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Risus: The Anything RPG
The 20th Anniversary edition of one of the world's first free RPGs (still free, always and forever). For some, Risus is a handy “emergency” RPG for spur-of-the-moment one-shots and rapid character creation. For others, it’s a reliable campaign system supporting years of play. For others still, it’s a strange little pamphlet with stick figures. No matter what you think it is, there's no wrong way to play.
- GenresRole Playing GamesGames
4 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 7, 2023
I always liked RPGs that used keywords or descriptors rather than hard skill names or classes. They feel a bit more freeing and allow you to make exactly the character that you want. Not only is Risus great for this, but it has tons of support and advanced options online and in various sourcebooks and settings to let you expand it how you want.
April 12, 2022
Silly, ultra-lite RPG based on clichés
December 8, 2024
The only good part was the cliches.
November 18, 2022
[Read]
+ Simple and easy to understand.
+ Generic single mechanics that should work for a wide scope and scale of narrative challenges.
+ Friendly stick figures and funny examples. [i]"If you beat someone at tennis, you aren’t normally allowed to decapitate them and drag their corpse through the city square."[/i]
+ The Inappropriate Cliché rules lends itself to zany and creative attempts.
+ Free
+ Sizable community presence
- In a summed dice pool vs target, with so small poools, each additional dice is a huge advantage. When making your character, you are thus encouraged to put the maximum of 4 dice in an as broad and generic cliché as possible. This seems to go against the feel the game is going for.
In the same vein, combat scenes ought to be all but decided after the first dice rolls. Each combat round, the loser loses a die out of their dice pool. God forbid the opponent used an inappropriate cliché and removed three dice. It will be almost impossible to turn the tide of a combat that started out badly. The "Pumps" optional rule would make it slightly more interesting and should probably always be used.
- Not a fan of the tone of the "seduction" combat example. I know they mean for this example to be lighthearted and humorous but the wording should be looked over.
This game is promising in its simplicity, but chances are that when I'm looking for a genre-agnostic, make-up-your-own-skills system, it might get sidelined by things like Roll for Shoes, on the all-in zany and ultralight side, or Fate Core/Accelerated, on the meatier side.
+ Simple and easy to understand.
+ Generic single mechanics that should work for a wide scope and scale of narrative challenges.
+ Friendly stick figures and funny examples. [i]"If you beat someone at tennis, you aren’t normally allowed to decapitate them and drag their corpse through the city square."[/i]
+ The Inappropriate Cliché rules lends itself to zany and creative attempts.
+ Free
+ Sizable community presence
- In a summed dice pool vs target, with so small poools, each additional dice is a huge advantage. When making your character, you are thus encouraged to put the maximum of 4 dice in an as broad and generic cliché as possible. This seems to go against the feel the game is going for.
In the same vein, combat scenes ought to be all but decided after the first dice rolls. Each combat round, the loser loses a die out of their dice pool. God forbid the opponent used an inappropriate cliché and removed three dice. It will be almost impossible to turn the tide of a combat that started out badly. The "Pumps" optional rule would make it slightly more interesting and should probably always be used.
- Not a fan of the tone of the "seduction" combat example. I know they mean for this example to be lighthearted and humorous but the wording should be looked over.
This game is promising in its simplicity, but chances are that when I'm looking for a genre-agnostic, make-up-your-own-skills system, it might get sidelined by things like Roll for Shoes, on the all-in zany and ultralight side, or Fate Core/Accelerated, on the meatier side.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews