Risus Thoug hts of the Moment

Risus Thoug hts of the Moment by L a rr y B ul loc k

Risus, The Anything RPG is © S. John Ross and is freely available from the Cumberland Games website at: 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 ) 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

). 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

My RPG History!

Why Risus?!

Just to show that I’m not all Risus, I don’t think I’ve ever posted my Why I Play Risus thoughts here, so I here’s a somewhat complete list of thought I’d rectify that. commercial RPGs that I’ve owned/ played over the years (in alphabetical

As can be seen by my RPG History post (see sidebar), I’ve played a lot of order): 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

AD&D (1st/2nd edition) that were crammed into the game the better I could deﬁne my character.
Alternity • Amazing Engine

However, the more I tried to nail down my character to a set list of skills,

Amber Diceless

abilities, powers, advantages, disadvantages and whatever-else-have-you, the

BattleTech

harder to became to build the character that I had envisioned when I ﬁrst

Bushido

started. I became very

Car Wars

dissatisﬁed with the • Champions whole thing.

No roleplaying game is perfect. Therefore, I use Risus (where things are kept so simple that it is easy to make

Chill (original Pacesetter)

the game very close to perfect). Why put all of that effort into another system which confuses complications with Then I found Risus.

D&D (Original)

perfection? That was that. I still

DC Heroes (Mayfair)

enjoy reading RPGs,

DragonQuest

but mostly to mine

Gamma World

what I can use for Risus: setting materials. Now, my eyes kind of glaze over

GURPS

when I read whatever mechanics are in the rules, but there are a lot of

Hunter Planet 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 Game

Aragorn!

Silent Ranger (4), Friend of the Elves (3),

Shadowrun

King of Man in Denial (3)!

Star Frontiers

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles There - in less than a minute, I created someone from Lord of the Rings.
Top Secret • Twilight 2000
Vampire: The Masquerade • Werewolf: The Apocolypse

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:! !

http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/chase_01.html

I will admit that I like to read through other RPGs (usually those that are

http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_01.html

freely available as as PDF)… however, when it comes time to

http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_02.html

actually try them out, I always start

http://www.velvet-edge.com/examples/combat_03.html

thinking about how much easier it would be to just use the setting for

http://www.velvet-edge.com/episodes/silverlode1908_ep_01.html Risus.
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, Double- Pumps 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!

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!

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). What if the folk guitarist starts gathering protesters who harass the mob hit 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.

I wonder if Risus could use another option where you get to stage your own finale? The more dice you give up (that puts you out of action), the more say you get in what happens.

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.

! For a good example of another RPG that would be fun in Risus, check out Exiles ( http:// www.jasoncamp.net/stuff/ exiles/ ).

10 Essential Elements of a Great Escapist Hero ( http://io9.com/ 10-essential-elements-of-a-great- escapist-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.

! I think it would be great if all Risus supplements were like Geezer ( http:// www222.pair.com/sjohn/ geezer.htm ).

! 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.

! 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.

! 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? ! Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations ( http:// changingminds.org/disciplines/ storytelling/plots/ polti_situations/ polti_situations.htm ) → Add some drama to you game…

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) ! 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 !

! 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

…let them help a little old lady across glance. You don’t really need to know what Thron’s the street, or the genre equivalent individual stats are. Your players don’t interact with

(blowing up a building is a common Thron’s stats, they interact with him as a person substitute).! The Risus Companion (p. 42) 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.

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? !

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.!

Jude Oak!

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.!

This could work for any sort of supernatural ability (magic, super powers, psionics, what-ever-have- you). 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 in- game consequences you want to impose).!

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.!

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

longest campaign that I was ever part of was

higher), it’s time for the end.!

a super hero campaign (and it was a lot more !

This whole idea probably works best if

fun than the typical sword and sorcery

the players don’t know how much campaigns I’ve been in). “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?!

Another Way of Thinking of Stats in Risus!

A Case for Stats in (and out of) 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.!

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.!

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.!

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).!

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).!

