How to Fix Out of the Abyss: A Definitive DM Guide to Improving the Campaign

Spoiler warning: This guide contains major spoilers for Out of the Abyss.

Out of the Abyss has one of the strongest premises of any official Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The characters begin as prisoners in the Underdark, stripped of their gear and trapped in a hostile world they barely understand. They escape from the drow, flee through alien caverns, encounter strange Underdark societies, and slowly realize that something far worse than the drow is loose beneath the world.

The demon lords are here.

That idea is fantastic. The Underdark is already dangerous, claustrophobic, and weird. Adding Demogorgon, Zuggtmoy, Juiblex, Orcus, Yeenoghu, Baphomet, Graz’zt, and other Abyssal horrors gives the campaign a sense of cosmic wrongness that few D&D adventures can match. At its best, Out of the Abyss feels like survival horror, dark fantasy, planar disaster, and desperate escape all rolled into one.

But many Dungeon Masters struggle when they actually try to run it.

The opening prison chapter can overwhelm the table with too many NPCs. The long Underdark travel sections can turn into a slog. The campaign gives the players a lot of freedom, but it does not always give the DM enough structure to make that freedom easy to run. The first half is about escaping the Underdark, while the second half asks the characters to return and save it, which can feel like a completely different campaign if the transition is not handled carefully.

The problem is not that Out of the Abyss lacks good material. The problem is that it has too much material, and much of it needs to be organized before it becomes playable at the table.

The best version of this campaign is not “the party wanders through the Underdark until the plot happens.” The best version is this:

The characters escape captivity, form fragile bonds with other survivors, witness the madness spreading through the Underdark, fight their way to the surface, and then choose to return because they are the only people who truly understand what is happening below.

If you make that the heart of the campaign, Out of the Abyss becomes much easier to run.

Key Takeaways

• Out of the Abyss works best when the DM narrows the campaign’s scope instead of trying to run every option equally.
• The prisoner NPCs should be reduced, combined, or organized into clear roles so the opening does not overwhelm the table.
• Underdark travel should feel dangerous and strange, but it should not consume session after session without meaningful progress.
• The demon lords need to be foreshadowed early and often so they feel like the central threat, not background lore.
• Madness should create atmosphere and hard choices, not randomly punish players in ways that make the game less fun.
• The campaign needs a stronger bridge between “escape the Underdark” and “return to save the Underdark.”
• The second expedition should be simplified so the players are making strategic choices, not managing an accounting spreadsheet of NPCs.
• The finale should feel like the result of the characters’ discoveries, allies, sacrifices, and choices.

What DMs Most Often Want to Fix

Out of the Abyss is not a bad campaign. In many ways, it is one of the most imaginative official 5e adventures. The Underdark locations are memorable, the demon lord imagery is excellent, and the opening situation creates immediate danger. The campaign gives the party a strong reason to move, a terrifying world to explore, and a threat that grows bigger the longer they survive.

The challenge is that the adventure often asks the DM to do a lot of connective work. It presents locations, NPCs, factions, travel rules, survival concerns, madness effects, demon lord signs, and optional encounters, but it does not always tell you how to turn those pieces into a smooth campaign session after session.

That is the main fix. The DM’s job is not to add more content. The DM’s job is to shape the content that is already there into a clearer campaign.

1. The Opening Has Too Many NPCs

The first chapter is one of the most memorable starts in 5e. The characters are prisoners of the drow in Velkynvelve, trapped without their gear and surrounded by enemies. That is a strong opening because it immediately creates tension, vulnerability, and a clear goal: escape.

The problem is that the campaign also introduces a large group of fellow prisoners right away. Some are useful. Some are strange. Some are funny. Some foreshadow later locations. Some can become long-term companions. In theory, this makes the prison feel alive.

At the table, it can be overwhelming.

New players may not know which NPCs matter. The DM may struggle to run several prisoners, drow guards, quaggoths, demons, and player characters all at once. The opening can become crowded before the party has even had time to understand their own situation.

The fix is simple: do not treat every prisoner as equally important.

Each prisoner should have a role. One might be the guide, one the comic relief, one the moral problem, one the future betrayal, one the emotional anchor, and one the connection to a later settlement. If an NPC does not serve a clear role, cut them, combine them, or let them fade into the background.

