The easiest pen-and-paper RPG I know, and the only one I can manage to DM
The rules in pdf, rtf and txt can be downloaded by saving
this link and unzipping, and I highly recommend them in general. I'll add them to this post as well, but pdf is way easier to read
Characters are defined by Clichés (sometimes several of them). Clichés are a shorthand which describe what a character knows how to do. The "character classes" of the Neolithic Period of RPGs were Clichés: Fighter and Magic-User, Space Marine and Star Merchant. You can take Clichés like that, or choose a more contemporary one, such as Biker, Spy, Computer Nerd, Supermodel, or William Shatner (formerly an actor - now just a Cliché). Which Clichés are permitted are up to the GM.
Clichés are defined in terms of Dice (by which we mean the ordinary six-sided kind you can scavenge from your old Yahtzee set). This is the number of dice that you roll whenever your skill as a Fighter, Supermodel, or William Shatner (for instance) is challenged. See "Game System," below. Three dice is professional. Six dice is mastery. One die is a putz.
Characters are created by naming and describing them, and listing their Clichés. When designing your character, you have 10 dice with which to define his Clichés (a Normal Schmoe would be built on anywhere from 3 to 5 dice). A straightforward medieval fighter character might look like this:
Grolfnar Vainsson the Viking
Description: Tall, blond, and grinning. Likes to drink
and fight and drink and chase Viking women
and fight and sail the high seas and raid.
Wants to write great sagas about himself.
Clichés: Viking (4), Womanizer (2), Gambler (3), Poet (1)
A character may have any number or combination of Clichés, but more than 10 different Clichés would be odd, considering the number of dice you get. Characters shouldn't begin their career with more than 4 dice in anything.
Astronaut (Piloting spaceships, not puking in zero-gee)
Barbarian (Beating things up, drinking, whoring, grunting, sweating)
Biker (Riding Harley, brawling, being Invisible to other motorists)
Bimbo (Available in both genders. Distracting, teasing, not teasing...)
Computer Geek (Hacking, programming, fumbling over introductions)
Con Artist (Convincing other people to give you money, evading cops)
Cowboy (Ridin', ropin', brandin', spittin', and shootin')
Fighter Pilot (Dogfighting, not blacking out at high-Gs, bragging)
Gadgeteer (Building a radar out of a bent fork and some gum)
Gambler (Betting, cheating, winning, running very fast)
Gangster (Shooting, speaking with an accent, intimidation)
Geezer (Wheezin', cursin', bitter reminiscin', failin' to understand kids)
Hairdresser (Dressing hair. If anything.)
Kid (Being a sidekick to heroes, making friends with Giant Monsters)
Knight (Riding, lancing, sword-swinging, heraldry, being chaste)
Latin Lover (Seducing, loving, running from irate husbands)
Mad Scientist (Raving, world-domination, trying to play God, cackling)
Martial Artist (Fancy hand-to-hand combat, out-of-synch speech)
Magician (Palming things, sawing ladies in half, public speaking)
Sorcerer (Spellcasting, demon-summoning, speaking in gibberish)
Novelist (Drinking, brawling, cut-rate world traveling, introspection)
Olympic Athlete (Running, swimming, jumping, skiing, javelin-tossing)
Outdoorsman (Following tracks, building shelters, finding wild food)
Policeman (Eating donuts, writing tickets, shooting civilians)
Poltergeist (Being dead, throwing things, scaring people)
Soldier (Shooting, hiding, partying, catching venereal diseases)
Special Forces (Following orders, looking stern, following orders)
Swashbuckler (Stabbing things, swinging from ropes, sailing, romance)
Thief (Sneakin' around gaining access and objects they shouldn't have)
Vampire (Charming people, sucking blood, turning into mist or bats)
Other Kind of Vampire (Self-pity, erotic blood poetry, wearing black)
Whenever anybody wants to do something, and nobody is actively trying to stop him, AND the GM doesn't think that success would be automatic, the player rolls dice. If the total rolled beats (equals or exceeds) the Target Number the GM sets, success! If not, failure!
Target numbers follow this scale:
5: A cinch. A snap. A challenge for a Schmuck. Routine for a pro.
10: A challenge for a Professional.
15: An Heroic challenge. For really inventive or tricky stunts.
20: A challenge for a Master. Nearly superhuman difficulty.
