The Director Welcomes You

Nail, Mommy, Oatmeal, Spy.

#bfaa9e

Location

Mild, Humid United States

Time of Day

21:16

Extraction Point

194 Miles S

Time to Complete

1 Hours

Examiners,
We need your help. Agent Weston Diaz has gone missing and we believe "One Humanoid" is responsible. They were last seen in United States at 20:07. The agent sent one final message – "An out of place door appears at the Old battlefield". Take this Fluffy Balloon - it was their favorite tool and might help you.

— The Tablet of Stone you were holding self destructs.

The Villain Dossier

Name

Everett Rivera

Alias

"One Humanoid"

Features

4' 10"

Green eyes

Stretch Marks / Left middle finger

Organization

The Association of Jolly Oatmeal

Emotions

Scared

Personality

Rapidly Red

Motive

Take over a government for a love interest

Bodyguard

Roberto the "Hungry Beast"

Physical Size

Tall

Story

Additional Locations

The Screeching Palace

Pitch Black Arcade

Amnesia Forge

Random Events

Spectator Is accused by the law

Alligator Glistens gently

Gallon of Trash Bounces oddly

Alligator Is under a curse

World

Stores

Claire's Cabinet Little shop

Cortez's Candelabra Department store

Elliott's Plaster Bust Solutions

Diaz's Sconce Bureau

Traps

Beehive

Object Smeared with Poison of Indecision

Objects

Cabinet that has been hollowed out

Plaster Bust children's replica

Secret Candelabra

Hidden Handcuffs

Lance of Indecision

Wand of Wonder

Next spell to hit the caster leaves him hideously scarred

People

Name Codename Career Likes Dislikes
Adrian Cortez "Blue Ankles" Merchant Soda Flashlights
Naomi Elliott "Fast Thumbs" Mole Cats Doors
Eden Fowler Funeral Director Death Sun Glasses
Claire Salinas Ghost Cousins Trucks
Weston Diaz Teacher Toilets Dinosaurs

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).