The players do not need ten major companions. They need a few memorable ones.

2. The Survival Story Can Become Bookkeeping

The early campaign is supposed to feel desperate. The party is lost underground, low on supplies, hunted by drow, and surrounded by hostile terrain. That is excellent campaign pressure. The Underdark should feel like a place where every meal, torch, spell slot, and safe rest matters.

But survival pressure can easily turn into tedious bookkeeping. If the group spends too much time tracking every mushroom, water skin, mile, and navigation roll, the campaign can slow down. The players may start to feel like they are playing a logistics simulator instead of a dark fantasy escape story.

The solution is not to remove survival. Survival is part of the campaign’s identity. The solution is to make survival dramatic instead of repetitive.

Instead of asking the party to solve the same food and navigation problem every session, focus on meaningful survival choices. Do they eat strange fungi that may have side effects? Do they risk a shortcut through a dangerous cavern to avoid drow pursuit? Do they share limited supplies with weaker NPCs? Do they stop to help someone, knowing their pursuers are getting closer?

Those are interesting choices. Counting rations for six sessions in a row usually is not.

3. Underdark Travel Can Become a Slog

The Underdark is one of the stars of the campaign, but it can also become one of the campaign’s biggest problems. The party may travel for days or weeks between major locations. If every stretch of travel is handled in full detail, the campaign can bog down quickly.

Random encounters can help, but only if they feel meaningful. If travel becomes a repeated loop of “roll for navigation, roll for foraging, roll for a random monster, camp, repeat,” the Underdark starts to feel less mysterious and more mechanical.

The Underdark should feel vast, alien, and dangerous, but the story still needs momentum. The players should feel like they are making progress even when the journey is hard.

The best fix is to run Underdark travel as a series of meaningful scenes rather than day-by-day procedure. A journey might include one survival problem, one strange discovery, one sign of a demon lord’s influence, and one hard choice. That is usually enough to make travel feel dangerous without turning it into a slog.

4. The Demon Lords Can Feel Too Distant

The demon lords are the biggest selling point of the campaign, but the characters do not always interact with them directly until much later. That makes sense from a power-level perspective. Low-level characters should not be fighting Demogorgon.

However, the demon lords still need to feel present.

If the players only hear vague rumors about demonic madness, the threat may not feel immediate. The campaign works better when each demon lord leaves a recognizable scar on the Underdark. The players should be able to enter an area and feel that something specific and terrible has touched it.

Demogorgon should bring duality, paranoia, and violent madness. Zuggtmoy should bring fungal communion, false peace, and body horror. Juiblex should bring slime, corruption, and dissolution. Yeenoghu should bring hunger, savagery, and pack violence. Baphomet should bring mazes, hunting, and monstrous transformation. Graz’zt should bring temptation, obsession, and beautiful cruelty. Orcus should bring undeath, despair, and the desire to make everything still.

When the party sees these signs repeatedly, the demon lords stop being names in the book. They become forces that are actively poisoning the world.

5. The Two Halves of the Campaign Do Not Always Connect

The first half of Out of the Abyss is a survival escape campaign. The characters are prisoners, fugitives, and refugees. Their main goal is to get out of the Underdark alive.

The second half is a heroic expedition campaign. The characters are asked to return to the Underdark with allies and resources so they can help stop the demon lords.

That is a big shift.

It can work very well, but only if the transition feels earned. If the characters finally escape the Underdark and then an NPC simply tells them to go back, many players will understandably ask, “Why would we ever do that?”

The campaign needs a stronger emotional and practical reason for the party to return. They should not go back because the book says the adventure continues. They should go back because they understand the threat better than anyone else, because they left people behind, because the madness is spreading, or because they have unfinished business in the dark.

The return to the Underdark should feel like a choice, not a reset button.

The Best Way to Fix the Campaign

If you only make one major change to Out of the Abyss, make this one:

Turn the Campaign Into a Two-Act Story

The campaign becomes much stronger when you clearly define its two halves.

Act One is the escape. The characters are vulnerable, hunted, and trying to survive. They do not understand the full scope of what is happening. They only know that the Underdark is becoming stranger and more dangerous, and that they need to reach the surface before it kills them.

