How to Make A Dungeon
The first steps when making your dungeon are to prepare your spaces, both physical and mental. For your physical space, I recommend:
- A worn desk, surface wide and deep, with drawers for paper, pencils, erasers, and other paraphernalia. Ideally, the desk will have been painted a wild color that no longer matches anything, but you still love.
- A dusty lamp holding a warm Edison bulb. Blue lights are the devil.
- A stack of books nearby. This will be useful later on, for reasons that you can imply.
- If you are so lucky, bribe an animal companion to sit in your lap or nearby. They will look at you with love, and warm your heart while you work.
- Dice and random tables of choice. They will be your guide when times are uncertain.
Now, to prepare the mind, it is recommended by the author to do the following, in an order of your choice or that is determined by the wanton desires of your multi-tracked train of thought:
- Brew a hot drink. Take your time, and savor the steps. Wait for the water to boil without checking your phone. Pour the drink into your favorite mug. Forget it on the counter, and come to get it once it is cold.
- Find music to excite your neurons. Play it at a volume that is heard clearly, without damaging your ears. Recommendations include Hallas, Jess and the Ancient Ones, and Skeletonwitch.
- Get distracted by the nearby stack of books. Pick one up, admiring its weight and cover illustration. Open the pages, read a passage at random. Take this passage and let it start smoldering in the smoky peat fires of your unconscious.
Once you are ready to begin, steadfastly and forthrightly following the instructions propositioned in the above text, the work can begin.
Get out paper, sturdy mechanical pencil, and dice. Begin by drawing 3-5 interlinking circles or otherwise round and oblong shapes on the paper, lightly, with your pencil. Now, place the outlines of 10-30 rooms around your interlinking circles. Look out the window, see the cardinal alight on a branch. Connect the rooms with snaking hallways, secret passages, and locked doors. Place the key to these locks in other rooms for your players to discover. Turn your head as your cat jumps onto your desk and rubs her head against your hand. She loves you, and you love her. Number the rooms, and on another piece of paper, start writing down the contents of each room. Hopefully you have an idea for what may go in some of these rooms already. If not, stop and feel your pulse. Feel your heart pumping, your lungs expanding, your soul leaping with the urge to create. Return to your stack of books. Peruse through the pages, and gather more kindling. Throw these ideas, these words, these fantasies onto the raging bonfire of your mind. Let words flow through you and out of you, onto the paper below. Stop now, for a moment, and cast off your feelings of embarrassment and worries. This is fun, you will not be judged, this is for fun. We are all playing a game. We play the game together. Think of joy, of love, and of adventure. By now, you might have a dungeon.