I kind of stick my nose up in the air when it comes to a lot of late-era TSR products. So much of the output felt like a flimsy cash grab, it was easy to get fatigued. Because of that fatigue, I missed Night Below (1995), one of the last solid gold TSR releases.

Night Below is a 14-level Underdark campaign in one box. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I hold Chaosium campaigns in high esteem – I reckon this is the closest TSR ever got to matching the depth and breadth of those adventures.

Written by Carl Sargent, the game starts with the PCs acting as couriers for a wizards and getting waylaid by bandits near a rural village. Investigating the town yields a number of small encounters and evidence of a dark and sinister plot unfolding underground. Once players venture into the Underdark, the focus of the game shifts not to hack and slash, but diplomacy as they try to find allies among the (mostly) sinister inhabitants and unearth the details of what is going on. The last part is a final confrontation that is, well, fricking crazy. And a bit gross. It’s a delight and I won’t spoil it.

Night Below’s charms are many. The design work is excellent (I even adore the logo font) and there are tons of handouts and art cards and overhead monster illustrations for use on a grid map. Interior illustrators – Arnie Swekel and the late Glen Angus – do a bang up job.

I think the real pleasure of Night Below is how free it is from the fetters of campaign settings. It’s a generic Underdark. There’s no R.A. Salavatore baggage to contend with. As such, it is actually my favorite portrayal of the Underdark – this one can be whatever you want it to be and it will damn sure surprise your players. If only TSR produced more boxes like this…