I’ve been hearing about the Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking and this brand new release, Applied & Aggregate Spelunking. What are these new books by AAW Games?
Applied & Aggregate Spelunking is a guide to practical use of the Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking (Underdark survival), with rules for all systems, including advice for their creative use. Applied & Aggregate Spelunking also includes a full-blown setting with ready-to-play adventures.
From the Underdark and Realms Below…
Beneath the surface of the world lies a wondrous domain where mysterious civilizations thrive among fungal jungles and thermal vents, where mighty dwarven thanes ask their ancestors for guidance and drow matriarchs spin their insidious plots. The latest of these insidious drow plots is outlined in the critically-acclaimed fan-favorite campaign Rise of the Drow: Collector’s Edition, and beyond the epic scope of this campaign, we have introduced a plethora of strange and wondrous playable species thriving in the Underdark, outlined in Underworld Races & Classes, and further expanded upon in Occult Secrets of the Underworld.
But how would the colliatur, who hold all life sacred, react to the aggressive expansion of the drow, as outlined in Rise of the Drow: Collector’s Edition? What would the life-affirming, skeletal halflings known as dødelig do? How would the bat-like ahooling maintain a steady supply of nourishing blood? How would the svirfneblin and various types of dwarf react to yet another war threatening to engulf the realms below? What about the rare drow and drider who are tired of the constant machiavellian struggles of their society?
Some will struggle with their lot, some will fight, but with so many Underworld Races & Classes and the long lifespans and memories of many of these species, it should come as no surprise that some enlightened individuals saw the latest drow aggression as just another part of an overall pattern of conflict.
Some saw the writing on the cavern walls, and looked for something else.
…A Revolutionary Idea Leads…
War-weary soldiers. Tired merchants and mushroom farmers. Freed blood-servants. Dwarven misfits. Survivors and missionaries. With iron-shod boots echoing in distant caverns, individuals of various races imbibing mushroom kombucha and dwarven ales in a nameless tavern agreed that they needed a new start, one where they could live free, in peace, and pool the unique powers they had. But where would they go to carve out their new home? Where would they remain untouched by the strife and warfare they’d been experiencing?
The answer was simple: To the place that had eluded all attempts at civilizing it, the deep frontier beneath the “civilized” reaches of the Underworld. Where dwarves, drow, svirfneblin and all the other races had failed on their lonesome, a collaborative effort, one pooling the skills and abilities of all the wondrous species, might well succeed!
In whispered hisses, encoded graffiti, magical winds and drunken speeches, the call slowly spread, meaning only something to those who wanted to know what it truly signified: “Downward Ho!”
…To The Frontier in the Darkness
Thus, an unlikely group of individuals gathered for an exodus unlike any the realms of the Underworld had ever seen before, traveling through the vast caverns and fungal forests to truly uncharted territory in the depths, unclaimed by any civilization. On the top of a gigantic, fallen stalactite in a vast cavern, the settlers proved the validity of their thesis: in record time they established the settlement Rotu and a functioning, basic infrastructure.
There might be conflict between all the disparate cultures here, growing pains, but the deep frontier is a merciless mistress; it forges all together, and leaves no room for petty strife and grievances. In this untouched land, full of never-before encountered horrors and wonders, cooperation remains the only viable strategy for survival—and with knowledge contained in the Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking, the folx of Rotu might well have a chance!
The wondrous settlement of Rotu, a truly unique backdrop, a tiny pocket of humanoid habitation in an untouched land is fully depicted herein, including a plethora of adventure hooks that feature the illustrious members of the Rotu Roundtable, the council of elected representatives that help guide the settlement…which includes ahooling gourmands, funglet kombucha-brewers, drow scholars, drider chandlers, and svirfneblin engineers!
All this and more are contained within the pages of Applied & Aggregate Spelunking, available now in PDF and softcover from AAW Games!
Settlers in the Dark
With Applied & Aggregate Spelunking, you’ll be introduced to a facet of the Underworld never seen before, a true untouched land to explore, with full support for all the cool races you’ve come to love. Want to play a party consisting of a drow, a devil-touched dwarf, a mushroom person, a draconic humanoid, and a magical dwarf hippie cooperating, exploring black shores and fungal jungles from level 1 onward? In Rotu, that sort of constellation is the norm, and not something that will raise an eyebrow!
Oh, and all those rules from the Survivalist’s Guide to Spelunking? Well, new settlers in Rotu need to learn to survive in these harsh lands, and Applied & Aggregate Spelunking helps the prospective GM teach the rules in play, by letting the players take key roles in the future of Rotu!
Stay tuned to AAWGames.com for a more detailed glimpse and what you can look forward to in this book!