this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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I've played a lot of D&D over the years. Hundreds of hours.

But these so-called "dungeons"? No captives. Not even any cells. That's not a dungeon. that's a glorified cave.

And don't even get me started on the dragons. Dragonborn? Sure, I've seen plenty. Heard my fair share of Draconic. And wyverns are fairly common I suppose but that's like pointing at all the dogs in the world and saying "we're infested with wolves!"

I'm beginning to feel like I've been lied to all this time.

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[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 77 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Tell your DM you have a fever, and the only cure is real dungeons and dragons with cowbells.

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 31 points 1 month ago

Seasons don't fear the Raven Queen

[–] Zikeji@programming.dev 77 points 1 month ago (3 children)

As someone who has played alot of Call of Cthulhu there is a distinct lack of Cthulhu. But I am presently playing Traveler and let me tell you something - there is A LOT of traveling.

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 71 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's called "Call of Cthulhu", not "Sighting of Cthulhu", forehead

[–] lemmyng@piefed.ca 81 points 1 month ago (4 children)

DM: "The phone rings."

Player: "I pick it up."

Cthulhu: "Wasaaaaaaaaaaaaap!"

Player: *Cries blood*

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 28 points 1 month ago

Cthulhu: "Wasaaaaaaaaaaaaap!"

Definitely one of the Great Old Ones.

[–] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Player: *Cries blood*

Awh, didn't know they were missing Cthulhu that much!

[–] ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Best part of Traveller is character creation.

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Not always the best, but often a lot of fun

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did anyone die in character creation?

[–] milkisklim@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

No but I always end up in super-debt

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 37 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It really depends on who your DM is.

I have not yet played a campaign without either dungeons or dragons. A gold dragon is typically the one giving us quests, which requires delving into dungeons or we end up being captured and thrown in one by the BBG.

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Protect that DM at all costs. They truly understand what it means to create a D&D campaign

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oddly enough, they're pretty much the only Steam friend I still have that reguarly comes online other than my sister. It's the other 3 players that have fallen off the face of the earth that keeps us from playing again 😔

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

.........ngl I've been looking for a campaign to join 0_o Just saying :D

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 month ago

Just saying twice over, for good effect, you know?

[–] warbond@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Like you said, it's been around for a while, so most of the actual dungeons have been picked clean and all we've really been left with over the last 30-40 years barely fit the legal definition!

[–] mechanismatic@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago

All the good dungeon real estate got bought up by early adventurers with their collected loot, so now they are located in gated communities or expensive adventuring resorts. Everyone else gets the roadside discount dungeon experience with plastic monster chotchkes for loot drops and pugs and chihuahuas dressed up in skeleton and dragon costumes.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 25 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Dragons are pretty high level-threats in D&D, which most players rarely get to fight because most campaigns don't last that long. Which does make it a bit weird to name the entire franchise after such a rare enemy.

[–] Ooops@feddit.org 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

On top of that old dragons in disguise meddling with human society make good NPCs... which the players will not find out until much later.

So even when they meet Dragons -even ones not antagonistic- early on they will rarely realize it...

[–] ThisIsAManWhoKnowsHowToGling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

FYI: you can throw a dragon at any party at any time as a non-combat encounter or as a natural disaster they aren't supposed to be able to fight or control

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 12 points 1 month ago

Good point.

Counterpoint: Many groups have trouble discerning between a regular encounter and an encounter they aren't supposed to fight.

[–] SolSerkonos@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago

Yeah, my DM threw a young white(I think) dragon at us pretty early in the campaign. It wasn't meant to be a fight we won, we were only meant to drive it off and possibly have a sidequest type thing to go loot it's lair later.

It tried to fly away. We teleported into the air after it, and I clung to it's back and kept dropping divine smites in it until it died. Was fantastic.

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

There's pseudodragons and whelps that can easily be low level encounters. I threw a green dragon and a bunch of flying kobolds at my level 3 party and they easily won the fight.

[–] Lumisal@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You made me realize Balder's Gate 3 does in fact contain ample dungeons and even multiple dragons.

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 10 points 1 month ago

Truly worthy of GotY

[–] kichae@wanderingadventure.party 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My players have yet to discover any paths. They just keep following the ones that are readily visible on the map!

[–] BartyDeCanter@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I recommend Kingmaker, then. There is a lot of exploring of new paths and a bit of king making.

[–] kichae@wanderingadventure.party 5 points 1 month ago

I've been listening to the Narrative Declaration playthrough of Kingmaker, and they don't seem to be anywhere near making anyone a king! They seem to have some sort of council-based thaumocracy going, instead!

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Blame it on two year old Cindy Gygax who picked the name out of a few choices.

[–] neatchee@piefed.social 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This sounds an awful lot like a story Gary made up to cover for his mistake /s

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 9 points 1 month ago

Supposedly some sources in the past claimed his wife made the pick, but wiki says it was his daughter. Given how many variants I've seen over the years to avoid a copyright, it seems a good choice. Even became well known for the name by people who didn't understand it, like Jack Chick tract readers.

[–] sirblastalot@ttrpg.network 11 points 1 month ago

I started a campaign where, after 20 years of gaming with this group, we were finally going to have a dragon for a big bad. Then my entire country collapsed irl, destroying the game. It's like the universe abhors actually having dragons in your D&D game.

[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 10 points 1 month ago

Caverns and Critters?

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 month ago

Dragon Delves exists, it is, I believe 12 different dragon focused adventures for levels 1-12.

I recently ran a group of high school kids through The Shattered Obelisk Phandelver and Below, which has a dragon in it. The group kept avoiding the area with it. I finally had it make an appearance to save their bacon.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago

But these so-called "dungeons"? No captives. Not even any cells. That's not a dungeon. that's a glorified cave.

I've always wondered how the term "dungeon" as it's used in RPGs came to be. a lot of appendix N literature had locations we would now consider dungeons, but were they called that at the time? and then the first RPG dungeon was the literal dungeon under Blackmoor Castle, but very early on we had dungeons that stopped being literal dungeons- didn't B1 and B2 exclusively have cave "dungeons?" and the Ruined Tower of Zenopus in the first Basic book had underground portions but I think those were caves too!

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Be the change you want to see

[–] moondoggie@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

The Dungeon is YOUR MIIIIIND. The Dragons are the friends we made along the way. At least I assume so. I don’t play Dungeons & Dragons, I play Deeandy Fivey.

[–] Brainsploosh@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

If you compare it with most other rpg:s there's actually a lot of both dungeons and dragons in DnD.

[–] higgsboson@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

Not with that attitude.

[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago

Funny story, it's to fix the second half of this complaint that TSR got Dragonlance going

[–] Blubber28@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

My players have finally encountered a dragon for the first time last week. They managed to resolve the situation peacefully and have taken up a quest to do for the dragon. Currently they are being mogged by a Blob of Annihalation instead. Fun times.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Oubliettes and nebbishes?