by Larry Bullock
Risus Thoughts of the Moment
In 2008, I started Risus Thought of the Moment as a place to be a group blog about the greatness that is Risus. It was started somewhat in protest at the way Wetpaint was working (or more accurately not working) for Risusiverse and as a resource to post stuff for people who’s other free hosting providers were closing up shop.
It never really took off as a group blog…mostly just me and an occasional soul or two. It has been a lot of fun, but it’s purpose seems to be better filled in other ways.
Risusiverse has moved to a new host (http://www.risusiverse.com/) and is in capable hands. The whole idea of a group website to post stuff of interest to Risus players has been handled much better via the Risus Google+ page (https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103112350476294391123).
This document is a collection of some of the best posts from the Risus Thought of the Moment site as well as a few extra surprises. I hope that you enjoy what you find in these humble pages.
Larry Risus, The Anything RPG is © S. John Ross and is freely available from the Cumberland Games website at: http://risus.cumberlandgames.com/
My RPG History! Just to show that I’m not all Risus, here’s a somewhat complete list of commercial RPGs that I’ve owned/
Why Risus?! I don’t think I’ve ever posted my Why I Play Risus thoughts here, so I thought I’d rectify that.
played over the years (in alphabetical order):
• AD&D (1st/2nd edition)
• Alternity
• Amazing Engine
• Amber Diceless
• BattleTech
• Bushido
• Car Wars
• Champions
As can be seen by my RPG History post (see sidebar), I’ve played a lot of different games and campaigns over the years (I’ve been gaming pretty much since 1980). Once upon a time, I used to think that the more details and rules that were crammed into the game the better I could define my character.
However, the more I tried to nail down my character to a set list of skills, abilities, powers, advantages, disadvantages and whatever-else-have-you, the harder to became to build the character that I had envisioned when I first started. I became very dissatisfied with the whole thing.
No roleplaying game is perfect. Therefore, I use Risus
(where things are kept so simple that it is easy to make the game very close to perfect). Why put all of that effort into another system which confuses complications with perfection?
• Chill (original Pacesetter)
• D&D (Original)
• DC Heroes (Mayfair)
• DragonQuest
• Gamma World
• GURPS
• Hunter Planet
Then I found Risus. That was that. I still enjoy reading RPGs, but mostly to mine what I can use for Risus: setting materials. Now, my eyes kind of glaze over when I read whatever mechanics are in the rules, but there are a lot of amazing settings out there ripe for use in a much more elegant system.
• Man, Myth, and Magic
• Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game
• Marvel Universe Roleplaying
Aragorn!
Game
• Shadowrun
• Star Frontiers
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Top Secret
• Twilight 2000
• Vampire: The Masquerade
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• Werewolf: The Apocolypse
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Silent Ranger (4), Friend of the Elves (3), King of Man in Denial (3)!
There - in less than a minute, I created someone from Lord of the Rings.
Samples of Play
People always seem to be looking for samples of play for Risus. Here are some nifty ones to check out at Silverlode:!
! I will admit that I like to read through other RPGs (usually those that are freely available as as PDF)… however, when it comes time to actually try them out, I always start thinking about how much easier it would be to just use the setting for Risus.
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/chase_01.html
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_01.html
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_02.html
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_03.html
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/episodes/silverlode1908_ep_01.html
• http://www.velvet-edge.com/episodes/silverlode1908_ep_03.html
• http://www.risusmonkey.com/2010/01/moon-is-harsh-mistress-recap.html
• http://www.risusmonkey.com/2010/02/dragonspire-play-transcript.html
Note: this list was from a post to RisusTalk (http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/risustalk/). If you really like Risus, you might want to join.
The Colony! Genre: Fantasy
Tone: Somewhat serious (but with some funny)
Campaign Options: Hooks and Tales, Pumping Clichés, DoublePumps
Points/Dice: 10 dice
Description: The queen is dying. Use your ant magic to help spread the next generation of queen eggs to form new colonies. You must protect the eggs and guide them to a new home. Players take on the role of bugs in this take on insect life (complete with bug magic).
«this was a result of randomly using Escort Service and We’re on the Outside Looking In from the Big List of RPG Plots»
Humperdinck!
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Prince bent on starting a war with Gilder (4), Hunter who can track a hawk on a cloudy day [3]!
There - in less than a minute, I created someone from Princess Bride.
Serious Play! When using Risus for serious play (hopefully not too serious though), here’s what I do: I rarely allow combat with inappropriate cliches. I don’t outright forbid them. However, in most combat situations, I use the “if both sides want to fight, it’s fantasy combat" philosophy. No extra dice bonus for doing something doofy (in most cases; sometimes it simply makes sense to keep it). This seems to work out fairly well.
It’s really just a matter of what tone you set.
Future of Roleplaying! I wonder if the future of roleplaying is exemplified by The Backyardigans? Think about it…each episode, the characters are the same basic people, but they take on a role specific to that episode’s adventure. Pure roleplaying.
Putting this in context of a game, your character would have the same basic defining characteristics/ mannerisms/etc., but you’d get to expand yourself with the given role of the day. Seems like this would be easy to do.
http://www.nickjr.com/shows/backyardigans/index.jhtml
Fun Links!
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For a good example of another RPG that would be fun in Risus, check out Exiles (http:// www.jasoncamp.net/stuff/ exiles/).
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10 Essential Elements of a Great Escapist Hero (http://io9.com/ 10-essential-elements-of-a-greatescapist-hero-574081183)→ A grand adventure needs an inspirational hero. Not just a cool person in a fancy suit, but someone to believe in. It’s not quite true that a science fiction or fantasy story is only as good as its hero, but the hero’s greatness is certainly a limiting factor. Here are 10 essential qualities a hero ought to have.
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I think it would be great if all Risus supplements were like Geezer (http:// www222.pair.com/sjohn/ geezer.htm).
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Firefly & Serenity for Risus (http://www.arlecchino.org/ pasquariello/risus/)→ Another Firefly guide. Beautiful looking site design as well. Someday I’ll actually have to watch this show.
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Risus: Submissions Guide (http:// risus.cumberlandgames.com/)→ Check out the official Risus: Submissions Guide at the official Risus site. They are towards the bottom of the Essentials & Oddities section. Good stuff for anyone looking to make an “official" (and paid) Risus supplement.
Inappropriate Clichés! I don’t really understand why people always want to pull this one out of their Risus game when they are being all “serious". If you are really in a “serious" game, does this really come up? I usually follow the idea that if both people want to fight, it’s fantasy combat and anything goes (for those Wizard vs. Fighter instances).
But what about something more mundane: folk guitarist vs. mob hit man? Odds are probably pretty good that the folk guitarist doesn’t want to fight. If this were a “serious" campaign, could it still work? I like to think so. It’s all in how you want to interpret clichés.
When the mob hit man pulls out his gun, what is the poor folk guitarist to do? Well, assuming your folk guitarist is any good, he’s probably had to deal with protest situations (probably as part of one). I wonder if Risus could use another What if the folk guitarist option where you get to stage your starts gathering protesters own finale? The more dice you give up (that puts you out of action), the who harass the mob hit more say you get in what happens. man? Or what if he distracts the mob hit man by playing just the right song to remind the hit man of his carefree youth?
Anything is possible, just not very probable. If you reward your folk guitarist by granting him the ability to affect the situation with the hit man, you can really get some great roleplaying going on.
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The Different Types of Manliness (http://feedproxy.google.com/ ~r/TheArtOfManliness/~3/ t3nG3Ujn-ik/)→ Some clichés usable for Risus… just what type of man are you?
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Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations (http:// changingminds.org/disciplines/ storytelling/plots/ polti_situations/ polti_situations.htm) → Add some drama to you game…
Am I old school because I think in terms of modules instead of adventures?
Does anyone else use roleplaying games to define characters for stories they are writing? Risus works great for character thumbnail sketches.
Theory: why no stats! Most roleplaying games use explicit statistics (stats) of some type to help define your character. Risus doesn’t bother with such things. The main reason: a cliché’s rating is a rating of your overall effectiveness in everything that goes into it. It represents more than just overall skill and/ or power. It is a carefully blended part of your character that takes into account how your strength (or intelligence, or whatever) works with the cliché. Why do you need to know a specific number for you stats, when it is how things work with what you know that is important? In Risus, stats are implicit/implied.
Now, if you want to explicitly ensure that some trait is above the norm, you can include it your cliché description: a nimble swashbuckler (3) is little different from an incredibly strong broadsword slinger (3) when it comes to effectiveness in a physical combat, but each would have different target numbers for breaking down a locked door (assuming you didn’t have a better cliché to use for that).
Noble Quinn! Description: Rugged warrior in his late 30s who seems to always be concentrating on something else. He walks with a slight limp and uses a quarterstaff as a walking stick/weapon (he sometimes pretends it has magical powers too).
Exiled Warrior King of Fuhsaz Seeking to Regain The Throne (4), Dabbler in the Magical Arts [3], Inventive Prankster (2)
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Tools: quarterstaff, sword, light but functional armor
Hooks: Hunted by bounty hunters sent by the usurper of the Fuhsaz throne.
Tales: Noble Quinn was always seen as a kindly ruler; that is until he took an interest in the magical arts. The people grew fearful of a ruler engaging in magic and a revolution took place which took him out of power. He was able to escape, but he is still haunted by this betrayal of his people (not to mention hunted by the bounty hunters). However, he has been contacted by many loyal subjects who want him back (the new guy is a real problem).
Why use Risus if you GM a different RPG!
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You are a GM and you really have never looked at Risus. That’s fine (I’m no longer surprised at the number of people who have never even heard of Risus, let alone never played it). However, you might want to check it out to see if Risus can be a tool for you to use.
The most basic use of Risus as a GM tool is to provide a shortcut way to define various things in your campaign. Why bother with stat blocks for every NPC. Just give them some defining characteristics and rate them on a scale of 1-6 (1 signifying a noob, 3 as professional, and 6 representing a top dog).
You could simply define the local blacksmith, Thron Garbek as so: dwarven artisan blacksmith (4). And with Risus, you can have multiple clichés, so Thron might also list Initiate in the Order of Reibir, Dwarven God of Gemcraft (2).
Risus clichés provide you with a character at a glance. You don’t really need to know what Thron’s individual stats are. Your players don’t interact with Thron’s stats, they interact with him as a person fulfilling a role in your campaign. You need to know something about how good of a blacksmith he is and maybe a few other defining roles for him.
…let them help a little old lady across the street, or the genre equivalent (blowing up a building is a common substitute).!
The Risus Companion (p. 42)
Once defined by clichés, it is a simple matter to use your Risus defined NPCs in your campaign. If it becomes necessary, it isn’t even that hard to come up with your own game-specific information for a Risus generated NPC (I would do this off the cuff; usually all you are looking to do is determine something to roll against and using the rating for the clichés, it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something).
Where to now Mr. Peabody?!
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While many great Risus sites disappeared with GeoCities, much of the content remains available via the Wayback Machine! (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php).!
A public service announcement brought to you by Risus TOTM.!
More Fun Links!
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Here is My Brute*, Fuhsaz, in Risus terms:! Gladiator-in-training (4), Dog Trainer (4), Wolf-dog sidekick who will die to defend Fuhsaz (6)**!
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*My Brute is a silly online game where you get to participate in 3 combats per day (you don’t really do anything but watch, but it is kind if fun). If you want to be a pupil of Fuhsaz, simply go to this site: http://fuhsaz.mybrute.com (I will get some credit if you join).!
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**Since Fuhsaz is pretty much a beginner, he hides a lot behind his wolf-dog who seems to go through opponents pretty quickly (that’s why he has 6 full dice).!
