Sean McCoy shared a project he is doing for 2023. I think it’s good idea.

Small habits compound.

One of the most useful books I’ve read over the last few years was Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you have a resolution to lose weight, write a novel, or create a megadungeon. Atomic Habits is a good book to read because it reframes the idea of achieving a goal to becoming a the type of person who is healthy, who writes novels, or creates megadungeons. You do that by creating a habit.

The dungeon room a day for 365 days is a great habit for a referee. The key here is to just do a minimum thing that you know you can always do. That could be taking five minutes and rolling on a random generator, writing down “3 orcs making a pie.”, or “empty room.”

The point isn’t to make something good. The point is to make something. You can always go back and revise it or rewrite it later. Building the habit of creating something every day makes #Dungeon23 a project worth doing.

Practice makes better.

Learning a skill requires practice. Short periods of focused deliberate practice done over a period of time can produce amazing results.

Creating a single dungeon room every day is a form of practice that any referee can benefit from. As you create more rooms, you’ll learn lessons. You’ll see how different paths through a dungeon can create different experiences. You’ll develop new processes or techniques and throw out old ones.

If you want to learn how to be a better game master, one way is to create your own gaming materials.

Dungeon23 is a D.I.O. project.

I wrote the D.I.O. Manifesto a while back. #Dungeon23 is in the D.I.O. spirit.

DIO stands for Do It Ourselves. Instead of waiting around for someone to make something for us, the old school ethos is to do it ourselves.

Before there was Dragon there was Alarums and Excursions. TSR didn’t publish the first adventures and dungeons. They came out in zines like Jennell Jaquays’ Dungeoneer and other projects like Palace of the Vampire Queen.

Not everyone is going to share the work they do for Dungeon23, but plenty will. You’ll find a room, an idea for a room or something that will inspire your own dungeons or encounters.

There are several other bloggers who have dropped resources and materials for #Dungeon23

https://itch.io/blog/462261/dungeon23-resources

https://followmeanddie.com/2022/12/09/dungeon-23-challenge/

https://hexedpress.itch.io/dungeon23-helper

Am I doing it?

Yes, and it’s not going to be pretty. Some days, it’s going to be an empty room with just a few details. Some days, it’ll be a scribbled and a bit of text. Part of the reason I’m doing this is that I want other referees with less experience to see that adventure and dungeon creation for your home game doesn’t need to look like (or read like), a published polished module. Those things are designed and written to take something from one person’s mind and put it in another person’s mind. Dungeon#23 is a practice to get in the habit of creating something.

I am going to do it using a Rocketbook. I’ll post the image on my Instagram and put it in a folder for newsletter subscribers.

Even if you miss some days, never run it, don’t have a blog or other place you share things; Dungeon23 is a good way to warm up, stretch those creative muscles and do something for yourself. Even if you do 365 random wilderness encounters or some other variation, #dungeon23 is a concept worth participating in.