The Director Welcomes You

Fang, Nut, Fish, Spy.

#5a2d59

Location

Warm, Chilly Chad

Time of Day

6:10

Extraction Point

18 Miles NWW

Time to Complete

6 Hours

Operatives,
We need your help. Agent Dean Mejia has gone missing and we believe "Right Ghost" is responsible. They were last seen in Chad at 20:13. The agent sent one final message – "A traveling merchant appears at the Frozen palace". Take this Angry Can Opener - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Messenger Pigeon you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Xavier Ross

Alias

"Right Ghost"

Features

6' 5"

Brown eyes

Stretch Marks / Left hand

Organization

The Guild of Numerous Fish

Emotions

Elated

Personality

Dearly Witty

Motive

Take over a country to become famous

Bodyguard

Timmy the "Dubious Yeti"

Physical Size

Baby

Story

Additional Locations

The Contemporary Forge

Ancient Castle

Oblivion Barn Dance

Random Events

Drunk strikes the ground

Potato arrives in the mail

Spectator emerges

Fairy is loose

World

Stores

David's Credenza Convenience store

Hernandez's Watch Outlet

Beck's Bonsai Convenience store

Mejia's Bookcase Arcade

Traps

Fire

Hail of Needles of Ice

Objects

Credenza that has been hollowed out

Bonsai children's replica

Secret Watch

Hidden Scimitar

Key of Ice

Wand of Wonder

Caster thinks that his actions are fulfilling ancient prophecy

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Everly Hernandez "Mad Legs" Merchant Easter Technology
Christopher Beck "Cramped Pastrami's" Mole Chalk Boxes
Ethan Wood Exhausted Batteries Tissues
David Clarke Physician Doors Rabbits
Dean Mejia Geologist Attention Chalk

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).