30: You've GOT to be Kidding. Actual superhuman difficulty.
This can be subjective, and anybody can try anything: Crossing a chasm by swinging on a rope, vine or something similar would be child's play (automatic success!) for a Swashbuckler or a Lord of the Jungle, easy (Difficulty 5) for a Pulp Archaeologist, and challenging but definitely doable (Difficulty 10) for a Gymnast, Barbarian, or Thief. Even a Wheelchair-Bound Eccentric Occultist could try it (Difficulty 15, but the wheelchair is lost unless the roll beats a 30)!
Every character is assumed to be equipped with the Tools of His Trade (at least the portable ones). Warriors are wearing armor and wielding good weapons. Cowboys have leather chaps, lasoo, a couple of pearl-handled six-guns and some chaw. Netrunners have an expensive jack-in laptop and funny clothes.
If, through the course of an adventure, a character LOSES any of these vital totems, his Cliché operates on half the normal number of dice (or not at all, if the GM rules that the equipment was REQUIRED) until they are replaced.
A Barbarian(5), for instance, can fight without his sword as a Barbarian(3), but a Netrunner can't run the net without his cyberdeck. If the Netrunner manages to find another computer to play with besides the kind he's used to, he can operate at half-dice.
Some special tools (magic wands, hot-off-the-line military cyberdecks, and so on) may give bonus dice to your Clichés when used. Characters never begin the game with bonus-dice gear; they must be acquired in adventures.
"Combat" in this game is defined as any contest in which opponents jockey for position, utilize attacks, bring defenses to bear, and try to wear down their foes to achieve victory. Either literally or metaphorically! Some examples of combat include:
ARGUMENTS: People using whatever verbal weapons they have at hand to make their points. Truth is the first casualty.
HORSE-RACING: People on horses running around and around a dirty track, trying to get nowhere first.
DOGFIGHTS: People in airplanes or spaceships flying around and trying to blow each other out of the sky.
ASTRAL/PSYCHIC DUELS: Mystics/psionics looking bored or asleep, but trying to rip one another's egos apart in the Otherworld.
WIZARD'S DUELS: Sorcerers using strange magics and trying to outdo the other.
DUELING BANJOS: Banjo players using strange melodies and trying to outdo the other.
SEDUCTION ATTEMPTS: One (or more) characters trying to score with one (or more) other character(s) who is(are) trying to resist.
COURTROOM ANTICS: Prosecution vs. Defense. The goal is victory. Justice is incidental.
ACTUAL PHYSICAL COMBAT: People trying to injure or kill each other.
The GM decides when a combat has begun. At that point, let each combatant make an attack. What constitutes an "attack" depends on the sort of combat, but it should ALWAYS be roleplayed (if dialogue is involved) or described in entertaining detail (if it's physical and/or dangerous and/or normally requires contraceptives).
Attacks require rolls against character Clichés. The GM must, at the outset of combat, determine what TYPE of Clichés are appropriate for the fight. In a physical fight, Clichés like Viking, Barbarian, Soldier, Swashbuckler, and Novelist are appropriate. Clichés like Hairdresser and Latin Lover are not (but may still be used; see next section).
An attack must be directed at a foe. Both parties in the attack (attacker and defender) roll against their chosen Cliché. Low roll loses. Specifically, the low roller loses one of his Cliché dice for the remainder of the fight - he's been weakened, worn down, or otherwise pushed one step towards defeat. In future rounds, he'll be rolling lower numbers.
Eventually, one side will be left standing, and another will be left without dice. At this point, the winners usually decide the fate of the losers. In a physical fight or magical duel, the losers might be killed (or mercifully spared). In Courtroom Antics, the loser gets sentenced by the judge, or fails to prosecute. In a Seduction, the loser gets either a cold shower or a warm evening, depending on who wins.
You needn't use the same Cliché every round. If a Viking/Swashbuckler wants to lop heads one round, and swing on chandeliers the next, that's groovy, too. However, anytime a character has a Cliché worn down to zero dice in combat, he has lost, even if he has other appropriate Clichés left to play with.
Dice lost in combat are regained when the combat ends, at a "healing" rate determined by the GM. If the combat was in vehicles (space fighters, mecha, wooden sailing ships) then the vehicles themselves are likely damaged, too, and must be repaired.
