The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Arid Collar

#ec8791

Location

Bright, Cool Serbia

Time of Day

18:11

Extraction Point

145 Miles SSW

Time to Complete

47 Hours

Spy Deputies,
We need your help. Agent Hunter Thomas has gone missing and we believe "Junior Troll" is responsible. They were last seen in Serbia at 19:14. The agent sent one final message – "A stranger can be seen in the shadows at the Dead Forest". Take this Clean Apron - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The iPod you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Kayla Ward

Alias

"Junior Troll"

Features

5' 6"

Amber eyes

Small mole / Right arm

Organization

The Guild of Vacant Lunch

Emotions

Rejected

Personality

Monthly Rhythmic

Motive

Disrupt the military because of grief and loss

Bodyguard

David the "Fluffy Bat"

Physical Size

Insignificant

Story

Additional Locations

The Arid Castle

Touristy Arcade

Well-being Carousal

Random Events

Potato Is accused by the law

Gallon of Trash stop the party and asks questions

Pine Branch Is under a curse

Bag of Flour is loose

World

Stores

Charlotte's Marionette Unlimited

Molina's Wingback chair Cosmetics

Franklin's Staircase Group

Thomas's Trunk Beauty Stop

Traps

Bestow Curse

Incendiary Cloud of Contentment

Objects

Marionette that is glowing

Staircase that has been hollowed out

Secret Wingback chair

Hidden Scimitar

Hammers of Contentment

Wand of Wonder

When target dies, his skeleton animates as a free willed undead

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Kayden Molina "Black Hot Dogs" Merchant Broccoli Tea
Jonathan Franklin "Mini Churros" Mole Gym Memberships Plushies
Ashley Manning Broker Acorns Notes
Charlotte Graves Paramedic Soup Teeth
Hunter Thomas Annoyed Dolphins Dolphins

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).