Audience Participation Exercise: Dromas!

limits are you imagination and the sensibilities of the campaign (or lack thereof).!

wrestling, Viking Warrior (3). The only

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

Here is an interesting picture of a Dromas (©

Yndra - used by permission)! http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/yndra/4314204447/

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.!

How would you use the Dromas?!

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?!

Viking Warrior (3), but could be Ax wielding, grog guzzling, champion arm

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.!

Electric Knight!

Tales: Richard Daniels always knew that he was chosen, he just

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.!

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.!

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!"*!

anonymous asks:!

Why do people suck and not like Risus?

risus said:! !

Master of Electricity [4d20], Expert in Stick-Fu (3d8), Helpful and Knowledgeable Wandering Priest (4d6), Lucky Shots: [][][][][][]!

))!

heroMachine2/

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/

with a limp and uses a stick for extra support.!

! Hooks: Always tries to ensure the safety of innocent lives. Walks

Time for Timer!

This is from a message cross posted to the Risus mailing lists:!

“I’m ﬁghting a personal war against the dark forces of boredom and monotony. Risus is

“I always allow the “Boxcars and one of my weapons."! Breakthroughs" option, because I

think you should always have at

Gothikork!

least a slight chance of whacking the hell out of your opponent.”!

! 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

A strange thought: I personally individual expressions of what hate it when people try to put

Risus can be. It’s a herd of others into convenient little unicorns, many of them lovelier stereotyped buckets, yet I love a than anything I’d have come up roleplaying game where the with on my own.”! premise behind it is to embrace

the cliché… S. John Ross; Risus Companion p.

63 - Halfway to Perfect! !

For my ﬁrst thought of the moment, a confession:!

! 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…!

! ! ! Feb 24, 2009 12:54 pm by jokingonzalez!

In the Grip of the Rules! The Zen of Risus #132B663!

! !

“The more you tighten your grip, “Do or do not… there is no try.”!

Tarkin, the more star systems will

Yoda!

slip through your ﬁngers.”!

! Princess Leia - Star Wars! When it comes to Risus, Yoda is just a

padawan. The real power of Risus is in the

I ﬁnd it a wonder that people still try to fact that players can, and are encouraged to, make systems that have rules for try anything. Sure, you might not always everything. Like Governor Tarkin’s succeed, but you can always try.! dilemma, the more you try to tighten

everything up, the harder it ends up [Luke:] I can’t believe it.! being. Harder for the GM to keep

everything in place; harder for the [Yoda:] That is why you fail.! players to know what they can and can’t do (except for those that enjoy being rules lawyers); just harder.!

I like how Risus just presents some

GM Advice: It’s a Trap!!

basic guidelines and lets you go from

there. No fuss, no muss. Once you get Here’s a bit of advice for new GMs: Never used to the ﬂying by the seat of your create your own character to go adventuring pants feeling, Risus is very liberating.! 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 ) GMToolKit !

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.!

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).!

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).!

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).!

Gamer’s Kit!

Updated Gamer’s Kit!

!!Risus / Risus Companion / Big List of RPG Plots sandwich style book (made by
!!Instant Game - one of the best quick,

!!Dice (variety, but mostly d6).!
!!Pencil!
!!Paper!
!!Something Different: another game for

).!

lee.deviantart.com/

You can check out others at the source: Wood- Splitter-Lee ( http://wood-splitter-

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. How would you like to meet this out in the wilderness….how would your players react? What would you even name this?!

). !

www.pigames.net/collaborative/index.php? action=read&page=183

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://

available at http://storiesyouplay.com/44/ ).!

Automatic Fear (by Matt Snyder and

diversity. Currently, it is 44: A Game of

with any game system.!

www.animalball.com/games.html )). Works

random, campaign/setting generator that I’ve seen (it’s a freebie available from Animalball Games ( http://

putting the Companion booklet ﬁle in between the sections of the Risus / Big List of RPG Plots booklet ﬁle.!

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:!

What’s in your kit?!

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.!

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).!

Risus ruleset that is bundled with the Big List of RPG Plots as as booklet, with the

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

Gaming Social Contract!

