Crawling through a dungeon, page by page
September 9, 2024 3:53 PM Subscribe
A friend of mine is looking for books that provide a pure dungeon crawl a la D&D campaign or Diablo, with a focus on the protagonist or party actually navigating the dungeon, monsters, traps, etc. It's surprisingly hard to find such a thing! Any recommendations?
To be clear, he is looking for as straightforward a dungeon crawl as possible, in a fantasy or realistic (though probably fantasy-adjacent) setting. I have recommended a few old D&D novelizations (Greyhawk 2 and 3 I think, few are truly dungeon focused), Aching God, Delicious in Dungeon (manga), and a couple of others. But it's remarkably hard to find a book that really is primarily a dungeon crawl! Probably because the structure doesn't actually make for a good book... but these ones don't necessarily have to be good books. What you got, dungeon dwellers of mefi?
To be clear, he is looking for as straightforward a dungeon crawl as possible, in a fantasy or realistic (though probably fantasy-adjacent) setting. I have recommended a few old D&D novelizations (Greyhawk 2 and 3 I think, few are truly dungeon focused), Aching God, Delicious in Dungeon (manga), and a couple of others. But it's remarkably hard to find a book that really is primarily a dungeon crawl! Probably because the structure doesn't actually make for a good book... but these ones don't necessarily have to be good books. What you got, dungeon dwellers of mefi?
Response by poster: Ah yes - I did point him toward the concept but LitRPGs honestly are often anything but a straightforward dungeon crawl!! I was looking into a lot recently. Even Delve, which sounds like it SHOULD be such a thing, quickly became a broader power fantasy thing. However if you have any specific recommendations I can certainly pass those on.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:00 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 4:00 PM on September 9 [1 favorite]
The LitRPG sub-Reddit has threads on tower climbing, dungeon crawling, and pure exploration that might help. The tower climbing thread nominates Sufficiently Advanced Magic, which I enjoyed but would exclude here because of all the scenes at the school and generally outside the tower. But a bunch of others are probably good candidates.
posted by Wobbuffet at 4:08 PM on September 9
posted by Wobbuffet at 4:08 PM on September 9
I haven’t read the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, but hopefully it’s close to what your friend is after!
posted by xenization at 5:02 PM on September 9 [2 favorites]
posted by xenization at 5:02 PM on September 9 [2 favorites]
Piranesi
posted by Phssthpok at 6:21 PM on September 9 [3 favorites]
posted by Phssthpok at 6:21 PM on September 9 [3 favorites]
Fred Saberhagen's Second Book of Swords is exactly what you're looking for. I'm not sure it would make a ton of sense without reading the First Book of Swords, which is NOT a dungeon-crawl book, though.
posted by rikschell at 8:03 PM on September 9
posted by rikschell at 8:03 PM on September 9
Second vote for Piranesi. It's not a classically fantasy setting, nor is it a normal kind of adventure book, but it does have detailed descriptions of Piranesi's explorations through the halls.
posted by vincebowdren at 4:23 AM on September 10
posted by vincebowdren at 4:23 AM on September 10
Wool is more expansive, but I remember reading it and thinking that some of the set pieces felt like a sci fi flavored dungeon crawl (except in a server room, mechanical rooms, etc),
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:56 AM on September 10
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:56 AM on September 10
If you're open to comics, Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) is a manga about a party of adventurers crawling their way through a dungeon (and, um... cooking and eating the monsters) It's also an in-progress Netflix series.
posted by xedrik at 8:03 AM on September 10
posted by xedrik at 8:03 AM on September 10
Fred Saberhagen's Second Book of Swords is exactly what you're looking for. I'm not sure it would make a ton of sense without reading the First Book of Swords, which is NOT a dungeon-crawl book, though.
Honestly I think it would work fine. It's a straightforward book (and one of my favorites of that series.) I often reread it without rereading any of the others.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:32 AM on September 10
Honestly I think it would work fine. It's a straightforward book (and one of my favorites of that series.) I often reread it without rereading any of the others.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:32 AM on September 10
A number of the Conan stories would fit this (thinking in particular of Scarlet Citadel, Tower of the Elephant, Hall of the Dead) but they're all pre-D&D of course, so they're not going to be informed by that paradigm.
posted by inkyz at 6:30 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
posted by inkyz at 6:30 PM on September 10 [1 favorite]
Dungeon Crawler Carl is getting terrific reviews on Reddit.
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:50 AM on September 12
posted by Enid Lareg at 11:50 AM on September 12
Dungeon Crawler Carl, the audio book, was an absolutely wonderful listen for myself and my SO. I rarely like LitRPG’s but Reddit and a sale convinced me to try the first book, and now I have them all.
posted by ReiFlinx at 3:04 PM on September 15
posted by ReiFlinx at 3:04 PM on September 15
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posted by Number Used Once at 3:56 PM on September 9