What are some reasons to the existence of dungeons? Like I get

In one of my games the gods had built numerous underground bunkers to protect their non-combat worshipers from an imminent war of the gods. Unfortunately all sides had been wiped out in the war so most of the bunkers became very elaborately defended tombs.

Add in a bunch of scavenging PCs desperate to survive and you got yourself a dungeon crawl.

>>51653032
>Also, how do you guys like your dungeons?

Realistic representation of in-universe locations based on sourcebooks and reasonable extrapolation.

I generally don't do the assault course type dungeon, unless for some reason there happened to be one. I did do a trap-filled tomb once, since trapped mausoleums/catacombs full of valuable grave goods are actually credible.

>>51653032
Maybe a bunch of successful hobgoblins got their slaves to make a castle. Maybe they have since died and a group of monsters moved in.
Maybe a lich used skeletons to dig/build a tomb - he probably wouldn't worry about traps, knowing where they are and not leaving too often.
Maybe a human ruler had a LOT of wealth and wanted to be buried with it, making deathtraps to deter grave-robbers.
Maybe a death cult set up a temple where surviving the myriad traps meant becoming a high priest, to say nothing of the privacy it gives. It's just so awkward having adventurers burst in when you've JUST started making a sacrifice.
See also: Spooky's House of Jump Scares - one or more spirits want to make more undead. "Hey, that haunted mansion up there? TOTALLY filled with loot." *One day later* "Surprise! Death traps and monsters!"

>>51653032
At least for me, I based my setting around a rationalization of dungeons. There used to be a lot of large and elaborate keeps used to keep evil out of the lands, but eventually the darkness swept through and cleared them out. So now, in a world where there's danger all around, thieves and savages have set up camp inside these hollowed walls, setting up all sorts of traps and "renovations" to keep outsiders away.

>>51653262
>Realistic representation of in-universe locations based on sourcebooks and reasonable extrapolation.

Lame.

>>51653032
In the original God of War game, the Temple of Pandora was built for the express purpose of killing anyone unworthy of the treasure. So the traps are essentially there as a test of the dungeon runner's wits and courage under pressure.

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>>51653032
There is a race of sentient magical crystals that can turn jewels, gold and magical artifacts into raw magical energy. Which they can then use to create traps, servants and furniture to protect themselves. When a "Dungeon Keeper" mines more and more gold eventually its able to summon another Keeper and send him elsewhere underground to create a new dungeon and mine more gold.

Real dungeons get built because their rulers want to "toy with their prey" like a cat. But they don't feel like leaving the safety/comfort of their castle or compound or bunker or whatever.

>>51653032
I read a book recently that I enjoyed a lot which went over the idea, and creations of dungeons very thoroughly. Dungeons are actually sentient beings, who were living things long ago, but died, and somehow had their spirits stay, which morphed into gems which becomes the heart of the dungeon. Different gems have different affinities, because dungeons get their power by "feeding" on energy produced by different things, like plants, water, minerals etc, and even people who die.

Once they absorb something they instantly understand it on a molecular level, and can re-produce it, sometimes even with improvements they learned on their own. This is to explain how the loot system work on how things like coins, and items will repeatedly appear. It works similarly with monsters which are made from plants, magic, and living things which were absorbed by the dungeon. The dungeon can "create" these monsters by using a piece of their energy, and directly control them, with the monster needing it to survive.

Dungeons gain more power, by absorbing the energy from adventurers killed in them, and from it grow stronger, in a grading system, and expand in size.

I might of missed, and messed some stuff up, but that's the basics of it. This is the book which I recommend. It's a little slow at the beginning, but picks up soon after the dynamics of their universe are explained. They also have a second one coming out soon from what I understand.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32509131-dungeon-born

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>>51653032
>What are some reasons to the existence of dungeons?
In LBB/OD&D any 'reasonably sized' dungeon is infinitely large.

You might start at sensible, made places. Ruins above gaols above catacombs...
But as you go deeper, the location (and the contents) become more and more supernatural.
You might hit cave networks at some point, but they will have plenty of 'natural' brick walls.

Farther from the surface, there's less pretense of an 'ecology.' Monsters just Exist a few floors down.
Wander in the Dark long enough, and you wandering through allegoric bullshit of Fear and Otherness.

Ancient ruins to be looted. Currently used buildings to be looted. Recent ruins to be looted. Traps are a mix of deliberate traps and disrepair, any creatures within it are creatures making their homes there.

>>51654586
I figured this was a troll reply, but then I though "why the hell not?".

It's as good an explanation as any in Generic Fantasyland No. 13252423.

>>51653032
I like traps as narrative hazards. My seeing is built on the concept of eternal recurrence. The world ends on a semi regular basis, killing most of the inhabitants and leaving ruins that stand, sink, or become built over. A dungeon is where bandits or beasts took up and most traps are unstable environment, aggressive plant life or the working of ghosts rather than traps.