The Free RPG Blog: Brain off? Risus on. The Anything RPG by S. John Ross (http:// thefreerpgblog.blogspot.com/ 2009/03/brain-off-risus-on-anythingrpg-by-s.html)→ Here’s a nice review of Risus on the Free RPG Blog.
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How to turn your stock fantasy RPG into a unique delight (http:// feedproxy.google.com/~r/ TheFreeRpgBlog/~3/DRT7mIrSIoA/ how-to-turn-your-stock-fantasy-rpginto.html) → Good notes for designing settings.
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Risus Monkey: On Artifacts and Gadgets (http://www.velvetedge.com/risusmonkey/2010/01/ on-artifacts-and-gadgets.html)→ This should be required reading for those interested in magical or otherwise special gear.
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Risus Monkey's Random Map (http://www.velvet-edge.com/ RisusMonkeyMap.html ) → I linked to what I think was the original of this before, but it is nice to see someone from the Risus community change it up a bit.
! Jude Oak!
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Curious Tinker happy to work for a meal (4), Honest go-between who seems to be accepted by everyone (3), Happy tin whistle player (2), Common Sense Philosopher (1)!
Jude is a simple man who just loves to figure out how things work and how to fix them. He’s not out for a lot, a simple meal or whatever someone can afford to pay him. His easy golucky nature has him sometimes sent on errands for people across social classes, usually delivering messages. For fun, Jude plays the tin whistle; usually happy tunes for the local kids. While not overtly religious, Jude doesn’t mind talking philosophy with people.! ——! The above is my character for a Steam-Metropolis style campaign called Metropolitan Skies (being done as a play by post/message board).!
Battlestar Galactica Series Bible (http://www.harvardwood.org/ resource/resmgr/hwp-pdfs/ battlestar_galactica_series.pdf)→ If you ever wanted to do an RPG for a TV series, you can’t get a better resource that the official series bible. You might want to download the one from Ronald D. Moore’s Battlestar Galactica.
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Handy chart explains how to write like Grant Morrison (http:// www.io9.com/#!5748286/handychart-explains-how-to-write-like-grantmorrison) → Just in case you wanted to come up with a little something off beat to your game; just use a d6 (take your pick on a 6).
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R is for Risus Companion (A Love Letter) (http:// www.risusmonkey.com/2011/04/r-isfor-risus-companions-loveletter.html)→ What he said…very will written piece on the Risus Companion.
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Spawn Inspired Mechanic! It’s been a very long time since I’ve checked out a Spawn comic (http://www.spawn.com/comics/ series.aspx?series_id=1), but the basic premise behind it was a guy made a deal with the devil for power, but each time he used the power, it would bring him closer to the end (permanent death). I thought that this would make an interesting premise for roleplaying.!
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This could work for any sort of supernatural ability (magic, super powers, psionics, what-ever-haveyou). The characters have whatever ability fits with the campaign. However, they can only use the ability so much before it burns out (and they die or whatever other ingame consequences you want to impose).!
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You simply need a cliché to represent that your characters have the “power" (I’d recommend that this be a double pump cliché, and I’d allow funky dice just to make it interesting). The characters want to do something nifty with this power. Feel free to let them. Assign a target number to pull off the effect they are looking for - if they beat it, great; they can do whatever they were trying to do. If it is a combat situation, it is up to the GM if what they want to do is done as a regular combat or as a target number. In either case, keep track of their target numbers that they beat (or the roll that they beat in case of a combat). Keep a running total going of what they have accomplished using their powers. Once the total reaches a certain point (set by the GM), they are done.!
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Let’s say you are playing rough, and the characters will die if they use up their power (an alternative would be that they would become “slaves" to whatever granted them their power in the first place and would have to do whatever was asked of them). You What is your favorite roleplaying genre? I set the campaign limit for the power at would answer sword and sorcery, but the 1,000. Once they’ve gotten to 1,000 (or higher), it’s time for the end.! longest campaign that I was ever part of was
a super hero campaign (and it was a lot more fun than the typical sword and sorcery campaigns I’ve been in).
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This whole idea probably works best if the players don’t know how much “power" they started out with and have no real indication of how much “power" they use when the do something with it. What do you think?!
A Case for Stats in (and out of) Risus!
Another Way of Thinking of Stats in Risus!
Pretty much every RPG has them. Yet Risus doesn’t bother; it only has ratings for clichés. What do they tell you about how strong your viking warrior is? Risus should add stats in some way.!
It’s all in your cliché ratings. A rating encompasses everything - not just raw skill, but also natural talents, physical, mental, spiritual, etc. attributes, and just about anything else most traditional RPGs require dedicated stats for. A cliché rating tells you how well all of these things work together (the higher the rating the better).!
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Clichés handle the skills, just fine, but with detailed stats, there is no need for a When Somebody Can’t Participate rules - you’d simply get a set number of dice based on a relevant stat.!
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Of course, adding stats makes Risus much more complex than it needs to be. Risus thrives in an atmosphere of open, freewheeling roleplaying. You’d have to come up with rules for how stats are applied to clichés; you’d probably have to change the mechanics of the system; you’d probably not be playing Risus any longer.!
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Plus, where do you start with stats? How many should there be: 3, 6, 12, 20? Does a small set of numbers really tell you much of anything about your character that can’t be done as part of your cliché description?!
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You have no need to worry about a specific rating for stats (and think about it, how can you really know what your stat ratings are anyway).!
Audience Participation Exercise: Dromas!
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Here is an interesting picture of a Dromas (© Yndra - used by permission)! http://www.flickr.com/photos/yndra/4314204447/ !
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A lot of people new to Risus see lack of stats as a shortcoming. However, once you really understand that a cliché can be more than Viking Warrior (3), but could be Ax wielding, grog guzzling, champion arm wrestling, Viking Warrior (3). The only limits are you imagination and the sensibilities of the campaign (or lack thereof).!
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If you really think you have to have stats, you might be better off sticking with something else. However, if you are will to let yourself be creative, Risus is definitely more fun.!
Now, it is up to you to decide just what the heck Dromas is/are and detail how you would fit this into your game.!
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How would you use the Dromas?!
Electric Knight! Master of Electricity [4d20], Expert in Stick-Fu (3d8), Helpful and Knowledgeable Wandering Priest (4d6), Lucky Shots: [][][][][][]!
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Hooks: Always tries to ensure the safety of innocent lives. Walks with a limp and uses a stick for extra support.!
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Tales: Richard Daniels always knew that he was chosen, he just isn’t sure who has been chosen by. He is an initiate in the Followers of the Way, a wandering order that attempts to help those in need. In some sort of strange vision, he was given control of electricity and even to generate it, but it cost him good use of his left leg. When we awoke, he also had his staff, which he uses for support and as a weapon if necessary.! (Electric Knight is a 200 point character (with 12 extra points for the hooks and tales).! (yes, it’s fun to play with HeroMachine - http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/ heroMachine2/ ))!
anonymous asks:!
Why do people suck and not like Risus?
risus said:!
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I think what you are asking is a logical fallacy (hasty generalization if you are implying that people suck because they don’t like Risus). Risus is the Anything RPG, but that doesn’t mean Risus is the Everyone RPG.!
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For those of us who have grokked Risus, it is a prefect system. It just works best for us. That in no way implies that Risus will work best for everyone. Like everything else, you can’t “knock it till you try it, put a little on your plate, don’t make a face before you taste it, some kids think it’s great!"*!
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As far as people sucking goes…that’s kind of the way of the world (and we all suck in some way). People are people and all that.!
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*Time for Timer!
This is from a message cross posted to the Risus mailing lists:!
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“I’m fighting a personal war against the dark forces of boredom and monotony. Risus is one of my weapons."!
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Gothikork!
“I always allow the “Boxcars and Breakthroughs" option, because I think you should always have at least a slight chance of whacking the hell out of your opponent.”!
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Guy Hoyle via the RisusTalk mailing list (a very cool list to be part of).!
! “Risus fans don’t just assume that Risus is halfway to a game they’ve always wanted. As the ‘Risus guy’, it’s my pleasure and privilege to stock my Risus web page with links to dozens of individual expressions of what Risus can be. It’s a herd of unicorns, many of them lovelier than anything I’d have come up with on my own.”!
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S. John Ross; Risus Companion p. 63 - Halfway to Perfect!
A strange thought: I personally hate it when people try to put others into convenient little stereotyped buckets, yet I love a roleplaying game where the premise behind it is to embrace the cliché…
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For my first thought of the moment, a confession:!
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What amuses me of Risus is that its strength is based on collective knowledge. Everybody knows what a pirate is good at, so why spend time and words trying to precisely define it? Let’s act like a pirate and everything will work.!
! But it may be just my allergy to two-hundred-pages corebooks…! ! !
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Feb 24, 2009 12:54 pm by jokingonzalez!
In the Grip of the Rules!
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The Zen of Risus #132B663!
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“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”!
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Princess Leia - Star Wars!
Yoda!
When it comes to Risus, Yoda is just a padawan. The real power of Risus is in the fact that players can, and are encouraged to, try anything. Sure, you might not always succeed, but you can always try.!
I find it a wonder that people still try to make systems that have rules for everything. Like Governor Tarkin’s dilemma, the more you try to tighten everything up, the harder it ends up being. Harder for the GM to keep everything in place; harder for the players to know what they can and can’t do (except for those that enjoy being rules lawyers); just harder.!
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[Luke:] I can’t believe it.!
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[Yoda:] That is why you fail.!
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GM Advice: It’s a Trap!!
I like how Risus just presents some basic guidelines and lets you go from there. No fuss, no muss. Once you get used to the flying by the seat of your pants feeling, Risus is very liberating.!
GMToolKit
“Do or do not… there is no try.”!
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Here’s a bit of advice for new GMs: Never create your own character to go adventuring with the players. Odds are that your players will end up feeling like sidekicks floating around with your character. You have enough going on without taking away the fun from your
(http://webcommando.com/iPhone/GMToolKit.html)
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If you happen to have an iPhone (or the more reasonably priced iPod touch), you might want to check out GMToolKit. It does some pretty nifty stuff.!
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Of course, it has a build in dice roller, simply click on the die type you want to roll and you’ll see your result (no nifty animation or noises, but it does the job for random number generation). It also lets you roll multiple dice (you can specify die type, number of rolls you want (good for rolling up stats for games that use such things), groups (which is where you specify the number of dice you want to roll), and any modifies (up to +/- 99).!
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As a bonus, there is a feature to have a standard dice roll running in an automatic fashion (from 0.5 seconds to 10 seconds). This is helpful if like to have numbers running by automatically (for any type of check you might want to do at a glance).!
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However, dice rollers are nothing really new. GMToolKit also gives you a random name generator; a place name generator; and a room generator (which gives you contents to put into a room at random).!
! The app is worth checking out. Plus, it is free!! !
Gamer’s Kit! Every gamer can give you a list of what kit they’d like to have it stranded on a desert island (type of thing). Here’s mine. The Risus ruleset that is bundled with the Big List of RPG Plots as as booklet, with the booklet version of The Risus Companion stuck in between the sections of the Risus/ Big List booklet, something to write with and on, and some dice (up to 6 of each type).!
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My kit is portable enough to travel anywhere quite easily. Unlike some people who have to lug around 3 (or more) hardcover books, I have a sleek 78 pages booklet.!
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What’s in your kit?!
Updated Gamer’s Kit! My Gamer’s Kit that I mentioned before hasn’t changed a whole lot, but it has been updated a bit, so I thought I would summarize my kit here:!
