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I'm writing a story modern/fantasy story (it's a bit of a mix) and the character has a basement in their house. I'd like to have some fun (although not plot-related) things that you can do in the basement. However, I'm having trouble coming up with ideas. Do you have any ideas for things to do in a basement?

P.S. This is my first post on the Writing Workshop. If I am using it incorrectly, please let me know where to put posts like this! I know there are a lot of people who use the forums wrong and then get yelled at, I'm hoping that doesn't happen to me...

I'm trying to think of how a person would be unable to think of a thing that could be done in a basement.  I'm actually having trouble thinking of something you can't do in a basement.  I guess fly a kite?

 

However, for inspiration:  https://chooseyourstory.com/story/tales-from-the-basement

Good point. I came up with a few ideas already for the storyline. After that, I couldn't think of anything for some reason. This is one of those unfinished basements, and you're alone. I thought for a while, but I couldn't come up with anything worth writing about. It sounds like you have a lot of ideas, though.

Edit: I just noticed the link, thanks!

And?

(wait for it...)

There are like a hundred cats your aunt is keeping in the basement, you have to feed them and change litter boxes, and the player can't resume the story until you individually name them all.

You have to pet them all too and pass a skill check to rub their tummies without getting clawed.

Good idea, thanks!

No idea how it would tie into your story but here are some options:

1. It is full of discarded furniture and moving boxes that never got unpacked. If you start cleaning it up you notice half of the boxes aren't even yours. You wonder if they have been here when you moved in. The oldest ones are covered in a think layer of dust. You find a diary labeled 'Mary Fuller, 1906'.
2. You haven't been down here for years, but this was an old hobby of yours. In the center of the room is an almost complete model of your street. You wonder why you started making this, but back then you somehow felt you had to. Thinking about it again it occurs to you that you might as well complete it. There isn't so much work left to do...but then you notice that something is not right, the plots don't come together as they are supposed to. There is a sliver of space left, between your house and the neighbor's garden wall.
3. The previous owner was a little bit deranged and he was building a bunker down here. You are not sure what his actual plan was but he carried a lot of concrete down here. The bunker project never got off the ground though a burst water mains flooded the basement and when they got the water back out all the concrete was setting. So you are now the proud owner of a basement that is a maze of irregular (and worryingly unstable) concrete pillars, still wrapped in moldy sack cloth. It's useful for nothing so you don't pay it much attention until one day there is an enormous bang followed by a splash. Exploring you find that one pillar has collapsed and fallen through a hatch. You wonder why there is a hatch in the first place; you never noticed it. Below is a room filled with water. Perhaps that bunker project had progressed farther than anybody thought?
4. Talking of trapdoors...maybe your basement is empty. Well not completely empty but almost. It contains a billiard table, which has always stood at with slight tilt. When you finally decide to put it straight you discover a trapdoor underneath. The room below has been filled with earth except for the top foot or so. Not so remarkable, you think, but when you shine a torch into the subbasement you discover that the walls of the room are decorated with ornate wallpaper. In fact, you can make out a print featuring rainbows and cartoon animals.
5. The basement is a bit of a secret. The previous owner used it for parties. Very private very extraordinary parties.
6. Actually there is no basement. This is weird because all the paperwork says 4 rooms, kitchen, bathroom and basement. You even remember seeing a basement, or was that on a different viewing. You aren't sure anymore. In any case you think there should be a basement. Of course you aren't going to tear up the floor boards in the kitchen to check what is underneath, or are you?
7. It may be the basement to some, you call it the maltings. Here you spent your evenings carefully roasting the barley before it goes in the vat. When the time is right you distill it and store it. It's hard work but somebody got to do it. It's another three years before the first barrel is ready, but then it will be the finest single malt outside Scotland.
8. The basement looks a little bit like a machine shop. The center piece is an engine block of a Toyota Corolla, the last remnant of the trusty car that carried you around for twelve glorious years. Anyway, when you scrapped it, you kept the engine, and technically you are in the process of fixing it back up. It all started because you came across this website of people who built their own hovercrafts. That was 3 years ago and the plan hasn't progressed very far. But once you have some time you will finish on the engine and then the rest of the work will go quickly. For sure.

Need more?

Wow! Amazing ideas. Since the story isn't entirely based around the basement, I probably won't need any more ideas. However, if I do, I will know where to look.

Thank you for all these ideas. I'm almost inspired to write a new story about basements, but I want to finish my current story so I can have at least one story published.

Thanks again!

Some people swim in their basements. At least, the rich folks who have basements. We were poor and had to swim in the cellar whenever there was a tornado threat.

Interesting idea. I'll see if that fits anywhere in the story...

Or... simple things. Like a ping-pong table. A pool table. An air hockey table. A gaming/drinking/poker table.

Oh, ya. Great though. Thanks!

• Chase bugs that appear in the basement
• Repair holes in the wall or other house defects in the basement
• Decorate or repaint the basement
• Meditate or exercise in the basement

Oo, cool ideas!

But for real in all likelihood the basement is either used for storage (covered furniture and endless boxes of anything) or furnished as a game room (TV and pool table, ping pong table, board games etc) or a spare study/living area. (computer, desk drawers and books to snoop through.)

There would be the full range of normal things to do, plus whatever the fantasy bits of the setting might make possible.

Or you could tie it into the plot itself somehow.

The house is slowly sinking into the basement. You have to place columns in the right places to keep the whole building from collapsing on top of you.

You could take hallucinogenic drugs in the basement since there's no windows to jump out of.

Your friend Jerry the moist basement goblin lives down there. He eats all the spiders that live down there, and you've earned his trust by bringing in dead birds and roadkill. You can convince him to do various favors for you on the surface world on clear rainless nights (he fears things like sunlight and basic hygeine) but he's recently learned how to climb up the laundry chute of his own volition. You have to keep him distracted during a family gathering so he doesn't crawl out of the hole in your bathroom and scare the shit out of your grandma with his hairless lumpy visage.

You could drink gatorade in the basement.