Shadows, We need your help. Agent Avery Miller has gone missing and we believe "Plump Normal Guy" is responsible. They were last seen in Latvia at 07:05. The agent sent one final message – "A stranger can be seen in the shadows at the Dragon's Sea". Take this Colorful Lighter - it was their favorite tool and might help you.
— The Vinyl record player you were holding self destructs.
Alan Marquez
"Plump Normal Guy"
6' 6"
Brown eyes
Large deep scar / Neck
The League of Mealy Paper Bag
Love
Unnaturally Thankful
Take over a country to be left alone
Terry the "Gigantic Lion"
Great
The Polite Island
Hidden Arcade
Excitement Mansion
Delivery Guy scurries by
Toilet Is frozen into a block of ice
Bottle of Soy Sauce Calls menacingly
Bag of Flour gathers near a point of interest
Valeria's Skeletal Animal International
Hart's Glass Jars Little shop
Thornton's Pipe Industries
Miller's Iron stove Technologies
Bear Trap
Water-Filled Room of Reservation
Skeletal Animal children's replica
Pipe that has been hollowed out
Secret Glass Jars
Hidden Chewing Gum
Diary of Reservation
Someone nearby must Save vs Death or his skin burns from his body
Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Claire Hart | "White Kidneys" | Merchant | Plushies | Attention |
Valerie Thornton | "Indigo Cheesecakes" | Mole | Coffee | Houses |
Sophia Murphy | Graphic Designer | Television | Jigsaw Puzzles | |
Valeria Gordon | Statistician | Paper | Jazz | |
Avery Miller | Art Therapist | Paperclips | Attention |
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
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 UpGive 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.
Characters90% 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.
RollingThis 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 MasterYour 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.
EndingNo 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).