D&D General Dungeon as Fantasy Bunker

[Reynard]

This all just makes me think of natural "dungeon" areas like Son Doong cave in Vietnam - enormous (semi)subterranean areas with their own ecosystems. We should borrow from that.

I would argue that's not a dungeon, it is a underground wilderness.

 

[Tonguez]

I would argue that's not a dungeon, it is a underground wilderness.

this debate seems familiar

but yes I'd agree that prima facie Son Doong is more wilderness area than dungeon - unlike Antelope Canyon

 

[Thomas Shey]

High end transportation magic and/or natural abilities is always going to create some problems here unless there's parallel protective options available. If you got hardcore simulationist about it, I could see the one without the other simply making it hard to have a heirarchal society at all.

 

[Minigiant]

In my worlds, the isolated wizards tower goes down more than it goes up.

Retiring Fighters build forts and strongholds in the wild which become the castle and base for a new noble house and city. The strongholds often have underground layers for salted or dried food, extra weapons and ammunition, and jails.

Retiring Rogues buy a building in an existing (or the new created) to found their guild.

And retiring wizards go off to the wild and build a tower far way from the nobility who'd want access to their magic and the riches that attract intelligent monsters.

 

[Koloth]

But a bunker can't stop creatures that can tunnel through rock, so a bunker just traps you in an enclosed space.

Yep. Beware the Graboids. And just when you have your above ground defenses figured out, the Ass Blasters fly in. Not to mention whatever those two legged ground runners were called.
As a set of movies, Tremors pretty well destroys belief in fixed defenses as well as mobile armor.

 

[aco175]

Would the humans just not copy the dwarves in their construction? There seems to be examples of dwarf holds to get some ideas from. I can see humans wanting more access to the surface to not feel claustrophobic.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Cf. The Devil in the Dark's Horta...

The Devil in the Dark - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And having read the wikipedia page above, reminds me that "I'm a doctor, not a dungeon master!"

 

[CandyLaser]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned Earthdawn and its kaers yet. They're essentially enormous subterranean settlements built to serve as magical fallout shelters in order to ensure that civilization survived a magical cataclysm known as the Scourge. In the setting (which takes place after most kaers have opened and society is well on its way toward being rebuilt) kaers provide both an in-setting justification for dungeons. Lots of Earthdawn stories revolve around exploring a seemingly abandoned open kaer, stumbling across a closed kaer and trying to get in, or going into a kaer that was corrupted by a Horror during the Scourge and turned into a nightmare.

 

[Reynard]

I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned Earthdawn and its kaers yet. They're essentially enormous subterranean settlements built to serve as magical fallout shelters in order to ensure that civilization survived a magical cataclysm known as the Scourge. In the setting (which takes place after most kaers have opened and society is well on its way toward being rebuilt) kaers provide both an in-setting justification for dungeons. Lots of Earthdawn stories revolve around exploring a seemingly abandoned open kaer, stumbling across a closed kaer and trying to get in, or going into a kaer that was corrupted by a Horror during the Scourge and turned into a nightmare.

That's more Fallout vault than Bunker.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's more Fallout vault than Bunker.

I've seen the terms used fairly interchangeably, though its obvious the Earthdawn kaers are not what you were talking about, since they were specifically set up to be a temporary solution to an apocalyptic problem, not a steady-state defensive fortification.