The Director Welcomes You
The Seed Mania Incident
#0b99a6
Agents, I have sent you to within a Crowded Water Park to look for a suspect by the name "Right Beholder". This mission is black bag. Their recent activity is concerning and we need you to find where their funding is coming from. We don't know much about their goals but we've intercepted this cryptic message – "Tracks of wolves can be seen at the Grey Hollow".
We're low budget this mission – I've packed a Rusty Quilt in your kit to help.
— The iPod you were holding self destructs.
Sydney Clark
"Right Beholder"
5' 11"
Brown eyes
Large deep scar / Left arm
The Club of Gentle Arithmetic
Vengeful
Excitedly Whispering
Take over a government for scientific discovery
Charles the "Sparkling child"
Fat
The Fluffy Villa
Compact Lake
Downfall Forest
Vagabond Is accused by the law
Leopard chase a suspect
Crow scurries by
Tramp Evades the law
Serenity's Hanging Birdcage Solutions
Welch's Tea Set Worldwide
Johnson's Kitchen table Brothers
Long's Mantle Hole
Wall Blade
Blade Barrier of Mania
Hanging Birdcage that has been hollowed out
Kitchen table made of heavy metal
Secret Tea Set
Hidden Sabre
Sword of Mania
Caster can withstand ocean depths while holding a bar of sodium
| Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivan Welch | "Plump Lungs" | Merchant | Attention | Sharp Things |
| Joel Johnson | "Silver Falafels" | Mole | Video Games | Batteries |
| Bennett Johnson | Spirit | Rabbits | Robots | |
| Serenity Owen | Elevator Mechanic | Hamsters | Attention | |
| Sebastian Long | Headhunter | Acorns | Rabbits |
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
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 UpGive 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.
Characters90% 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.
RollingThis 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 MasterYour 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.
EndingNo 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).