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• !Risus / Risus Companion / Big List of RPG Plots sandwich style book (made by putting the Companion booklet file in between the sections of the Risus / Big List of RPG Plots booklet file.! • !Instant Game - one of the best quick, random, campaign/setting generator that I’ve seen (it’s a freebie available from Animalball Games (http:// www.animalball.com/games.html)). Works with any game system.! • !Dice (variety, but mostly d6).! • !Pencil! • !Paper! • !Something Different: another game for diversity. Currently, it is 44: A Game of Automatic Fear (by Matt Snyder and available at http://storiesyouplay.com/44/).!
Gaming Social Contract! How would you like to meet this out in the wilderness….how would your players react? What would you even name this?!
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You can check out others at the source: WoodSplitter-Lee (http://wood-splitterlee.deviantart.com/).!
I’ve seen a lot of discussion lately about how important it is to have a “social contract" for your game. If you haven’t heard of this, it is basically the ground rules for what style of play your are going for (funny, serious, Indiana Jones, etc.). I agree that this is something important to do. Instead of blathering on about what might work, I will simply direct you to read Formless (http:// www.pigames.net/collaborative/index.php? action=read&page=183). !
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Formless is very detailed (maybe more than you’ll ever need for a Risus game), but it does give you everything you might need to think about.
8 Rules for the Risus GM! 1. It’s OK To Say Yes
There aren’t a whole lot of rules to Risus, and it’s never any fun to argue about what few rules there are. Just let your players try anything and adjust the target number accordingly.! 2. Go With the Flow
Risus encourages your players to try anything. Go ahead and let them. Everyone will have more fun.! 3. Not Everything Needs to Be Resolved With Combat
If the players are supposed to win an encounter, let them. Use a single contest die roll to determine how well they succeeded (there’s a difference between living and surviving; find out where they are on the spectrum with a single roll).! 4. Use The Tools At Hand
Some might argue that if you are using props with Risus, you probably are thinking too hard. However, sometimes props help to set the mood or just help the players envision what you described with your feeble word smithing.! 5. Preparedness Makes Us Powerful**
It’s a good thing to have some clue as to what is going in your campaign, so be prepared to ensure that your players have a good time. Sometimes that means having to throw your “plans" out the window when the players take the campaign in a different direction than you were planning.! 6. When In Doubt, See Rule #1
Keep things fun and say yes to what your players want to try. It’s supposed to be about having fun and “there’s no wrong way to play" anyway.! 7. You Have Dice, Use Them, Trust Them
You can’t beat the rattle of dice to determine the outcome of some situation. Use them often. Trust in what they tell you. Live with the results.! 8. Be A Player
Part of playing the game is to have fun. If you aren’t having fun, don’t play. If you can’t handle being the GM (which isn’t as easy as you’d think since you are playing everyone else), let someone else try and just be a player. Don’t give up, just have fun.!
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*This post was inspired by Eight Rules That Will Make You a Better DM.! **Herman Goering!
helloboneshelloheart (http:// helloboneshelloheart.tumblr.com/post/ 8554004778):! Carnal by nightrhino!
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This guy looks like he would make a fun character for a game. How would you stat him out for Risus?!
Volo! hyper-intelligent, overconfident raven (4); shadow caster [2]; Magical Enchantment: speak [2] !
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Hooks! Volo can only cast spells that have verbal and material components. He hasn’t figured a way to cast spells that require gestures. He also has trouble casting spells with material components as it is hard to get a hold of them.! Tale! Volo is a raven that was raised to be a familiar for Jericho Shroudchanter. However, Jericho chose to experiment on Volo to give him more power. He succeeded. Volo became super intelligent and able to cast spells; however in the process Jericho turned into a drooling idiot. Volo was happy to serve Jericho Shroudcaster. He does feel guilty of what happened to Jericho and is working to restore him back to normal.!
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-Volo was designed to be used with the Something Familiar setting (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/settings/something-familiar).!
Gwyn Axpix! Goblin maiden looking to marry a wealthy adventurer to take her away from it all (4), Street merchant who always seems to have what people need (3), Insatiable flirt who likes to play with knives (3)!
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Gwyn is a young goblin maiden who happened to have been raised by a nice couple of humans (poor but very well liked in the community). ! She resides in a seedier part of town, and even there, she has to deal with mistrust from most everyone. She is only tolerated by most because of her parents. !
She has put up with prejudice most of her life. However, she has become an accomplished merchant who always seems to either have (or can acquire) whatever gear someone is looking for.!
Always one with a friendly smile, she is quick to flirt with any member of the opposite sex. Of course, her way of using knives as part of her flirting ritual scares away most of the men she meets. She is hoping for a Prince Charming adventurer to sweep her off her feet and take her out of her life to something more exciting.!
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You can’t have too many links…!
Dungeon Crawl Risus - 1KM1KT (http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/ dungeon-crawl-risus )→ Worth checking out for you D&D Fans.
Pinky! Idiotic white lab mouse who is best friends with Brain (4); inept lab assistant (4); TV trivia buff (3)!
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Risus Trek: Starship Combat Again (http://guywires.blogspot.com/2011/03/ risus-trek-starship-combatagain.html)→ Guy posts some interesting thoughts on what to do with starships in a Star Trek TOS campaign. The basic approach is to make them Tools of the Trade. I think this is a good approach, but my only question is how do you know when to penalize the player for not having their tool with them? If they are on the planet, are they screwed? Or are they OK as long as they remain in constant contact with the ship (sort of like in Miri where they were screwed without their communicators)?
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How would you handle ships in a Star Trek type campaign? Risus First Run (http:// www.reddit.com/r/rpg/ comments/kmreq/ i_ran_risus_for_the_first_time_las t_night/)→ A reddit post detailing a groups first run through with Risus. Sounds like they had an amazing time.
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Story Generator - TV Tropes (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/ storygen.php) → Yet another reason to belong to the RisusTalk list…you get to find out about cool stuff like this.
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We The People http:// engineofthwaak.blogspot.com/ 2012/02/risus-we-people.html)→ An alternate history setting for Risus is 8 short pages. It’s “a colonial fantasy setting where the puritans didn’t leave England for religious freedom, but for magickal freedom.”
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Hooks! Never ponders what Brain is pondering!
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Brain! Genius white lab mouse bent on world domination (4); ad hoc inventor [3]; arch nemesis of Snowball (Questing Dice) [][][][][]!
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Hooks! Deep down has a heart of gold (especially in regards to Pinky)!
Because I could resist the lure of the PULP-O-MIZER http://thrillingtales.webomator.com/derange-o-lab/pulp-o-mizer/pulp-o-mizer.html)…
Let’s Cook with Risus! Before I explain why Risus is my utility system, here’s a quick review of what Risus is about:!
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Risus is billed as “The Anything RPG”. It was designed 20 years ago as a beer and pretzel, comedy system. However, once you are all “Kwai Chang Caine” about the system, it works for any style of game you want. Being a free system, it is well worth checking out (http:// risus.cumberlandgames.com/ ).!
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The rules are a quick read (being only 6 pages long); like Othello, it takes a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master. Your character is defined by clichés: shorthand methods to describe something about your characters and what they might be good at.! It can be something as simple as Fighter: 4 (the 4 being the number of dice you roll when your ability as a fighter is being tested), but it can be quite amazing once you sprinkle some spices into your cliché.!
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You could sprinkle a little salt and be a Dwarven Fighter: 4 (if you are into the species thing); or really add the jalapeños with something like Kardakeep Home Guard Ax-wielding Fighter with a Lust for Blood: 4. Technically, they are all just Fighters, but adding some description into your cliché turns a boring character soup into a hearty stew. It gives your character some background (a home, a role, a specialized weapon, and a roleplaying hook).!
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You usually get 10 dice to define your character, and their are options available to earn a couple more dice, but you can define a really strong character with the defaults.! Risus utilizes a dice pool to resolve conflicts. Take your rating and roll that number of dice. You need to know what type of conflict you are in: a test against a target number (for something quick and easy); a single action contest against another character; or full out combat. If you beat the target number or the dice total from your opponent you win (in combat, if you lose, your cliché rating will drop by one until you run out of dice). There are some nuances in there, but that is the gist of things in a nutshell. You can read the rules in a few minutes and see the details for yourself.!
! So why is Risus my utility system?! !
Simply put, I love the flexibility of Risus. You really can use it for anything. Any genre, any setting, anything at all, and it will never leave you feeling like you are missing out on anything. I also love the simplicity of it all. You don’t have to spends hours or days building your perfect character. You can probably build a wonderful character that you’d enjoy playing in minutes.!
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I prefer a system that encourages creativity. Once you are riding the zen of Risus, it is amazing the things you will come up with. In Risus, you are encouraged to ignore Yoda’s advice and TRY. Even my kids love it and have a great time with it.!
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I haven’t been granted the luxury of just being a player of any RPG in 20+ years (unless you count a couple of awesome play by post games). I enjoy how easy it is to define everything in Risus so that coming up with adventures isn’t a chore (not that I usually follow a script any more, but it is nice to have some prepared notes). Everything from challenges to NPCs can be defined quite quickly with no real fuss (especially if you are into Shemping as presented by Asparagus Jumpsuit: http://asparagusjumpsuit.wordpress.com/games/systemless-game-aids/).!
Another factor in my choice of utility system is the pressing specter of time. Simply put, I don’t have a ton of it. While there are a large number of awesome games out there, I find it much easier to harvest the settings and other concepts and just use Risus as the system. Risus really does work for anything.!
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I will be honest. Risus isn’t necessarily for everyone. It plays a little more loosy-goosy than some structured, try to define everything a player can do and try to hold them to some semblance of the game’s reality, system. You might hear whispers in the dark about how there is a “death spiral” inherit in Risus where once you start losing a conflict, you have little hope of winning (to which I like to remind people that losing in Risus does not necessarily mean death like it does in other more serious games).!
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Risus just works for me. It might work for you if you give it a chance.!
Legend of Zork as Inspiration! If you were looking for an online time waster, Legend of Zork (sadly gone from the web) did a pretty good job. However, I was thinking that the concept would work out pretty good for a Risus game.!
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The basic concept is that you are a recently fired door to door salesman in a fantasy realm (so you might have been selling magic helmets or something). You still have your sales sample and a bit of loose change. What do you do now? Might as well go adventuring to try to get by.!
Plundering Talislanta! Talislanta was one of my favorite settings back in the days; something truly original and not a derivative of everything else that was out there. Stephan Michael Sechi has decided to call it a day (well, a couple of decades) on Talislanta and is offering everything for free download.!
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You should really go check it out at http://www.talislanta.com/ where they are building a nice support community to keep the game alive for the fans.!
As Talislanta is based on using set character types, it would be very simple to use Risus to play (if you aren’t interested in learning another system, that is).!
How Often…! How often do you need to refer to the rules in a game? If it is Risus, probably not very necessary once you understand the basics. There are 3 basic times to roll: a single action conflict (winner of one roll takes all), a full combat, and a target number roll. The mechanic is always the same, roll a number of dice equal to your cliche level and add up the result. Higher is better.!
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There really isn’t a whole lot of referring to rules necessary.!
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So, how often do you need to refer to the rules in other systems?!
They say that confession is good for the soul. So here is a Risus confession: I pronounce the game name rahy-suhs - sort of like rye bread plus some sus to go on it. However, Risus is technically a latin term (for laughter). It should be pronounced something along the lines of reee-suss (sort of like recess, actually). There, I’ve got it out in the open (and will continue to pronounce it in my own way since I don’t speak latin).
Apologies to D&D Fans! I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t roleplay with D&D. I was just musing that it seems that the implicit goal of the game is to collect cool stuff so that you can become invincible. I know that it is all play style. If you review My RPG History, you can see that I’ve played for quite some time (and quite a bit of it was D&D).!
