This is an extract from the Plotonomicon. Note that we have just changed the picture from The old picture (The Slaughter of the Innocents) one was considered too violent – while both are museum pieces, the first one depicts mass murder of children, and was thus discarded as not-safe-for-children’s-hands. This new version gets rid of almost all violence, and offers much more symbolism, hence much more freedom of improv.

We’re currently working on a Role-Playing Game called Ronin Time Bureaucrats. Expect brains-over-brawn, improv and handwavy time paradoxes. You can find the latest draft (mostly complete, unformatted) online. Even in this unfinished form, don’t hesitate to leave feedbak! Stay tuned for more!

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.

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 blog 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!

After a few weeks spent composing, recomposing and polishing our Fate comic book tutorial, it’s now available on DriveThruRPG for pay-as-you-want, starting at $0. As previously, the license allows you to share, reproduce and modify, provided you maintain credits, so feel free to bring it to your playing table. We’re working on making it available print-on-demand. Thanks to all the fine folks on Reddit communities /u/RPGdesign and /u/FATErpg for the feedback, and thanks to Evil Hat for making such a great game!

Earlier, we have posted the Space·Time Deck. It’s a set of cards, designed to help with improv. But why cards? In theory, an improv Storyteller should be able to use anything as support for improvisation. That’s true whether they’re performing for an audience, or improvising a plot for an ongoing Role-Playing Game, or improvising their character as a RPG player, or writing a book. Do you know the ideal improviser? His name is Keyser Söze.

The Space·Time Deck is a card deck designed to be used as an improv tool, both for storytelling and role-playing games. The Excuse. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. Back. Blank 1 Blank 2 Blank 3 Blank 4 Blank 5 Cheatsheet Front Cheatsheet Back More about this deck in future posts.

If you are interested in improv/narrative role-playing games, you may have heard of Fate Core, a great ruleset made by Evil Hat exactly for this purpose. It’s simple, it’s excellent, and it’s missing a tutorial, so here is one: As you can see, it fits in one sheet, and it’s designed to be printed and brought with you at your table. I’d like to make it available in other languages – if you wish to help, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Is there an afterlife?

Why, of course, there is, and you came to the right place!

« Nobody remembers with certainty in which year the Great Snafu took place, but people generally agree that it was on a September, or perhaps on a Saturday afternoon, on some even-numbered millenium. Also, it involved blowing up the Universe, which made pretty much everybody unhappy, except for a few people who had been waiting for this opportunity to loudly exclaim “I told you so”, and even they were not happy for long.

Summary In Arcadia Ego About Rules The Setting Journeys (TBD) Appendix Player Document Fate tutorial (TBD) N-Dimensional Tourists tutorial (TBD)

Summary About this book The Space·Time Deck Characters and Attributes Creating Player’s Characters (TBD) Meeting Challenges Aspects and using the Cards up your Sleeve Conflicts (TBD) Stronger together Creating the GM’s Characters (TBD) Character Progression (TBD) Thanks (TBD) Appendix Character Sheet (TBD) Conflict Resolution Cheat Sheet

Summary About this book Drawing for ideas: A tutorial The Space·Time Deck Let’s not prepare Creating Worlds Who’s that? Improvising characters (TBD) Threats and crisis: improvising a campaign (TBD) Take that! Improvising for a conflict (TBD) Planets, dungeons and amusement parks: improvising places (TBD) Appendix Plotonomicon: The Comic Book Credits (TBD) License (TBD) The Cards (TBD)