Dungeon Thread: What Makes a Good Dungeon?

[Lich]

Dungeon Master's dungeon doesn't really tell a story and it's still one of the best blobbers in the history of the universe.

Stories are for redditors.

[Rigwort]

I would say that dungeons differ from overworlds mostly in a comparison. It seems wrong to call anywhere in Ultima Underworld or in games like Arx Fatalis a dungeon. It seems to me that the overworld and dungeons are just there to contrast each other. Dungeons restrict movement and have more concentrated danger than the overworld. But you can't really have a mechanical dungeon without an overworld. You can have a thematic dungeon without an overworld, however, like in many roguelikes.

At least, that's how it seems to me.