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In Risus, cool stuff is available (Bonus Die Gear), but the system doesn’t seem to encourage a deep burning desire for more cool stuff.!
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Of course, it helps that in Risus you can bake all of the cool stuff you’d ever want right into your clichés (and you are only limited by your imagination and the conventions of the particular campaign you are playing).! ! (the lolcat was from tiffa130 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiffanyday/3841124035/) and is CC licensed)
Taug (TOOK) Maciver!
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Vagabond Scottish Tinker with a knack for inventing things out of scraps (4), Former priest seeking redemption (3), Self-sufficient outdoorsman (3)!
Tale! Taug Maciver is a failed priest from Inverness-shire, Scotland who left for America when he was excommunicated from the church. He has stayed in various Scottish settlements in Appalachia and Darien, Georgia.
He works as a tinker, but is helping to fix more than people’s mechanical devices, he helps to fix their spirits.
He is currently working his way across Texas, looking for word from God as to what his path should be.!
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NOTE: this is for a Ranger Company X game taking place towards the end of the US Civil War.!
And You Can Dance! There was a recent discussion on the RisusTalk mailing list about the “Risus Death Spiral." The notion is quite simple, once you’ve lost a die in a conflict, you will most likely keep on losing. Let’s say your using Musketeer (4) against a grunt squad of Royal Guards (4). You roll a 12, and the Royal Guards gets a 15. Now, you are effectively a Musketeer (3) still going against those Royal Guards (4). Unless you get really lucky in your rolls, odds are that you will lose the conflict.!
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That is, however, unless you learn the Risus jig. There are always options (some involving optional rules). !
Oh no! I’m losing…! Probably the hardest thing for new Risus players to get their heads around is the fact that losing dice in a cliche does not equal physical damage. In Risus, it isn’t over until you are out of dice, and the winner is the one who decides what happens to you (using the conventions of the genre you are playing in; hopefully with a wink towards keeping it fun). Sure, the Nasty Troll with a Toothy Grin (4)
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A good option is to team up with your fellow players against those dastardly Royal Guards (4). Assuming there are three of you on your team, even if they are less skilled and are Museteer (3), odds are you will add at least one 6 to your next roll (1 in 6 change for a dice to come up a 6; 6 dice being rolled by your team mates; do the math). That should go a long ways towards helping you knock those Royal Guards (4) down a notch.!
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Another option, assuming you are using the Pumping option, is to pump up a die or two on your next roll. Sure, you’ll be more hurt in the end (and maybe even out of the battle if you lose), but if you’re worried about a death spiral, you think you’re dead anyway. If you win, you can always switch to a backup cliche.!
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Just like on Mythbusters, failure is always an option. Combat is only deadly if you say it is (and to the victor, the right to determine the fate of the loser). If your Musketeer is defeated by those Royal Guards, odds are you will just be captured and brought to the Pretender to the Throne (4) so he can gloat over you before throwing you in the dungeon (where you can be rescued later).!
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If you are using any of the options from the Risus Companion, there’s always the possibility of throwing in a lucky shot or questing dice, too.! I think that part of the perceived problem has to do with the fact that when you are just looking at numbers, there isn’t much difference between a 3 and a 4. However, when you are talking about cliche levels, this is the difference between a professional and an advanced professional on his way to being a master.!
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Plus, if you started out on equal grounds (4 vs 4), it is hard to get your head around the fact that if you’ve lost a round, your effectiveness has gone down (in that D&D game, you are just as good at HP-1 as you are at HP-50). Being worn down has no effect on how well you do in that game, yet it makes all the difference in Risus.!
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Is this another instance where Risus gets it better than so-called real games? I don’t know about that. I think that in Risus, the idea is to get your conflict over quickly so that you can get to another conflict lickety-split.! ! Conflicts aren’t supposed to take hours to resolve. Where’s the fun in that? Get done with one, move along to the next. Repeat until the adventure is over.!
Cliché Death Spiral! You are up against a Wild Snarling Beast From the Nethers (4) using your Cunning Barbarian Warrior (4). You lose the first round and your effectively a Cunning Barbarian Warrior (3). The odds are now against you. The odds say that that Snarling Beast is going to be having a Barbarian Warrior for dinner. A one die difference in a cliché can be a big difference (and heaven help you if it grows).!
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With a 4 die cliché, you can expect to roll between 4 and 24; with a 3 die cliché, between 3 and 18. If my math is right, the 3 die cliché only has a 71% chance of winning the next round (since one possible result can’t beat the lowest roll of the 4 die cliché), and the poor 2 die cliché is down to a 43% chance of winning the next round (two possible results are lower 4, so no chance there).!
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Is this good or bad? Since combat is only deadly if you say so, it really shouldn’t matter. Sure, you might lose the contest (and the contest will be over quickly), the effects don’t have to mean you are dead and gone. Perhaps that Snarling Beast doesn’t like the smell of your Barbarian Warrior and just throws dirt over your prone body and walks away. Sure, you might have some scratches for a while or something, but you’ll recover. You don’t have to win to have fun.!
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Risus combat is meant to be over fairly quickly (unless someone gets really lucky). The advantage to this is you are not spending an hour rolling dice for one encounter. As a bonus, Risus combat is over so quickly so you can get on to another battle elsewhere (maybe you’ll even win next time).!
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If you really want a way to try to help yourself out of the spiral (assuming you’re one of those players that always has to win), here are some suggestions.!
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• Check with your GM to see if you can Pump your clichés. If you can, you will get some bonus dice (at a cost, so make sure you have an alternate cliché to use).! • If you really only like combat-like stuff, have more than 1 cliché in it (it may seem a little extreme to have 2 (or more) fighting clichés, but hey, it’s your character).! • Figure out a way to make an inappropriate cliché work (this is a lot of fun especially if you can pump it; imagine that Snarling Beast snoozing once you hit him with your Lute Player for The King (3) cliché that you pump up to 5 dice (sure you’re out if you lose, but if not you win)).!
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Remember, there’s no wrong way to play. Just have fun with it.!
Optional Rule: Spies Like Us! Maybe it’s because I finished reading the International Spy Museum Handbook of Practical Spying (http://www.spymuseumstore.org/4792.html), or maybe it’s just the book inspiring memories of playing Top Secret (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Secret_(role-playing_game)), but I’ve been itching to play me a spy game.!
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However, one thing seems to be missing from most systems: rules for your agent’s cover. Here’s my idea for adding covers to Risus.!
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A spy can take a special cliché simply called Cover Story. This cliché cannot be ranked higher than a player’s specific spy cliché. If you have Roguish Confiscation Agent (4), the best you can have for your Cover Story cliché is a (4).!
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Before undertaking each mission, a spy must document specifically what their Cover Story cliché entails. Perhaps something along the lines of Investment Banker. For all intents and purposes, for the length of the mission, the spy is also an Investment Banker (4).!
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When the mission is over, the spy can pick a different Cover Story. Maybe next time out, she wants to be a Fashion Photographer (4).!
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However, here is where Cover Story changes things a bit. You still have some memory of your previous Cover Story (and only the most recent cover story). However, you effectively work at 1/2 of the cliché level (round down). So if our Roguish Confiscation Agent (4), using the Cover Story of Fashion Photographer (4) needed to do something as an Investment Banker, she could, but it would be as an Investment Banker (2).!
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There may be times when that (2) works out better than the (4) due to difficulties and target numbers.!
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I don’t know if such a rule is necessary (most likely, it isn’t). I thought I would submit it for flavor. An agent’s cover story is an important part of any mission and I thought it would be interesting to allow agents to change their cover story between missions.!
Since Risus lives on the d6 pool (unless you like to get down and funky), I am wondering if anyone has every tried using Liar’s Dice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar's_dice) rules for combat? It seems to make sense to me. It would somewhat mitigate pool size differences and add something else to the combat.
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I Spy Green Acres! Genre! Silly Spies! Tone!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Spy_(1965_TV_series)
Comedy! Campaign Options! Hooks and Tales, Pumping! Description! A supposed political free zone is set up by multiple countries: Green Acres. Of course, since residents still have ties back to their home countries, politics are far from absent, with most countries using Green Acres to spy on each other.! You might find all sorts of interesting people in Green Acres. The newer residents have not yet blended in and appear as “city slickers” since they are usually 10-20 years ahead of the times in Green Acres.!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Acres
About I Spy Green Acres! In I Spy Green Acres, you play the role of secret agents infiltrating a UN created land: Green Acres.! Green Acres was set up to be a zone that owed allegiance to no one country. Everyone was welcome without question. Of course, it soon became a hot bed of intrigue as it was discovered that Green Acres had connections to host countries.! No one who enters Green Acres knows for sure where it is. The UN has been very secretive about its location. The only way into our out of Green Acres is via the railway terminal at Petticoat Junction. When Green Acres first opened its doors, those tired of the political world were flocking to get in. Among the refugees, however, were those who wanted to know the secrets of those choosing to live there (and their contacts back home).!
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Character Creation! Characters are created using the standard Risus rules with 10 dice. Feel free to use Hooks & Tales (it might be interesting to know why your character moved to Green Acres).!
You are not required to take any particular espionage cliché. However, you will most likely enter into that world whether you want to or not (out of sheer boredom).!
Hooterville
You are more than welcome to take any cliché that implies knowledge in mad scientist type roles (a la Frankenstein, Dr Jeckyll, etc.). No one said that you were a good guy in the outside world.!
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Smarter Than the Average Pig... Scientists in Green Acres like to ticker with things “man was not meant to know.” With GM approval, you may chose to be an intelligent animal or construct as your character. However, in these cases, cuteness counts for a lot (don’t expect the townsfolk to treat a construct very nicely).!
Welcome to Green Acres! You step off of the train into a small terminal called Petticoat Junction. You can tell that the station used to be nice, but it has fallen into disrepair. You are greeted by a fairly attractive young lady who escorts you to Mr. Haney. ! Mr. Haney is a sort of traveling salesman who brings items people might be interested in directly to them in the back of his old pickup.! He offers to take the PCs to their new home in Green Acres. HAVE FUN!
Risus: One Page Challenge - by Larry Bullock - October 11, 2011
Location, Location, Location The closest thing to a town in Green Acres. Closer to a village in size, but most services can be found here; usually 20 years behind the times. Petticoat Junction The only means to get into or out of Green Acres, this once bustling railway station now sees very little traffic. The locals uses the old railway water tower for cooling off in the summer heat.
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Other Small Towns
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Pixley, Crabwell Corners, Stankwell Falls.
Further Details?
Go to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooterville
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Chinese Hacking Assassins?!
Castaways!
I don’t know if you listen to the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe (http:// www.theskepticsguide.org/ you really should), but they have a segment in the show called Science or Fiction (where the host comes up with 3 stories where two of them are fact, and one of them is fiction, and you are supposed to figure out which one is the fiction along with the co-hosts). !
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On a recent episode, the fiction article was that there were Chinese hackers manipulating medical records to assassinate people. I was thinking that this could make for an interesting thing to put into a game, especially in a cyberpunk setting. Imagine the lonely little hacker out there hacking into your body upgrades and causing all sorts of havoc.!
hand drawn with Penultimate
One of the more fun bit of imaginings I have done is posted over at Risusiverse under the Castaways section (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/characters-andcliches/character-gallery/castawaycharacters). I thought it would be fun to come up with characters inspired from Gilligan’s Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Gilligan's_Island) - only instead, it was Conrad Mulligan’s Island. Conrad isn’t much more than a pure Gilligan rip off. The rest of the cast has some interesting twists:!
