The Director Welcomes You
Who is Johnny Hell?
#9e522b
Examiners, As you can see you are trapped inside circle a Compact Circus . We almost couldn't find you — Please explain when you get back. All we know is "Right Lion" is responsible and they sent us this message - "Clouds develop quickly at the Broken Face". Your mission was black bag, achieve what you can.
Hopefully you still have that Sharp Pencil hidden on you.
— The Tape recorder you were holding self destructs.
Hazel Adams
"Right Lion"
7' 4"
Hazel eyes
Large moles / Neck
The Sorority of Feckless Crane
Nervous
Nearly Braised
Take over a country to lead a mutiny
Johnny the "Hungry Ogre"
Cramped
The Plain City
Crowded Mansion
The Blackest Black Masquerade
Corncob stop the party and asks questions
Corncob Balances on a ledge
Gypsy screams at the top of their lungs
Bag of Lemons Bursts loudly
Cecilia's Platter Specialities
Richards's Telescope Atelier
Rodriguez's Pocket watch Ventures
Carrillo's Taxidermy animal Threads
Camouflaged Pit
Bricks from Ceiling of Joy
Platter with a False bottom
Pocket watch children's replica
Secret Telescope
Hidden Falchion
Polearm of Joy
Anyone nearby who turns invisible is bright orange forever after
| Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Richards | "Left Ankles" | Merchant | Money | Notes |
| Margaret Rodriguez | "Italian Falafels" | Mole | Tea | Bells |
| Graham Fleming | Firefighter | Soup | Ice Cubes | |
| Cecilia Vaughn | Ghost | Limes | Candles | |
| Evelyn Carrillo | Cleaner | Death | Washing Machines |
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).