Improv Almanac

Improv Almanac: Dangers and Discoveries for 88 Places is a 467-page resource for the busy Game Master. Did your players take a shortcut through a swamp, and you are looking for ideas for encounters? Are they trying to cross snow-capped peaks, and you don’t want to evoke The Fellowship of the Ring? Are they sailing, and you’ve run out of ideas for what’s on the next island they’ll encounter?

Mark Tygart has developed nearly 90 campaign starters for Dungeon World. When I was running one-shots, I’d keep his starters close at hand and use them for ideas as the session unfolded. This was so valuable I’ve decided to compile them altogether with a few other starters and other materials that I’ve found useful for improv, provided they were licensed under the Creative Commons (special thanks to Shawn Tomkin).

The primary way to use this ebook is to look up the type of location your adventurers will be exploring. You’ll find questions to ask the players, impressions, terrain tables, discoveries, and dangers. (This was inspired by how Jeremy Strandberg has structured location descriptions in Stonetop.)

The following are system neutral:

• Questions (to ask players to co-create a location)
• Impressions (for the GM to use when describing the location)
• Terrain (a random table for describing a place within the location)

The following were spec’d out for Dungeon World but can be used with minor adaption with most fantasy PbtA games:

• Discoveries (a random table and then interesting artifacts and treasures)
• Dangers (monsters and hazards)
• Custom Moves

If you are playing another system, when the dangers are monsters, you will need to look them in your system. 

This is PWYW (Pay What You Want) to fund further development. I've invested in licensing the cover graphic, help creating the new tables, and copyediting so far.