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• Skipper / Captain Bill Howdy - a once great captain whose career fell apart due to a Twisted Sister song.! • Mr Howell / Mr. Rudy Moneybanks - a once rich man who lost it all; actually the one who caused the shipwreck (hoping to kill himself and his wife in the process).! • Mrs. Howell / Mrs. Rudy Moneybanks charity organizer extraordinaire.! • Ginger / Cinnamon Star - actually believes she can do the things she did in her movies.! • Marry Ann / Annie Marie - secretly a ninja who will kill anyone who finds out.! • Professor / Doc Jones - con man with a meager ability to invent gadgets who is on the run from the law.!
Penultimate (http://www.cocoabox.com/penultimate) is a pretty cool tool for doing RPG stuff. I made this sample page in just a few minutes, and exported it to my Dropbox (https:// www.dropbox.com/) so that I could post it here. It also syncs with Evernote (http://www.evernote.com/) if you like that one. The page from the notebook was exported as a PNG file.!
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The basic idea for an RPG would be to create a notebook of room/campaign notes, maps, etc. You can import regular pictures if you like as well (so you can write and draw around them.!
! All in all, a pretty cool tool.! !
edit: forgot to mention that it has different paper styles (including graph paper).!
Adding Moral Attitudes to Clichés! Back in the old days, you gave hints as to how your character would behave via an alignment. It is real easy to add something similar to your main cliché too. Thanks to the sadly out of print Alternity, here is a list for your consumption. Just sprinkle some of these in to your cliché description and see how much easier it is to know more about your character.!
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Moral Attitude! Anti-authority! Apathetic! Conformist! Corrupt! Despicable! Ethical! Gallant! Honorable! Just! Selfish! Unscrupulous! Virtuous! Worldly!
Does anyone else have fond memories of Amazing Engine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Amazing_Engine)? The system was workable, but the setting books were, dare I say, amazing. My favorite was For Faerie, Queen, and Country.!
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Amazing Engine settings are ripe for easy use in other systems, especially something simple like Risus.!
Favorite Dice Mechanics! There are a lot of great games out there using a variety of dice mechanics. Once upon a time, I wrote up how to use the Alternity dice mechanic (http://www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/alternity-inspired-dice-mechanic) in Risus. I wrote up using the Saga card-based system (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/optional-rules/saga-rules) too.! I also have a soft spot for percentile-based system. D100 is just fun. Perhaps my favorite for that was Amazing Engine (especially the bit where you checked the one’s digit to see if you had a critical success or failure). I don’t know if it could be made to work with Risus or not, but I still like it.!
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Do you have a favorite dice mechanic?!
Why not d100?! I’m always a little surprised that the simple d100 (or the simple % dice) isn’t used in more games. Think about it. Everything is easy to understand if you think you’ve got x% chance to succeed. So why so many different dice? Is the curve really that different?!
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Confession one: my favorite d100 system was Amazing Engine. I loved how you could look at the 1s position to know if you had a critical. The original Top Secret gets a close second.!
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Confession two: I think that the answer is just that it is fun to roll lots of dice. The more the merrier. We have been conditioned by Yahtzee.!
“It occurs to me that there is no set of rules so simple that people will not want to come up with their own spin on it on the Internet ;-)”!
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Guy Hoyle via RisusTalk (stuff like the discussion which spurred this comment make being in the group fun).!
Instant Risus?! If the notes for adventure design in the Companion aren’t enough for you (or you don’t have the Companion since it isn’t required to play Risus), you might want to check out Instant Game (http:// www.animalball.com/games.html) from Animalball. This is a game all about creating a setting with a few judicious roles of percentile dice.!
Even Quicker Game Start! Define your character with one cliché (the one thing people would notice about the character right off the bat or the main thing that defines who your character is/what your character does). Give that cliché a rating like normal.!
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! Start playing.! !
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At a minimum, you roll 4 times: once for setting, once for tone (although you might want to skip this one and tailor it to your play group), and twice for things. Here’s a quick example (culled from real rolls):! Setting: Tree Top Civilization! Tone: Mythic! Things: Neutrality, Note!
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From this, I’m picturing a place where there are fairy-like beings who live in the trees (complete with buildings and what not that blend into the trees Ewok-style). They’ve maintained their neutrality with the rest of the world (violently at times; they just want to be left alone and have the power to ensure that they are), but they’ve just received a mysterious note from a nearby kingdom and must decide what to do.!
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There are other tables you can roll on if you aren’t picturing anything specific to help you flesh out your setting. The game also includes reference materials to give you a clichéd view of what your roles might mean.!
When you come across a situation where your cliché doesn’t seem to fit, come up with a secondary cliché, right there on the spot, but make sure you have a flashback or something to remind you of the other cliché.! This is a lot like in a TV series. You start out as a hot-shot pilot who can out fly anyone (4). You’re fine playing that, but then something comes up where being a hot-shot pilot isn’t very applicable. You could stick with the When Someone Can’t Participate rules, but you want to do something more. Just add on that new cliché to fit the situation and give it some dice (so you can have naturally talented artist (2) suddenly appear on your character sheet). Just try to add some back story to where the cliché came from.!
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You will need to keep track of how many dice your character has left to spend (up to whatever the maximum was set by the GM).!
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Once the setting is done, I’d just switch to Risus to actually run the game (although the system included in Instant Game isn’t bad at all).!
While not mine, this is probably the best summary of why to use rises that I’ve seen in a long time.
Here is a a first pass at a map for you to fill in.
A Series of Unfortunate Events!
Starting Out! If you were going to get kids started with roleplaying, Risus makes a great choice. It doesn’t require any special tools that people aren’t going to have (most people can scavenge six-sided dice from old board games, and finding paper and pencils aren’t terribly difficult), and it can be taught to someone pretty quickly.!
I’ve been re-reading A Series of Unfortunate Events (sure, on the cover, it’s a kids series, but deep down it’s for everyone). However, these books can be mined for an interesting roleplaying setting.!
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You have a secret organization that went through an internal schism. Part of the group maintains tradition and is out to help the world; the other part wants to use their knowledge and skills to have their way with the world. The difficulty is knowing for sure who is on what side of the schism, and each side knows the secrets of the other (since they came from the same root).!
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Players could be like the kids in the books and be outside of the organization and trying to figure out what is going on and who to trust, or players could be members of the organization. Which side? Only they know for sure.!
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The big question is, where do you start? On the old Risus list (http:// games.groups.yahoo.com/group/risus/), there was a discussion of just having the kids make up someone with only one cliché in a genre that they understand (i.e. have the kids be a Jedi in Star Wars). That way, they already have a concept about what their character can and can’t do, and they already have a clue as to the “rules" of the genre.!
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Once the kids know the basics, it is easy to move them on to multiple clichés, etc. Here’s an interesting article on Roleplaying with Kids (http://www.squidoo.com/kidsrpg).!
The Bearable Weight of Being Light-Weight! Risus is a light-weight system. The entire rule set fits within 6 pages in the PDF (complete with a couple of high quality stick figures). However, it is amazing how well the subtitle of the “Anything RPG” actually fits without tweaks.!
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Sure, it is tempting to want to add more to the system. I have been guilty of that (especially with Ars Incantâtio - http://www.risusiverse.com/home/settings/ars-incanttio). However, once you get your head around the three types of conflicts, and understand how they can be applied to pretty much any situation, it becomes easier to see just how complete Risus can be as is.!
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I personally love how liberating it is to have a system that can easily be applied to any setting, any genre, anything at all.!
Kane Chronicles Concept! A basic idea in the Kane Chronicles (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kane_Chronicles )by Rick Riordan) is that a sorcerer can channel the power of the gods to go ballistic on their enemies. This seems to be a one god limit (you are basically linked up with a given god and will share many traits with that particular god). However, when using the god’s abilities, the god has a tendency to want to take over, and puny mortal limits mean nothing to them (they have a peculiar habit of using up the people they are sharing power).!
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This could make an interesting twist to a game involving wizards and what not.!
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Maybe you could do this in Risus to simulate the concept: You could have the god listed as a sidekick, and every time the god helps out, you have to roll against the god’s total using your magical cliché to keep from losing a die or something along the lines of the GM acting as the god gets to dictate your next action (even to the point of double pumping yourself out of the fight). The sharing of personality traits and what not is really just roleplaying window dressing.!
(Since Disqus changed the way they do things, I can’t use their comment system anymore; it’s broken no matter what options I use for authentication. So I’m forced to offer my comment as a submission instead.)!
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re: Gods as sidekicks. Instead of losing dice for using god-powers, go the other direction: every time you use the divine connection, ADD a die to the god-cliché. If the godcliché gets too many dice, the character becomes an NPC, and a horribly powerful one. Perhaps the cliché dice can be reduced by willfully surrendering to the god (thus using the god-cliché) for one NPC action; the more frequently it’s done, the smaller the god-cliché will be and the less effective the temporary-NPC’s actions might be. Do it less frequently, and the player will have more god-cliché dice, but so will the temporaryNPC.!
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The temptation to skirt the safety margins will be a powerful lure of metagaming.!
Risus on Fire?! I was wondering if a roleplaying game would work using a basic formula like most TV series use? Take Burn Notice (http://www.usanetwork.com/series/burnnotice/). I love the series, but it has a pretty basic formula: a season-running storyline (which takes up very little of the story of the week (usually)) that is cut into the story of the week (in which Michael has to go and help out some poor soul with his MacGyver/Bond skills).!
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I’m thinking that it probably would. Take a typical fantasy adventure. The “weekly episode" might be driving the goblins out of the local mines one week, and rescuing Princess Penelope the next. The season-running storyline might be the King’s advisor trying to get rid of the PCs (because he really wants to be in charge and without the PCs around, he might finally get rid of Princess Penelope).!
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What do you think? !
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Do you dare enter the Howling Caves?! Genre!
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Fantasy! Tone! Serious! Campaign Options! Hooks and Tales, Pumping, Double Pumping!
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Description! Pursued by dark forces, the players are forced to enter the Howling Caves. Will they evade their pursuers? Will they find their way to safety? What lurks within the caves?!
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The caves need to come across as very spooky. Their is a random howling noise that is hard to describe. A friendly local from the last village the PCs passed through warned them that they were being driven towards these caves. However, the dark forces seemed to be closing in on them before they could get too many details. Their local contact described the caves as having been abandoned by goblins many years ago. Something strange drove them away. Local legend has it that the howling noises are the tormented lost souls of some of the goblins. However, they have a chance of escape in the caves.
Map generated randomly at http://www.gozzys.com/ A note on entrances and Exits: The PCs will be entering the caves from the south (A). There are 2 additional means of entering/leaving the caves (B and C). The PCs will need to find their way through to another exit.! Random Encounters and Mood! While exploring the caves, the PCs will hear strange, howling noises every so often. Just what is causing the noise is undeterminable. The noise is meant as an aid to help build tension. Follow the noise with a chance for a random encounter, but not every occurrence of the noise should coincide with an attack (feel free to use the Common Foes listed or come up with your own).! The PCs should also be worried about their pursuers. They should hear occasional noises from their vastly superior enemies. Who or what these enemies are should reflect your current campaign.! 1. Abandoned Goblin Lair! This cave was obviously once home to some sort of humanoid, most likely goblins. There are a few rags
and scraps left behind. It looks like they left in a hurry. There is one goblin skeleton stuck to a wall with a spear.! 2. The Crossroads! It should be obvious to the players that there has been a lot of traffic in this area, mostly moving along the east-west route. They will hear a lot of activity to the West (from area B). Perhaps the dark forces have reinforcements coming from that way.! 3. Troll Lair! A particularly nasty cave troll (5) calls this portion of the cave system home. He makes a living killing wanderers along the crossroads (area 2). He isn’t stupid and prefers to attack stragglers and small groups (if he is hungry enough). He can be found anywhere throughout the caves. If the PCs find his lair, and he hasn’t attacked them before now, he will here. Trolls have a habit of growing bits back (if he beats a TN of 8 on a round he doesn’t attack, he can recover 1 die).!
