Dungeons Are Bad Business

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Vee Vales has been kicked out of his home and directed to make his own way in the world. Along with his friend Alforde Armorsoul, Vee travels to the city of Oar's Crest. Once a prosperous and well-to-do city, Oar's Crest has fallen into depression and disrepair. After finding a strange stone that takes up residence in a tattered top hat and introduces itself as Reginald, Vee and Alforde decide to open a dungeon in Oar's Crest to revitalize the city and, more importantly, make some fleurs.

Author's Note:

Dungeons are Bad Business (DABB) is a slow burn slice-of-life dungeon core litRPG citybuilder that's focused on the day to day experience of running a dungeon. There will be some action, but it won't be the main focus of the story and Vee and his friends will usually overcome their problems with their minds and their pocketbooks instead of their weapons.

Also, please note that the ONLY site I am posting this to is Royal Road. Any other sites hosting it are doing so without my permission.

Schedule:

New chapter every Friday afternoon Pacific Time!

Thanks for reading!

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2021
Author
Rowan Nettel

Tags

LITRPGACTIONSATIREFANTASYMAGICSLICE OF LIFEGAMELITSTRATEGYDUNGEON CORE

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.4/ 5.0
Followers
864
Views
884,673

Chapters(257 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(9)

  • phat_jsiRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    The story and the author's ability to write seem to be quite good, but there was one issue I had with taxes that took me out of the story and made me lose faith in the author to write a novel that has such an emphasis on making money through a business. Even though I dropped the story, I am giving 5 stars because I doubt even 2% of readers would care about this as I do.
    The dungeon pays taxes based on Gross Sales, which is a horrendous policy, and no legitimate government entity does this IRL, much less a government that is trying to encourage economic growth. By paying a gross sales tax, the dungeon can lose money but still have to pay taxes, but if the dungeon lost money in operations, it would not have any cash to pay the taxes! This would kill a business trying to grow through re-investment, or at the very least discourage businesses from spending money to grow because they would then need to take on debt to pay taxes instead. Then the interest on the debt would be an increase to expenses, leading to even less money for the next tax payment, creating a death spiral of taking on debt and increasing interest expense to pay taxes. Ultimately leading to less taxes as a whole for the city since no new businesses can grow and flourish. A Gross Sales tax kills the goose that would have given birth to the goose that lays the golden eggs.
    Obviously, this is a novel with a dungeon master MC, and therefore the dungeon is going to be wildly successful regardless of tax treatment, so the vast majority of readers will ignore this. But if the author believes in a gross tax, then I do not have faith in their ability to adequately write a story about growing a business and kingdom building without it involving a lot of hand-waving economics. IMO, hand-waving economics is fine (and honestly, should be encouraged) in any other fantasy genre, except for kingdom-building/eco-progression.
    Unfortunately, readers (i.e. me,) can be picky about the most pedantic issues, and I had to drop
  • Drunken_GoldfishRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Read the first 60 chapters and really enjoyed the book. The pacings slow but progress is being made, characters are developing, and the plot is developing nicely.
    *edit - removed comments as they were all fixed in later chapters*
    Great story, worth a read! I have really enjoyed this book. Author is doing a great job really good job developing the world and plot here.
  • ElyRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    It's been a good while since I wrote a review here on the site, because each review of mine tends to become quite lengthy. But this story is definitely worth the time of writing one. Let's see if I'm still able to do it.
    The story is mainly about the trio of friends; Vee, Alforde, and Reginald. Vee and Alforde come to this dump of a city one day and decide to start up a dungeon business. They have a lot of things going against them from the start and continue to meet obstacles as they try to run their new business. As they fight to stay afloat and then grow the dungeon, they meet new, interesting characters — all with their own voices and personalities, and there's almost always an unexpected outcome around every turn they make. But what makes the story interesting is not only the dungeon and its developers, it's also the mysteries that the city seems to harbor. That said, it's a light-hearted, sometimes very goofy story that has made me laugh out loud occasionally (which rarely happens), especially in later chapters.
    I've been a casual fan of dungeon core stories, and this one being different from the others is what drew me in at first. It doesn't follow the norm. It's a city-builder of sorts, but without the number-crunching and ruthless growth, and it's a dungeon story of sorts, without having the MC live in it, trying to kill people. It's, to put it simply, out of the frame for both genres. A true standout, and that's the type of story that really entices me.
    I started reading this story when it first came out, and since, I've read some chapters here and there sporadically through the years (the curse of a binger). But something I noticed is that every time I return to the site, this is the story which updates I check on first. That, in itself, is saying something. The last 2-3 days, I've binge read the 60 latest chapters and I'm itching to read more, just waiting for new chapters to be released. I'm truly grateful that the author is putting this story up for re
  • NotSoSharpSwordRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    To start off, this novel is a pretty interesting take on dungeon stories, as the dungeon's manager is an actual human being instead of a dungeon core. Most exciting of all, however, is that you won't be reading your 10th overpowered/pacifist dungeon core novel where the main character creates godlike beings, you will be reading the story of an ambitious man trying to build up a dungeon from scratch. There won't be any magic to solve logistical issues, dungeons here make actual logical sense, and it makes every improvement the main character gets feel so much more satisfying. I'm afraid it's too early to review its plot and the like, but for now this story looks to be a promising one.
    -Also the magic system is pretty interesting and the grammar seems perfect.
  • TwyrMRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This novel is simply amazing. It sucks you in and before you know it you’ve been reading for 4 hours. The characters are all so multi dimensional even the smallest of side characters through the authors clever and well written interludes. The main story line is developing in a truly unique and interesting way. I am excited to continue reading, and couldn’t recommend a novel more.
  • WoodRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    This story is one of the better stories ive read here, imaginitive premise, well executed.
    It looks like its following a rags to riches storyline with adversity along the way, but the system is fresh, the characters are vivid and real and the plot feels thick and rich with hidden depths.
    I would definatly recomend anyone giving this a read :)
  • dieckjRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Dungeons are Bad Business (DABB) is an immersive story about the development and economic upkeep of a dungeon in the down-and-out town of Oar’s Crest. While the main focus at this point of the story is on the maintenance, expansion, and profitability of the dungeon itself, I am really enjoying the extra details about the world DABB takes place in and the inclusion of characters and events occurring in Oar’s Crest itself. I appreciate how the story shows the town subtly benefiting from the creation of the dungeon (for example, the candymaker creating a new candy related to the dungeon that sells well) and the light city builder elements that the protagonist, Vee Vales, exercises throughout the chapters. The author also sprinkles in interlude chapters told from the perspective of ancillary characters and that bit of flavor really makes the world of DABB feel more rich and intriguing. It is easy to see that the story to be told is much bigger than just the creation of a successful dungeon and I am excited to read more! The writing flows nicely and the author's sense of humor and tone show in each chapter. Dungeons are Bad Business is very bingeable and I highly recommend it!
  • BamboochaRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    If you are looking for standard dungeon master/core story then this is not one for you. I would say it's more about a guy creating really big colosseum that is made by many rooms and floors but instead of gladiators we have single adventurer vs monsters. Dungeons in this novel are a form of entertainment and just a big buisness. A lot of things that are happening are not even dungeon related and a lot of the story focuses on happenings in the town.
    Still, there is very important reason to read this story and that is raw pumpkin magic that one of the adventurers use. You heard that right, raw pumpkin magic!
  • hankRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    This is becoming my favorite because it the real focus is the constant background thread of make enough money to survive. There is plenty of action ,but there is a point other than senseless violence for the story sake,  it's makes the goal of keeping the business going interesting and more difficult.