The Director Welcomes You

The Information Rage Incident

#20ec2a

Location

Balmy, Warm Tanzania

Time of Day

21:14

Extraction Point

166 Miles NNW

Time to Complete

2 Hours

Investigators,
We need your help. Agent Violet Jacobs has gone missing and we believe "Tough Owlman" is responsible. They were last seen in Tanzania at 12:17. The agent sent one final message – "A black cat runs past at the Eye of Heaven". Take this Explosive Vise - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Portable Radio you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Luis Burns

Alias

"Tough Owlman"

Features

4' 5"

Blue eyes

Faint curved scar / Left hand

Organization

The Society of Broad Floor

Emotions

Sympathy

Personality

Loosely Long

Motive

Take over a government for pure destruction

Bodyguard

Nicky the "Surrogate Kangaroos"

Physical Size

Slight

Story

Additional Locations

The Victorian Mansion

Polluted Forest

Endownment Castle

Random Events

Princess chase a suspect

Procession screams at the top of their lungs

Beggar is robbed

Hoard Integrates silently into the group

World

Stores

Allison's Toolset Cosmetics

Hanson's Sconce Outlet

Gill's Bookcase Chic Chåteau

Jacobs's Stamp Set Du jour

Traps

Compacting Room

Scything Blade of Rage

Objects

Toolset children's replica

Bookcase made of heavy metal

Secret Sconce

Hidden Notebook

Bracelet of Rage

Wand of Wonder

If caster is now carrying a waterskin, it can hold 10d10 gallons

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Elena Hanson "White Lemons" Merchant Cats Ice Cubes
Michelle Gill "Right Forearms" Mole Rocks Washing Machines
Juliana Jensen Plumber Painting Cooking
Allison Peters Cheerful Soup Scarves
Violet Jacobs Butcher Hammers Attention

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).