Risus: One Page Challenge - by Larry Bullock - July 9, 2011
4. Strange Obelisk! A strange obelisk has been carved in the middle of this cave. There are strange writings on it that the PCs do not understand. Maybe they should copy it down.
Common Random Foes Random Bat Horde (3) - if the bats cause more than 1 die of damage, the PCs will lose their source of illumination. Giant Multi-legged Insect (3) - crawls through bat droppings eating the dead. Can climb walls. Slightly poisonous bite will infect PCs (-1 to die rolls per die lost against them for a short term) Cave Bear (4) - this guy hangs around area C. He will fiercely defend his territory. Mushroom Men (2) - small fungoids who might trip the PCs as they try to run away. However, they will try to lure the party towards the troll.
The Greatest American Hero (Ralph Hinkley)*! A poor excuse for a super hero, but a caring man who wants to do right, Ralph tries to help the best that he can.!
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High school special education teacher (4), Inept wearer of an alien super suit [3], Lucky Shots [][][][][][]!
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Tools of the Trade! Alien Super Suit that provides a variety of powers (including flying, invulnerability, invisibility, and super speed; amongst others yet discovered)!
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Hooks! Ralph lost the instruction manual to the super suit so everything is trial and error (quite often error). Without the suit, Ralph has no super powers.!
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Tale**! Ralph Hinkley is a teacher of special education students. Determined to get through to them, Ralph took them on a “geological survey" field trip to the desert. Coming back from the field trip later that night, the school bus breaks down. Ralph starts to walk back through the desert to get help and he encounters a swerving car driven by FBI Special Agent Bill Maxwell (Culp) that stops just in time to avoid hitting Hinkley. Maxwell insists that he could not control the car. Then two bright purple lights appear in the sky and they both jump in the car and try to get away, but the car will not start and the doors lock by themselves trapping them inside.!
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They are surprised to find that the lights come from an alien spacecraft. The alien tells Ralph and Bill (by way of the car radio) that they are to work together to save the world and Ralph will be given the power to change it. They are given a black case. Later Ralph opens it and finds a red suit (with cape) which endows him with superhuman abilities. Bill runs off from fear, but later contacts Ralph, leading to an awkward partnership as the two try to use the powers of the suit (which Bill calls the “magic jammies") to fight crime.!
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* we called him Captain Crash based on how he landed when he flew.! **from the wikipedia article!
I never got all of the brouhaha over roleplaying games myself (and thankfully neither did my parents). When you think about it, a RPG is a game of pretend, not that much different from what people have played for generations (cowboys vs. indians; spies; cops and robbers). RPGs simply added rules to avoid the “I got you!", “No You didn’t!" fights that inevitably came about.
Remember the Randomness! Way back in RPG once upon a time time, you would start character creation by rolling up some stats and then picking a class/skills to go with those random stats. In some ways, I wonder if we’ve lost something with the way that RPGs have you pretty much pick everything you want for your character.!
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I think that the randomness leads one to roleplay a character that you might not have considered, and that you can have a lot of fun doing that. Of course, there’s a lot of history with fudging the randomness so that it wasn’t really random at all. At least with a point based (or similar) system, you don’t end up with such unbalanced characters as fudged randomness.!
Is it reasonable to have just an adjective as one of your clichés? The implication from the Companion is that a cliché like Athletic isn’t really much of a cliché at all since it’s just an isolated quality, an adjective.!
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However, I’ve seen some players doing just such a thing and making their cliché, Wealthy (for instance), instead of Playboy Millionaire Faking being a Playboy (ala Bruce Wayne). One tells you about the character, the other really doesn’t do much.!
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So, as a Risus GM, do you allow adjective clichés in your campaigns?!
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I don’t know if it is possible to add any sort of random character generation to Risus (since there aren’t any stats). Probably the best you could do is have semi-random setting of cliché levels (roll d4 for a cliché, then roll d4 for another cliché, etc. and keep adding clichés until you get to 10 points (if you go
Risus Random Character Generation Method! How is this for an idea for random character generation?! 1. Get a hold of a bunch of notebook cards.! 2. On each card, detail a generic cliché for your campaign (include notes for what the cliché is good for and typical tools of the trade for the cliché; also include notes as to whether or not the cliché requires double pumps).! 3. Deal out 3 or 4 cards to each player (it is up to the player if they want 3 or 4 clichés for their character).! 4. The players get 10 dice (or whatever feels appropriate for your game) to divide between the clichés on the cards.! 5. If your campaign allows it, your players can get bonus dice for Hooks & Tales (which can be spent on the dealt our cards or another cliché that they would like).! 6. The players can adjective-ify their clichés as they like (to flesh the character out more from the generic; e.g. putting down Paladin of Dinar instead of just plain Paladin)
Risus Stunts! While I’ve grown to not want to tweak Risus at all, a possible idea for you would be to give each cliché a number of stunts equal to the cliché’s rank. So, if you’ve got Star Spangled Avenger with a Shield [5], you would have up to 5 stunt points (verb form) for use with that cliché. Each stunt point lowers the target number for a related task (for single action My core “book" for Risus is to print off conflicts, etc.), or acts as team die for the booklet versions of the PDF files combat situations.! (Risus + Big List of RPG Plots and the Companion (stuck in between Risus So, for your Star Spangled Avenger, let’s and the Big List of RPG Plots in that say you have a stunt of “throwing shield booklet). I get one book with everything like a boomerang (3)”, you could roll 3 I need. !
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Well, I finally printed this out in color, and I must say, it is better that way (somehow).!
Making it a Baker’s Dozen! In the Risus Companion (not required for play), S. John Ross refers to The Dozen Endeavors; 12 things you might want to incorporate into your clichés (Athletics; Persuading; Communication & Protocol; Detection; Driving, Riding & Piloting; Gadgeteering; The Medical Arts; Wilderness Mastery; Scholarship; Intrusion; Combat; and Magic). I was wondering if we could make this a baker’s dozen.!
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You know, for those bard-types, should there be some sort of Music endeavor?!
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What do you think is missing from the list?!
Pen & Paper RPGs Dying?! Are Pen & Paper RPGs going the way of the dodo? Does anyone really play them anymore?!
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I think that the answer is that they are still played, and I also believe that their environment put them on the endangered species list from the beginning. It is becoming quite difficult to find a brick and mortar place to even purchase anything, let along trying to find players interested in the game.!
! Is it possible to cram too much into a single cliché? If you read over Anatomy of Cliché (from the companion), you can add all sorts of spices to your Barbarian (3) cliché to make your character really come alive. However, don’t you think it’s possible to take it too far and have so much in one cliché that you would seem psychotic if you added more?
However, it isn’t dead yet, and there are resources aplenty online to help you find those lurking creatures known as roleplayers. The Free RPG Blog listed quite a few recently (http://thefreerpgblog.blogspot.com/ 2009/09/free-resources-to-help-you-findplayers.html).!
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So wrangle up some players and have some fun. The hobby isn’t going anywhere quite yet.!
Inspiration from Alternity! Let me just get this out, I think that Alternity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternity) was the best RPG game that TSR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR,_Inc.) ever put out (if you are interested, there is quite a fan base out there at http://alternityrpg.net/).!
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Like pretty much every mainstream RPG, Alternity defined characters with ability scores, skills, etc. However, when you boil it down to it’s essence, your character was:!
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A member of a Race! who practiced a Profession! who had a central Motivation driving them! and a Moral Attitude to define your value system! and 2 Character Traits to give you hooks for roleplaying!
The nice part with Alternity was that you were rewarded for roleplaying to your Motivation, Moral Attitude, and Character Traits (I know, a rarity for TSR).!
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The Motivations included in the core rules were: All for Love, Can’t Get Enough, Deeper Meaning, Discovery, Find the Truth, Fun First, Helping Others, Loose End, On a Mission, Personal Power, Staying Alive, Trust in Higher Power, Vengeance, Winning is Everything, and Yearn to Learn.!
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Moral Attitudes (an echo of the old fashioned alignment system) included were: Anti-authority, Apathetic, Conformist, Corrupt, Despicable, Ethical, Gallant, Honorable, Just, Selfish, Unscrupulous, Virtuous, and Worldly.!
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Character Traits are labels to show how your character usually acts. Included were: Aggressive, Amoral, Calm, Cheerful, Compassionate, Confident, Courageous, Cowardly, Curious, Dependent, Egotistical, Energetic, Flippant, Follower, Foppish, Friendly, Frivolous, Generous, Hateful, Helpful, Honest, Humble, Humorless, Humorous, Illogical, Independent, Kind, Lazy, Leader, Logical, Mysterious, Ominous, Optimistic, Passive, Peaceful, Pessimistic, Precise, Quiet, Rash, Religious, Romantic, Rude, Selfish, Skeptical, Suspicious, Talkative, Thoughtless, and Trusting.!
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Sure, you could probably do all of this in Risus with judicious use of adjectives when you define your character’s clichés. However, in some games, it might be interesting to keep track of your Motivation, Moral Attitude, and Character Traits outside of clichés. It makes some sense as these things are really just roleplaying cues that reflect the character as a person regardless of what you do or what type of creature you might be.!
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However, it works best if there is some kind of in-game benefit to using these attributes. I haven’t thought too much about that yet (maybe a modification of a target number or something). That will probably come with another post. What are your thoughts?!
Play by Post! Has anyone had good luck with a play by post game? I’m part of one right now that is using Risus rules, and it is a lot of fun. However, the waiting gets a little frustrating.!
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I know I’m as guilty as anyone else for causing delays. I went on vacation; been busy with other things; couldn’t think of something good to post; etc., so I know I haven’t always been the best player.!
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Very strange dream to relate…!
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I was at a gaming convention and someone was demoing a new game. The players seemed confused/bored with it, but the GM was really into it. I asked if they had played Risus before. The GM tried to dis it, but the players seemed into learning about it. I started to demo a combat round with the now disgruntled GM. They players seemed to be very happy. The GM, not so much.!
I don’t know if there is a better way to do things though. The advantage of play by post is that everyone doesn’t have to be together at the same time. That means you can play with people from all over the world and not be bothered with time zone issues.!
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I don’t know if there is a real solution for the waiting. I guess that if there were a way to enforce some sort of post frequency, that might help. I still kind of like the stuff I put together for play by wiki over at Risusiverse (http://www.risusiverse.com/home/wiki-based-rpg), but that only really works if you are going to have a GM-less (or very GM-lite) game. I don’t know if any of it could be applied to Play by Post. What do you think?!
“The original Wilburys were a stationary people who, realizing that their civilization could not stand still forever, began to go for short walks - not the “traveling", as we now know it, but certainly as far as the corner and back. They must have taken to motion, in much the same way as penguins were at that time taking to ledges, for the next we hear of them they were going out for the day (often taking lunch or a picnic). Later, we don’t as yet know how much later, some intrepid Wilburys began to go away for the weekend, leaving late Friday and coming back Sunday. It was they who evolved simple rhythmic forms to describe their adventures.!
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A remarkable sophisticated musical culture developed, considering there were no managers or agents, and the further the Wilburys traveled the more adventurous their music became, and the more it was revered by the elders of the tribe who believed it had the power to stave off madness, turn brunettes into blondes and increase the size of their ears.!
