Risus
Risus: The "everything goes" role-playing game (original title Risus: The Anything RPG ) is a generic pen & paper role-playing game system with few rules . It was written and illustrated by S. John Ross and is currently available for free download from his small publisher Cumberland Games website. The game has been available online since 1993; older versions, entitled GUCS: The Generic Universal Comedy System - a parody of GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System) - have been privately distributed since 1989. “Risus” is the Latin word for “laughter”. Another well-known roleplaying game by Ross is the self-deprecating science fiction RPG Encounter Critical.
regulate
Risus is not intended as a system for "serious" role play, but as a small game for quick rounds in between. This is reflected in the rules in three points. First, Risus , including some optional rules, only comprises six to ten pages, depending on the edition.
Secondly, the characters are defined in terms of game technology exclusively by their clichés , which the players can freely choose and on which a number of dice are distributed. The exemplary character Grolfnar Vainsson has the clichés Viking (4 dice), Player (3), Womanizer (2) and Poet (1). If a character tries to perform an action, a dice test for a cliché that suits them is necessary. To pilot a dragon boat, Grolfnar's gamer would use the stereotype "Vikings" and "gambler" to add to their cash at a game of puzzles.
Thirdly, the humorous side of Risus is shown above all in the possibility of using inappropriate clichés , provided that the player can describe the action in a sufficiently interesting way. In a singing competition, Grolfnar, as a "poet" severely handicapped with a dice , could , for example, use his "Viking" strength (with four dice) to blow the competition away with pure sound pressure like in a cartoon. As always, the decision as to whether an inappropriate cliché may be used rests with the game master.
The idea for the cliche goes to the games DC Heroes with his broad skills and Over the Edge back, whose "characteristics" (traits) to name only by risus differ clichés. The dice system is influenced by the Ghostbusters role-playing game and Tunnels and Trolls , in English: swords and demons. Finally, the generic nature of Risus is a nod to GURPS .
Game world
As a generic game, Risus does not have a "built-in" game world, but gives its game masters the freedom to come up with one themselves - or they simply refer in brief to a novel or film against the background of which the game should be set. It works because the rules are flexible and adapt to each genre. Of course, the few and freely selectable clichés mean that Risus characters are presented much more grainily than in "large" role-playing games such as Das Schwarze Auge , which are tailored to a special game world and in which a character can be fine-tuned with a variety of statistics leaves. It should be noted, however, that in Risus rounds, due to the humorous character, value is rarely placed on a realistic representation of the game world. But that does not mean that Risus cannot be used as a system for a serious adventure, for example by removing the rule for "inappropriate clichés".
The Risus community
Despite its small size compared to other role-playing games and its irrelevant nature, Risus is a successful role-playing game system for which there are more than 30 fan websites offering rule variants, descriptions of game worlds and adaptations of the game. Risus itself has been translated into several languages, including German. In December 2003, Cumberland Games began adding commercial products to the freely available game system, initially the Risus Companion , a PDF document that is available to all members of the fee-based Risus fan club International Order of Risus .