INAPPROPRIATE CLICHÉS
As stated above, the GM determines what sort of Clichés are appropriate for any given combat. An INAPPROPRIATE Cliché is anything that's left . . . In a physical fight, Hairdresser is inappropriate. In a Wizard's duel, Barbarian is inappropriate.
Inappropriate Clichés may be used to make attacks, PROVIDED THE PLAYER ROLEPLAYS OR DESCRIBES IT IN A REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ENTERTAINING MANNER. Furthermore, the ``attack'' must be plausible within the context of the combat, and the genre and tone that the GM has set for the game. This option is more valuable in silly games than in dead-serious ones.
All combat rules apply normally, with one exception: If an inappropriate Cliché wins a combat round versus an appropriate one, the ``appropriate'' player loses THREE dice, rather than one, from his Cliché! The ``inappropriate'' player takes no such risk, and loses only the normal one die if he loses the round.
Thus, a skilled hairdresser is dangerous when cornered and attacked unfairly. Beware.
When in doubt, assume that the aggressor determines the type of combat. If a wizard attacks a barbarian with magic, then it's a Wizard's duel! If the barbarian attacks the mage with his sword, then it's Physical Combat! If the defender can come up with an entertaining use of his skills, then he'll have the edge. It pays in many genres to be the defender!
Note: If the wizard and barbarian both obviously want to fight, then both are aggressors, and it's "Fantasy Combat," where both swords and sorcery have equal footing.
TEAMING UP
Two or more characters may decide to form a TEAM in combat. For the duration of the team (usually the entire combat), they fight as a single unit, and are attacked as a single foe. There are two kinds of teams: Player-Character teams and NPC teams ("Grunt Squads.")
Grunt-Squads: This is just special effects. When you want the heroes to be attacked by a horde of 700 rat-skeletons inside the lair of the Wicked Necromancer(5), but don't feel like keeping track of 700 little skeletal sets of dice, just declare that they’re a team, fighting as Skeletal Rat-Horde(7). Mechanically, the Rat-Horde is the same as any other single foe - except it has more dice! Grunt-Squads can have any level of cliché the GM feels is appropriate. Grunt-Squads stick together as a team until they’re defeated, at which point many survivors will scatter (though at least one will always remain to suffer whatever fate the victor decides).
Player-Character Teams: When PCs (or PCs and their NPC allies) form a team, the “Team Leader” is defined by the highest-ranking Cliché in the team (a title that must be designated if there is a tie). Everybody rolls dice, but the Team Leader’s dice all count. Other Team Members contribute only their sixes. Team members who roll nothing above five don’t contribute anything to the Team Leader’s total for that roll.
Clichés joined in a team need not be identical, but they all must be equally appropriate or inappropriate. This means five Vikings could band together in physical fight with no problem. It also means that a Hairdresser, a Parakeet Trainer, and a Career Counselor could team up in a physical fight if they have a REALLY good description of how they'll use their skills in concert to take out the Vikings!
Whenever a team loses a round of combat, a single team-member’s dice is reduced by one (or three!) as per the normal combat rules. Any team member may "step forward" and voluntarily take this personal "damage" to his dice. If this happens, the noble volunteer is reduced by twice the normal amount (either two dice or six!), and the team leader gets to roll twice as many dice on his next attack, a temporary boost as the team avenges their heroic comrade. If no volunteer steps forward, then each member must roll against the Cliché they're using as part of the team: Low-roll takes the (undoubled) hit, and there is no "vengeance" bonus.
Disbanding: A team may voluntarily disband at any time between die-rolls. This reduces the Cliché each team-member was using in the team by one, instantly (not a permanent reduction - treat it just like "damage" taken from losing a round of combat). Disbanded team-members may freely form new teams, provided the disbanding "damage" doesn't take them out of the fight. Individuals may also "drop out" of a team, but this reduces them to zero dice immediately as they scamper for the rear. Their fates rest on the mercy of whoever wins the fight!
Lost Leader: If the team leader ever leaves the team for any reason (either by dropping out or by having his personal dice reduced to zero), every member of the team immediately takes one die of “damage” as if the team had disbanded (since, without a leader, they’ve done exactly that). They may immediately opt to reform as a new team (with a new leader) however, and if the old leader was removed by volunteering for personal damage, the new team leader gets the double-roll vengeance bonus to avenge his predecessor!