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As the Wilburys began to go further and further in their search for musical inspiration they found themselves the object of interest among many less developed species - nightclub owners, tour operators and recording executives. To the Wilburys, who had only just learnt to cope with wives, roadies and drummers, it was a blow from which many of them never recovered.!
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A tiny handful survived - the last of the Traveling Wilburys - and the songs gathered here represent the popular laments, the epic and heroic tales, which characterize the apotheosis of the elusive Wilbury sound. The message of the music travels, as indeed they traveled and as I myself must now travel for further treatment. Good listening, good night and let thy Wilbury be done …”!
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Does anyone else think that the Traveling Wilburys (http://www.travelingwilburys.com/history/) would make for a fun campaign?!
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Snowball Fright!! Genre! Any! Tone! Silly Horror! Campaign Options! whatever ones you want! Description! Buried in snow on Christmas Eve, what’s a poor soul to do but cause a little trouble with the wet, well-packing, white stuff. Too bad the supernatural got involved.! Truth is stranger than fiction dept.!
The Great Snowball Battle of Rappahannock Academy, February 25, 1863! http://www.weatherbook.com/ Snowball.htm Image by Scott Robinson http://www.flickr.com/people/clearlyambiguous/ and made available via a creative Location, Location, Location!
The Incident Snowballs!
A freak snowstorm can happen anywhere. It should be someplace that the PCs are familiar with and feel safe enough that it would be weird for them to be out and about with a bunch of weapons, but if they are far from home, that’s OK. It’s your game.!
Not surprisingly, it shouldn’t take too long before everyone in town is involved in the snowball fight in some way.!
Part of the challenge for this adventure is getting the PCs to actually leave the house (or whatever shelter they are in). Here are some options.
The Snow Thickens!
By the time the PCs are out of doors, the scenery needs to be a winter wonderland, with kids out playing in the snow, parents cursing trying to shovel it up. There should be a large number of snowmen around and the occasional snow fort.!
Somehow, this isn’t your typical Christmas snow (damn pollution (or whatever excuse you want to use to make this possible (evil winter wizards work too))). Any snowman that gets hit by a snowball will magically come to life and try to get the person who hit them unless they are a kid.!
• The pizza delivery guy got stuck (on a 30 minute or free run to the netherworld) and they have to go get the pizza themselves.
The Storm! This is a good old-fashioned, heavy, wet, super packing snow. Roads are pretty much impassible, so if anyone wants to get anywhere, it’s walking time (hopefully the PCs have boots made for such an occasion). Just walking around should be extremely difficult (the kids, being lighter, don’t sink in as much and they have sleds). And just like any good scary story, the power goes out too.! The Incident! Once the PCs are out and about (see Getting them out of the house), it happens. A large wad of snow, hits one of them in the back of the head (GM picks his favorite hot tempered target). The PCs will hear the sound of children laughing. ! If the PCs shake it off and try to ignore it, let them get pelted by a few more snowballs. If they still ignore it, have a large barrage of snowballs rain on them and have them lose a die in their most applicable snowball-fighting cliché.!
It shouldn’t take too long before the town is amuck with laughing kids and screaming adults. However, once darkness sets in, even the children aren’t safe from the snowmen.! The Armory! If you are feeling particularly nice, you can have the snow forts armed with ice balls left behind from some of the more ornery kids. These can count as bonus dice gear against the snow man zombies who are made with a particularly soft snow (+1 die).! Jingle Bells! Just like any zombie apocalypse, there seems to be no end of snowmen around. The PCs even occasionally see them making other, even larger, snowmen. The PCs simply have to survive until midnight. At midnight, they will hear the ringing of sleigh bells. All of the snowmen will cover their ears and fall apart. Ho, Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!
Risus: One Page Challenge - by Larry Bullock - December 16, 2011
Getting them out of the house
• Utilize one of the PCs hooks to have to go and “rescue” someone stuck out in the mess. • If all else fails, have the house collapse under the weight of the snow. This one might be particularly useful to get them out of the house without equipment.
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Common Random Foes Random Brat Kid Horde (4) - A bunch of hooligans looking to defeat the PCs with their coordinated snowball fighting skills. If they win, the PC will get the whitewashing of their lives. Poor Frightened Dog (2) - maybe in a fenced yard, maybe tied up, maybe running lose. All of the activity is really messing with these poor pooches and they are running scared. If they feel corned, they will attack. They might organize into a pack of wild dogs (4) Snowman Zombie (3) - If one of the snowmen around town gets hit by a snowball, they will magically come to life. Odds are, they will move through the snow faster than your average PC. Snowman Goliath (5) - if it starts to get dark, the snowmen will have built a few of these monstrosities to add to the terror.
Uresia - From the Hip Review! Once upon a time, Guardians of Order (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_Order) arose to protect the roleplaying landscape against the forces of Chaotic Market. Guardians of Order fought valiantly, but in the end, the relentless energy of Uresius (http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/uresius.htm) is a new Chaotic Market slew them. Like fallen armor version of the Risus rules, recast for use with Uresia. The layout and and weapons of a valiant hero, pieces of everything blends right in with the new All-System-Library version of Guardians of Order were picked up by Uresia; complete with a new sample cliché list to go along with the others in an attempt to continue the battle. setting; and a couple of different optional rules that are fairly common A token fell from the sky. The rights to in use from the Risus Companion (specifically, Lucky Shots and Uresia: Grave of Heaven fell back to their Questing Dice). It also adds a new method for determining character creator. Years have slowly crept by. Uresia advancement which is pretty slick.! has returned.! However, one thing that really struck me is that the combat system Imagine a fantasy world where the Gods changed from a die pool roll to high die wins. Kind of interesting to fought long and hard enough to kill see the Deadly Combat option (Best of Set) from the Companion themselves; where the heavens literally fell used, even it doesn’t include the Goliath Rule option.! to the world below; reshaping the surface of the world. A broken ring of islands is all that Does anyone have any opinions on this?! seems to remain. Remnant magic drew survivors. The ring of islands outside left to the trolls. ! Uresia: Grave of Heaven is that fantasy world. The book is part of Cumberland Games and Diversions (http:// www.cumberlandgames.com/) All-Systems Library. No specific roleplaying system is implied or required (although fans of Risus can use the Risus-ified version of those rules: Uresius: Grave of Anything - http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/ uresius.htm). A quick note: while there is nary a mention of any RPG in the book, the book does provide rules for a Uresian board game called Mastery.!
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This 114-page PDF (also available in dead tree format - http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/uresia.htm) provides you a synopsis of 16 of the larger island-nations (about 30 full pages of details and information to whet your appetite for more). You are also provided with a nice hamlet-sized morsel called Rogan’s Heath with enough details to feel that you actually know the residents of this nice little place. You are also given an amazing view into Shadow River, a bustling city with enough districts and uniqueness to keep your players intrigued for quite some time. You also get a quick glimpse into more traditional roleplaying elements in the Beneath and Beyond section (dungeons, ruins, and the like).!
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Once you are introduced to the world and some of it’s inhabitants, you get into more traditional roleplaying elements. You are provided a variety of character races to use as examples: Beastmen (Hramath), Wise Beasts, Centaurs, Dwarves, Elves, Demons, Humans, Mushroom Trolls (the Mourfa), Snowmen, Slimes, Satyrs, and Troll-Landers. You are given some notes on how to flavor magic for different styles presented in the world section, the scale of the world, and a fully realized section for how to price things in Uresia (and how to use that to your advantage when applying it to your RPG engine of choice). !
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There is one table in the game that you can roll against, and it is a lot of fun: the Big Table of Life-Altering Moments. Simple rolls 3-5 d1000s (i.e. 3, 10-sided die) and make note of the resulting rolls. Look them up on the table and make up your background story to fit the results. While the table will give you seemingly generic results, you can have a lot of fun applying things like “You found out how liberating a great disguise can be” to your character’s background story.!
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A word on scale: Uresia is a pretty big place. The islands roughly take up the same area on a map as the US (or, as the text describes: Uresia, combined, is the same overall size as Western Europe (twice that if you include the Troll Lands)).! So, the book provides you with enough details to have fun with most of the major islands (from a geo-political stance at 16). There are thousands of islands. This equals the perfect opportunity to expand upon Uresia and add islands of your own design. Anything can be possible in a world where the heavens have crashed into the world. You could easily add something from your current campaign as a nation in Uresia, and the rest of the world wouldn’t even blink.!
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I think that is the shining thing in Uresia. You are given enough to have fun with it as is, but you can tweak to your heart’s content too. You can easily make it your own (and you can use whatever RPG system you like to play in it). It is definitely one of the best world books I have read in a very long time (and is gorgeously laid out as well).!
Fantasy/Alien Race: Thingol! Thingols are natives of the High Forest. They have sleek, muscular bodies with impossibly black skin. They usually have long, untamed black hair unless they are tainted with magical ability. If they have magical ability, their hair is a bluish-white color.!
Using The Magic of Lord of the Rings!
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Ever wonder this about Lord of the Rings… Gandalf is supposed to be a great wizard, yet you never see him really do much in the way of magic until after he is Gandalf the White (and even then, he didn’t do a whole lot). My theory is quite simple: Sauron/Saruman have a great magic detection system in place triggered by any strong magic. If Gandalf had cast anything powerful, they would know exactly where he was. This is why you don’t see him cast anything more than a Light spell in the mines (at least until he is fighting the Balrog, and at that point, he didn’t have much choice).!
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This could be something that is easy to replicate in your game if magic is getting out of hand. Give it some sort of consequence. If your players are abusing the freeform nature of Risus, simply have more and more powerful summoned creatures appearing out of thin air in the vicinity of where the magic was cast. Sooner or later they will put it together and have a whole new issue to deal with. !
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Thingols do have natural claws that aren’t really long enough to seriously hurt anyone, but Thingol assassins have been known to poison their claws to incapacitate an enemy. They also have a natural ability to twist their bodies in ways that seem unnatural for other races. They eschew heavy clothing or armor as it confines them in their movements.! Thingols are considered primitives by most of the world. Perhaps it is because they are mostly solitary hunters which prize freedom and self-sufficiency above all else. They rarely consider anything “property" if it isn’t something they carry with them; and they rarely bother with the company of “civilized" people (let alone other Thingols). However, Thingols have no trouble using most of the tools of the civilized world.! If you have artistic ability and would like to submit a picture of what you think a Thingol might look like, feel free to submit it (I’d be happy to see your interpretations).!
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An Interesting Hook for a Wizard! Cursed by a rival wizard, you are stuck with an awful stutter. Any magic that requires a verbal component is very difficult for you unless you sing it out. This has led to a nickname of the Crooning Wizard which drives you crazy; you are becoming quite (in)famous for it.!
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If you try not to sing out your spells, the difficulty of your spell goes way up. If someone calls you the Crooning Wizard, you are liable to loose your temper, which makes it even harder to cast your spells.!
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You have not yet been able to find a remedy (your rival says he has one but there is no way you’d stoop to asking him for it).!
“I dislike random woodland encounter tables that have the party meeting up with 1d6 wolves, 1d4-1 brown bear or 14d10 squirrels. I’ve spent a little bit of time in the woods being relatively quite and sedate, with food. Once, a bear came in to my camp to investigate and got scared off by a dog.”!
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5 things gamers get wrong | Troll in the Corner! http://trollitc.com/2010/05/5-things-gamers-get-wrong/
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Beware of that 140 rabid squirrel tribe when it decides to attack though.!
You are out trick or treating, and the starving-for-brains zombie horde [10] just came around the corner and spotted you. What do you do?
