Improbable Island

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Beware of falling rabbits. Or, you know, man-eating rabbits.

How did I end up here?

Improbable Island is a web-based browser game that uses the system from Legend Of The Red Dragon. It takes place Twenty Minutes Into the Future on a small island in the middle of the ocean known as Improbable Island. The goal of the game is to find and destroy the "Improbability Drive", which releases improbability energy. Improbable Island was the location for a scientific project being headed by a man known as Doktor Improbable, and his assistant David Abraham. Doktor Improbable set sail for the island in the late 2050s, back when it was known as Island Four. He wanted to create a device that outputs more power than it consumes, in blatant disregard for the second law of thermodynamics and the law of conservation of energy. He was sent to the island ostensibly to work on his machine in an environment without electromagnetic interference, but the truth of the matter is that he was sent there because nobody at his university could stomach the man. Long story short, he was partially successful, because in the end he created a machine that generates a type of energy that the human race has NEVER before experienced; thus causing all sorts of chaos. That energy is what created the island, along with the unusual flora and fauna that inhabit it. Fun part is, you get to go around and try to kill said flora and fauna while trying to find and destroy the Improbability Drive.

Enjoy it free (with the option of buying things-- er... supporting the game) here.

Tropes used in Improbable Island include:
  • After the End: Twice, if you'll believe it.
  • All Powerful Bystander: There's a reason she's called The Watcher, and not because she's raising any Slayers.
    • And demonstrating that the improbability of the island, even this godlike figure had lost in combat to a player during the game's season zero.
  • Anti-Poopsocking: Stamina, which runs out as you fight monsters and travel about. Restored by eating, a few events, and starting a New Day if you have some saved up.
  • Action Commands: Attack when the timer bar his the red mark to double your attack and defense!
  • Badass: You.
  • Big No: Used here, (five posts down) by the creator himself.
  • Brain Food: Lampshaded at the diner for zombies, where all the food there involves eating brains somehow.
  • Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Shouts of "Buy! Buy!" "Sell! Sell!" and "Put down the chainsaw and let's talk about this!" are heard in eBoy's Trading Station.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Generally frowned upon when players do it, but certain monsters do(most notably Fourth Wall Realization).

You have encountered Fourth Wall, which lunges at you with broken pieces of itself!

