Dungeons and crawling around in them

 This is going to be a very ramble-y post. You've been warned.

Behold, a dungeon!

So then. Dungeon crawling. Sure's a thing, eh? 

A lot of the OSR scene, at least as much of it as I have experienced, does love itself some dungeon crawling. And you know what? I do too! And yet it is an odd feeling to focus on it sometimes.

I have seen the sentiment expressed several times from several different people (most recently this post by Traverse Fantasy that was posted like 10 minutes ago) that OSR play has never been just about the dungeon crawl. And from what I've seen that is also true. The OSR culture of play offers so much more than simply trudging through the corridors and rooms of a dungeon, and that is a big strength of this style of play. 

However, to put it bluntly - I want to do dungeon crawls. If anything the methodical exploration of a dungeon is what drew me to the OSR initially, as it is a style of gameplay I have fond feelings for. Those stems from my enjoyment of some of the PC games like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale in particular, but even more so - roguelikes! NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup are literally set entirely in a dungeon, and I've wanted to recreate that feeling, which is why I ended up in the OSR. 

I have played so many and different kinds of games over my time in the hobby - I've done freeform OC-focused roleplay for years on end, played various trad games of all kinds, dipped into Storygames on several occasions (even if they just never quite do it for me). I've done the "Not Dungeon Crawling" thing for years now. It feels like I have some catching up to do on the grey hallways and rooms with orcs. Mind you the games I've played and the ones I referee rarely are just grey hallways and rooms with orcs. There's much better and more interesting dungeons to crawl through, so I tend to use those. 

Where I am even going with this? Right! Just play some dungeon crawls. It's fine. They're fun. You probably shouldn't do just that in your game, as it will get repetitive pretty fast, but it really is fine.