Real-life dungeons

[Anders]

Here's an example of a 'real-life dungeon. Under the Hawaiian surface there are 42 miles of lava tunnels. They could form the basis of a dungeon - you just need to carve out connections between them and make screens to form rooms. Make the screens from light material and you could even move "the rooms" around.

Have you got any other examples?

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Anders

Have you got any other examples?

A "real world dungeon" that people often point to is the Catacombs of Paris. Is that the kind of thing you mean?

This old map of the catacombs is pretty cool, for RPG flavor. To make sense of this map quickly, you need to realize that it's a map of the catacombs with the outlines of the surface-level buildingssuperimposed on top. Zoom in and check it out!

[jason taylor]

The Shanghai lairs in Portland or Seattle I forget which. They were used to store sailors after having been given a mickey and before being sold to a passing ship so they really are "dungeons", that is they are meant to keep people captive.

Smuggler's tunnels in Vienna(I read about those in a children's adventure book once).

[panton41]

Lots of big cities have complicated networks of human-sized tunnels for sewers, line maintenance, civil defense and simply connecting nearby buildings to one another. That's not getting into active and abandoned subway tunnels.

Seattle had a huge fire at about 120 years ago so they responded with new building codes and raised the entire city about 10-20 feet, while leaving everything intact. So there's roads, storefronts, etc. that eventually became unused lower levels of existing buildings and all but abandoned but also trivially accessible.

[thorr-kan]

Derinkuyu, an underground city in Turkey.

From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derink...rground_city):
"The Derinkuyu underground city (Cappadocian Greek: Ανακού) is an ancient multi-level underground city in the Derinkuyu district in Nevşehir Province, Turkey. Extending to a depth of approximately 60 m (200 feet), it is large enough to have sheltered approximately 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found across Cappadocia.

It was opened to visitors in 1969 and about half of the underground city is currently accessible to tourists."

So, you can use it for a model of a fantasy city or the modern setting of a campaign.

Further links:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...y-archaeology/

Pics:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...%20in%20turkey

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by panton41

Seattle had a huge fire at about 120 years ago so they responded with new building codes and raised the entire city about 10-20 feet, while leaving everything intact. So there's roads, storefronts, etc. that eventually became unused lower levels of existing buildings and all but abandoned but also trivially accessible.

IIRC Jim Butcher was of the opinion that something similar had occurred in Chicago, but apparently their undercity is a myth.

[thrash]

Chicago has abandoned underground ways, just not with storefronts and such: Chicago Tunnel Company.

The Eagle's Nest (Kehlsteinhaus) at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria includes a medium-sized tunnel complex for housing a guard force of SS troops. It's open to the public, so there may be maps available.

Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia, is connected by an underground network of tunnels with shops and restaurants.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

IIRC Jim Butcher was of the opinion that something similar had occurred in Chicago, but apparently their undercity is a myth.

As with many great adventure hooks all you have to add to any myth is a simple...
"...that's what they'd like you to believe."

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

IIRC Jim Butcher was of the opinion that something similar had occurred in Chicago, but apparently their undercity is a myth.

Butcher certainly made the undercity a feature of the Dresden Files Chicago. But then, that setting includes all sorts of mythical people and places, which doesn't necessarily suggest the author believes in them in real-life Chicago.

Straight Dope on Chicago's undercity (and Dresden).

[David Johnston2]

Berlin had a quite substantial network of tunnels and shelters in World War II. Some of it still exists.