Ruins of Undermountain II: The Deep Levels (1994) is the sort of AD&D Second Edition product that annoys the hell out of me. It is, essentially, the original box set done over again, detailing three deeper levels of the dungeon (sort of, but not really). An astonishing amount of the box material rehashes the history presented in the original box. What’s new seems watered down and not very noteworthy, which is odd for deeper levels of a dungeon. There are three scenarios, all geared for 7th level PCs, one of which involve troglodytes. Zzzzz.

I don’t really like Forgotten Realms, which is why I haven’t devoted much space to it so far. Partly this is because there is such a distinct dip in quality between Ed Greenwood’s mostly good, always interesting material and just about everyone else’s contributions, which tend to feel generic and a bit boring, like half-hearted writing assignments in high school.

Deep Levels doesn’t even have the good grace to really be part of Undermountain proper. The regions detailed don’t seem to connect to the original dungeon, nor with each other. 13 years and 1.5 editions later, in Expedition to Undermountain, it is clarified that the contents of this box are actually mere sub-levels of the dungeon.  Bleh.