Act Two is the return. The characters are stronger, better informed, and backed by allies, but the threat has grown. They are no longer just trying to survive the Underdark. They are trying to understand, contain, and ultimately end the demonic catastrophe they witnessed during their escape.

That structure gives the campaign shape. It also helps the DM decide what each section is supposed to accomplish.

In Act One, every location should answer this question: what does this place teach the characters about the Underdark, the demon lords, or survival?

In Act Two, every location should answer a different question: what does this place give the characters that helps them stop the demon lords?

That simple distinction makes the whole adventure easier to run.

Fix #1: Start With a Strong Session Zero

Out of the Abyss needs a session zero more than most campaigns. The opening removes the characters’ gear, starts them in captivity, places them in a hostile environment, and leans into themes of madness, body horror, slavery, imprisonment, and survival.

Those elements can make the campaign intense and memorable, but they should not surprise the players in a bad way. Before the campaign starts, tell the group what kind of story this is.

The players should know that the campaign begins with imprisonment, that escape and survival are major themes, that the Underdark is dangerous and strange, and that the story eventually becomes much larger than simply getting home. You do not need to spoil the whole campaign, but you should set expectations.

It also helps to ask each player one important question:

Why does your character want to see the surface again?

That answer gives the character something to hold onto during the early campaign. It might be family, revenge, a promise, a lost home, a god, a debt, or simple stubbornness. Whatever it is, it gives the player a personal reason to keep moving when the Underdark becomes overwhelming.

You can also ask a second question:

What would make your character choose to return to the Underdark later?

The player may not know the answer yet, and that is fine. The point is to plant the idea that survival may not be the end of the story.

Practical DM Tip

Give every character one surface tie and one Underdark tie. The surface tie gives them a reason to escape. The Underdark tie gives you something to develop later.

The Underdark tie does not need to be complicated. It could be a fellow prisoner they care about, a strange vision they do not understand, a debt owed to an Underdark NPC, a mystery connected to their capture, or a demon lord sign that seems personally connected to them.

Fix #2: Reduce the Prisoner NPC Load

The opening prisoner group is one of the most famous challenges in Out of the Abyss. The NPCs are flavorful, but there are too many of them for many tables. If you try to give every prisoner equal spotlight from the beginning, the players can feel buried under names, voices, secrets, and side conversations.

Instead, divide the prisoners into three categories: major companions, minor companions, and background prisoners.

Major companions are the NPCs you actively roleplay and expect the party to care about. Choose three or four at most. These are the characters who create meaningful choices, provide emotional texture, or connect to future locations.

Minor companions can travel with the group but should not demand constant attention. They might have one defining trait, one useful skill, and one moment where they matter.

Background prisoners exist to make the situation feel larger. They can die, escape separately, get recaptured, or fade from focus. They do not need full scenes unless the players take an interest in them.

This is not “cutting content.” It is protecting the table from overload.

A Simple Prisoner Setup

You can make the opening easier by choosing one NPC for each role:

• The guide: someone who understands the Underdark better than the party.
• The heart: someone vulnerable or sympathetic the party wants to protect.
• The problem: someone selfish, unstable, suspicious, or dangerous.
• The mystery: someone connected to the deeper demon lord plot.
• The future hook: someone tied to a later settlement or faction.

If one NPC can fill two roles, even better. Combining roles makes the cast easier to remember.

Practical DM Tip

Create a one-page NPC tracker before session one. For each prisoner, write only four things: role, voice, secret, and exit plan.

The exit plan is especially important. Not every NPC should stay with the party forever. Some should leave at settlements, die heroically, betray the group, be taken by madness, or choose a different path. This keeps the campaign from becoming an endless escort mission.

Fix #3: Make the Drow Pursuit a Clock, Not a Constant Interruption

The drow pursuit is one of the best sources of tension in the early campaign. The party escaped, but they are not safe. Ilvara and her forces are behind them, and the Underdark itself is dangerous ahead of them.

The problem is that if the drow show up too often, the pursuit can become annoying instead of tense. If they never show up, the threat disappears.

The best solution is to use a visible or invisible pursuit clock.

