I have a really large earring collection; I have perhaps as many earrings as I have TTRPGs, and I mainly buy them from local craft markets, not jewellers. They’re all made from resin or clay, or cut from wood or acrylic, by hand or with homestyle equipment, in peoples’ basements or garages, not outsourced to a factory overseas or to a shop where people print 3d-print their ideas. It’s a craft movement, like zines once were.
Zines in TTRPGs in 2024 has come to mean “A5, highly produced booklet”, but that isn’t what zines have traditionally been. They were like earrings: local craft. I think that we should be embracing local craft in TTRPGs. The easiest way, is to make a dungeon. Let me explain how you can make a zine dungeon in the classic sense of the word: A zungeon.
In 2025, anyone can make a zungeon
The first step is how to demystify dungeons. If you ask someone who does this a lot, you’ll get lots of specific advice. Ignore it all. This is how to get your first draft, as quickly as possible.
Gohereand generate a dungeon. I suggest this dungeon generator because it’s not random, but rather based on the platonic idealas calculated by Marcia B.Sadly the original dungeon generator is gone, but you can still make one based on Marcia’s blog. Other generators aren’t as useful in my opinion, because they’re too big. Start small, and only increase the size of the container when your idea overflows.- Choose a theme, then mix it with another theme. “Mermaid Vampire” “Slime waterfall”. If you get something boring like “cucumber demon” just do it again to get “cucumber demon jazz”. If you can’t think of any themes, draw cards and use those (tarot, Magic, Dixit).
- Create two monsters or NPCs (or groups) to inhabit your dungeon, riffing off the theme. Give them a goal and a method of achieving it. If you want stats, just take them from a similar stat block and tweak.
- Put the NPCs in their designated rooms, and then describe all of the rooms, all riffing off the theme.
- Pick a party level (X), and put Xd6 x 200 silver pieces and Xd6 x 100 gold pieces worth of treasure in the dungeon. Also layer the theme on the treasure, if it makes sense.
- Roll 1d6, and on a 6 add a magical item. Riff off theme too.
- If you don’t feel 6 rooms is enough, do it all again, with a new theme. Have the faction in the second section conflict with the first. Rinse and repeat until you feel like it’s big enough. I’d estimate one of these would last a session or two.
This process lowers the bar of entry to making a dungeon. You’ve already made enough to run for your friends, and it’s been less than an hour.
Stop there, if you want.
Listen to the dungeons’ heart
Or, if want to publish or share this dungeon? This is how to build it into something you’re excited to share. Primary principle: Listen to its’ heart from this point forward.
Do any of the rooms make promises that aren’t fulfilled? Add a room, an item, an NPC. Follow the trail of the world you’ve built. You’ll find it feeds back into itself. Revise it according to what it wants.
Does the slime waterfall need a source? Add a room. What lives there? Add a character.
Read Juicy Hooks and add either hooks or rumours. Like, 1-2 per 6 rooms, probably just 1 will be enough. Again, listen to your dungeon’s heart: What would lure someone into it?
The slime, if collected at its’ source, heals vampirism? What’s the source? Who lives there?
Add events and encounters. Like, 1-2 per 6 rooms, probably just 1 will be enough. Still listen to your dungeons’ heart: What happens when time passes there?
The dungeon slowly fills with slime. You can only stop it by making the infant Vampire Queen stop crying. Until then, the blood slimes will move twice as fast.
Now we play it with our friends, and fix our mistakes (vampire queen too deadly? Blood slimes not deadly enough? Slime rises too quickly? Hook not compelling enough?
Now it’s a loop; repeat this process until you’re excited to show it off.
Stop there, if you want.
Give it an Zungeon identity
Or, make it beautiful. How? “I don’t have an artistic bone in my body”
Yes, you do. You have some kind of asset: Collage skills and old comic books, stick figures and a long meeting at work, watercolours and an interest in splatters, colourful doodles that you do for mindfulness, the ability to sew, you mapped on grid paper as a child, you have an eight year old nephew who loves to draw the X-men: Use your assets to give your dungeon an identity. Make a cover, and then make one of these things special, too: Art, headings or maps. Don’t try to look like everyone else. Don’t try to look professional. Give your zungeon identity. Get glitter and glue on your hands and cut paper. Be messy and DIY. Be surprising. Stick it all together into the notepad you write into, take photos with your phone, and combine it into a pdf.
Go back and look at those cool DIY zines: You’re making a zungeon. Craft, art, and play combine. Have fun. Just do it. Apply the same improvisational skills that you apply to play to your zungeon.
That means that even if you insist you have no skills that you can apply — which I don’t believe — you can support one of the many artists who put their art out for free on to their patrons, like Evelyn or Amanda (artists — if you have one of these, comment, and I’ll add a list at the end of this). Draw a map, using a mapping program like Dungeon Scrawl. If you do it like this — all digital — then make a google doc and print it at work. Then mark it up in the margins. Let loose. Your children’s crayons. Ha! I tricked you into making a zungeon anyway!
Now, share it on itch.io. At the very least make it Pay What You Want. Tell people about it. You know what, use the hashtag #zungeon, why not? If you send me a download code, I promise to put it in my review list. Actually, if I get more than 2 or 3, I’ll review zungeons in addition to my usual reviews.
Creating a dungeon is easy, and even publishing one is attainable, particularly if you unshackle yourself from what it should be, and let yourself make a zungeon.
Idle Cartulary
Addition: A lot of people suggested making this a jam, so we can all be inspired by each other’s zungeons. So, here’s the zungeon jam. Join and share!
Addition 2: Stuck on themes? Try this Zungeon theme generator. Stuck on treasure? Try making a punnet.
Addition 3: The are 2 other 2025 manifestos that support and interact with this one, the 1E Manifesto and Year of the Beta, and Seedling wrote What Is A Zine? Check them out if you’re having trouble sharing your zungeon.
Addition 4: I’ve had some questions about interpreting the output from the dungeon generator, because it uses some terminology from early editions. “Empty” doesn’t mean empty, it means no treasure, monsters, or traps — Chris can help if you’re not sure what to put here! “Interactive” means there’s something there interesting — a puzzle, a magic fountain, a lever that releases the slime. “Treasure” specifically means fungible treasure — treasure not exchangeable for cash can be as plentiful as you wish.
Addition 5: If you’re looking to post your zines in the US, Jacob Hurst has a solution for you!
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