Recommendations Pacifist dungeon core that's still a dungeon

[foxoftheasterisk]

So the "dungeon core" genre has some kind of grip on me, but I've noticed these stories tend to go one of two ways:
1. The dungeon is an amoral creature without a moral code, or the state of being a dungeon overrides their moral code, and they create a feindish test that kills a bunch of adventurers as a matter of course
or
2. The dungeon has a moral code and refuses to kill people, but eventually starts talking to adventurers or giving them stuff for free or getting involved in politics or whatever and not interacting primarily as a place that challenges adventurers

Does anyone know of a story that splits the difference? One where the dungeon interacts with people mainly, or better, solely, as a challenge with rewards, but has a moral code and doesn't habitually kill people?

 

[Zagaroth]

I think you are going to find this one difficult to fulfill.

Without the other elements that deviate away from a 'pure' dungeon story, it's really hard to create a strong plot. The endless challenge of building an ever deeper and more well defended dungeon works fine for a strategy based game or something, but it works less well for hanging a story structure off of.

Character growth also becomes flat after a while. The core's personality would become very stable, to the point that it becomes uninteresting. Its goal will always be focused on making the next zone, the next boss, the next set of inhabitants, etc. It becomes a looping pattern.

The moment you introduce something that changes this up, you've introduced a distraction from that core loop of challenging people who delve the dungeon and using that influx of energy to grow the next zone.

If the introduced distraction is temporary and goes away, now you have basically created a filler arc because you are returning to the status quo of not having a distraction.

This does not mean it is impossible, it just makes it very difficult.

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But this means that there is a story you want to read, that no one has written. Which lines up with an old adage: "Write the story you want to read, that no one else has written."

If you take this on, you will probably want to create a core that is not a reincarnation. The file I have attached is a text-only version of CH1 of a story with that premise, to give you some ideas on what the viewpoint might be like. But the rules for my world include things like instant comprehension of new languages for cores. If you want to build this story, then you can slow down the process and stages I cover in chapter 1, and build up more gradually. I also had different long term goals, rather than not interacting with people much.

I do recommend that the dungeon have favorite adventurers, somewhere between 'pet humans', 'favorite sports team', and 'watching a soap opera'. You don't need to give the reader enough information that the reader becomes invested in the adventurers, you want the reader to be invested in the core's investment. The reader needs to care that the core cares, they don't need to directly care about the adventurers.

I think that you will want at least bosses to be sapient, so that the core can talk with *someone*. Maybe some of the bosses will have their own favorites.

Of course, you don't have to do this, but a lot of successful stories have been built up from "Fine, I'll do it myself!"

So this is me encouraging you to give it a try.

 

[LesserSarcasm]

Only one i can think of is there is no loot only puns

 

[Zagaroth]

Hmm, based on OPs description, I am not sure even No Epic Loot qualifies. Everything loops back to her dungeon, but her existence is driving political and military action in the world, and she ends up interacting with other dungeons as well.

Oh, and Fox*, that one is a Royal Road story. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/15935/there-is-no-epic-loot-here-only-puns

It's a good story, and I do recommend it, but the outside world does get involved, and many of the PoV characters are not part of the dungeon.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Final Core: A holy dungeon something someting. by Razzmatazz

Starts building a tower instead of underground because it wants to ask the gods, why? Doesn't want to blindly kill but still makes the challenges difficult enough that people die repeatedly.

 

[Grizzly18]

So the "dungeon core" genre has some kind of grip on me, but I've noticed these stories tend to go one of two ways:
1. The dungeon is an amoral creature without a moral code, or the state of being a dungeon overrides their moral code, and they create a feindish test that kills a bunch of adventurers as a matter of course
or
2. The dungeon has a moral code and refuses to kill people, but eventually starts talking to adventurers or giving them stuff for free or getting involved in politics or whatever and not interacting primarily as a place that challenges adventurers

Does anyone know of a story that splits the difference? One where the dungeon interacts with people mainly, or better, solely, as a challenge with rewards, but has a moral code and doesn't habitually kill people?

Blue Core by Inadvisably Compelled.

Blue Core

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/D4BnDWG Dungeon: A place full of monsters, traps, treasure, and death. Those are the Great Dungeons, with unplumbed depths below the roots of the mountains. That's not for me. Dungeon: A place of rape, torture, and death, to control and corral enemies and...

www.scribblehub.com

Not so much a challenge with rewards as a sentient dungeon core that dislikes killing people. Can’t say it doesn’t get involved in politics but more it has to because it’s a Power that can later in the series do things that nothing else on the planet can do. So people want stuff. Luckily the dungeon has a companion that handles most of the politics for them. Does have NSFW parts but not many and they aren’t super story relevant so you can skip them.