The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Mysterious Mommy

#bd7c71

Location

Overcast, Miserable East Timor

Time of Day

3:23

Extraction Point

70 Miles N

Time to Complete

31 Hours

Sleuths,
It seems "Five Sea Lion" has gone level 5. They have been broadcasting this message "The group finds a dead fish at the dry riverbed". We need you to eliminate them, Knavishly. Their last known location was recorded at 18:19. You have a Colorful Audio Cassette as a last resort. Use carefully.

— The Portable Radio you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Abel Fletcher

Alias

"Five Sea Lion"

Features

5' 4"

Brown eyes

Faint curved scar / Left eye

Organization

The Brotherhood of Bloody Jizz

Emotions

Suspicious

Personality

Knavishly Angry

Motive

Take over a country to escape their destiny

Bodyguard

Hal the "Fugly Orcs"

Physical Size

Puny

Story

Additional Locations

The Mysterious Lodge

Expensive Castle

Virtue Fortress

Random Events

Bag of Lemons is heard screaming

Cauldron Is accused by the law

Cauldron Integrates silently into the group

Woman Is under a curse

World

Stores

Margaret's Flower in Vase Industries

Webster's Stairwell Brothers

Rowe's Statue Wardrobe

Vaughn's Fire poker set Factory

Traps

Compacting Room

Fire of Purity

Objects

Flower in Vase made of heavy metal

Statue that has been hollowed out

Secret Stairwell

Hidden Medallion

Lighter of Purity

Wand of Wonder

Caster’s spellbook acquires a saucy and antagonistic personality

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Joel Webster "Tough Heels" Merchant Basketball Whipped Cream
Paisley Rowe "Black Arms" Mole Dinosaurs Shirts
Giovanni Sutton Flirty Soda Gym Memberships
Margaret Barton Surgeon Rabbits Drinking
Audrey Vaughn Weakened Trees Ice Cubes

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).