The clock advances when the party leaves obvious tracks, takes long rests in unsafe places, argues too long in dangerous areas, fails important navigation checks, or draws attention in settlements. The clock falls back when the party hides their trail, makes allies, crosses dangerous terrain successfully, creates distractions, or forces the drow to deal with another threat.

This gives the pursuit structure. The drow are not randomly appearing whenever the DM wants drama. They are responding to the party’s choices.

Example Pursuit Clock

Use a six-step clock:

1. The drow are far behind.
2. The drow find signs of the party’s passage.
3. Scouts or spies appear nearby.
4. The party finds evidence the drow are closing in.
5. The drow launch a probing attack or ambush.
6. Ilvara catches up for a major confrontation.

After step six, resolve the confrontation and reset the clock based on the outcome. Maybe the party kills key pursuers, maybe they escape by sacrificing supplies, or maybe they are forced into a dangerous route they would rather avoid.

Practical DM Tip

Let the players learn how the clock works through the fiction. They do not need to see a literal tracker, but they should understand that their choices affect the pursuit.

When they make smart escape decisions, reward them. When they are careless, let the pressure increase.

Fix #4: Run Underdark Travel as a Pointcrawl

The Underdark should not feel like a straight road, but it also should not feel like an endless blur of random tunnels. A pointcrawl is a great way to handle this.

In a pointcrawl, you do not map every cavern and tunnel. Instead, you create important locations and the routes between them. Each route has a travel time, a danger, a discovery, and a cost.

For example, the party may learn of three possible routes to their next destination. One is faster but passes through demon-tainted territory. One is safer but requires bargaining with duergar traders. One avoids major settlements but risks starvation and exhaustion.

Now travel becomes a choice.

The players are not just rolling to see what happens. They are deciding what kind of danger they are willing to face.

What Each Route Needs

For each major route, prepare:

• one environmental challenge
• one sign of a demon lord’s influence
• one roleplaying encounter or discovery
• one consequence for delay or failure
• one possible shortcut or advantage

That is enough to make travel feel rich without requiring you to prep every day of the journey.

Practical DM Tip

Do not run every travel day. Run the interesting parts of the journey.

When the party travels for ten days, summarize the exhausting routine, then focus on the two or three scenes that matter. The players will still feel the scale of the Underdark, but the campaign will keep moving.

Fix #5: Give Each Underdark Settlement a Clear Purpose

Out of the Abyss contains several major Underdark locations, and many of them are memorable. The issue is that a campaign can lose focus if every settlement becomes a sprawling mini-campaign with too many factions, side quests, and NPCs.

Before running each major location, decide what purpose it serves in your version of the story.

Sloobludop might be the party’s first undeniable proof that something is terribly wrong. Gracklstugh might show how madness infects politics, industry, and power. Neverlight Grove might become the campaign’s great horror reveal. Blingdenstone might show that the Underdark is not just a place to escape from, but a place full of people worth saving. Gravenhollow might turn scattered clues into a larger truth.

Once you know a location’s purpose, it becomes easier to cut or compress material that does not support that purpose.

Example Location Purposes

Velkynvelve is the pressure cooker. It teaches the party that they are vulnerable and that escape will require allies, risk, and sacrifice.

Sloobludop is the first disaster. It should show the party that the demon lord threat is not rumor or background lore. Something impossible is happening in the Underdark.

Gracklstugh is the pressure of civilization under madness. It should feel oppressive, political, paranoid, and unstable.

Neverlight Grove is the horror chapter. It should start beautiful and welcoming, then slowly reveal the rot underneath.

Blingdenstone is the argument for caring. It gives the players a reason to see the Underdark as more than a prison.

Gravenhollow is the explanation. It should help the party understand the scale of the demonic incursion and what might be done about it.

When each location has a job, the campaign feels intentional instead of sprawling.

Practical DM Tip

Before each chapter, write one sentence that defines what the location is for. Keep that sentence in front of you while prepping.

If a scene does not support that purpose, shorten it or move on.

Fix #6: Make Madness Thematic, Not Randomly Punitive

Madness is a major theme in Out of the Abyss. The demon lords are not just physically present in the Underdark. Their presence warps minds, cultures, dreams, instincts, and beliefs.

