Y’all just running around underground, killing mushroom men and avoiding wizard traps like it’s normal?

But for real, I think there is something about the normalization of a lot of the tropes in DnD that significantly softens the impact of them.

Let’s do a little exercise. Close your eyes for a moment.

Wait, shit. Then you can’t read. Okay, scratch that.

I just want you to imagine the following – you go into an actual cave. The passageway stretches downward for yards and yards and yards. It’s dark – there has NEVER been natural light down here. There is no breeze, just a stillness, and as eerie as that stillness is, you hope to hell it doesn’t end. That would mean you’re no longer alone.

That is a wild thought! Or even think of the first folks who went into the pyramids, ages after their construction. The darkness and unknowns of the tomb…

And if I had to fight an actual skeleton in real life? I would likely shit my pants.

So anyway, I had an idea. I don’t know that I’ll ever do it.

I make a dungeon. It’s underground. Every room description starts off with a bit of flavor text to remind you just how ominous of a place you are in.

• Underneath five tons of dirt and stone

• Three football fields under the earth.

• As this place experiences light for the very first time.

• If you were to die here, no one would find your body for all eternity.

Each one would just have a foreboding af snippet like that.

Here’s a fun game – what descriptions like this can you come up with? The goal is for them not to be that specific – they just need to instil a sense of reality about how desolate and isolated the place is.

Post them in the comments below. Let’s play.

-James