Unblocking Yourself: Dungeonize your Home

Sometimes when you're writing a dungeon room, it can feel like pulling teeth. The empty space and the stocking result of "Trap with Treasure" mocks you.

Here's a technique to unblock yourself. Look around you. Put cogent details that you can see into your dungeon. 

Things I can see from my computer desk chair:

• The Mordant Arcana tarot deck
• A pipe
• The Fantasy Prompt Generator zine from Norn
• A helmet with antlers on it
• A hedgehog figurine
• My diploma
• My college honor pledge saying that I would not steal (that I stole)
• A bow

And that's without turning my head. Just looking around in my field of vision, I already have some prompts for a room with that stocking result. Let me see if I can put them together...

The Wizard's Study

A small study. Inside, there is a cozy leather armchair and a small end table with a hedgehog statue (worth 10g) holding a pipe. On the walls is a tapestry of a dweorling with magnificent antlers carrying a bow that slightly ripples in an unfelt breeze and a framed diploma from the Unseen University. 

• Pipe: The pipe can create a fog cloud 1x/day.
• Tapestry of a dweorling: The tapestry is enchanted; a gift from the wizard's father-in-law. It will make one missile attack (+4) per round against anyone who enters the room that isn't the wizard.

See? Pretty easy! 

Now, go see if you can put together an entire dungeon just using your favorite things from around your house! 

While I have you...

Did you have a chance to check out my Dungeon Design Course from last year? I wanted to share an update! Jon from 3d6 Down the Line was kind enough to record audio versions of each chapter! You can now listen along to the exercises! 

If you took something away from the Dungeon Design Course, I hope you'll consider voting for it as Best Series in the Bloggies. Voting is happening now until 2/27/2026!

Vote now!