Undercover Emissaries, I have sent you to approach a Desolate Labratory to look for a suspect by the name "Red Merfolk". This mission is clandestine. Their recent activity is concerning and we need you to discover their location. We don't know much about their goals but we've intercepted this cryptic message – "A vagrant asks for food at the Three Fingers".
We're low budget this mission – I've packed a Glowing Bolt Cutter in your kit to help.
— The Burner Phone you were holding self destructs.
Jaxon Vega
"Red Merfolk"
6' 3"
Brown eyes
A second belly button / Left thumb
The Society of Bewildered Uncle
Hurt
Lazily Irksome
Take over a government because they straight up craycray
Al the "Baked Kangaroos"
Miniature
The Damaged Reef
Overpopulated Reef
Peace Palace
Dracula Balances on a ledge
Deadbeat Bursts loudly
Ninja approaches
Chanting Cult Is frozen into a block of ice
Angelina's End Table Labs
Sharp's Spare brick Industries
Simon's Watch Little shop
Bennett's Hose Market
Floor Net
Beehive of Oblivion
End Table with a False bottom
Watch that is glowing
Secret Spare brick
Hidden Dagger
Handcuffs of Oblivion
One side of caster’s body appears to be naked by firelight
Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tyler Sharp | "Indigo Cappuccinos" | Merchant | Candles | Jazz |
Evan Simon | "Green Legs" | Mole | Bells | Coffee |
Jayce Gonzalez | Geologist | Hammers | Cartography | |
Angelina Ross | Cranky | Photography | Tigers | |
Isabel Bennett | Counselor | Jazz | Robots |
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).