WHAT IS A DUNGEON?

Hundreds of years ago dungeons were places where ‘uncivilized’ races congregated, similar to the strongholds of the ‘civilized’ races. These places were almost always built on places of power, so they could not easily be breached without fighting from the entrance to the core.

After the wars came to an end, and peace reigned, projectors were developed, which allowed people to create an exact duplicate of the user. These unfortunately required an extraordinary amount of magic to maintain. This was perfect for dungeons, since they already sat upon ley lines, nodes and other places of power, so they could afford to maintain these devices.

This development was quickly followed by the development of crystal slates, which allowed people to send images over long distances. With both of these techs in place, many dungeons swapped over to offering safe combat experiences that were broadcast to local, and later international, audiences. This activity rapidly grew in popularity, and is currently the number one type of entertainment world-wide.

Groups of wannabe adventurers must challenge weaker dungeons in order to be certified for the stronger experiences, and the professional level teams typically gain a following; As do the dungeons.

CRYSTAL TECHNOLOGY

In the last three hundred years, crystal magic has progressed to the point where it is commonplace. This was largely driven by the use of dungeon runs as entertainment. Using their massive reserves of magic, a dungeon can stream a live broadcast of a dungeon run to all its partners (for a fee) so they can be enjoyed by the public. This technology has progressed to become smaller, and cheaper, so most people can afford it. The tech has also progressed so crystals can store data, remotely access a storage crystal, and even synced up, so two people can communicate with paired crystals.

DUNGEON DIFFICULTY

Dungeons come in different levels, which not only dictate the difficulty, but also the number of floors available.

Training - 3 floors

Beginner - 4 floors

Amateur - 5 floors

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Experienced - 6 floors

Advanced - 7 floors

Professional - 8 floors

Unlike the later dungeons, you need to pay to enter the Training and Beginner dungeons. These are more to teach the basics of dungeon delving, and expose would-be adventurers to the mechanics of dungeon delving. It is not unusual to see a dungeon complex (area with multiple dungeons in a single location) with Training, Beginner and Amateur wings, as this is a good way to train up and attract the attention of more experienced teams, or guilds looking for recruits.

The level does not just dictate the number of floors, but also the difficulty of the defenders. Training dungeons typically have passive animals, as they are used to train new adventurers and teach them tactics. Amateur dungeons are typically horde-type dungeons, consisting of goblins, kobolds and the like. Professional dungeons typically have a mix of strong races, and multiple tactics, requiring an experienced team to tackle.

REST ROOMS

Rest rooms are located between each floor in a dungeon. These allow adventuring teams to take a short rest, allowing them to regain their stamina, recover from maladies, and treat minor injuries. They do not treat major injuries, so it is still recommended for adventuring teams to have a healer during their runs. Since runs are broadcast, adventurers can only spend a set time within rest rooms before acquiring penalties. These range from minor bonuses to monsters, to complete disqualification for inactivity.

RESPAWNS

Most dungeons allow adventurers to respawn, with some restrictions. Beginner dungeons typically allow a respawn at every rest room but, as difficulty increases, the frequencies decrease.

At the professional level respawns are extremely limited. The Wailing Manor, for example, allows one respawn after conquering each wing (three total). While the Dread Isles allow a single respawn of all defeated adventurers at the end of a floor, assuming the attempt is successful.

REWARDS

Why do adventurers attempt to conquer dungeons? Why, for the fame, fortune, and unique magical items of course! Since dungeons sit upon places of power, they have excessive magic to channel into the creation of magical items, and they typically offer these as rewards for a dungeon conquest. The quality of these depends on the strength of the node, and dungeon. Amateur dungeons may reward the adventurers with a blade enchanted with sharpness, or resilient armor, while professional dungeons may reward vorpal blades with multiple elemental affixes, and armor which self-repairs and is resilient against multiple types of magic. The downside? These dungeons also equip their bosses with quality equipment. It is not as fine as an adventurer’s gear, but still powerful.