Full Contact Magic! Full Contact Magic (http://engineofthwaak.blogspot.com/2013/02/full-contact-magic.html) is a clever little supplement freely available over at the Engine of Thwaak (http:// engineofthwaak.blogspot.com/). Basic idea, is that the world was created by magical Lords and Ladies, who for unknown reasons left their creation before it was quite finished (some say a war back in their home world pulled them away).!
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Of course, the world descended into a bit of chaos, but has settled back down a bit more. It is now a somewhat respectable fantasy world.!
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Full Contact Magic provides information for the 13 tribes (the races created by the Lords and Ladies). The tribes seem to follow the fantasy tropes; you can see where each tribe fits in with more traditional fantasy RPGs without looking too hard. The tribe I am most intrigued by is the Geisa - a ghost-like group formed from when magic goes wrong.!
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Where Full Contact Magic breaks the mold a bit is in the magic (which you might expect based ! on the name of the supplement).!
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There are two magic styles detailed in the supplement: Arcanomancy (magic involving machines of all types) and Ethermancy (a magical communication internet). Many other magical styles are mentioned, but no details are present and left for the GM to determine just what they might mean (which strangely enough includes the titular Full Contact Magic).!
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Sample clichés abound, and there is quite a nice sampling of a game world to build from. I liked the concept of the island/continents actually floating on the ocean as opposed to being fixed. There is enough detail to get a feeling for the setting without being too draconian.!
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Overall, this is another great free setting for Risus! !
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Stuff I’ve Done at Risusiverse! I was a founding member of the Risusiverse site. As such, I have moved quite a bit of content from various web sites I’ve ran to it. Here are some highlights:
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The Interview (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ adventures/the-interview) - a sample adventure showing how rolling works in Risus - converted from javascript by an un-named savior (probably Dan Suptic).
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About that Gumshoe! The Gumshoe RPG system (http://www.pelgranepress.com/site/?page_id=672) takes a slightly different approach to RPGs. In traditional games like D&D, the emphasis is on being a bully (beat someone up and take their stuff). Gumshoe is about having a structured story (usually along the lines of a mystery, but it can be pretty flexible).!
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While it is possible to do structured storied in your D&D game (and I’ve played in many), traditional games leave everything to chance. If you fail a critical role, you won’t notice that secret door which leads to the important dingus. Stuff like that. Gumshoe makes it impossible to fail because you don’t bother rolling for things that are critical to the story.!
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History of Risusiverse (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ history-of-risusiverse)- what it says on the tin.
Gumshoe (as presented in Esoterrorists), has around 60 skills/talents that will automatically succeed if you try to use them and there is something in the scene that can be revealed through their use. These things do have ratings (what’s an RPG without ratings of some sort), but the gist of a rating in these talents is that you can spend some of your rating to add extra cool to what you find out (if there is anything extra to find; cool GMs will let you make something up too). The extra “cool" is nothing that is necessary to figure out the mystery, but they do let your character seem extra special.!
Forget Something (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/forget-something) optional rules for cliché adjustment.
And no, you don’t succeed in everything you try. You have an extra set of skills that work like they do in more traditional RPGs where you roll dice and everything (and since Esoterrorists is a horror RPG, you have a pretty good chance of getting killed by some horror summoned by Esoterrorists).!
Castaway Characters (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ characters-and-cliches/charactergallery/castaway-characters) Gilligan’s Island re-imaged for Risus.
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Skill That Cliché (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/skill-that-clich)ways to differentiate clichés.
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Diceless Risus (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/diceless-risus)options for using no dice at all.
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Alternity Inspired Dice Mechanic (http://www.risusiverse.com/ home/optional-rules/alternityinspired-dice-mechanic)- obvious, really.
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Saga Rules (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/saga-rules) - a card based mechanic.
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A Matter of Size (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ optional-rules/a-matter-of-size) dealing with size differences between characters.
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I’m not going to bother getting into dice specifics. The system is simple and straightforward (just the way I like it). All you need is some d6s.! Now, can anything here be applied to Risus? You bet.! Most people seem to be under the impression that when you roll the dice in Risus, if you don’t roll well enough, then you fail. That doesn’t have to be the case. The roll can also be an indication of how well you “succeed" at something.!
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Let’s say you’re a top-notch investigative photo journalist (4) examining crime scene photos for clues. Are you really going to fail? Not if there are clues to be found. However, the quality of your roll dictates the quality of the clues you might notice. If you roll well, you might notice a business card on the floor next to the body, slightly near its left hand (at least where it’s left hand should be), covered in blood. If you don’t roll well (even fail the roll), you might only notice a minor clue: footprints in the blood that are obviously from a woman’s stiletto shoe.!
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Gumshoe is a great system that works well for its chosen genres. It gives you a bit more crunch that pure Risus (and some people really like their crunch). However, it isn’t that hard to stick with Risus. !
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Either way, you’ll be having fun!!
A Few Final Links!
More Stuff I’ve Done at Risusiverse!
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Dyson Logos' Marvellous Random Dungeon Maker (http:// www.chomisis.net/dyson/)→ Check out a nifty piece of online software.
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Because the list was too big for one sidebar….
Making an Addictive Game!
limyaael: On escaping Tolkien clichés. (http://limyaael.livejournal.com/ 181634.html) → An excellent read on Tolkien’s classics and what people can do to separate themselves from his work.
I’ve been playing way too much Book of Heroes (available for iOS and Android http://www.insidesocialgames.com/ 2013/02/04/book-of-heroes-ios-review/)…I think what makes it so addictive is that you have multiple “quests” or story lines all going on at the same time. I think that we have to remember that when working on adventures for good old fashioned RPGs.!
The Tao of Rules Hacking (http:// berinkinsman.wordpress.com/ 2011/04/26/the-tao-of-rules-hackingfree-pdf/) → Berin Kinsman has put together his previous posts on Rules Hacking together into a nice PDF which he ransomed off and is now giving away as a free PDF. Well worth reading.
Let players have more say in what quest they want to work on at a given time. Unlike Book of Heroes, you can add a timeline to the quests so that they don’t linger while players are off doing something else. You can add in repercussions for the times when they ignore something for too long.!
NPC Trait Generator (http:// www.pbegames.com/npctrait/)→ A random way to build up traits to make your NPCs seem more lifelike.
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Risus: Anatomy of a Cliche (http:// berinkinsman.wordpress.com/ 2004/01/17/risus-anatomy-of-acliche/)→ Just in case you haven’t read the Risus Companion, you can read a section of it over at Berin Kinsman’s site.
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Land of the Lost (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Land_of_the_Lost_(1974_TV_series)_ge ography_and_technology) → I think that this would be the perfect setting for a game. I loved Land of the Lost when I was a kid. Good resources at the Wikipedia article I linked to here, too.
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10 Civilizations That Disappeared Under Mysterious Circumstances (http://io9.com/5928085/10civilizations-that-disappeared-undermysterious-circumstances)→ Just in case you needed some inspiration to add some lost civilizations to your campaign, check out this IO9 article that lists 10 from good old Earth.
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Risus on Reddit (http:// www.reddit.com/r/risus/)→ If you are a Reddit user, you might want to check it out…
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Make your game addictive!!
Risus GM Guide (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ruleelucidation/risus-gm-guide)- a first stab at advice for running Risus.
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Ars Incantâtio (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ settings/ars-incanttio) - a modern magic system based on Ars Magica.
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Something Familiar (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ settings/something-familiar)setting for being a wizard’s familiar.
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Paladin (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ settings/paladin) - converting Clinton R. Nixon’s Paladin to Risus.
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Risus Playground (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ settings/risus-playground) taking Risus to the school yard.
! A seeming staple at Risus Thought of the Moment were an ongoing series of Kernels - little snippets of an adventure to help give a semblance of structure to a fantasy adventure. These were little more than notes that a wily GM could use to shape quite a campaign while still tailoring the adventure to the game being run. These Kernels seemed to be popular, so what follows are those posts in one continuous stream.!
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Enjoy.
Risus Software (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/ software) - specifically RisusGen and RisusGM, I didn’t create the other software.
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Wiki-based RPG (http:// www.risusiverse.com/home/wikibased-rpg) - rules for a group wiki to handle an RPG.
Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B4EA! Start the players out in a town (hopefully one where they know some people, maybe their hometown). This is a mining town. However, something has happened at the local mine, and the miners are afraid to return. People would like the PCs to investigate.!
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Also, the supply caravan from Tulan is a week late. Darren Trinet (a local caravan master (who could know one of the PCs personally)) is concerned as he is about to set out on a caravan to deliver what they have from the mine and to get supplies for the town with the proceeds. He’d like the PCs to come along on the caravan to help scout the trail for trouble.!
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What will the PCs do? Are the events related? Maybe. That’s up to you. This is just a kernel to get you started.!
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Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B53E! The players are following a caravan trail through a forest (see Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B4EA for a possible start). During the night, they notice camp fires in the far distance (well back from the trail, deep in the forest, almost imperceptible). Upon investigation, it appears to be a bandit encampment (are they human bandits, or something else? That’s up to you).!
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This seems to be a fairly mobile group. No permanent structures, quite a few tents. This group seems well organized. Smartly placed watch fires are scattered to hinder anyone from approaching the camp unseen. Near the watch fires are either large dogs or wolves (hard to tell which). The animals are chained near the perimeter fires and look hungry.!
! What will your players do?! !
Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B54B ! As part of a bit of loot from a recent adventure, characters find a well worn map (something of your choosing). The map should not reflect anyplace discernible to the players (a mystery place). However, the players should be able to spot four places (ruins). There is strange script on the edge of the map.!
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Here’s a translation of the script: “Search each ruin and search it well, for in each you will find a key. The four keys together will form a map - the map to the treasure of Keplar. The four are also the key. Do not let this map fall into the hands of Calibros."!
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Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B5AE! The players are moving along a seemingly deserted section of roadway between cities. They are approached by a floating apparition claiming to be the ghost of Archibald Blade (a knight of some renown). He is looking for help on his quest; he knows that Calibros is after the Sword of Mystarcana.!
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However, he insists on coming along with the party, and the only way to do that is for him to ride along with one of the players (a minor form of possession). He will not assist the players unless allowed to accompany them.!
! Is it worth allowing the ghost his way for the information he possesses?! ! Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B60A!
The ghost of Archibald Blade wants to take the characters into the network of caves where he died. He would like the players to recover some of his gear, but, more importantly, his maps.!
! When asked about his death, he only remembers cold, slimy tentacles.! ! Do the players dare to brave the caves?! ! Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B670 !
The players came across some maps that lead the way to an out of the way island. The island has 4 keeps marked on the map. The players checked with a local scribe/cartographer, Atsef Ogfogo, and it appears that this is a very old map for the Isle of Cormara. No one has heard from this island nation in many generations, but Atsef provided you with a general idea where to find it.!
! Do you go to investigate what happened to Cormara and to see what can be found in the keeps?! ! Fantasy Adventure Kernel #132B7F5 !
Arriving at Cormara, the players find themselves on the outskirts of a keep that seems to have fallen into ruin. It is a fairly standard keep design, square, a tower at each corner, but the tower on the north east side (near the water) seems to have collapsed. The rest of the keep is covered in strange plant life.!
! Do you date to enter the first keep of Cormara? Will you find any special keys?! ! Adventure Kickstart #1332A0F!
It is a happy day in the kingdom; the young King has found true love and is to wed his beloved. The brave adventurers are invited (along with most of the nobles and other high ranking officials).!
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The couple complete their vows. Suddenly, something terrible happens. The King and his new Queen are murdered in front of everyone. It appears as if the culprit is one (or more) of the PCs (incriminating arrows or some such that could be tied back to the PCs).!
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What will the party do?!
