Dungeon Purposes

Why is the dungeon there in the first place? Glad you asked. Here's a list of possibilities to perhaps help with design. All of these types can be mixed, like a church catacomb with a tunnel to a goblin lair, which leads to an abandoned dwarf city, at the bottom of which is a hellgate. There's no reason why every dungeon has to be Gygaxian and fill the whole the page or be a little delve lair tactical combat encounter.


Original Purpose(s)
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Underground storehouse/Survival bunker (Criminal/Business/Military/Government): Someplace hidden or easily defensible, like a mountain redoubt or beneath castles. Supply cellar, dungeon, vaults, barracks, armory, and wells.

Vault (Criminal/Government/Bank/Ancient): Beneath buildings, hidden, long lost. Filled with treasures and other valuables.

Temple/Shrine/Sanctuary/Dark Cathedral/Crematorium/Necropolis/Crypt/ Catacombs/Tomb/Mausoleum/Morgue: Often found under churches or ancient burial sites.

Prison/Dungeon/Interrogation-Torture/Maze/Deathtrap/Labyrinth: Places of confinement.

Gladiator Arena (hidden fight club)/Dojo/Martial Arts training temple/

Training Facility: People who fight that want to do so in secret.

Hidden Thieves/Assassins Guild: Obviously trying to stay hidden.

Party Hole/Pleasure or Drug Den/Harem: A word-of-mouth, hidden rave (perhaps perpetually going on). A place to do illegal drugs and indulge in prostitution. A hidden place where a monarch keeps his harem.

Academy/Hermitage/Museum/Library: Wanting to be hidden. Perhaps forbidden activities, perhaps just wanting to be left alone.

Workshop (mundane or magical)/Laboratory: Dangerous or secretive work going on.

Underworld Zoo/Menagerie of Taxidermy/Preserve of undead animals/Trophy Room: A strange collector's underground display. Things you wouldn't want on display to the public (like a serial killer's collection of body parts).

Slaughterhouse/Charnel House: Being hidden for some reason, perhaps slaughtering things that would get them in trouble.

Aqueduct/Sewer: Under large cities, bringing in water or wells and to move wastewater, narrow corridors with running water.

Mines: Strictly functional and fairly barren chambers, dangerous cave-ins.

Hospital/Sanitarium/Asylum: Housing the dangerous or the quarantined.

Underground Marketplace: Likely a black market.

Public hot bath/Hot spring: Not particularly menacing, but a place that would be highly sought after for relaxation.

Conservatory/Recital Hall/Opera House/Coliseum/Palace: Large, public structures that one would not expect underground. Why is it there?

Human Underground Settlements:
     (Petra: built into canyon side) Not very deep, living areas are near the front.
     (Crete: Maze city) In ruins or buried.
     (Pompeii: Buried city, Port Royale: Sunk) Volcanoes, mudslides, avalanches, or even sunk.
     (Cappadocia: Hidden underground city) Surface is occupied by invaders.

Dwarf City: Part of natural caverns, large chambers, vaults, living spaces, work rooms, and a deep mine. Ornate, but very functional, architecture mirrors the natural caves.

Orc/Goblin Lair: A warren dug out of the earth or part of a natural cave system. Rough hewn. Smallish rooms and corridors. Laid out like a traditional dungeon. Functional, but very ill planned and expanded haphazardly. Continually added to to make more room. Living and work areas. Also, taken over dwarf cities and sapping underneath human and elf cities.

Entrance to hell: The funhouse megadungeon. Level masters are demons or subservient creatures, becoming more powerful with increasing depth. Acrology may completely change over time, making mapping nearly impossible.


Current Purpose/Status
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Add one of these descriptions if you really want to mix things up.

Same as original, but depleted or little used

Ruined/Sacked

Garbage Dump/Salvage yard

Abandoned of original occupants and unspoiled/Curiously deserted

Has become an extension of the Underworld

New Colony of occupants has taken over

Slums/Squatters

Bandit hideout

Creature lair

Sunken/Flooded/Fire damaged/Buried

Haunted/Infested

Defiled/Consecrated

Plagued/Quarantined

Repurposed (choose another original purpose)