How dungeons have changed in Dungeons and Dragons

In another thread concerning artwork, something interesting was brought up: that the focus on dungeons in D&D has changed over the years (from OD&D/AD&D to 2E, and now to 3E). It seems to me the amount of time the typical player spends underground has been reduced (maybe 20% top side and 80% down below with 1E; to one of about 60% top side 40% below with 3E). It was suggested that the artwork of these different editions reflects this switch in focus.

If such a shift truely did occure, why? If you read the modules from the 70s and early 80s and compare them with those written today, seem to be a difference...not just in length of story, but in actual adventuring going on in city and even micro-lairs. So whats the deal with the shift? Did 1E's dungeon crawl focus just get boring and too linear (as in this room is connected by a hall to that room) for todays crowd saturated with computer games that encourage you to go anyware, or is it more fundamental (a purposeful shift toward something new)? Or maybe 1E and 3E are so different now they aren't really even comparable (with other games more similar to each)?

Basically, if all you're doing is dungeon-delving, then the campaign is going to be pretty boring after a while.

"If this is Tuesday, we must be in Undermountain."

Also, a campaign feels more like a real world if there is more to the world than just the dungeon and the nearest town/city. In 1st edition, the campaign world was left almost entirely to the DM to flesh out (Greyhawk was little more than an outline of the campaign world and some interesting flavor), but that changed with 2nd Edition and the Forgotten Realms, and that trend continues to this day.

I only started gaming in 1999, so I caught the very last bit of 2e and have done almost all my gaming in 3e, so my experience of earlier editions is essentially all hearsay and what I've read in modules, game books and the like.

With that caveat, I have to say that as a DM and a player, dungeon crawls bore the heck out of me. The primary reason is the linearity of them. I like to emphasize PC/player choice in my games, so I much prefer a game where there are far more options. That's one reason I like city games, since one can just throw dozens of NPCs and a dozen or so plot hooks at the PCs and let them follow whichever one they want. I also enjoy combat a lot but don't want it to be the single, or even the primary, focus of the game. Most dungeon crawls end up being heavily combat-oriented, which gets boring for me after a while.

So for me it's a personal taste thing. I've mostly taken dungeons out of my campaign, and I'm not keen on them in games I play in, except in small doses.

Unless the author is deliberately aiming for a 1e effect (and there are several publishers producing a lot of product in that category) most dungeons have shifted from massive static dungeons with a different monster in each room and no discernable ecology to a dungeon in which the contents are less static and more determined by a logical dungeon ecology.

Thus upper levels might be dominated by hunter/gatherer humanoids (maybe supplemented) as they can easily range out collect food while deep dungeon complex generally seem to revolve around importation or growing food and/or inhabitants with no need to eat (most undead).

Further it seems that in many ways the mega-dungeon (Castle Greyhawk, Undermountain) are less the norm for campaigns and that dungeons are more commonly small complexes with a small to moderate amount of rooms in comparison to hundreds or thousands of rooms.

1E: Random rooms and corridors with monsters that live in them without back-story.

3E: Notably less random rooms and corridors built to prevent assaults from all too common flying foes with improved invisibility and long range fireballs. Oh yeah, also to escape the notice of extra tough, ultra-fast flying dragons. Some of the creatures that move in may have a back-story.

Seems just kind of like the evolution of the game to me... I mean if I played 1e now, I wouldn't go back to all dungeon all the time either.

Game grew out of war games, so I'm thinking in the begining it wasn't an anti out of the dungeon perspective so much as it just didn't really occur to anyone at the time.

Dungeon was a place to get gold and fight monsters.

Topside was just where you healed up and spent said gold...

Eventually someone kind of realized there were an awfull lot of adventures waiting to happen topside, and nothing really preventing those adventures from happening...

I wonder if the idea of a Dungeon was sort of a variant on a game board. The (possibly subconcious) idea that a game needs a board. Eventually someone realized this game didn't need a board anymore...

I like hack and slash, but prefer roleplaying and storybuilding. That said, we didn't do all that much dungeoneering back in the day, and I don't do a whole lot of it now. In my last campaign, we were months in when the party had to go down into a very small tomb and loot it...you'd think they were embarking on an adventure to the south pole.

Dungeons are super cool though, and a great excuse for a DM to flex his muscles, but all dungeon all the time gets really stale for me.

(We very rarely play published modules, which is probably what the thread is actually about.)

It's weird that even after all these years and a general improvement in societal understanding of superstitious behavior that dungeon designers still refuse to identify the 13th level as such -- most dungeon levels go through 12th level and skip right past the numbering to level 14. Why are we so afraid of what might be on the 13th level?

Nowadays, I see a lot less pointless corridors to nowhere and "Room 14 A. Linen Closet: This room is empty, save for piles of moldy, moth eaten linens. There is nothing of value in this room. 14 B. Supply Closet: This room houses 3 brooms, 2 mops, a bucket, and 15 STIRGES!!! There is nothing of value in this room. Room 14 C. This room is completely empty. There is nothing of value in this room..." variety.

I think the artists of our time have been influenced by the popular media of our time. Movies make spectacular visuals - LotR had some amazing above-ground scenes.