CONFLICTS THAT AREN'T COMBAT
Many conflicts that arise in the game cannot be defined as "combat;" they're over too quickly, defined by a single action. A classic pistol-duel isn't combat - the two duelists simply turn and fire, and then it's all over. Two characters diving to grab the same gun from the floor isn't combat. Two cooks preparing chili for a cookoff isn't combat; there's no "wearing down of the foe" and no jockeying for position.
Such "single-action conflicts" are settled with a single roll against appropriate Clichés (or inappropriate Clichés, with good roleplaying). High roll wins.
WHEN SOMEBODY CAN'T PARTICIPATE
It will often occur that characters will find themselves involved in a Combat or quicker conflict where they simply have no applicable Clichés, even by stretching the imagination. Or maybe ONE character will have an appropriate Cliché, while the others feel left out. An example might be a pie-eating contest. One character was wise (or foolish) enough to take ``Disgusting Glutton(2)'' as a Cliché. The other characters are astronauts or accountants, neither of which traditionally engorge themselves on pie.
In situations like this, give everybody two free dice to play with, for the duration of the conflict. This INCLUDES characters who already HAVE appropriate Clichés. In the example above, the astronauts and accountants would get Pie-Eating(2), while the Disgusting Glutton would be temporarily increased to Disgusting Glutton(4). The Glutton, naturally, still has the winning edge, but anyone can TRY to eat lots of pie. This "temporary promotion" applies only in opposed conflicts, not in challenges based on Target Numbers.
A WORD OR TWO ABOUT SCALE
No standard time or distance scale is provided for Risus; it really depends on what kind of action is happening. However, the GM should try to stay consistent within a single conflict. In a physical fight, each round represents a few seconds. In a long-term fight between a married couple, each round might represent an entire Day (Day one: Husband "accidentally" burns wife's favorite dress in the oven, Wife "accidentally" feeds Drano to Husband's prize goldfish, and so on until there is a victor).
At the end of each adventure, each player should roll against every Cliché that was used significantly during the game (using their current number of dice). If the dice land showing only even numbers, this indicates an increase by one die for that Cliché. Thus, advancement slows down as you go. No Cliché may go higher than Cliché(6).
Anytime you do something really, really, really spectacularly entertaining that wows the whole table, the GM may rule that you may roll instantly (in the middle of the game!) for possible improvement, in addition to the roll at the end of the adventure.
Adding New Clichés: There may come a time when a character has grown and matured enough to justify adding an entirely new Cliché to his character sheet. If the player and GM agree this is the case, and agree on what the new Cliché is, the player rolls for Character Advancement as usual, but any of the new dice earned may be put toward the new Cliché instead of the ones that earned them. This can also be applied to "in-game" improvements, if the situation warrants it!
We will not be using any advanced options.
Setting will be your standard fantasy - swords and magic type, possible clichés include all common races and classes, but you can be as creative as you wish. All characters have to be approved by the GM (me) before they can participate.
There will be a limit of 48 hours on every turn, unless everyone agrees to 24 hours, then I will change it the next turn.
Every character not posting during a turn will follow the group and do nothing of interest, during a fight they will use their most appropriate cliché, even if that means death.
If you want to join, post your name, short bio and clichés.
Players who are interested can still join, maximum 8 total at any given time.
- Gary the Swashbuckling Zombie (GruffyBears)
Swashbuckler(4), Zomie(3), Con artist(3)
- James, the greatest fighting scientist wizard of the west! (NewMartianEmperor)
Mad Scientist(4), Cowboy(2), Sorcerer(4)
- Sanger G. J. Jung (Armok)
Mathematician(5), Genre savvy(2), Cook(1), Artifacer(2)
- Pyromaniac the lightsaber-wielding fire mage (Nuke 9.13)
Space Pirate(4), Fire mage(4), Charismatic leader(2)
- Nathan Perchesky the swashbuckler (TehStefan)
Swashbuckler(4), Soldier(4), Thief(2)
- Gered the Farmer with a Destiny (SingularByte)
Destiny(4), Swordfighting(3), Farming(3)
- Jeb the Knight (Rashilul)
Knight(3), cowboy(2), special forces(2), Theatrics(3)
- Dan (Archangel)
Badass (2), Space Marine (2), Crazy Awesome (4), MacGyver (1), Hey it's that guy! (1)
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Topic: Risus RPG (Read 15591 times)