Puzzle Dungeon

OSR puzzle theory and tabletop shenanigans

• 15 Mar, 2026 Holmesian name generator

  Zenopus archives did the hard work of grabbing all possible syllables and title combinations for names from Holmes Basic and B1. Just hit the button to generate however many evocative names you want.

• 13 Mar, 2026 Loot the Body

  More than just some sweet psychedelic dungeon music. Here's a table for when the party asks to loot the body. Because I wanted my own with extremely specific and weird criteria.

• 05 Mar, 2026 Lizard Wizard magic

  Song titles as spell names. Spread a little bit of authorial love for a whole lotta fun.

• 04 Mar, 2026 20 level-less spells

  Some fresh-ish magic to switch up your games. Born from spark tables.

• 17 Feb, 2026 Build your own wizard tower

  Dead simple craft. Do you have a printer and an appetite for breakfast? You're nearly there.

• 26 Jan, 2026 A look back at Puzzle Dungeon Jam

  A retrospective on the jam. My hopes and dreams and oh so many dungeons.

• 15 Jan, 2026 Your players are your co-creators (and you should credit them)

  Stuck? Try riffin, because you and your players can make some beautiful music.

• 08 Dec, 2025 Mastering the Puzzle Dungeon Through Challenges and Lessons

  A dungeon’s challenges should teach, test, and twist its core gimmick. Build puzzles that reward player mastery and stack mechanics creatively.

• 13 Oct, 2025 We need more puzzle dungeons!

  Make a puzzle dungeon and get help doing it. Nov 3rd - Dec 15th.

• 06 Oct, 2025 Puzzle Dungeon Design: Themes & Gimmicks

  Here are a couple of formalized steps for crafting puzzle dungeons that feel at home at the table—and are actually fun.

• 08 Aug, 2025 Humanizing the Job

  While editing A Familiar Tower, I wound up adding a magic item which had way more of an impact on characters than I thought it would—and an even bigger impact on me.

• 16 Jul, 2025 Don't Worry About It

  I find myself gravitating toward the simplest approach for playtesting and for one-shots in general. I don’t want to waste too much time. So I use these FKR-ish rules.

• 14 Jul, 2025 Building Better Puzzles for "Buried in the Bahamas"

  Arrrrrgh! Ever play the dark caribean pirate adventure game Pirate Borg? I did! It’s great. I continue my series on building better puzzles with a review and workshop of the adventure I ran.

• 02 Jun, 2025 Magic item identification, the fun way

  Experimenting to identify magic items CAN be fun, provided that the magic item itself was designed right.

• 28 Mar, 2025 Building better puzzles for "The Mud Sorcerer’s Tomb"

  In which I critique a thirty-three-year-old puzzle dungeon and try to fix her.

• 18 May, 2023 Building Better Puzzles for "Lair of the Lamb"

  Lair of the Lamb by Arnold K is one of my favorite adventures. Here are some tweaks I use to make the puzzle in it fit with the theme of the module.

• 21 Dec, 2022 Designing OSR-Style Puzzles

  A brief look into what good puzzles in adventure games could be like and a plea to critics.

• 07 Feb, 2022 So you want to run a Puzzle Dungeon: Tips and procedures for pleasant puzzling

  I recount what I've learned from running many dungeons of this style in the hopes of making it a bit easier for other tables.