The Director Welcomes You

The Freely Garrulous Agent

#c399cf

Location

Bright, Windless Fiji

Time of Day

9:50

Extraction Point

191 Miles N

Time to Complete

43 Hours

Examiners,
We need your help. Agent Norah Mason has gone missing and we believe "Sharp Chimera" is responsible. They were last seen in Fiji at 12:04. The agent sent one final message – "A shadow passes at the old bridge". Take this Clandestine Tissues - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Portable Radio you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Elliott Moody

Alias

"Sharp Chimera"

Features

4' 8"

Hazel eyes

Large moles / Right leg

Organization

The Division of Elevated Quarter

Emotions

Aroused

Personality

Freely Dusty

Motive

Disrupt the military to escape their destiny

Bodyguard

Philip the "Shrill Bear"

Physical Size

Substantial

Story

Additional Locations

The Garrulous Jungle

Bustling Mansion

Censorship Castle

Random Events

Pack of Wild Dogs Bounces oddly

Herd of Chicken Is hurled at the adventurers

Box of Mice Glistens gently

Leopard meets disaster

World

Stores

Maria's Candlesticks International

Carter's Vase Worldwide

Clark's Armoir Couture

Mason's Diary International

Traps

Reverse Gravity

Earthquake of Competency

Objects

Candlesticks that has been hollowed out

Armoir children's replica

Secret Vase

Hidden Axe

Goblet of Competency

Wand of Wonder

When caster next teleports, he arrives fully Healed

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Ruby Carter "Dull Lemons" Merchant Chili Broccoli
Patrick Clark "Blue Eyes" Mole Writers Trucks
Eleanor Conner Depressed Drinking Sticks
Maria Ball Master Distiller Water Dice
Norah Mason Headhunter Tea Mirrors

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).