The Director Welcomes You

The Medium Instability Protocol

#381215

Location

Cool, Dull Sao Tome and Principe

Time of Day

21:58

Extraction Point

169 Miles NE

Time to Complete

45 Hours

Ambassadors,
As you can see you are trapped inside the outside of a Polluted Peninsula . We almost couldn't find you — Please explain when you get back. All we know is "Green Manticore" is responsible and they sent us this message - "A shadow passes at the Dead Forest". Your mission was intelligence, achieve what you can.

Hopefully you still have that Mechanical Screwdriver hidden on you.

— The CD player you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Kevin Webster

Alias

"Green Manticore"

Features

5' 2"

Gray eyes

Faint curved scar / Right hand

Organization

The Department of Pervasive Tax

Emotions

Restless

Personality

Boastfully Loose

Motive

Take over a government for scientific discovery

Bodyguard

Alex the "Bloody Opossums"

Physical Size

Microscopic

Story

Additional Locations

The Straight Villa

Compact Arcade

Contentment Crypt

Random Events

Water Vessel Becomes wounded

Crying Child drops from the sky

Whore Is getting confiscated

Keg is loose

World

Stores

Presley's Sconce Arcade

Rios's Music Box Emporium

Banks's Workbench Little shop

Graham's Goblet Group

Traps

Portcullis

Burning Hands of Instability

Objects

Sconce made of heavy metal

Workbench that is glowing

Secret Music Box

Hidden Club

Knife of Instability

Wand of Wonder

Caster takes a big bite out of his spellbook

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Adeline Rios "Italian Ribs" Merchant Lipstick Dolphins
Layla Banks "Indigo Feet" Mole Water Soap
Morgan Riley Athlete Trucks Plushies
Presley Perez Indifferent Syrup Jigsaw Puzzles
Mila Graham The Body Jazz Attention

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).