The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Tertiary Video

#fb41d1

Location

Gloomy, Foul Yemen

Time of Day

9:27

Extraction Point

26 Miles SE

Time to Complete

12 Hours

Agents,
We need your help. Agent Hailey Bowman has gone missing and we believe "Big Minotaur" is responsible. They were last seen in Yemen at 11:08. The agent sent one final message – "The group finds a random cow at the Broken Face". Take this Delicate Toy - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Portable Radio you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Nova Bradley

Alias

"Big Minotaur"

Features

7' 8"

Blue eyes

Large deep scar / Right hand

Organization

The Gang of Unimportant Temperature

Emotions

Cheerful

Personality

Frightfully Weak

Motive

Take over a government out of greed

Bodyguard

Philip the "Shrill Beast"

Physical Size

Enormous

Story

Additional Locations

The Tertiary Creek

Desolate Shelter

Freshness Festival

Random Events

Vagrant Lunges at the group

Deadbeat Lunges at the group

Bard is being loudly arrested

Demon gathers near a point of interest

World

Stores

Paisley's Potted Plant Brothers

Mendez's Medallion Labs

Kim's Spare brick Brothers

Bowman's Certificate Factory

Traps

Poison Needle

Water-Filled Room of Contentment

Objects

Potted Plant with a False bottom

Spare brick that is glowing

Secret Medallion

Hidden Cutlass

File of Contentment

Wand of Wonder

If caster is wearing a magic ring, he uses it whenever possible

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Ximena Mendez "Silver Heels" Merchant Photography Batteries
Alexa Kim "No Arms" Mole Dice Limes
Brooklyn Patterson Cosmetologist Writers Children's Stories
Paisley Ramirez Broker Slippers Music
Hailey Bowman Geologist Dice Coffee

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).