For a long time I was of the mindset that dungeon crawls were boring. "Who wants go open up another prison door and face some more skeletons?", I'd ask. Some time ago I had an epiphany of sorts and realized that regarding all dungeons as simple underground prisons was being very short sighted of me. These days I look at just about any underground structure as a "dungeon", whether it's a vast cave complex, a sewer system, a train station, or anything else really. Part of what I like doing in this blog is presenting different aspects of dungeons, and as you all know I'm of the opinion that the best fantasy is reality.
As such I present 20 (well really 21, but who's counting) scenes that you could use in your next urban dungeon crawl.
Entrances
Which one do you take?
You know this excursion isn't off to a good start.
Abandoned bunker? Arms depot? Secret experimental lab?
Space station or space ship entrance?
Stairs
Down or up?
You didn't think it was going to be as easy as stairs did you? Only way up or down is climbing the pole.
I'm sure these stairs are completely stable and reliable.
Hello claustrophobia.
This has a very sci-fi feel to me.
No stairs? No ladder? Guess you'll have to make do with an abandoned elevator shaft
Partially destroyed landing. Poisonous mold on the walls--don't touch if you value your life.
Tunnels
Clearly some sort of secret installation housing horrible things.
Brief glimpses of light make this one spooky.
Industrial tunnel with blood spattered walls.
You do not want to know what's in the water.
Sci-fi/cyberpunk environment.
Rooms
Lots of places for bad things to hide
What did this machinery control?
Sci-fi control room or observation room.
This room is not safe. Too many corridors and tunnels converge on it.
Store room? Bunk beds? Shelves?