space-timewilltell / channeling-keyser-soze

A book dedicated to improv in role-playing games

Front Cover

Title The Plotonomicon

Subtitle A very serious book about summoning plots when stories go boom, when audiences go zzzzz, or before they do! or: A bag of tricks to improv(e) your storytelling.

Back Cover

Oops, the heroes have ruined the story, again. They managed to get Camelot invaded by the peaceful Seelie while King Arthur was at war, to kill teenage Karl Marx while vacationing in Space·Time or to blow up the Magical University where the entire campaign was meant to take place. Also, they have just entered the Unknowable Dungeon of Unspeakable Death, for which you have no maps, or they are due to meet the Ambassador of the Qfew'dhi Confederation, the one you just invented by pushing random keys on your keyboard.

And the story is not over.

Guess it's time to switch to improv mode!

How will King Arthur Pendragon react to news of the invasion?

How will history readjust itself without Karl Marx?

How will the Unseen Council protect the Mundane Sphere without the Sevenfold Anchor?

What evil lurks in the Unknowable Dungeon of Unspeakable Death?

What does a Qfew'dhi even look like?

This book knows! The Space·Time Deck knows!

(well, or at least, they can help you improvise an answer)

If you are a Game Master, a Player, a Writer, or any kind of Storyteller, this book and its companion Space·Time Deck are designed for you. Because you may need to improvise characters on the fly, to explore dungeons without maps, to spice up fights and altercations and pursuits and confrontations of all sorts, to come up with exotic planets, unheard of magical creatures, threats past and future, not to mention stories, stories-within-stories and ultimate plot twists, all of this without breaking pace.

Don't worry, we are here for you. We bring you improv and storytelling tricks and techniques, examples, and a tarot-like deck of cards designed to help you keep your stories varied, interesting and fun!

Warning Some of the illustrations involve violence or (limited) nudity. Nothing worse than what you could see in a museum, but you may wish to review the cards before putting them in the hands of children.

How to read

Open SUMMARY.md, it's the table of contents.

Or take a look at the cover.

Utilities

Draw a card

channeling-keyser-soze's Issues

Need more examples in chapter cards.md

In cards.md, we probably don't want to reuse the temple/the island/the space station for every single card, or do we?

If we need three examples per card, we still need 63 situations. Filing this issue to start thinking this over.

Need to make clear the "yes, and" rule.