Risus Pre-Gen Character Cards

I saw these at Stuart Robertson’s blog for his Weird West game, and I thought what a great way to introduce new players to Risus at a con or whatever: CCG-style pre-gen Character Cards for Risus!

Take a look!

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.

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?

DIY GM Screen

I discovered this post about a DIY GM screen and thought ‘how cool would that be for a Risus game.’

Enjoy.

I Want to Play

Warehouse 13 with Risus. If you go to the WH13 site on Syfy.com, you will find a nifty profile generator.  This can be very helpful in setting cliches. I think WH13 is the perfect setting for Risus, due to its globe-trotting style, mystery and humor.

More Uses for Risus

Has anyone ever tried using Risus Character Generation to define characters for a piece of fiction? I’ve been writing about a secret untit of the Texas Rangers, and it seems to me that Risus makes a perfect ‘quick-‘n-dirty’ tool for characterization. Who knew?

Risus Boosters

Let’s hear it for Brent’s forceful encouragement. I wholeheartedly agree with his call for better and more accessible content. As a content producer, I certainly hope to do my part. And as a content producer, I’d love to hear specific suggestions on what sort of material would best serve the community. New “serious” (or semi-serious) settings or adventures gift-wrapped in a pretty PDF? Ok, I can work on that (though my graphic-design kung fu is not up to S. John or Snikle standards). But what else? I’m certain the needs of experienced Risus users are different from those who are getting their first look at the system. I’m open to suggestions.

Risus is such a deceptively simple game that there doesn’t seem to be much call for a lot of crunchy supplements. But worked examples and GM advice might be very helpful to newbies. I know it took me a while to “get” Risus and I didn’t get there until I saw what other people were doing with it.

Risus, as we all know, is a “comedy system”, but as we also well know, it has the potential for so much more serious play. However, in the general perception of the RPG community, Risus is always relegated to the niche of bizarre or funny one-shots. Certainly much of that comes from S. John Ross’ own view point and promotion of Risus., but I wonder how much we as the primary visible fans are also responsible for this state of affairs? Even when one of our ‘serious’ home-brew settings is made public, it’s usually nothing more than a list of clichés and a few notes.  In my mind, RisusMonkey’s Silverlode Campaign notes were the best, but they were distributed over many html pages. A single .pdf document would have made the setting more accessible to those looking to play Risus.  We need to raise the ‘production values’ of our personal settings we place on the internet and make them accessible via a single document.

Why bother you might ask?

I hear a lot of lament that the various Risus webpages such as this one or Risusiverse or others are quiet…well they’re quiet because no one is playing, and they’re quiet because the game is not accessible to a newbie looking for cool settings to play. You make it accessible, and people will play, people will get involved. My buddy runs Risus games at a local convention, and the spaces are filled every time. People want to play Risus. If we want Risus to rise to greater success, if we want greater activity on the webpages and at conventions, then it’s up to us to make it happen.

Temptation

It is tempting to run with an idea for Risus and use the submission guidelines to see just how good the idea is. I would just need a few more hours in the day.