Today we are pleased to present our review of Underwater Campaigns, a supplement for D&D5e. We thank Daniel Chivers and Marco Bertini for sending us a PDF copy of the manual. You can find it at DMsGuild for $19.99, just over 17 euros. We are talking about a best ‘electrum’ seller rated five out of five stars!
Daniel Chivers and Marco Bertini are a pretty well-established pair, this being their sixth collaboration. For some time now they have been veterans of D&D5e, with many publications to their credit. Underwater Campaigns focuses on all aspects relating to developing and running an underwater campaign.
The title says it all.
Underwater Campaigns: Review of the Book
Underwater Campaigns offers 166 pages of content, formatted to the D&D5e standard. The reading is easy, the rules and advice extremely practical and clear. The manual was made with Homebrewery software. If you don’t know what that is, check out this link. It’s a very valuable tool for creators building or growing content, including more methodical DMs.
Unfortunately, the illustrations are a major weakness of the manual. They aren’t original, but are material reused from other sources. In spite of the extensive work done to adapt them to Underwater Campaigns, it has its limits. In some cases, the illustrations seem out of context with respect to the theme of the page. More discerning readers are sure to get a dose of not-exactly-pleasant déjà vu. For those who know D&D3.5 well, the sensation of ‘already seen that’ is inevitable. And this even when the quality of the artwork itself is very high.
What you Should Expect
The text is the strongest part of the manual. Daniel is a connoisseur of the rules, as well as the subject – the manual opens with a glossary to make referring to it during play more practical. The tone may be a bit too “National Geographic”, but don’t worry, this is desirable (and probably inevitable) but works perfectly.
An important note: Underwater Campaigns is a compendium of rules, rather than a collection of innovative material. These original solutions simply fill in the gaps in the rules. The main value of the manual is the fact that it collects all the rules most useful for the underwater experience when playing the most famous role-playing game in the world. They did a great job of adapting to 5e. Above all, the result.
Underwater Campaigns is extremely flexible, allowing you to manage the game both for brief or limited forays into the underwater world. It provides tools for creating different levels of depth, and an overview of the various cultures that can develop underwater, certainly more than you might have come up with on your own.
Review of the Content of Underwater Campaigns
Each chapter deals with a specific aspect of the underwater game, highlighting its own difficulties and peculiarities. There is a focus on the means allowing characters born to dry land to survive the challenges proposed, or at least to try, depending on how lenient the DM.
In the first chapter is a description of the most “typical” submarine locations, including two that are completely original. Underwater Campaigns also addresses the topic of planar links, to extend the backdrop to larger-scale plots.
The second chapter deals more generally with planning a campaign, the way in which it is structured and the connections that can be exploited. There are also elements of a ready-made adventure, dotted with deliberately vague edges that allow you to adapt it to any campaign.
The third chapter presents adversities, complications, and risks typical of underwater environments. Underwater Campaigns presents both real and fantastic threats. And the choice to flip the script and address the effects on submarine races when they visit dry land is certainly very noteworthy.
The fourth chapter deals more specifically with combat, using standard rules or adding the three-dimensional component that the aquatic environment offers.
Following, there are two chapters on equipment and magic specifically for underwater environments. Here we see Daniel’s work in adaptation, from the past editions of the game to the fifth.
The same applies to the two final chapters, which present creatures and NPCs useful for an underwater campaign.
Conclusions of the Underwater Campaigns Review
Underwater Campaigns closes with a new patron for Warlock (the ‘Pale Lady’), and a fun generator for creating “exceptional fish”. In addition to a reference page in which the author lists all the sources used in drafting the manual. This material is useful both in stimulating creativity and in further deepening what is covered in the text.
In general, it is a manual rich in game options, however, it is specifically reserved for DMs who want to make the underwater experience deeper (no pun intended) for their players. Only the new patron, some talents, and a few new spells are directly useful to players.
Ultimately, Underwater Campaigns isn’t likely to be a key piece in your collection. But if you have a campaign in mind focused on this environment, it is definitely a very useful tool.
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