The Director Welcomes You

The Incendiary Understanding Case

#bf6004

Location

Gorgeous, Humid Syria

Time of Day

6:19

Extraction Point

65 Miles SSE

Time to Complete

4 Hours

Agents,
It seems "Stiff Rhinoceroses" has gone level 4. They have been broadcasting this message "A stranger can be seen in the shadows at the Wizard's Scar". We need you to eliminate them, Quickly. Their last known location was recorded at 09:17. You have a Evil Banana as a last resort. Use carefully.

— The Tinder Date you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Judy Ward

Alias

"Stiff Rhinoceroses"

Features

4' 1"

Hazel eyes

Faint curved scar / Left foot

Organization

The Society of Gray Octogenarian

Emotions

Defeated

Personality

Quickly Chunky

Motive

Take over a government for fear of the heroes

Bodyguard

Peter the "Defeated Pheonix"

Physical Size

Giant

Story

Additional Locations

The Incendiary Mansion

Deserted Masquerade

Violence Business

Random Events

Delivery Guy Skips merrily

Dancer Salutes the adventurers

Water Vessel approaches

Pack of Wild Dogs Glistens gently

World

Stores

Jace's Bureau Atelier

Horton's Faberge Egg Ventures

Cannon's Taxidermy animal Collective

Scott's Pan Solutions

Traps

Phantasmal Killer

Fireball of Prosperity

Objects

Bureau that has been hollowed out

Taxidermy animal children's replica

Secret Faberge Egg

Hidden Spear

Rock of Prosperity

Wand of Wonder

The ground now at target’s feet is intensely magnetic

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Iris Horton "Orange Churros" Merchant Harmonica Singing
Daniela Cannon "Tough Kidneys" Mole Oranges Plushies
Grace Campbell Professional Cuddler Doves Stickers
Jace Bennett Shadow Trucks Dolphins
Gabriella Scott Hairdresser Cooking Flashlights

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).