Defining Dungeons

   We're still here in the chilly early days of 2023, and the RPG blogging world is still enthusiastic about the Dungeon 23 challenge, an inspired idea from Sean McCoy for making a big dungeon over the year 2023 by just writing a single room key a day. Who knows how many will persist through the long year, but I'm going to exercise my old man card and take exception to the term "megadungeon" for something with merely 365 rooms. Clearly this challenge is making a very big dungeon, but is it truly a megadungeon? I won't grant it. I classify that size as the respectable and honorable kilodungeon, which is impressive enough.
   I've always classed dungeons (in this case meaning any adventure structure traditionally keyed, not just the underground variety) into four categories: Lairs, Dungeons, Kilodungeons, and Megadungeons. Not only does this mean we shouldn't grant the term "megadungeon" to most products published with that name, but it means the vast majority of published "dungeons" probably shouldn't even be granted the honor.
   Lairs are the single most basic "self-contained keyed adventure site", with 2-9 (ish) keyed areas. This thus encompasses the vaunted "five-room dungeon", most broken down locations on a hexcrawl, a "one page dungeon", and about half of all the maps on Dyson Logos' website. There's absolutely nothing wrong with lairs; the upper range of about 9 locations is a fair estimate for how many encounters (traps or fights or negotiations or searches) a decently efficient party can accomplish over a single session. There's not a lot of room for heavy exploration but a well-designed lair can have a loop or two, some verticality, and enough room to require some thinking about how the physical space is tackled. Much as the size limits aspects of play, we do have to acknowledge that these games are broken down into discrete sections of time so organizing content into "2-4 hours with my friends" has its appeal.
   Dungeons are where we graduate into something that will require us to gather together and play multiple times. I generally classify dungeons as anything from 10-99 keyed locations, with the definitions and purpose obviously blurring at both ends. A good classic, most of the original TSR modules have locations on this scale. A dungeon, proper, will almost always have some verticality and there should be multiple paths through it as well as various nooks, crannies, and secret doors. The original way D&D was meant to be played starts in locations about this size, with players taking multiple nights of gaming and their characters typically taking in-game days or even weeks fully exploring the challenging depths. A dungeon is usually good for about a level of experience, be it found in monster XP, gold-for-XP, or even milestone/story award. Bigger dungeons weighing in at 70+ rooms will start to tip towards the next category, where the commitment in time and effort really starts to crawl up there. 
   Kilodungeons are where the "dungeon campaign" actually meets reality, 100-999 rooms sprawled across multiple levels (both elevation levels and character levels). A kilodungeon is a campaign in and of itself; you and your three-to-six buddies are committing to months of adventuring in this location. Most products billing themselves as megadungeons are actually in this weight class, but unfortunately, for the vast majority of dungeon campaigns "kilo" vs "mega" barely matters, as schedule conflicts, moves, and just plain boredom will most often kill these dungeon campaigns long before the final levels get reached. Such is the way of life, particularly when these things are hobbies people play for fun. But at least conceivably, a kilodungeon can be completed by a dedicated weekly or biweekly group in a year or two, with the player characters beginning as cowardly ruffians in the dark and ending as masters of a magical and deadly domain. 
   Megadungeons, then, are something even more. A proper megadungeon tips in at over 1,000 rooms, over numerous levels, with a scale and scope that approaches less "campaign" and more "campaign setting". A megadungeon isn't really something to be run for a single group, rather it is an extensive world perfect for an open table with multiple groups of players and even GMs exploring and plundering. Few and far between are the true megadungeons, but the best should be enough to encompass decades of gaming. Most of us will never come anywhere near a proper megadungeon, but we should all hope to play with one some day.
   There is, of course, a theoretical gigadungeon, clocking in at an immense >1,000,000 rooms. Only one such creature has ever been made, by a fellow named Irving toiling in complete obscurity since 1975 in his basement near Lake Geneva. He and his friends still play in it weekly, rolling their dice with hands just starting to show arthritis. They have recorded 5,721 TPKs and have never progressed beyond level 1. 

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