Image by Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma
IMPS (International Monster & Paranormal Service)
Travel the world to deal with monster incidents.
$25.00
/ Session
Details
4 players following this game
Weekly / Saturday - 12:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 2.5–3.5 hours
Campaign Length / 20+ Sessions
1 / 4 Seats Filled
Top Game Master
One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Meet your party members
1/4
About the adventure
You are part of an elite IMPS team that travels the world to deal with monster incidents. The International Monster and Paranormal Service was created to keep humanity safe from supernatural threats. It’s not clear who funds them, although most people assume it’s some kind of United Nations agency. IMPS isn’t secret, but they keep things as quiet as possible. 🌈 This adventure is LGBT+ friendly. 🎬 This is an action-horror game—you are expected to play your character as a bold and capable hero, be willing to get them into trouble, and make decisions that will make for a great story. 🌍 Equip yourself with fancy gear to deal with globe-trotting mysteries, huge threats, and international conspiracies. 🎭 In terms of tone, expect a kitbash of drama, horror, comedy. 🎲 This is a fairly rules-lite game. The mysteries might feature a fair amount of combat, but they are narrative, not tactical.
Game style
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Roleplay Heavy
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(37)
5 years on StartPlaying
401 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, Inclusive, Beginner Friendly
About me
In a time long past, in what looks to be a tiny little bedroom, four young children are seen huddling around a simple small sketchbook, as one of them brings the rest on a grand fantasy adventure where the kids play no characters other than themselves and buy the lie that the fantasy world is real. Fast forward years later, one of those kids, for reasons unbeknownst to him, is drawn especially to two things—board games and speculative fiction. The board games that spoke to him most were Twilight Struggle, Pandemic Legacy, Battlestar Galactica, and Heroscape. These games, rooted in reality (well, except the latter two), told great stories with each play, and revisited the age-long conflict of light vs dark, good vs evil. On the silver screen, he remembers being terrified of the Terminator, the violence that descended upon the man who would soon be Robocop, and aliens bursting out of chests. He was also captivated by the imagined realities of Back to the Future and Last Action Hero. Oh, hi there! Hadn't realized you were here. I'm David! If you're looking for RPG sessions that are fresh, fun, funny, and full of roleplaying opportunities, you've come to the right place! I've been creating narrative experiences for audiences since 2000 as a stage director/actor/producer. So, when I discovered the world of tabletop RPGs in 2018, I instantly fell in love with its interactive and collaborative storytelling potential. I've since gone on to run all sorts of games, from high fantasy and urban fantasy, to supernatural and horror, to slice-of-life and sci-fi. I can't wait to share my love of RPGs with you, and hereby extend an invitation to you in joining me to discover exciting worlds, play awesome characters, and embark on unforgettable journeys. Note: the "timezone" listed on my profile is just for scheduling convenience, especially pertaining to daylight savings adjustments.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
📒 We will be using the I.M.P.S. team playbook. Alternative weird basic moves are available. The standard (instead of flexible alternative) Investigate a Mystery move will be used. 👀 Feel free to browse through the various playbooks on offer in Roll20. If your hunter has an associated organization (e.g., the Initiate or Professional), you’ll need to figure out how that relates to IMPS. Work out something that makes sense for the group. E.g., IMPS is your associated organization; you are on secondment to IMPS for some arcane bureaucratic reason; or you are keeping your real loyalty secret, without your team or IMPS knowing who you are really working for. 📖 Hunter stories are optional but can be a rich source of roleplay and character-growth opportunities. So, feel free to look through them. During session 0, you can decide to either incorporate them right at the start of the campaign or somewhere further down. 0️⃣ We will finalize our playbook selections and create our characters together during Session 0.
▶️ The campaign will begin once we have enough players (at least 3 players at least 12 hours before the scheduled day and time. If we only get enough players fewer than 12 hours before, the campaign will begin the week after). Exception: there will be no game 3rd week of June, 2026. 💬 Our first session together will be a Session 0, charged at the usual rate. 💬 New players who join after the group session 0 has concluded will need to partake in a paid one-on-one Session 0, charged at the usual rate. It's an opportunity for us to go over the safety tools, table rules, expectations of players and the GM, and we can discuss your character ideas and how they're connected to the story. The session will run for up to 1.5 hours.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
📄 A link to the Roll20 game will be shared, and you'll be able to see the list of playbooks on offer. Feel free to browse through them for now. We will only finalize our playbooks during Session 0. 📜 You don't have to have read the rules beforehand. The rules are easy to pick up and will be explained as we play.
What David brings to the table
🖥️ Rollable character sheets and the core rulebook in Roll20. 🔇 For audio, we will just be using our voices. We will not be using any music or ambient sounds.
Equipment needed to play
Computer
Headphones
Internet
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How David creates a safe table
📝 Before Session 0, a link to a Lines and Veils document will be shared for players to fill out. 📜 The Discord server has a code of conduct that everyone has to adhere to. ✨ The aim of this campaign is to have a fun storytelling journey together and to have a positive experience interacting with others. To this end, players are expected to be compassionate, supportive, and respectful of others.
Content warnings
Safety tools used