The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Sour Pot

#8774cd

Location

Cloudy, Miserable Solomon Islands

Time of Day

24:19

Extraction Point

171 Miles NNE

Time to Complete

1 Hours

Shadows,
We need your help. Agent Rhett Bryant has gone missing and we believe "One Manticore" is responsible. They were last seen in Solomon Islands at 15:09. The agent sent one final message – "A thick fog rolls in at the Underwater cave". Take this Delicate Lamp - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Portable Radio you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Owen Cooper

Alias

"One Manticore"

Features

7' 8"

Brown eyes

Small mole / Right thumb

Organization

The Incorporated of Braised Crown

Emotions

Fondness

Personality

Properly Ruminating

Motive

Disrupt the military to lust for power

Bodyguard

Al the "Mecha Ghost"

Physical Size

Minuscule

Story

Additional Locations

The Sour Forest

Overpopulated Island

Indecision Lodge

Random Events

Amulet Bursts loudly

Donkey Balances on a ledge

Gang chase a suspect

Dozen Eggs is being loudly arrested

World

Stores

Wesley's Globe Specialities

Bennett's Statue Threads

Kramer's Taxidermy animal Closet

Bryant's Toolset Unlimited

Traps

Ghoul Touch

Razor-Wire across Hallway of Calamity

Objects

Globe children's replica

Taxidermy animal with a False bottom

Secret Statue

Hidden Mace

Magazine of Calamity

Wand of Wonder

Horrific screams issue from the caster’s spellbook

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Alice Bennett "Casual Kidneys" Merchant Deodorant Cousins
Julia Kramer "Yellow Cappuccinos" Mole Tissues Horses
Asher Hanson Exhilarated Potatoes Chili
Wesley Lloyd Paramedic Glass Bracelets
Rhett Bryant Railroad Conductor Trees Gym Memberships

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).