Marlos

Marlos is a marathon TTRPG event raising money for Child’s Play Charity. The game is a giant dungeon crawl taking place in an endless dungeon of pocket dimensions. It’s a fun event to play some whimsical D&D 5e.

This year we are returning to Breakout Con! We will be running for 26 hours, starting at 3pm Friday, March 15th until 5pm Saturday, March 16th.

Join us for Tarlos’s Tax-exempt Tactical Train! Get ready for an infinite ride on a train full of nondeductible danger!

Want to build your character early so you can jump right into play? Check out our Marlos Character Creation Guide .

Marlos FAQ

What is Child’s Play Charity?

Child’s Play Charity is a charity that provides games to children’s hospitals and shelters.

How do I donate?

We only accept online donation, which you can do above. All donations will go directly to Child’s Play Charity.

Do I have to donate to play?

Nope! Donations are optional.

We do have a donation incentive where every $5 donated gets you 1 Activation Ticket for our custom Rod of Wonder. Talk to one of our event runners if you would like to receive Activation Tickets for your donation.

How do the Activation Tickets work?

Each table will have a Rod of Wonder of our own design, and whoever holds it may activate it as a magic item whenever they wish. This will cause a random effect that can be good, bad, or neither.

If you have an Activation Ticket, then you can activate the Rod of Wonder whether you hold it or not; you can even activate it when you’re not playing at the table! Just hand the DM your ticket when you want to activate it.

If you’re not playing at the table when you spend a ticket, you get to choose the target of the rod. If you’re playing at the table, however, then you will be considered the target of the rod.

To avoid spamming, we limit ticket activations to one activation a turn per individual. A DM may limit ticket activations if it there are too many at once.

This year we’re also doing something a little different: not only can an Activation Ticket be used to activate the rod, but it can upgrade it too! You choose if you want your ticket to activate or go to the upgrade pool. Upgrading the rod makes the effects stronger, and also gives us stretch goals to reach!

Rod Level 1: 0 Tickets ($0)
Rod Level 2: 20 Tickets ($100)
Rod Level 3: 40 Tickets ($200)
Rod Level 4: 80 Tickets ($400)
Rod Level 5: 160 Tickets ($800)

What is the story about?

You’ve been teleported to a dungeon of *arlos’s design along with many other adventurers. You and your fellow party members must brave the dangers to confront *arlos himself and defeat him.

This year you will be facing Tarlos’s Tax-exempt Tactical Train, where the danger is real and nondeductible!

How long can I play?

You can play as long as you’re able to; you’re under no obligation to stay for any amount of time. You can play for as little as 10 minutes or as long as 8 hours, and you can come and go as you please. If you’ve signed up for a time slot and arrive on time, then you have a guaranteed seat for that 4-hour period, but you’re free to leave at any point if you wish.

Priority will be given to players who arrive on time for a time slot, and if you did not sign up then you may be asked to give your seat to someone who has. If there’s a free seat at the table though, then you are more than welcome to fill it.

Sleep deprivation, dehydration, and starvation are no joke; these are a real risks while playing for too long. We recommend you play for no more than 8 consecutive hours, and take a break every few hours to take a walk or get some food.

Event runners will be keeping an eye out for anyone showing signs of sleep deprivation, please consider heeding their advice if they recommend you go get some rest.

What kind of character should I use?

You can build your own character or use one of our pregenerated characters. Check out our Marlos Character Creation Guide for character building rules for this event.

Feel free to make your character as serious or silly as you like, and as good or evil as you please (but remember this is a cooperative game for fun, inter-party conflicts are not the goal).

Can I use my Adventurers League character?

As long as your character follows the character build rules outlined in our Character Creation Guide, then yes!

Please note that we are not affiliated with Adventurers League, any items or character modifications you acquire from Marlos will not be legal in Adventurers League events.

What happens if my character dies?

If your character dies during play, here are the three options available for how to proceed:

You can take a new character from the pregenerated character pile.
You can make a new character following the Character Creation Guide.
You may elect to have the dead character be revived through the Reincarnate spell. Rather than roll on the Reincarnate table in the PHB however, the DM will be rolling on a custom table to determine the species you Reincarnate as. Aside from your species change, your character remains the same.

The last DM let me do X, but the new DM says I can’t?

Throughout the event there will be different DM’s at different hours. Each DM will make their own rulings that may not be the same, but you must accept the current DM’s ruling. If one DM lets you do a triple backflip off a horse, but the next DM does not allow it, you must accept that you cannot triple backflip off a horse, regardless of the past ruling.

Past Marlos Events

2014-Marlos’s Malevolent Murder Maze
2015-Karlos’s Krazy Killer Kube
2016-Harlos’s Horrible Haunted House
2017-Jarlos’s Jumping Jungle Jams
2018-Yarlos’s Yearly Yearlong Yardsale
2019-Warlos’s Wacky Weaponized Waterpark
2024-Tarlos’s Tax-Exempt Tactical Train

History

Marlos was started in 2014 by John Norry and Pi. It ran the full 72 hours and attracted tens of participants. The game was run in the Pathfinder system and was hosted through the Kult of Gaming, the official gaming club of Wilfrid Laurier University.

In 2018, Marlos was updated to use the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast.

In 2019, Marlos was held at Breakout Con for the first time. We changed our run time from 72 hours to 36 hours.