The Director Welcomes You
The Politician Freshness Protocol
#4159bc
Undercover Emissaries, I have sent you to climb a Desolate Suburbs to look for a suspect by the name "Blue Merfolk". This mission is black ops. Their recent activity is concerning and we need you to uncover their plans. We don't know much about their goals but we've intercepted this cryptic message – "A vagrant asks for money at the Devil's barrow".
We're low budget this mission – I've packed a Beautiful Hammock in your kit to help.
— The Burner Phone you were holding self destructs.
Stella Arnold
"Blue Merfolk"
5' 2"
Red eyes
Large deep scar / Left thumb
The company of Garrulous Media
Self-conscious
Knowingly Hungry
Disrupt the military to achieve their destiny
Peter the "Thoughtless Spirit"
Insignificant
The Most House
Desolate Circus
Censorship Isle
Soup Balances on a ledge
Vagrant Skips merrily
Carcass Gets their hand chopped off
Nearby Gas Tank Becomes wounded
William's Ceramic Crock Creative
Adkins's Statuette Properties
Meyer's Lipstick Emporium
Lucas's Tapestry Atelier
Large Net
Symbol of Hypnosis of Freshness
Ceramic Crock made of heavy metal
Lipstick children's replica
Secret Statuette
Hidden Morning Star
Polearm of Freshness
Target feels as if he’s wearing an enormous hat made of lead
| Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sawyer Adkins | "Plump Ribs" | Merchant | Painting | Clocks |
| Eleanor Meyer | "Red Kidneys" | Mole | Cooking | Rock n' Roll |
| Nathaniel May | Talent agent | Football | Cooking | |
| William McGee | Stressed | Video Games | Acorns | |
| Jameson Lucas | Surveyor | Cousins | Doors |
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).