Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a PC or ran as a DM
Contrary to the stereotype of D&D as a game focused on dungeon exploration, from my very first experiences with the game I mostly found myself running and playing in wilderness/surface-based campaigns. As a kid, we were more often tromping around the countryside seeking adventure. I guess that was just a quirk of my own group growing up. Yeah, there wasn't a ton of dungeon in our Dungeons & Dragons back then. You'd think that was counter-intuitive, right? Given the perception that dungeons are more contained, and therefore easier to run, than wilderness encounters.
I'm pretty sure the first real exposure I had to any dungeon of considerable size was Undermountain. I remember seeing the cover illustration (see above) and feeling a strong evocation of what some in the RPG blogosphere call "the mythic underworld." Look at the snaking corridor of arched doorways, and the shadowy creature lurking in the distance! Awesome, right?
Over the last couple years, since my return to roleplaying, I've made an effort to run some more dungeon encounters, but nothing approaching the underground marathons I've read about on blogs. What about you: have you ever been in a group that wasn't particularly fond of dungeon-delving when playing D&D, or at least didn't have a lot of dungeon time in general?
Haha, sweet--I just blogged about Undermountain being the exception to my own group's usual avoidance of the dungeon as central campaign feature. Great minds think alike, eh?
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