That is a great idea, but madness mechanics can be tricky at the table. If handled poorly, they can feel random, punitive, or uncomfortable. Players may feel like their characters are being taken away from them, especially if madness effects force behavior that does not fit the player’s concept or crosses a line for the group.

The fix is to use madness as atmosphere, pressure, and temptation rather than constant punishment.

A madness effect should usually do one of three things: reveal the influence of a demon lord, create a hard choice, or give the player an interesting roleplaying prompt. It should not simply make the character less fun to play.

Better Madness Examples

Instead of saying, “Your character acts irrationally,” tie the effect to a specific demonic influence.

A character touched by Demogorgon might begin seeing two possible meanings in every statement, becoming suspicious of allies. A character influenced by Zuggtmoy might feel a strange peace when surrounded by fungus and begin to hear a welcoming chorus. A character brushed by Juiblex might become fascinated by decay, dissolution, and the idea of letting go of form. A character marked by Yeenoghu might feel hunger sharpen into rage.

These effects are more interesting because they tell the players something about the world.

Practical DM Tip

When giving a player a madness effect, offer it as a roleplaying prompt whenever possible. For example: “You feel an intense distrust of the next person who offers help. How does that show?”

This keeps agency with the player while still making the demonic corruption feel real.

Fix #7: Foreshadow the Demon Lords With Signatures

The demon lords should not feel interchangeable. Each one should have a signature that players can recognize before they ever learn the full truth.

This is one of the best ways to make the campaign feel connected.

As the party travels, they should encounter signs of different Abyssal influences. At first, these signs may seem like isolated horrors. Later, the players should begin to understand that each pattern points to a specific demon lord.

This turns the campaign into a mystery.

The party is not just asking, “How do we survive?” They are also asking, “What is happening down here?”

Demon Lord Signatures

Demogorgon should be associated with duality, division, mirrored behavior, paranoia, and sudden violence. His influence can make allies turn on each other or make creatures act as if they are two minds trapped in one body.

Zuggtmoy should feel beautiful, peaceful, and wrong. Her influence can appear as fungal blooms, shared dreams, wedding imagery, soft voices, and the temptation to surrender individuality to the colony.

Juiblex should be corruption without identity. His presence turns structure into slime, memory into hunger, and solid things into dissolving waste.

Yeenoghu should be hunger and the hunt. His signs include gnawed bones, pack behavior, frenzy, and the sense that civilization is only a thin cover over violence.

Baphomet should bring mazes, minotaurs, predatory intelligence, and the feeling of being hunted by something that enjoys the chase.

Graz’zt should be temptation, beauty, indulgence, and domination. His influence should feel seductive before it feels dangerous.

Orcus should be undeath, silence, despair, and the refusal to let endings remain endings.

You do not need to use every demon lord equally. In fact, the campaign often works better if you choose three or four to emphasize. Demogorgon is central, Zuggtmoy is excellent for horror, Juiblex is perfect for corruption, and Orcus or Yeenoghu can add a very different kind of threat.

Practical DM Tip

Create a demon lord foreshadowing tracker. Each time the party encounters a sign of one demon lord, mark it down.

If one demon lord has not appeared in several sessions, add a rumor, dream, corpse, symbol, environmental change, or NPC behavior that points back to them.

Fix #8: Make the Surface Interlude Matter

When the party finally reaches the surface, it should feel like a major accomplishment. They have survived the Underdark. They have escaped the drow. They have seen impossible horrors and lived.

Do not rush past that moment.

The surface interlude is your chance to show how much the characters have changed. Sunlight should feel strange. Ordinary food should feel luxurious. Crowds should feel too loud or too open. The characters may be safe for the first time in months, but safety may not feel simple anymore.

This is also where you begin building the bridge to Act Two.

The party should start seeing signs that the Underdark’s problem will not stay underground. Refugees may carry stories of madness. Trade routes may fail. Surface factions may dismiss the danger. Dreams may continue. Former companions may send messages. A demon lord’s influence may appear where it should not be.

The players should have time to rest, recover, and enjoy being free. Then they should realize that escape did not solve the problem.

Practical DM Tip

Give each character one surface scene before the call to return.

A character might visit family, report to a temple, drink in a tavern, stand in the sun, sell strange Underdark treasures, or try to sleep without hearing stone above them. Then introduce one sign that the Abyssal threat is not finished.

