How to Host a Dungeon

About this board game

How to Host a Dungeon is a solo fantasy pen-and-paper dungeon-building game for one player, designed to take about 60 minutes. You guide an imaginary dungeon from the dawn of time through the arrival of an arch villain attempting to conquer the world.

The dungeon develops through random tables and procedures that bring monsters, adventurers, civilizations, and other forces into an underground environment. As these elements interact, you record what happens, maintain the evolving dungeon map, and make choices about how events play out.

Rather than producing a conventional victory or defeat, the game creates a complete, unique dungeon map accompanied by its own history. The result is an artifact that can be enjoyed on its own or used as the foundation for a dungeon crawl role-playing game campaign.

• Solo play for one player
• Approximately 60 minutes of play time
• Random tables and procedures drive dungeon development
• Record interactions and maintain a growing dungeon map
• Create a finished setting for a potential role-playing game campaign

Each playthrough of How to Host a Dungeon follows the changing life of an underground environment, with events shaped by both the game’s procedures and your decisions. The combination of mapping, record-keeping, and emergent history makes every completed dungeon a distinct creation.

For players interested in fantasy world-building, solo creativity, and unusual dungeon design, this 2008 game offers a focused way to develop a setting from its earliest origins to the threat of world conquest. The free version is available to download, and the game can also be ordered through its official source.