The Director Welcomes You
The Log Cabin Optimism Incident
#4f46e8
Detectives, It seems "All Drunken Irish Guy" has gone level 9. They have been broadcasting this message "The group finds a sword in a stone at the hive". We need you to eliminate them, Anxiously. Their last known location was recorded at 17:18. You have a Vicious Bonsai Tree as a last resort. Use carefully.
— The iPod you were holding self destructs.
Kaleb Owens
"All Drunken Irish Guy"
7' 7"
Blue eyes
Large deep scar / Left leg
The Association of Savory Bed
Safe
Anxiously Irksome
Make a lot of money to achieve their destiny
Roberto the "Faint Humanoid"
Fat
The Boiled Lodge
Desolate Sanctuary
Doom Villa
Odor Salutes the adventurers
Toilet approaches
Vegetable Adopts a nearby child
Vagrant Attempts to rob a bank
Andrew's Quill and Ink Specialities
Le's Lipstick Technologies
Alexander's Bonsai Supermarket
Peters's File Consulting
Black Tentacles
Poison Dart of Optimism
Quill and Ink that has been hollowed out
Bonsai with a False bottom
Secret Lipstick
Hidden Whip
Blades of Optimism
Caster’s mass increases by a factor of 10 while he’s on a boat
| Name | Codename | Career | Likes | Dislikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anastasia Le | "Four Cappuccinos" | Merchant | Rocks | Flowers |
| Aubrey Alexander | "Golden Ankles" | Mole | Hammers | Teeth |
| John Todd | Police Officer | Rabbits | Rubber Stamps | |
| Andrew Berry | Optimistic | Rubber Stamps | Physics | |
| Christopher Peters | Stressed | Batteries | Dice |
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).