That contrast makes the return more powerful.

Fix #9: Give the Party a Personal Reason to Return

The return to the Underdark is the most important structural moment in the campaign. If this moment fails, the second half can feel forced.

The party has already escaped. They survived. They reached the surface. They may have no desire to go back, and honestly, that reaction makes sense.

So give them reasons that matter.

Maybe a beloved NPC stayed behind. Maybe a settlement that helped them is now in danger. Maybe Stool, Jimjar, Buppido, Sarith, or another companion left a thread unresolved. Maybe the party made a promise in Blingdenstone. Maybe they saw enough of the demon lords to know that the surface will not remain safe. Maybe one of the characters is still carrying a mark, dream, curse, or memory from the Underdark.

The return should not be about obedience to a quest giver. It should be about responsibility, unfinished business, and hard-earned knowledge.

The characters are not going back because they are the strongest heroes in the world. They are going back because they understand the nightmare better than anyone else who survived it.

Practical DM Tip

Before the Gauntlgrym section, ask the players what their characters told people about the Underdark after they escaped.

Did anyone believe them? Did they sound heroic, traumatized, desperate, or unstable? Did they leave anything out?

Use their answers to shape the call to return.

Fix #10: Simplify the Expedition

The second half of the campaign can introduce faction support, NPC allies, and an expedition back into the Underdark. This can be exciting because it shows that the characters are no longer helpless prisoners. They now have influence.

However, this can also become too much to manage.

If the players are suddenly responsible for a large collection of NPCs, faction representatives, soldiers, scouts, and resources, the campaign may slow down under its own weight. The goal is to make the party feel supported, not buried in administration.

Treat the expedition as a set of strategic advantages instead of a huge roster of individual characters.

For example, instead of tracking twenty soldiers, give the party “a squad of veterans” that can solve one combat complication, guard a location, or hold off enemies during a major scene. Instead of roleplaying every faction representative constantly, give each faction a clear benefit and a clear complication.

Example Expedition Benefits

The Lords’ Alliance might provide soldiers and political authority, but their leaders may underestimate the Underdark. The Emerald Enclave might provide survival knowledge and healing, but they may push the party to protect natural sites. The Harpers might provide intelligence and contacts, but they may withhold secrets. The Order of the Gauntlet might provide courage and divine support, but they may be too rigid when compromise is needed. The Zhentarim might provide supplies, smugglers, and ruthless efficiency, but their help always comes with strings.

Now the party is making meaningful choices about who to trust and how to use their resources.

Practical DM Tip

Give each faction or ally one card with three details: what they offer, what they want, and what problem they create.

This keeps the expedition playable.

Fix #11: Make the Finale the Result of the Whole Campaign

The ending of Out of the Abyss should feel enormous. The campaign has been building toward a confrontation with the demon lords, and the characters should feel like their journey through the Underdark gave them the knowledge and allies needed to make that confrontation possible.

The danger is that the finale can feel like the demon lords fight each other while the players wait for their turn.

Avoid that.

The players should be active participants in making the finale happen. They should gather ingredients, secure alliances, choose the ritual site, decide which demon lords to lure, protect key NPCs, sabotage cults, and deal with consequences from earlier choices. The final battle should not be the only important part of the ending.

The campaign should ask: what did the characters learn, who did they save, who did they abandon, and what price did the Underdark pay for their victory?

If the party made allies in Blingdenstone, those allies should matter. If they left destruction behind in Gracklstugh, that should matter. If they ignored signs of Zuggtmoy, her influence should be worse. If they treated NPC companions as disposable, that should echo. If they protected people even when it slowed them down, the finale should reward that.

The ending becomes much stronger when it reflects the campaign the players actually played.

Practical DM Tip

Before the final arc, write down five campaign memories that should matter in the ending. These might be NPCs, locations, bargains, failures, rescues, or horrors the party witnessed.

Bring at least three of them back before the campaign ends.

The Fastest “Fixed” Version of Out of the Abyss

If you want the short version, these are the changes I would make every time.

1. Define the Two-Act Structure

Act One is escape. Act Two is return. Make sure you know which act you are running and what that act is supposed to accomplish.

