History Main / DungeonMaintenance

* This is Brick Road's passion in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', setting up signs in his dungeon describing tricks of the trade and asking guests if they enjoyed their trek through it. He carries on his passion once he becomes Dungeon Man (an anthropomorphic tower), taking the time to set up more signs about everything he's learned about dungeon making.

The worst part is the clean-up. [[NotUsingTheZWord Light]] forbid that the heroes miss the Key to Eternity because it's covered in moulted gryphon feathers, right? Some of these beasts crap things that catch fire and try to kill you, so just try to imagine our mops. Go on. And the big chest at the end needs another Guthbrand, the Sword That Smites All That is Impure, so you find yourself carrying the thing through the corridors trying desperately not to think of tits, so that it's actually a relief if you can focus on the sounds a rock mole makes when it chews through the walls and steps on the PressurePlate that releases the boulder that you now have to [[DurableDeathtrap roll up the slope for the twenty-second time]].

The worst part is the clean-up. [[LowestCosmicDenominator Light]] forbid that the heroes miss the Key to Eternity because it's covered in moulted gryphon feathers, right? Some of these beasts crap things that catch fire and try to kill you, so just try to imagine our mops. Go on. And the big chest at the end needs another Guthbrand, the Sword That Smites All That is Impure, so you find yourself carrying the thing through the corridors trying desperately not to think of tits, so that it's actually a relief if you can focus on the sounds a rock mole makes when it chews through the walls and steps on the PressurePlate that releases the boulder that you now have to [[DurableDeathtrap roll up the slope for the twenty-second time]].

--> '''Aoto''': Hey, there are treasure chests in the Tower right?
--> '''Tyria''': Well, no one would bother to come if there were no treasures.
--> '''Aoto''': Actually, I think the fact that there are treasure chests inside the Tower is surprising in the first place. Who the hell put such a thing inside the tower anyway?
--> '''Tyria''': Why, of course it was me. They were created at the same time as this Tower's creation.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': One strip has a bunch of animated skeletons setting themselves up to provide the appropriate dungeon atmosphere before Hellboy shows up fighting some forgotten thing from beyond the stars. After the fight, they pick themselves and start leaving like actors after a show (a skull mentions he might be picked to [[AlasPoorYorick play a part]] in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'').

* In ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'', supervillain Doctor Impossible talks about the frustration if spending months building an ElaborateUndergroundBase, filling it with deadly traps and then watching a SupermanSubstitute tare it all apart in seconds.

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* Basically the entire point of ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', one of the running themes of which is the repercussions of DungeonCrawling on dungeons. Dungeons are largely self-sustaining. Monsters have ecosystems of their own, and adventurers killing too many of one type of monster may have dangerous cascade effects. Tiny-to-microscopic monsters called "dungeon cleaners" eat corpses and foreign matter and repair any damage with their secretions, down to replicating weathering on individual bricks. Dungeons themselves are GeniusLoci that respond to the desires of adventurers inside them, rearranging their interiors to generate BenevolentArchitecture and MalevolentArchitecture as necessary. People who want nothing more than a drink or a place to rest will quickly find clean fountains and empty rooms, but the more selfish their wants, the harder it becomes for them to progress. However, at one point the oddly convenient toilets set aside throughout the dungeons are brought up, which it turns out [[spoiler: Senshi placed deliberately to harvest fertilizer for his golem fields.]]

* Basically the entire point of ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'', but particularly evident in the oddly convenient toilets set aside throughout the dungeons which [[spoiler: Senshi is using to harvest fertilizer for his golem fields.]]

* Eario in ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily'' has this job in relation to the ''SuperMarioBros'' series.

* ''Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/DungeonMakerIITheHiddenWar'' both cast the player as an architect who builds dungeons [[DungeonBasedEconomy specifically to attract and hunt monsters]], with the goal of eventually building a dungeon capable of luring in the most powerful and dangerous monster in the setting.

* The webcomic Dungeon Construction Co. depicts the trials and tribulations of a Dungeon contruction company and attempts to answer questions like, "This tomb has been sealed for a thousand years. Why are the torches still lit?".

* ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'': One strip has a bunch of animated skeletons setting themselves up to provide the appropriate dungeon atmosphere before Hellboy shows up fighting some forgotten thing from beyond the stars. After the fight, they pick themselves and start leaving like actors after a show (a skull mentions he might be picked to [[AlasPoorYorick play a part]] in {{Hamlet}}).

** There is also a SpiritualSuccessor to DK known simply as ''{{VideoGame/Dungeons}}'' which plays with the same themes, while also having to ''satisfy'' the adventurers with their dungeoneering experience before you kill them and harvest their souls (which are richer for being more fulfilled by the experience).
** Likewise SpiritualSuccessor/SerialNumbersFiledOff game, ''VideoGame/WarForTheOverworld''.

* In ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry'', many of our hero's deaths cause a sequence where his body is lowered into Sierra On-Line's underground workshop ("Where Adventurers Are Made, Not Born!") and dumped into a giant bit bucket. The machinery recycles it into several Larry bodies. The commander attaches a head from a rack to one of them, and raises Larry back to the game's starting position. Subordinates repair a Graham from ''VideoGame/KingsQuest'' and a droid from ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest'', and a dragon is down for maintenance.

** ''ForgottenRealms'' has Undermountain, the territory of ancient Halaster Blackcloak, also known as "the Mad Wizard" -- and it takes ''a lot'' to deserve such a nickname on Faerûn. So he set up the vast cave complex as a dungeon giving adventurers some good MindScrew, mostly just for fun. Start with a piece of art in [[ChaosArchitecture dynamic]] MalevolentArchitecture genre, littered with refuse of his and his apprentices' experiments. Except for various unsavory beings he just allowed to live there, Undermountain was maintained in this shape by Halaster's spells, his pre-programmed spells, his own [[PortalNetwork gate network]], his custom magic items, overlapping fields of his permanent enchantments -- you get the idea: Detect Magic discerns only the strongest auras [[MadeOfMagic in all the statics]].

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** ''ForgottenRealms'' has Undermountain, the territory of ancient Halaster Blackcloak, also known as "the Mad Wizard" -- and it takes ''a lot'' to deserve such a nickname on Faerûn. So he set up the vast cave complex as a dungeon giving adventurers some good MindScrew, mostly just for fun. Start with a piece of art in [[ChaosArchitecture dynamic]] MalevolentArchitecture genre, littered with refuse of his and his apprentices' experiments. Except for various unsavory beings he just allowed to live there, Undermountain was maintained in this shape by Halaster's spells, his pre-programmed spells, his own [[PortalNetwork gate network]], his custom magic items, overlapping fields of his permanent enchantments -- you get the idea: Detect Magic discerns only the strongest auras [[MadeOfMagic in all the statics]].

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** The dungeons' improbability became a subject of both serious study and parody by the game's makers. For example, DragonMagazine, had a series of articles called "The Ecology of..." that explored the life cycle of a fictional creature and how it fit in with others. (The oddest monsters were explained as inventions of mad wizards created precisely to serve as living deathtraps). And of course it also made fun of the concept in its comic strips, with characters often lampshading the facts.

* It's not ''intended'' as one of these, but there was once a bit of a fad among ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' players who are also tabletop gamers for using their own fortresses as the map for a DungeonCrawl, often with a Mines of Moria-style DugTooDeep plot. Particularly sadistic dungeon masters have been known to use LetsPlay/{{Boatmurdered}}.