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.!

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!

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] !

Hooks!

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.!

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. !

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)!

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.!

Volo was designed to be used with the Something Familiar setting ( http://

www.risusiverse.com/home/settings/something-familiar

).!

Gwyn Axpix!

You can’t have too

many links…! ! Dungeon Crawl Risus - 1KM1KT ( http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/ dungeon-crawl-risus )→

Pinky!

Worth checking out for you D&D

Idiotic white lab mouse who is best Fans. friends with Brain (4); inept lab

! Risus Trek: Starship Combat

assistant (4); TV trivia buff (3)!

Again ( http://guy- wires.blogspot.com/2011/03/ !

Hooks!

risus-trek-starship-combat- again.html )→ Never ponders what Brain is pondering! 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

Brain!

Trade. I think this is a good

Genius white lab mouse bent on world

approach, but my only question

domination (4); ad hoc inventor [3];

is how do you know when to penalize the player for not

arch nemesis of Snowball (Questing

having their tool with them? If

Dice) [][][][][]!

they are on the planet, are they screwed? Or are they OK as ! long as they remain in constant

Hooks!

contact with the ship (sort of like

Deep down has a heart of gold (especially in regards to

in Miri where they were screwed

Pinky)!

without their communicators)? ! 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.

! 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.

! 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.” !!

Because I could resist the lure of the PULP-O-MIZER http://thrilling-

tales.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:!

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/

).!

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.!

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).!

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.!

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.!

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

http://asparagusjumpsuit.wordpress.com/games/systemless-game-aids/

Jumpsuit: ).! 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.!

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).!

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.!

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.!

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 They say that confession is good for the a game? If it is Risus, probably not very soul. So here is a Risus confession: I necessary once you understand the basics. pronounce the game name rahy-suhs - sort of like rye bread plus some sus to go on it.

Risus Thoug hts of the Moment

Why Risus?!

Aragorn!

The Colony !

Humperdinck!

Serious Play!

Future of Roleplaying!

Fun Links!

Inappropriate Clichés

Tales: Noble Quinn was always seen as a kindly ruler; that is until he took an interest in the

Why use Risus if you GM a different RPG !

Where to now Mr. Peabody? !

More Fun Links!

Jude Oak!

Spawn Inspired Mechanic!

Another Way of Thinking of Stats in Risus!

A Case for Stats in (and out of) Risus!

Audience Participation Exercise: Dromas!

Viking Warrior (3), but could be Ax wielding, grog guzzling, champion arm

Electric Knight!

Tales: Richard Daniels always knew that he was chosen, he just

In the Grip of the Rules! The Zen of Risus #132B663!

GM Advice: It’s a Trap!!

Gamer’s Kit!

Updated Gamer’s Kit!

Gaming Social Contract!

Volo!

Hooks!

Gwyn Axpix!

You can’t have too

Pinky!

Hooks!

Brain!

Hooks!

Let’s Cook with Risus!

Legend of Zork as Inspiration!

Plundering Talislanta!

How Often…!

Dokumen yang terkait

Abstract One of the main functions of the government is to serve the community then the government needs to keep on improving the quality of service. The measure of the success of service delivery is determined by the level of satisfaction of the service

Analisis Komputasi Penyerapan Gelombang Elektromagnetik oleh Titik Hujan dengan menggunakan Methods of Moment

Pemodelan Pertumbuhan Ekonomi Indonesia Menggunakan Data Panel Dinamis dengan Pendekatan Generalized Method of Moment Arellano-Bond

Relations of the Institution of the Correction of the Qur’an in Indonesia before 1959

Critique on the writing of the Characteristics of Diacritics of the Maghrebi’s, the Saudi Arabia’s and the Indonesian Mushaf

The Phenomenon of the Translation of the Qur’an

MacMillan’s Exercise of the Authority of the Believer

Designing the system of the ward structure in accordance with the needs of the hospital

Korelasi Pearson Product Moment

Republic of Indonesia and the Government of the United

Dokumen yang Anda mencari sudah siap untuk unduhkan