11.12.2013

30 Day Challenge, Day 12 - Favorite Dungeon Type/Location

Due to the adventure modules The Sunless Citadel and Heart of Nightfang Spire, I really like what are technically traditional dungeons, in the sense that they descend, but both start at the top of towers and work down. It just has a separate visceral feel to the descent into adventure.

My absolute favorite dungeon type and location rolled into one, however, is a ruined city in the desert. I've only utilized it once in an rpg, but there are lots of movies and such out there that present the type of location I'm talking about.

In this, you have a vast sprawl of ruined buildings serving the role of your dungeon rooms, connected variously by open plazas and sand-clogged avenues that serve as your corridors. The area is usually open-air, and gives the impression of a place ripe to (and ability to) openly explore, while the isolation and desolation creates an illusion of oppressiveness that acts, albeit falsely, as the dungeon walls.

Cellars, basements, tombs, and sewers can all serve to allow dungeon levels and sublevels, and the dryness of the whole location can really create a nice change of scenery for a campaign usually mired in moldy, dank dungeons adventurers are used to.

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