The Director Welcomes You

The Scarily Masochistic Agent

#10302c

Location

Foggy, Humid Sierra Leone

Time of Day

23:31

Extraction Point

9 Miles E

Time to Complete

36 Hours

Eyeballs,
We need your help. Agent Nicole Hudson has gone missing and we believe "Plump child" is responsible. They were last seen in Sierra Leone at 06:14. The agent sent one final message – "A roll of thunder at the hive". Take this Polished Ballpoint Pen - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Tablet of Stone you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Isaac Boyd

Alias

"Plump child"

Features

6' 5"

Green eyes

Faint curved scar / Right thumb

Organization

The Firm of Crashing Kick

Emotions

Disliked

Personality

Scarily Famous

Motive

Take over a government for a love interest

Bodyguard

Jose the "Dire gorgon"

Physical Size

Enormous

Story

Additional Locations

The Masochistic Reef

Touristy Pond

Happiness Festival

Random Events

Dancer is heard screaming

Cookie Evades the law

Bag of Flour Is under a curse

Transport Is under a curse

World

Stores

Vincent's Fireplace Collective

Walters's Bonsai Hole

Vazquez's Globe Threads

Hudson's Bible Discount

Traps

Wall Blade

Acid Arrow of Annihilation

Objects

Fireplace that is glowing

Globe made of heavy metal

Secret Bonsai

Hidden Longsword

Hammers of Annihilation

Wand of Wonder

Target is highly magical and is quickly recognized by magic users

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Molly Walters "Meaty Lemons" Merchant Music Dolphins
Avery Vazquez "Green Matzo Balls" Mole Rubber Stamps Quartz Crystals
Angel Sanchez Dog surfing instructor Video Games Honey
Vincent Quinn Graphic Designer Books Chili
Nicole Hudson Graphic Designer Soda Limes

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).