I’ve been digging into the Midjourney algorithm for creating images, or as I like to think of it, painting with search terms. I’ve been having fun and thought I’d share one narrow group of things I’ve made, sharing some Midjourney stuff I’ve made every Monday.
I started with a really basic term and for whatever reason, the doors under these terms I liked are all orange. I’m not sure why.
doorway to a dangerous dungeon in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
After that I changed it up and made a door with a bit more guidance and loved these skull doors, especially the two grey slate doors with a skull on it below.
skull shaped doorway to a lich’s tomb in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Tried to get something for my favorite monster but it wasn’t really successful, the only door I really liked was this one.
doorway into githyanki citadel in the style of Dungeons and Dragons + Fiend Folio cover art
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
I’m interested in doing more Tiefling-related world-building. Got a pair of solid doors for a Tiefling barrow.
devil-shaped doorway to a tiefling monarch’s barrow in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Why, you might ask, were the alien Illithid doors the most successful? Why more Illithid doors than anything else? Because when the algorithm makes up something odd, it doesn’t have to look like a door as we know it. Making surreal and alien things is a strong suit.
alien door to illithid spawning chamber in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
If you use these doors in your gaming, I’d love to hear from you about how things shook out at your table.
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Playing a one-on-one D&D game at home with Janaki. The Bingo XP Variant doesn’t work for 1 player, so I whipped up a milestone XP sheet that we’ll use to futz with the timing of leveling up. As we do with the Bingo board, we’ll use it to open up that discussion of what we’d like to see in game and how we’d like to see Makaris the Druid challenged.
Makaris is a Tiefling Druid returning to her birthplace, the Tiefling capital of Asmodeen. Makaris has been away from her home for a decade after a job for her criminal family went bad. During that decade was a war with the Dragonborn and the treaty ending that war has just been inked.
Wrote a blog post about it, like to read it? Here it goes…
I used to just jot down ideas, knowing that when I covered an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper with names and ideas I usually had a good amount of game time. I’m enjoying tables lately.
Daydream about some cool places, some cool factions, some cool tensions and you can always roll a few if you don’t know what to do. Here’s what I might have in front of me before DMing such a thing:
Places
Serene Glade
Ancient Witch-Tree Coven
Devil Gorge
Ancient Standing Stones
Elf Ruins
Raging River
Factions (roll twice if you want factions fighting – same result might be in-fighting)
Satyrs
Queen’s Elves, returning to lands they left long ago
Witch-Elves, sworn to fell trees, never left
Tieflings (with a keep and small castle town in Devil Gorge)
Gnomes, ply the river
Scattered human nomads, hither and yon
Problems
Something ancient has stirred
One faction’s forces is stalking the other from stealth
One faction’s forces is retreating desperately
Diplomacy among two factions is occurring
One faction is celebrating a holy day
Two factions are trading goods
Encounters do not have to be fights.
And here they are in layout. Sometimes things change from notebook to google doc to layout, which is neat.
Maybe I roll a few times to see what is going on before the game.
The Ancient Witch-Trees, Tieflings twice and a Holy Day.
Maybe a Tiefling assassin squad is waiting to ambush some Witch-elves but some of the Tieflings don’t want to attack them on their holy day, not wanting to upset the Witch-trees.
What are Witch-trees? No idea. I have an idea that their bark looks like bone… Creepy sentient trees…
I rolled the Witch-trees again but got the Satyrs and Gnomes and Factions Trading. Nah, just Satyrs and Gnomes trading on the river – pretty normal. Maybe they are gossiping about seeing some shady looking Tieflings moving toward the Witch-trees.
I’d grab some names for each faction type, maybe daydream about some NPC’s. Name the river. Daydream a bit about the Queen’s Elves and the Witch-Elves and the Tiefling Knight who runs the castle in Devil Gorge.
What do the humans who follow a nomadic path around the forest’s edge think of all this drama?
That is it. That is enough to start. If I need more I can roll and we haven’t even discussed linking the players to this mess.
That is a post for another day.
Make your own! Let me know how it goes at the table.
