FU-style Closed Questions

FU-style Closed Questions

FU (Freeform/Universal) is a simple RPG were all actions are resolved on a d6 chart based on closed questions with yes or no answers. Here's how to apply this mechanic to Risus.

Action Resolution

When a character attempts an action, you phrase the action as a yes-or-no question like "do I jump over the chasm?" and then roll your cliche dice, taking the highest roll and consulting the chart below:

• 6 - Yes, and... The "and" indicates some kind of bonus.

• 5 - Yes. The answer is just yes.

• 4 - Yes, but... The "but" indicates some kind of penalty.

• 3 - No, but... The "but" indicates that it's not a total loss.

• 2 - No. The answer is just no.

• 1 - No, and... The "and" indicates it is even worse.

For single-action conflicts and combat, the character attempting the action rolls one dice plus the difference in cliche dice from their opponent. If the character attempting the action has a higher cliche than their opponent, then take the highest dice rolled, otherwise take the lowest dice rolled. (For example, a Swashbuckler (4) fighting with a Ninja (3) would roll 2 dice, taking the highest.) In a combat, any "yes" results in the opponent losing a dice from their cliche, while any "no" result results in the player losing dice from their cliche.

Teaming Up

Since the regular rules for teaming up don't work for this new system, everyone who is helping rolls their cliche dice and every 6 they roll adds one positive "and" to the outcome.

PC vs PC conflict

This system generally assumes that PC's will be doing all of the rolling for PC vs NPC conflicts, but when two PC's are fighting it is necessary to determine who should do the rolling. There are several ways to do this:

• Have the player with the highest cliche roll.

• Let the players agree on who should roll.

• Flip a coin to decide who rolls.

Optional Rules

Here are a few optional rules to use with this mechanic.

• And/but and dice loss: You can treat "and" and "but" results as costing dice in combat. "Yes, and..." and "No, but..." might subtract additional dice from the opponent, while "Yes, but..." and "No, and..." might subtract additional dice from the character attempting the action.

• Two-dice limit: Any time you would roll more than one dice, you only roll at most two dice. This rule will make things a little tougher for the party, but it prevents situations where a party with high cliches (for example in a campaign with character advancement) never fail at their attempted actions.

• Conditions: Every dice lost from a cliche now represents a condition imposed on the character. For example, a single lost round of chase combat might mean that a character is "tired", while a single failed round of getting-across-the-rickety bridge combat might mean that your character is "off-balance."