    • There's also the Banter Channel.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: Donate to the game, and you get Donator's Points, which can be traded in for Req, cigarettes, and other benefits.
  • Brick Joke: Some low level monsters reappear as stronger versions of themselves in later levels.
  • Catgirl: Kittymorphs, yes there are male versions too. Though, in all respect they're closer to Petting Zoo People.
  • Chainsaw Good: The strongest weapon available in the shop for new players is, yes, a Chainsaw.
    • You do unlock stronger things later on, as you continue to New Game+.
  • Confusion Fu: Jokers, who are infused with improbability and are extremely unpredictable in combat. One day, they may be completely defenseless, the next, they'll be quicker than any other race alive.
  • Continuing Is Painful: Every time you get KO'd you lose 10% of your EXP, all of your current on-hand money, and are sent to the Failboat, where you have to fight to earn favor with The Watcher before you can get back on the island.
    • Or you can just wait until the next day or use a saved one, when you will be automatically returned to the island. Though you still lose money and xp.
  • Cool Boat: The Watcher, when she's not greeting the newbies, rides around on the Failboat, which, despite the name, is actually a large yacht containing lots of cages with dangerous monsters. Whenever you're not bleeding to death on it, you can converse with other players. The boat also acts as a cruise ride for veiwers of the show at home who have ridiculous amounts of money and want to get close to the island without actually being a contestant.
  • Cozy Catastrophe: Most contestants play it like this.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: "You fry up your lovely meaty loveliness and sit down to eat."
  • End of an Age: Specifically, ours. The game takes place a few years after EMP waves of unknown origin fried every piece of circuitry on Earth.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Including your tongue, your shadow, the pebble in your shoe, Tom Cruise, a zombie worm, and your own paranoia.
    • If you're lucky enough, you could lose to THIN AIR!
  • Extreme Omnivore: After you train under Maiko from Kittania, you have an option to clean the carcass of your kill for meat. Monsters you can get meat from range from Turkey and Three French Hens to Thing From The Back Of Your Fridge, Zombie Puppy, Little Old Lady and even Your Own Tongue.
  • Fantastic Racism: With Robots!
  • Fat Bastard: Doktor Improbable.
  • Fetch Quest:
  • Full-Frontal Assault: You start the game with no weapons or clothing, since anything you bring with you could potentially turn into something else, and it's feasible to spend all your money on weapons early on. Kittymorphs can even get advantages from fighting naked.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Many of the clans on the island. Examples include CHAOS (Causing High Amounts of Strangeness) and ICEE (Inorganic Catlike Enlongated Elements).
  • Game Breaking Bug: Some players get caught in 'badnav' (the default redirect when someone tries something they cannot do) and cannot control what they do. It does NOT go away by logging out and logging in again or playing on a different account.
  • Gargle Blaster: You can buy one from Dan in the Prancing Spiderkitty. Those who drink one tend to wake up covered in other people's (or monster's) blood.
  • He Knows About Timed Hits: The Corporal, who begins his instruction by telling you to press the "f" key. As it turns out, this is the command to "(f)ear for your life," which your character continues to do for the rest of the training.
    • Also, potentially the *player*. Get taught by someone and you can try to time your attacks to a countdown. Manage a 4 hit chain, and then you can teach other people.
    • The Corporal is implied to have Gone Mad From the Revelation.
  • I Call It Vera: One monster's description has you refer to your weapon as "sunshine", not capitalized even once.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: It's possible to acquire, cook and eat meat from human enemies you've slain.
  • Improbable Weapon User: One of the first weapons you can get is a spork, then you can also obtain and fight using a prosthetic leg!
    • Or a dead man's internal organs.
  • Jungle Japes: The Jungle, where most monster hunting takes place.
  • Local Hangout: The Common Grounds, which is Improbably linked to the rest of the cities on the Island. It has its own bar gremlin!
    • Newhome has more activity in general than the other cities, oddly.
  • Limit Break: Given to you by your very helpful cybernetic brain implant that is not suspiciously generous in any way.
  • Mad Scientist: Professor Joespeh Hawton aka Doktor Improbable (spelled with a k because he's not a real doctor). The man who created the Improbablity Drive in 2072 (after being alone on the island since 2050-ish), and apparently is as mad as a hatter. Also a genius, he created the Drive to skew probabilities in the users favour. Of course, since he's MAD, things didn't go like that. He's also a Name to Run Away From Really Fast.
  • Made of Explodium: Jokers, apparently.
  • Money for Nothing: Requisition Tokens are extremely useful when you have gear, drinks, or beds to buy. Other times, cigarettes are the only valuable currency you have.
  • New Game+: Once a player reaches level 15, they have the choice while venturing in the jungle to try and defeat the Improbability Drive. If successful, the player then gets to choose to change their race(or stay the same), implant, and upgrade health, attack, or defense. Finally, they are deposited back in an outpost as a level 1 player, having kept only their cigarettes and stamina levels from their previous form. Word of God says that there are new things that are unlocked all the way through 50 drive kills.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: So, wait, I destroyed the Improbability Drive and it made six copies of itself. That and It totally fucked up my body? Oops.
  • No Indoor Voice: The Corporal from basic training, who SHOUTS at EVERY other WORD OR PHRASE. When CONFRONTED, he seems NOT TO NOTICE. Then gets INTO an ARGUMENT with YOU about IT.
  • Our Orcs Are Different: If you encounter one, he will be reluctant to fight because he has a family. You will still be convinced that he is evil, though, and happily use this to butcher the rest of his family when you kill him.
  • Random Encounters: While traveling across the island to different outposts.
  • Reality Show: The entire war against the Drive is televised.
  • Riddle Me This: A random encounter has you meeting a mysterious Joker in the jungle. Answer the riddle right, and you get a bonus on your attacks. Answer it wrong, and you get a penalty instead.
  • The Rival: One of your recurring enemies is a lion, who attempts to ambush you in increasingly silly ways (and occasionally helps you out by breaking the necks of irritating romance writers).
  • This Is Sparta: From Mister Stern, of all people, about the CuratorBot.

"It!" shouts Mister Stern, "Is! A! MACHINE!"

  • RPGs Equal Combat: About half of the combat encounters begin with your character getting annoyed by an otherwise passive improbable being, until they decide that stabbing would be easier than putting up with the irritation.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Budget horse says "neigh", instead of actually neighing.
  • Shout-Out: There are countless references to pop culture in the game.
  • Start of Darkness: The Watcher used to be a nice, normal girl growing up in England. Then, shortly after she kissed a boy for the first time, she had an aneurysm. Which put her in a coma. Which she woke up from on the day all the tech died due to a massive EMP. Which caused her father, who had a pacemaker, to die. She decided from then on that the most important person in the world was her.
  • Stealth Pun: The Play, which happens to be on the subject of *cough* Words.
    • Or Words on Play, which happens to be the word "WORD" stamped on scripts for plays. You attack both Play on Words and Words on Play out of sheer rage at the puns.
    • When fighting Room with a View of HELL!, its fourth wall is always hidden...
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: The Watcher's message stating that the monsters are not getting more intelligent, and are not starting to target groups and not just individuals, and are CERTAINLY not preparing to attack the outposts.
  • Take That: There's a "Completely Rational Monster", the description of which makes fun of all the monsters that are puns, references to other series, references to the character's past, or something completely silly - then it makes fun of itself for being boring.
    • One of the fightable enemies is "Professional Romance Writer", who you attack out of sheer impulse.
    • So's "Slash Fic", the description of which is in the style of Mad-Libs. Except, well, slashier.
    • One of the monsters works for Disney's historical accuracy department, and is in the process of trying to get celebrity voices on board for a project...
    • One weapon (available after your first Drive Kill) is the Da Vinci Code. It costs fifty req, reduces charm points by five, and is constantly called tripe.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Poor, poor Budget Horse. And Son of Budget Horse. And Grandchildren of Budget Horse.
    • And fighting the Orc.
  • Wiki Rule: found here, with a healthy dose of cake!
  • You Fight Like a Cow: With the proper training, you can actually fight monsters by insulting them! And win!
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