You’ve got that fantasy city you made up on the map – here are some neighbors beyond the map’s edges:
1
Asmodeen: former capital of the Tiefling empire, back when there was an empire. Made to honor the God-Tyrant, Asmodeus but was never officially recognized as His unholy capital city. The city is guarded by the 13 Altar-Fortresses, each commanded by a warlock-commander.
Exports: goats, obsidian, indentured devil tutors
2
Bahamudad: holy city of the Dragonborn, where it is said that Bahamut and Tiamat’s high priests and priestesses made a peace accord and gathered to create the species after the first Dragon War.
Exports: lumber, ancient coins, accountants
3
The Walking Cathedral: an ancient, lumbering machine said to be built in a collaboration between saints, sorcerers, devils and gods before the world knew of war and blood. The path it lumbers along is completed once every season, said to be on guard against the Tarrasque.
Exports: buffalo, holy books, oracles and scribes
4
Pentacle: a new and growing metropolis made by a cabal of five mages who have built a merchant house from their money made from stolen dragon’s hoards and looted lich’s tombs, surrounded by five towers that are still under construction and stout walls.
Exports: vellum, ink, map-makers
5
High Fell: a city in the middle of the Bright Bay, built atop the skyships, airships and spelljammers that fell to the earth during the Storm Wars. The ships are connected via tunnels and gangplanks, purchasing a ship entangles one into complicated relationships with one’s neighbors.
Corvuston: the holy city of the Raven Queen with necropolis walls and many murders.
Exports: marble, embalmers, morticians and undead hunters
7
Ulula: the city that clings to the fortress built by the owl god is known for its giant owl steeds and the city’s knights who ride them – delivering messages and slaying monsters that haunt the night.
Exports: wool, flying steeds and astonishingly recent news from afar
8
Endë-Osto: the deepest city of the Drow is ruled by a matriach whose throne is said to float in the center of the earth. Her queensguard is made of the palest of the drow sword-maidens who have never seen sun, moon nor stars; they ride dinosaurs bred for traversing tunnels.
Exports: mushrooms, ore, gems and Underdark guides
9
Three Giants Dam: Before the Curse fell upon the Giants and damned them to mindless savagery, they used their magics to raise a dam that stretched miles wide and half a mile thick and high, sealing the Sunset Ocean off from the Inner Sea, and creating the lush Valley of Indris. The dam still stands inviolate, the three carved giants on its face standing testament to their once-mighty craft. The smaller races have built a city of interlocking platforms, scaffolds, and houses all along its inner face, with the world’s greatest and most dangerous harborage spilling over the top.
Exports: wine from scaffold-grown grapes, old Giantish machina from the access tunnels, magebred messenger monkeys.
By Jim DelRosso
10
J’arr: also know as the City of a 1000 ports it is said to have been created in a single night by a djinn of the first order. J’arr sits at the mouth of the mighty river All’taugh, the Sweet, known for its refreshing and soothing waters. High minarets and brightly colored palaces speckle the skyline and merchants and creatures of all sorts walk its streets. It has been thousands of years since the city’s founding but the mage with ruby eyes still rules as he always has. It is said that in the dunes that surround the city a giant insect god with glittering eyes watches from beneath the surface.
Exports: olives, diplomats, (there is a school for diplomatic and negotiating skills within the city), and pepper.
by Anthony Loinaz
11
Big Shire: a sprawling series of hills inter-connected with hobbit holes, weed dens and sabbatical hostels for over-stressed wizards. The Big Shire is governed by a complicated morass of mayors and sheriffs.
Exports: pipe weed, cabbage, fireworks, burglars
12
Labyrinth: an urban maze created by and constantly kept up and altered by minotaur architects and masons. The city is a philosophical statement about choice and free will and is said to be slowly dying along with the minotaur species.
Exports: bricks, architects, book-binders
NOTE: When it came time to use this, Endë-Osto didn’t fit, so I used the following:
Vault: in the wake of terrible wars, feuds and kinstrife, the dwarven merchant class has taken over its society and Vault is the ultimate expression of that. This holdfast is a mountain carved into a work of art, where dwarven crafts are constantly exported in armored caravans, guarded by dwarven soldiers.
Githyanki Diaspora 
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