Dungeon crawl

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This article is about the general style of adventure. For the computer game named after it, see Linley's Dungeon Crawl

A dungeon crawl is a type of role-playing adventure in which the characters fight their way through an extensive dungeon (or other labyrinthine environment, such as a castle or cave), killing the Dragons, Orcs and other monsters that live there and looting any treasure they find. The term can be used in a pejorative sense, since dungeon crawls often lack any meaningful plot or logical consistency. Because of this, however, they can be very undemanding for a game master to run, and the "hack and slash" style of play common in dungeon crawls is appreciated by many players. A dungeon crawl session can be used as a way to relieve job or family related stress, with players getting together not with the goal of living an epic tale or creating a mythical Other Place, but simply to "kick evil's ass and take its stuff."

Due to their potential for simplicity and the limited expectations most players have for plot and logical consistency in dungeon crawls, they are popular in computer role-playing games. The Roguelike genre is a common and typical example, with endless randomly-generated dungeon terrain and randomly-placed monsters and treasures scattered throughout.

The first dungeon crawl game was pedit5 written in 1974 by Rusty Rutherford.

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