Welcome to the Risible & Warm Detective's Fraternity!

This week on Episode #35

The Hundred of the Ubiquitous Boyscouts

For the Head Detective's eyes only!

Give Them Direction

Monsters
The Sinful Normal Guy of the Ubiquitous Boyscouts
young greasy Bull of Mania
Ubiquitous Gnome
Villain Motive
Jealousy
Starting Event
Someone comes into threatening the agency
Random Events
A Chauvinist Protests
A bear scurries by
A Hoard is being loudly arrested
A Druid Glistens gently
Local Business
Skylar's Pipe Productions
Harold's Clamp Productions
Martin's Rug Ventures
Robbins's Rubber Plant Five-and-a-dime

Populate the World

Criminal Contacts
Harrison "Tough scars"
Harold "stiff cappuccinos"
oscar "right dumplings"
Nicky "Ubiquitous Boyscouts"
Random People
Leonardo Bates
Lilly Ramirez
Lorenzo Martin
Josephine Singh
Skylar Santos
Carlos Robbins
Santiago Stevenson
Robert Griffith
Descriptions
Police Officer
Operator
Accountant
Waiter
Angry

MISC Ideas

Magical Objects
Axe of Mania
Necklace of Oblivion
Secret objects
Secret Pipe
Rug with a False bottom
Random objects
Rubber Plant
Clamp
Pedestal
Bench
Locations
Creek
City
Pond
Manor
Destinations
Town of Hederleyside
City of Bradtrincum

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).