The Director Welcomes You

Operation — Rich Curmudgeon

#25982c

Location

Gorgeous, Foul Niger

Time of Day

21:1

Extraction Point

36 Miles NW

Time to Complete

42 Hours

Investigators,
It seems "Quiet Centaur" has gone level 1. They have been broadcasting this message "A mysterious key is found on the ground at the Sacrificial Hole". We need you to eliminate them, Hopelessly. Their last known location was recorded at 00:09. You have a Glowing Towel as a last resort. Use carefully.

— The Messenger Pigeon you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Harrison Osborne

Alias

"Quiet Centaur"

Features

5' 4"

Amber eyes

Large deep scar / Left hand

Organization

The Council of Nutty Calligraphy Pen

Emotions

Restless

Personality

Hopelessly Curved

Motive

Make a lot of money to lead a mutiny

Bodyguard

Terry the "Magnificent Serpent"

Physical Size

Minuscule

Story

Additional Locations

The Rich Castle

Ancient Peninsula

Good Spirits Carousal

Random Events

Fairy Is being tortured

Thief chase a suspect

Bag of Flour Salutes the adventurers

Vagrant Is hurled at the adventurers

World

Stores

Anna's Brass Replica Du jour

Graves's Iron stove Chic Chåteau

Griffith's Candelabra Arcade

Spencer's Watch Cosmetics

Traps

Lightning Bolt

Compacting Room of Destiny

Objects

Brass Replica children's replica

Candelabra children's replica

Secret Iron stove

Hidden Morning Star

Button of Destiny

Wand of Wonder

Target is permanently rendered 1d100% transparent

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Luis Graves "Golden Ankles" Merchant Notes Robots
Rowan Griffith "Fast Scars" Mole Fire Quartz Crystals
Emmett Bennett Elder Scarves Money
Anna Webster Envious Acorns Limes
Jacob Spencer Surveyor Broccoli Lions

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).