February 2012
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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?
Confession one: my favorite d100 system was Amazing Engine. I loved how you could look at the 1s position to know if...
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January 2012
8 posts
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Taug (TOOK) Maciver
Vagabond Scottish Tinker with a knack for inventing things out of scraps (4) Former priest seeking redemption (3) Self-sufficient outdoorsman (3) 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...
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Lego Heroica →
Definitely a gateway drug to traditional roleplaying. It is tempting to take the setting and convert it to Risus and see how my kids do. Lego provides a ton of information on the site.
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The Dungeon Dozen →
A use for the d12 in your fantasy games. Many wonderful ideas to use. I got this like from a friend on Google+.
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Gotta Catch 'Em All
I wrote about issues with Pokemon as a setting previously (Pikachu, I Choose You!). However, if you had to play as the Pokemon itself (al a Mystery Dungeon), what could you do? This came up on the RisusTalk mailing list. I thought I would share my response here.
I’ve seen quite a few episodes of the show and whatever bits of the video games that they boys want to show me…
This might...
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Yet Another Edition...
In case you’ve ignored the news (I’ve tried, but this one got through), Wizards of the Coast is starting work on another edition of D&D. They want player feedback and what not because they think it will be possible to make everyone happy.
Good luck with that…
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Maximum Risus Fun →
Applying concepts of Maximum Game Fun to Risus to help you flesh out your starting characters.
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Lair of the Sinister Seven →
S. John Ross put together a map, and let Risus fans fill in the details. It was a fun little experiment, well worth checking out.
December 2011
5 posts
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Risus One Page Challenge for the Holidays →
There are two entries so far in the One Page Challenge. Get yours in before the Krampus comes and gets you for being naughty.
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Snowball Fright! →
My entry for the Risusiverse One-Page Challenge is up for review.
Snowball Fright! - 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.
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Risusiverse One Page Challenge ending January 1,... →
This OPC will be a for a holiday-themed one shot adventure. To keep it simple, that will be the guiding principle. It must be a one-shot adventure somehow using the phrase or alluding to the holiday season, and it should stand separate from A Kringle In Time.
Do you have what it takes?
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November 2011
3 posts
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“I’ve been applying the concept of fake shemps and shemping, to tabletop...”
– The Compleat Shemp - Asparagus Jumpsuit | RPGNow.com (via berinkinsman)
And if you insist on stats for Shemp, Risus works really well for this.
While I haven’t read the book referenced, I did read a lot of the thoughts that went into this on Berin’s website. It should be a welcome...
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Your mission, if you choose to accept it....
Just saw Johnny English Reborn over the weekend. This is what I imagine a well-run Risus espionage game to look like. The Johnny English movIes should be required viewing for anyone wanting to run a fun Bond-style adventure. It successfully sets up the appropriate cliches and then gleefully skewers them.
October 2011
5 posts
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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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Draw a Stickman →
A fun little diversion…
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I Spy Green Acres →
My One Page Challenge entry for October has been posted to Risusiverse. Where is yours?
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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 in Risus. I wrote up using the Saga card-based system 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...
September 2011
5 posts
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One Page Challenge - Risusiverse →
The next Risus One Page Challenge is up and ready for submissions. This time out, can you mash up 2 1970s TV series and make something fun out of it?
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Story Generator - TV Tropes →
Yet another reason to belong to the RisusTalk list…you get to find out about cool stuff like this.
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Risus First Run →
A reddit post detailing a groups first run through with Risus. Sounds like they had an amazing time.
Negative Clichés
An idea I’ve had for a while (I don’t know if it’s in the ‘Companion’ yet, I’m saving up for it). A ‘negative cliché’ is something that the character isn’t merely incompetent at, but famously bad at. This would be for your comedy relief characters, your George of the Jungle vine-swinging, your Swedish Chef cooking, your Oscar The Grouch...
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Liar's Dice Option
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 rules for combat? It seems to make sense to me. It would somewhat mitigate pool size differences and add something else to the combat.
August 2011
8 posts
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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?
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A Risus Dream...
Very strange dream to relate…
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...
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Idea Fodder
Jess Nevins, pulp and comic researcher extraordinaire, recently published a post on his Tumblr account that had snippets of plots from pulps he has examined from all over the world. Wouldn’t these make for some awesome game plot seeds?
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RPG Hangouts?
Has anyone tried using Google+’s Hangout feature to host an RPG yet? How did it go?
July 2011
8 posts
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One Page Challenge - Final Cut →
The official end date for the Risusiverse One Page Challenge ended yesterday. However, due to a hosting problem with WetPaint (you can only have 40 attachments for your entire site), all of the entries were moved to Google Sites for safe keeping.
Go check out the 15 entries for the One Page challenge and let me know which one you liked the best.
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One Page Challenge - 2 days to go →
There have been 5 great adventures submitted so far. Do you have what it takes to build a whole Risus adventure in one page? Just 2 days left.
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Risus on Fire?
I was wondering if a roleplaying game would work using a basic formula like most TV series use? Take Burn Notice. 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).
Would this...
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Risus One Page Challenge: Curse of the Howling... →
I submitted my entry into the Risus One Page Challenge. My entry is Curse of the Howling Caves. Sure, it is basic and simple, but it could be fun.
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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...
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Risusiverse One Page Challenge →
Think you can come up with a one page adventure that includes everything needed to make a fun challenge using the keywords of Abandoned, Howling, and Obelisk all by July 21st, 2011? Join the challenge.
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GM Advice: It's a Trap!
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 players. I know it is tempting. Just don’t do it.
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Risusiverse File Vault →
A lot of people have made some pretty amazing stuff for Risus and they’ve shared it for free download over at Risusiverse. The latest addition is Cowboys & Indie Bands (Risus meets the wild west with music).
June 2011
8 posts
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The King's Tomb →
Snikle doesn’t post here any longer (he got all fancy with Wordpress), but he is still putting out quality stuff. Check out The King’s Tomb for a cool adventure.
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House of Risus Yahoo! Group →
A specialized list for people who want to tinker with Risus and make it there own.
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Castaways
One of the more fun bit of imaginings I have done is posted over at Risusiverse under the Castaways section. I thought it would be fun to come up with characters inspired from 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:
Skipper / Captain Bill Howdy - a...
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Retro RPG: A role playing paradox →
retrorpg:
Games that have rules that focus on combat (and similar mechanics) often have a greater potential for role playing than games with more diverse rules.
The reason for this is simple: when you don’t have a rule for something in a game, you tend to role play it. When you do have a rule, even a…
I kind of agree here….games that try to make up rules for everything really tend...
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engine of thwaak →
If you would like to see some really nice Risus world books (fully formed in 8 pages), check out the engine of thwaak. The creator has also released his first adventure for the Axe, Hammer, & Rune setting (so if you have an interest in playing dwarves taking vengeance on goblins, check those out).
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