If the world, as seen through the characters' eyes, seems mundane and predictable - the world of the tavern where they while away their days drinking slightly sour ale and listening to the stories of old-timers and would-be bards, with perhaps a diversionary bit o' gambling for excitement and a little flirting with the hired help to break the monotony - where does a party of stout adventuring types go for something unpredictable? Where can an adventurous character find fame and fortune? Perhaps the underworld, where mystery abounds and adventure awaits.
This is the classic adventure game scenario, one played out so many times around the world with so many groups and yet it remains a good start to a session (or more) of fun and entertainment. The binary nature of the world with above ground (civilization) being fairly safe and predictable and the below ground (underworld) being anything but safe and predictable balances nicely, providing players both tension and relaxation. It is this ability to freely move between the two that gives starting players agency while the referee maintains a manageable game with boundaries. The underworld, or dungeon as it typically manifests, and where the action generally happens, is designed to provide a venue for adventure, and a means to improve characters both in terms of ability and finances, yet not over-tax the referee's resources of time and creativity.
So, back to the tavern, where the characters can meet any number of ex-adventurers, wily wizards cooking up a scheme and looking for muscle, or devout clerics with a holy mission to lead. Each of these are tried and true means of introducing an "adventure hook", that bit of information that sets the adventurers off to save the world, or just gain fame and fortune in the underground. The tavern and associated inn, and store represent the safe haven to which the PCs can return time and again to recover wounds and magic spells and re-equip themselves, hear about new opportunities and as resources allow to hire the occasional men-at-arms, or even a specialist of some sort to augment the party's strength.
As a place of wonder and adventure it seems possible, even probable that the rules by which the normal world operates may not apply once the underworld is entered. Things may get a little weird, magic and chaos may seem to be everywhere and the laws of nature may be different in the underground. Drawing on various sources of inspiration including various dreamscapes, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, or any place of topsy-turvy craziness, the referee is free to alter reality while underground. How else to explain the presence of various fantastic creatures and wondrous treasures.
As the campaign progresses and both players and referee become more familiar with the developing milieu, the wilderness or above ground adventure locale might be added to the adventure mix. This is the classic formula - dungeon, then wilderness, finally stronghold. Wilderness adventure is more open ended and potentially even more dangerous than the underground. Presumably by the time the game moves outdoors, both players and referee are in agreement regarding the kind of game they can enjoy together and the referee can tailor the wilderness to accommodate that style (such as risk factor, balance, combat or role-play). There is even more flexibility and potential for hazardous adventure in wilderness design than the underworld and it helps to have a degree of player/referee trust established prior to venturing into that environment whether such wilderness is the rough and tumble undeveloped or an urban setting.
what is the enduring attraction of the Original Game...why did its popularity spread so quickly and eventually influence so much of present popular culture? White Box D&D, including the "old school" style of play in currently practiced, pits the forces of Law against the forces of Chaos as the natural state of things. Civilized areas are the realm of law. The underground and the hostile wildernesses are the realms of chaos where things are unpredictable, frightening and hostile. They are largely unknown, unmapped and full of surprises - "chaos", in other words - often including treasures. And there is the draw!
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