The Director Welcomes You

The Zoo Redemption Incident

#d3dea2

Location

Gloomy, Miserable Hungary

Time of Day

10:25

Extraction Point

30 Miles NNW

Time to Complete

42 Hours

Investigators,
It seems "Short Wraith" has gone level 7. They have been broadcasting this message "A stranger can be seen in the shadows at the Frozen palace". We need you to eliminate them, Correctly. Their last known location was recorded at 10:12. You have a Polished Purse as a last resort. Use carefully.

— The Burner Phone you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Abel Bennett

Alias

"Short Wraith"

Features

7' 2"

Brown eyes

Large deep scar / Right thumb

Organization

The Firm of Yummy Hot

Emotions

Concern

Personality

Correctly Steep

Motive

Take over a country to become famous

Bodyguard

Anthony the "Strong Cyclops"

Physical Size

Big

Story

Additional Locations

The Orange Crypt

Ancient Mansion

Fatality Tower

Random Events

Diary Is throwing a protest

Buccaneer Adopts a nearby child

Chicken gathers near a point of interest

Dozen Eggs meets disaster

World

Stores

Eva's Fire poker set Logistics

Bowers's Toolbox Consulting

Keller's Shelf of alcohol Atelier

Carpenter's Tea Set Unlimited

Traps

Burning Hands

Black Tentacles of Redemption

Objects

Fire poker set that is glowing

Shelf of alcohol children's replica

Secret Toolbox

Hidden Pen

File of Redemption

Wand of Wonder

Target’s blood hold the secret to eternal life

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Vincent Bowers "King Hot Dogs" Merchant Chili Essential Oils
Patrick Keller "Sharp Elbows" Mole Clocks Easter
Bryson Hawkins Banker Hammers Water
Eva Evans Frazzled Christmas Books
Beau Carpenter Railroad Conductor Dinosaurs Socks

Cipher



                

                
 
                

                

                

                

                

                

The Fuck Is This?

After years of playing Dungeons & Dragons, I decided to make a variation where everything is improv. The DM knows as much as the players and you tell a story together - sitcom style. We use this site as a quest starter, think of some characters, and see how much we can make each other laugh.

It's designed to be simple, portable, and dependent on being creative & inventive. I wanted a framework to guide the plot forward but let us find the story. This page is just a guide to help the stories become too redundant - take as much as you want, ignore as much as you need. If you want to follow along with our adventures or read some examples, check out my personal story notes.

This concept and site was crafted by Andrew Maruska with linguistic help from Evan Stark

But how?

The Most Important Rule

Be Silly. The goal is to laugh not to have a normal adventure. Someone wants to go to the moon? Fuck yeah they do and we're going to do it with medieval technology.

Set Up

Give the players a home base, a year they want to play in, and some general ownership of the setup. It's more successful when everyone has helped create the world because when a player makes suggestions it's easier to integrate them without feeling too precious. It helps to have a figurehead that assigns the quest to authoritatively start.

Characters

90% of creating a character here is a funny voice you're forced to talk in for 3 hours. I typically have people pick one trait they want to be good at and give them a slight advantage when using that - and the same for a negative trait. Don't overcomplicate it. They wanna be a skateboarder who can't feel love? perfect. +2 to cool & -2 to social acceptance.

Rolling

This can be whatever you want but as a general rule I use d20's as a graded scale. Sometimes, I craft the roll to mimic the action i.e. if they are walking a tight rope then might need to roll a 10 because 20 & 1 make them fall to one side or the other. Rolling in D&D got boring so make it fun again.

Dungeon Master

Your goal is to say 'Yes and...' but realistically it's 'Yes and roll to see if you can actually do that triple backflip down the cliff to mount the attacking phoenix...' - It's okay to make them fail, just don't tell them no. This guide is to help you be 1 step ahead of the players but it can't know the vibe of the room, have some empathy and play to the crowd.

Ending

No one can tell you this. The guide is to help you get 1/3 of the adventure set up and the rest will be created by the adventuring party. Have fun with it and try to tie up some loose ends at the end (or don't and bring them back for another adventure).