Peek: Dungeon Subclasses

While most are familiar with the four main classifications of dungeons, there are many sub-classifications to go along with them.  Experienced adventurers will recognize at least a handful of these, and will often specialize in, if not a specific single dungeon, a subclass of dungeons.  Here are a few of the more common or interesting ones.

Deep is perhaps the most common subclass of dungeon, as it is for dungeons that have access to the vast range of tunnels, caverns, and so on deep beneath the surface.  They are often more dangerous than dungeons that are not Deep, but also tend to have valuable mining nodes of various types.

Submerged dungeons have a significant area of themselves fully under water, or other liquids.  While classic delving can be very difficult in a Submerged dungeon, they are excellent places to fish.

Sewer dungeons are often protected by special laws from whatever city they happen to be under, as the Sewer will make managing waste leagues simpler, so the city has a vested interest in keeping the dungeon happy.  The Dungeoneer's Guild will have more information on each specific Sewer, and it's highly suggested that any adventurer get the info packet before attempting to delve.

Open is a subclass that seems antithetical to the term 'dungeon', but they are not as uncommon as might be expected.  Open dungeons have very few, or no walls, and often have access to the sky directly.  Sprawling forest dungeons are the most common of this subclass, but there have been huge caverns with a single dungeon that earn this subclass, too.

[Resource] Nodes is a subclass with its own subclasses, though most often it will simply be categorized by profession.  Mining Nodes, Element Nodes, Fishing Nodes, and so on.  Some will list them all in the subclasses, but this practice is falling away, as it is usually more convenient to note the broad professions for nodes, and get into details in the node section of various informational packets.

Voice is fairly self-explanatory: the dungeon has a Voice.  Many adventurers use the presence (or lack) of a voice as a rough guideline of how powerful, and therefor dangerous, a dungeon is.  The Dungeoneer's Guild advises against using it as anything but the most rough of metrics for danger.

[Affinity] is simply the dungeon's primary affinity, and is an excellent indicator of the types of challenges the denizens will pose

Alchemical [Affinity] is similar to the ordinary Affinity, but indicates the dungeon has discovered how to grant one of more other affinities to its denizens.  They are most often confined to certain areas of the dungeon.

Deadly Traps can be a bit of a misnomer, and regulations change slow.  It was first introduced because of a dungeon that had, surprise, deadly traps.  It has since expanded to include dungeons that focus more on traps and puzzles to defend itself, rather than denizens, though actual deadliness may vary.

Swarm is an odd classification, indicating that a dungeon prefers to use vast quantities of weaker monsters, instead of the mix that most dungeons do.  It's odd because the Dungeoneer's Guild is still unsure how a dungeon comes to the conclusion to focus on swarms.

There are many more besides these, including subclasses for each of the various special rooms a dungeon can acquire, other special scion titles, or other terrain oddities.  For an expanded list, see the index.  For an exhaustive list, see Official Dungeon Subclassifications, 8th edition as the most recent official listing from the Guild, as of time of writing.

-Excerpt from Dungeon Basics, written by Ryndal Windstrider