The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Savory Truck

#4d31c1

Location

Warm, Frigid India

Time of Day

1:20

Extraction Point

178 Miles SE

Time to Complete

25 Hours

Detectives,
It seems "Dull Elephant" has gone level 10. They have been broadcasting this message "A black cat runs past at the Hollow oak tree". We need you to eliminate them, Nearly. Their last known location was recorded at 14:07. You have a Clandestine Paint Brush as a last resort. Use carefully.

— The Origami Swan you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Valentina Fox

Alias

"Dull Elephant"

Features

4' 8"

Hazel eyes

Faint curved scar / Left foot

Organization

The Clique of Dilligent Officer

Emotions

Bitter

Personality

Nearly Shitty

Motive

Take over a country out of jealousy

Bodyguard

Nick the "Shallow mammoth"

Physical Size

Small-scale

Story

Additional Locations

The Savory Forest

Expensive Villa

Competency Manor

Random Events

Thief Is getting confiscated

Bag of Lemons drops from the sky

Vagabond explodes

VAT of Broth Is being kidnapped

World

Stores

Mariah's Stairwell Convenience store

Lloyd's Bell Group

French's Landscape Consulting

Chambers's Cabinet Convenience store

Traps

Flooded Corridor

Wall Blade of Obsession

Objects

Stairwell that is glowing

Landscape that has been hollowed out

Secret Bell

Hidden Whip

Lipstick of Obsession

Wand of Wonder

Before each spell, caster must trace a circle in the air

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Arabella Lloyd "Green Cappuccinos" Merchant Bears Video Games
Ava French "The Noses" Mole Chalk Essential Oils
Elise Hicks Chef Sailboats Oranges
Mariah Peterson Animator Gym Memberships Easter
Delilah Chambers Spirit Sharp Things Television

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).