Dungeon Crawling: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.''|'''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'''}}

[[Dungeon Crawling]] is the act of exploring a dungeon (or other dangerous area) while looking for treasure or [[Plot Coupon|some other]] [[MacGuffin|important object]]. The characters must [[Everything Trying to Kill You|battle enemies (usually monsters)]] and use their [[Video Game Items and Inventory|skills and equipment]] to negotiate obstacles (usually [[Booby Trap|traps]]). Usually, but not always, there is a [[Boss Battle]] at some point, and a [[MacGuffin]] or [[Plot Coupon]] at the end.

The term comes from early [[RPG|RPGs]], such as ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', that often had the player characters exploring some wizard's dungeon. "Dungeon crawl" is analogous to "pub crawl," a continual stroll from dungeon to dungeon to dungeon.

Note that in [[Real Life]] a "dungeon" was a type of prison, often in the lower parts of a castle, but the games expanded it to mean "any ruins or subterranean area." In fact, the term is used today for ''any'' dangerous area in an RPG, even open-air ones, as long as the same fight-your-way-across logic applies to it. This is usually to distinguish it from the two other kinds of locale in such games, [[Thriving Ghost Town|towns]] (generally defined as anywhere that has [[Talk to Everyone|peaceful NPCs]] or [[Adam Smith Hates Your Guts|businesses]] like [[Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness|stores]], [[Trauma Inn|hotels]] and [[You All Meet in An Inn|bars]]) and [[World Map|the overworld]] (which, in most cases, is exclusively for getting between towns and dungeons, with the only real obstacles being [[Random Encounter|Random Encounters]].)

With the increasing trend towards [[Wide Open Sandbox]]-type game designs, the term "Dungeon Crawl" has taken on a certain derogatory connotation when used to describe a game. It is usually synonymous with [[The Maze]], which not only represents the opposing [[Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness|linear]] game design tradition, but also implies developer laziness. The ease with which a dungeon generally forces players to follow [[One True Sequence|one path]] through a game and [[Fake Longevity|keep them tied up for a long time in a small space]], all without having to [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence|resort to illogical barriers]], is all too easy for developers, and annoying to players. Dungeons, after all, are reasonably expected to be fully enclosed structures whose walls are well reinforced -- often by the very earth itself, if located underground, as they often are -- making a single, static path through them more or less "justified". Dungeon Crawls often cheaply limit options for traversing them using a spaghetti strand of enclosed corridors, keys and doors, and other barriers requiring unique items to surmount them -- all of which are less realistically implemented in a wide-open setting.

* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' has Nodoka doing this after she gets separated from everyone else during {{spoiler|the gateport incident}}, and choosing her share of treasure like a professional [[Min-Maxing|MinMaxer]].

** The Baka Rangers' excursion to Library Island (and everything the Library Expedition Club did) definitely counts too. Nodoka even references it as the source of her [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/mahou_sensei_negima/v23/c205/19.html trap-spotting skills].

== Fanfiction ==

== [[Literature]] ==

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]] gave us the [[Made for TV Movie]] ''Hercules in the Underworld'', which was inspired by the story of Hercules' twelfth labour (see Mythology below).

== [[Mythology]] ==

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''Munchkin'' is nothing but this. Along with much backstabbing and stealing.

* The ''[[Arkham Horror]]'' spinoff ''Mansions of Madness'' is this genre as applied to the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], with areas such as churches, university buildings, estate grounds, and the eponymous mansions serving as the dungeon.

* ''[[Dragon Fable]]'' has the 100 Rooms of Doom dungeon.

== [[Video Games]] ==

** This troper attended high school on the University of Illinois campus, and thus had the pleasure of playing ''Avatar'' on their PLATO internal network in the mid-80s.

* ''[[Master of the Monster Lair]]'' features this -- with a dungeon you make yourself -- along with a deconstruction of some of the assumptions usually implicit to this premise; having a dungeon near your town is considered ''desirable'', as it acts as a tourist attraction, lures monsters out of the wilderness where they pose more of a danger to ordinary people, and the items monsters hoard in dungeons can be quite valuable. In this game and ''[[My World My Way|My World, My Way]]'', which is an [[Intercontinuity Crossover|otherwise unconnected game that takes place in the same world]], "Dungeon Maker" is a respected profession.

** Global A has done a couple of other games like this, such as the ''Dungeon Maker'' duology (which has a similar premise), and ''Adventures to Go!''

* ''[[Runescape]]'''s 'Dungeoneering' skill is exactly what you'd expect. It even got the nickname 'D&D'.

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', along with the bulk of its MMO kindred, buries most of its best treasure in various dungeons.

* Even before Zork/Dungeon, however, there was [[Colossal Cave]] (also known as Adventure or simply ADVENT). Although it includes no dungeons (it's a cave crawl instead), it undoubtedly was a major inspiration for Dungeon and every other dungeon crawl since.

* The game ''[[Fate]]'' and sequels. The big doors with creepy pillar suits of armor guarding them, with the description Enter The Dungeon. Right next to town.

* The many, many caves you have to explore in the various [[Pokémon]] games. Places like, for example, [[Pokémon Red and Blue|Silph Co. and the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town]] also count, as they both have stuff to find and are crawling with enemies to defeat, and usually contain one final Boss.

== [[Web Comics]] ==

== [[Western Animation]] ==