The Campaign: Rethinking The Origin of Dungeons

One of the things I see coming out of proper play in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition is player-created dungeons as an organic and emergent property of play.

"What do you mean 'player-created dungeons'?"

Hold on, Anon. We'll get there.

Dungeons Don't Come Up For No Reason

Over the course of a character's career, he's going to take the time to spend some of that treasure on acquiring access to skilled individuals able to do what either that character cannot do himself or would be a losing proposition for him to do himself.

Many of these individuals are Expert Hirelings--Sages, Alchemists, Smiths, etc.--and they are not easily replaced if they are lost. Yet, due to their value, they are also key targets for enemy factions to hit in their effort to degrade that character's capacity prior to taking him out and conquering his territory.

The entirety of the Spying and Assassination rules work on the assumption that these things are defacto treasure to be acquired or threats to destroy, prior to which there is a massive Hide-and-Seek game going down between the Spies/Assassins and the targets.

Erecting and maintaining that security apparatus on one hand is making a dungeon in all but name, and can be mapped out accordingly. On the other, detecting where a secured asset is and defeating the security protecting it delving a dungeon in all but name. Other games, notably Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun, make this connection explicit.

What A Player-Made Dungeon Is

When a character begins building up this organization, he's going to spend treasure to secure it. A secured location, with high-value targets within it, is a dungeon.

The Fighter's castle, where he installed his smiths, his sage, quarters his army, and holds his coin in a vault is a dungeon. The Magic-User's tower, where he keeps his Alchemist, has his familiar, maintains his library and laboratory, and keeps his creations--inanimate and animate alike--secure from magical and mundane threats is a dungeon. The Cleric's temple, the Thief's headquarters, the Monk's abbey, the Druid's sacred grove, the Assassin's hideout- all of these are dungeons.

They are going to be mapped out, security measured detailed, vital people and items located, and so just like you would for any other dungeon. They can be found or hidden, attacked or defended, and thus built or destroyed LIKE ANY OTHER DUNGEON.

That's before you get some of the weirder things players have come up with over the decades. In the main, where a player-character erects his seat of power cannot avoid becoming a dungeon because it will have all of the salient features of one. Thus, by the Duck Principle ("If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it's a duck."), it is one.

But Appendix A!

If you think you can't use Appendix A of the Dungeon Master's Guide to resemble a (former) character's seat of power, then I point you to real life and the Winchester Mystery House. That's a mild example of how real life can lead to weird construction.

Consider also that tombs and crypts have real functions, functions that are more important to a pre-modern culture (which anything in AD&D will be) than to us cursed Moderns. Consider that "vast underground cities" also really exist, and have existed, and are no less weird than anything the tables in Appendix A can provide. They tend to skimp on the lighting, lack monsters (contrary to media depictions), and rarely have treasure in them (alas) but they do exist- some are still open to the public.

You won't have much of a problem explaning what you generate to exploring player-characters if you are familiar with how weird real examples can be. Howard, Leiber, Burroughs, et. al. drew from then-current examples of those very same real life examples for the literary works wherein dungeons are present.

Both as the Referee and as a player, don't sweat the dungeon creation; a lot of them arise for ordinary, understandable, and practical reasons. Those that are not made to secure a living asset (literally or metaphorically), are made in reverence to those now dead and gone. The rest is details, which are beyond this post to address.

Don't Overthink It

"Ruined stronghold", "ruined city", and "forgotten tomb/crypt" go a long ways for dungeon creation in this game- followed by "enemy stronghold", "enemy city", and "active tomb/crypt". Don't worry about players getting bored; they're after what's in it, maybe they're open to taking it for themselves as making it their Seat of Power, but never will they say "Bah, another ruin." Not when there's a payday involved, and not when there are multiple parties in the campaign making dungeons and raiding the other party's dungeons.

Just remember to put some dragons in those dungeons from time to time.