2. Reduce the Opening NPC Load

Choose three or four major prisoner NPCs. Let the rest become minor characters, background figures, or early exits.

3. Use a Drow Pursuit Clock

Make the drow chase feel tense without turning it into a constant interruption. Let the party’s choices affect how close the pursuit gets.

4. Run Travel as Meaningful Scenes

Do not play every travel day in full. Use survival challenges, discoveries, demon lord signs, and hard choices to make journeys memorable without dragging.

5. Give Each Settlement a Purpose

Before prepping a location, decide what it teaches the party or what it gives them. Cut or compress material that does not support that purpose.

6. Make Madness Specific

Tie madness effects to specific demon lords. Use them as roleplaying prompts and atmosphere, not random punishments.

7. Foreshadow the Demon Lords Constantly

Give each major demon lord a recognizable signature. Let the players notice patterns before they understand the full truth.

8. Let the Surface Feel Like a Victory

When the party escapes, slow down and let that matter. Then show signs that the Underdark’s corruption is spreading.

9. Make Returning a Personal Choice

Do not send the characters back just because an NPC asks. Give them unfinished business, threatened allies, spreading consequences, and personal reasons to return.

10. Simplify the Expedition

Treat factions and allies as strategic benefits with complications. Do not make the party manage a giant NPC spreadsheet.

11. Make the Finale Reflect the Journey

The final arc should bring back the party’s allies, failures, discoveries, and choices. The demon lords are the threat, but the characters should still be the drivers of the ending.

What I Would Cut or Compress

You do not need to remove the campaign’s weirdness. The weirdness is the point. What you should cut is repetition.

If the party has already experienced a survival travel sequence, do not run the same kind of survival travel again unless something has changed. If the party already understands that a demon lord is corrupting an area, move quickly to the choice or consequence. If a settlement has too many factions, combine them into fewer, clearer conflicts. If an NPC does not interest the players, let that NPC leave the story.

The campaign is strongest when each section feels distinct.

Velkynvelve should feel like imprisonment and pressure. The early Underdark should feel like desperate flight. Sloobludop should feel like the first impossible horror. Gracklstugh should feel like civilization cracking under madness. Neverlight Grove should feel like beauty rotting from within. Blingdenstone should feel like a reason to care about the Underdark. The surface should feel like relief mixed with dread. The return should feel like responsibility. The finale should feel like consequence.

If two sections are creating the same feeling, compress one of them.

The Core Campaign Spine

Here is the fixed campaign spine in one clean sequence:

1. The characters begin as prisoners in the Underdark.
2. They form uneasy bonds with other captives.
3. They escape Velkynvelve and flee the drow.
4. As they travel, they witness signs that the Underdark is being corrupted by demon lords.
5. Each major settlement reveals a different face of that corruption.
6. The party reaches the surface, changed by what they survived.
7. They discover the demonic threat is still spreading and cannot be ignored.
8. They choose to return to the Underdark with allies and resources.
9. They gather knowledge, settle old debts, and prepare a way to turn the demon lords against each other.
10. The finale reflects the allies they made, the horrors they failed to stop, and the choices they made in the dark.

That is the campaign. Everything else should support that spine.

Final Thoughts

Out of the Abyss is a campaign with incredible raw material. It has one of the best openings in 5e, one of the strangest settings, and one of the biggest villain rosters. It can be terrifying, funny, tragic, bizarre, and epic, sometimes all in the same session.

But it asks a lot from the Dungeon Master.

The book gives you a huge Underdark toolbox, a pile of NPCs, a survival framework, major settlements, faction politics, madness, demon lords, and a world-ending plot. That is exciting, but it can also be overwhelming if you try to run it exactly as written without shaping it for your table.

The fix is not to make Out of the Abyss bigger. It is already big enough.

The fix is to make it clearer.

Reduce the NPC load. Make travel meaningful. Give each settlement a purpose. Foreshadow the demon lords. Treat madness carefully. Build a real bridge between escape and return. Let the finale grow out of the party’s choices.

If you do that, Out of the Abyss becomes much stronger. It stops being a long, strange wander through disconnected Underdark material and becomes a powerful two-act campaign about survival, trauma, responsibility, and the courage to go back into the darkness after you finally escaped it.