure, in my opinion, is through exploration. Instead of trying to “finish” the dungeon, embrace the journey—engage with the interesting quest hooks that resonate with your group as you find them. That said, I’m not sure how long this adventure can stay fresh. It is huge—so much so that fully exploring it could take years of weekly sessions. While that’s a lot of content, the scenery and gameplay loop may start to feel repetitive over time.

Despite hearing of many players who think Dungeon of the Mad Mage is an endless dungeon crawl, it actually works pretty well when you run it as a dungeon 'community' and I think it comes with everything one needs to make this happen. I generally run it as the players being sent on a diplomatic envoy from Waterdeep to explore and intervene in the dungeon's ecology and add lots of intrigue/dungeon politics along the way.

I have tired to run this adventure a few times but I have found that most of my players do not like the purely dungeon diving style and we do not make it past the first few floors before players leave or we start a different adventure. I think there is a lot of fun things in this adventure but I just have never had a group stick with it.

Undermountain is a beast of a dungeon! As written the dungeon leaves a bit to be desired (not as fleshed out as some other wizards materials). That being said, most DMs I know use companion material to really tie the levels together/fills them out and with that addition it becomes a memorable excursion into the depths of madness. Expect hard encounters, dark theames, crazy npcs, all punctuated with laughs at the sillyness of it all.

Imagine you’re playing Dungeons & Dragons, and someone hands you 23+ levels of dungeon-crawling madness, designed by a wizard who’s been off his rocker for centuries—congratulations, you’ve entered Undermountain, Halaster Blackcloak’s personal funhouse of death. This adventure is basically “what if a mega-dungeon had a mega-dungeon?” It’s HUGE!!!!! Filled with monsters that range from “mildly annoying” to “TPK in two rounds,” and it assumes your party really loves spelunking, fighting, and solving weird puzzles while Halaster occasionally pops in to roast you like a fantasy Twitch streamer. Pros: ✔ Tons of variety in themes and enemies. ✔ Lots of room for DMs to customize and go wild. ✔ Halaster is a fantastic villain—imagine an evil Willy Wonka but with more fireballs. Cons: ✘ It’s long. Like, really long. Like, “cancel your other campaigns and stock up on snacks” long. ✘ Less of a story, more of a “Here’s a dungeon! Good luck!” situation. ✘ Some levels are way cooler than others, so expect a little dungeon-fatigue. Final Verdict: If your party wants dungeon-delving for days and doesn’t mind Halaster cackling at their misery, this is a glorious meat grinder of an adventure. If you want deep roleplay or anything that isn’t a dungeon… maybe go knock on Waterdeep’s front door instead. Rating: 7/10 - Needs More Exits.

Tons of maps and adventure. Love the dungeon a true dungeon crawl. So many levels and monsters.