Have we lost the dungeon?

[demiurge1138]

I like dungeons; they're comfy and easy to wear. My first DMing experience was of a crazy-random, old-school dungeon, and since then I've done a number of more logical "site-based adventures", including a slaad lord's citadel, a kobold salt mine, an abandoned temple of the Mockery, and other things that have a good reason for monsters and traps. I also enjoy dungeon play, although it can sometimes bog down a bit.

Demiurge out.

 

[the Jester]

Ahh, dungeons- I love them, though I don't use them too often.

Let me see, I've run a couple of dungeons for my halfling party in the last year- but few. There was one actual dungeon dungeon, beneath a fort; and it had a passage leading to the Underdark. Also, the party tripped around a series of caves filled with mystic hot springs for a few days. Hmm... those are the only 'classic' dungeons they've been in; they've had a few other small similar things (a small interior of a pyramid), but I'd say 75% of their play time has been in other environments.

 

[S'mon]

>>There is nothing inherently wrong with random, jumbled-up dungeons that make little sense. How the hobby came to a contrary conclusion is beyond me. A good dungeon has a certain sense of dreamlike irrationality. That's what gives it the inherent danger, the mystique, the edge it has. A descent into a dungeon should involve the PCs symbolically plunging into the collective unconsciousness of the world, a place where nightmares take life and wonders are beheld. I find it unseemly to try to impose a draconian sense of purpose or ecology on such phantasmagorical wonderlands. Sometimes it's okay that the ki-rin in room 23 lives in relative peace with the succubi in room 24.<<

Cool post - I like dungeons - I've learned to avoid the computer-generated kind though, it's important that a dungeon have plenty of atmosphere, even a weird freaky atmosphere, not be just a collection of rooms & random monsters. The best dungeon-bashes have a clear purpose.

 

[Keith Robinson]

I still love a good dungeon. In one of the games I play in, we're presently playing White Plume Mountain (updated for 3.5) and it's been lots of fun.

 

[boredgremlin]

Even back in the AD&D days i hardly ever used random nonsensical dungeons. My players and i prefer outdoor encounters or urban encounters. If I want to get them in a dungeon i need to give them a really good reason. "Go kill raiding orcs" just doesnt work anymore. They wait outside and kill the orcs on the way out. The only time they go in is when they think most of the baddies are dead. Then if it turns out they were wrong, they leave and keep killing them near the doors until they have killed them all. If they sit there long enough and no more come out then gather all the heads and go tell whoever hired them the orcs are dead and show them the heads to prove it.
Our current campaign is in a ruined city right now. The playes are part of a gaurd force for a group of colonists who landed on a new continent. So a pre made city was just too good to pass up. Thats why i have been able to keep em there. Unfortunately the city is haunted and the souls of the old citizens are held by a demon who lairs in limestone caves underneath the cities sewers. Once the PC's discover this they will have to wander around down there and find the demon before killing it.
So maybe, possibly this will be my first true old school dungeon crawl in years. I am kinda looking forward to it. I do intend to have an actual reasonable ecology down there though so maybe its not an old school dungeon after all. lol.

 

[BigRedRod]

I'd love to use dungeons but I can just never find a way of justifying them in the game. The temptation to have an old school nearly plotless crawl comes across me every once in a while but I've never actually tried it.

 

[Daesumnor]

I've always been a bit thingie about dunegons. I'm new to the world of DM'ing, and as such, all my adventures so far have taken place in natural settings, or in cities. I have yet to write or use a dungeon crawl.

That being said, I defintly want to write/use some in the future, because it's the meat-and-potatoes of the game. I just wanna do them justice.

 

[MonsterMash]

I still like and design dungeons into my campaigns as GM and I'm playing in the Lost City of Barakus now whihc has enough dungeoneering to satisfy my urges (still not many undead for my cleric to turn yet though - no spoilers please - and we haven't yet gone to the Caves of the Dead, so I might get my fill there )

 

[DonTadow]

I don't think we've lost the dungeon, I think the dungeon has evolved from 30 years of its traditional sense. 30 years ago, the idea of going into anything and hacking up monsters as someone else was faciniating and the logic ofa dungeon full of these things near a populated town for years didn't need to make sense.

Why is this dungeon here? Lets make a city to explain... Why is this city here? Let's explain the Kingdom... Why is this Kingdom here? let's explain the world.

But as d and d evolved so did players whom wanted more explanation and control. So the world became important. The world defines the dungeons in the land and why they are there there. It gives the dungeon meaning. Dungeons have evolved from crypts, towers and underground layers. Now dungeons can be winderness adventures in which the walls are the trees, political intrigue where the minitours are the corrupt goverments, mystery's where the treasure is the answer.

I dont believe the traditional dungeon has lost its importance, however. In the end there is always something that needs to be slain and somewhere it needs to be slain in. I try to give my pcs a good mix of the different varieties of gameplay. Right now, they are actually in a traditional dungeon after a few weeks of political intrigue and wilderness lore. It has made them appreciate the dungeon more, because I spent that time giving this dungeon meaning.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I use dungeons in the traditional sense. Not very often and they need to at least make some sense.