The Director Welcomes You

Who is Jimmy Paper Bag?

#572d9f

Location

Wet, Calm Monaco

Time of Day

14:29

Extraction Point

3 Miles E

Time to Complete

43 Hours

Meddlers,
I have sent you to the inside of a Hidden Shelter to look for a suspect by the name "Two Gremlin". This mission is clandestine. Their recent activity is concerning and we need you to uncover their plans. We don't know much about their goals but we've intercepted this cryptic message – "The earth shakes briefly at the Ivory Gate".

We're low budget this mission – I've packed a Feminine Toothbrush in your kit to help.

— The iPod you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

David Leon

Alias

"Two Gremlin"

Features

5' 11"

Red eyes

Large deep scar / Right hand

Organization

The Firm of Nefarious Neck

Emotions

Spiteful

Personality

Shakily Green

Motive

Take over a country because of grief and loss

Bodyguard

Jimmy the "Loose Griffin"

Physical Size

Baby

Story

Additional Locations

The Gray Tower

Abandoned Spring

Expiration Jungle

Random Events

Box of Mice Is being tortured

Cookie skins a cat with his teeth

Store Is under a curse

Majestic Painting screams at the top of their lungs

World

Stores

Paige's Stairwell Brothers

Ramirez's Satchel Convenience store

Pierce's Sconce Discount

McCormick's Bench Industries

Traps

Tripping Chain

Box of Brown Mold of Reservation

Objects

Stairwell that has been hollowed out

Sconce that is glowing

Secret Satchel

Hidden Boomerang

Fork of Reservation

Wand of Wonder

An intoxicatingly delightful scent issues from the target point

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Katherine Ramirez "Chunky Heels" Merchant Butterflies Flashlights
Jude Pierce "Green Hearts" Mole Video Games Sponges
Julia Barrett Acupuncturist Dolphins Chili
Paige Jackson Graphic Designer Limes Houses
Rhett McCormick Cosmetologist Rock n' Roll Lamps

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).