Sonny

Sonny

• Details: This is about several campaigns we have played during 2010. Basically the Sonny I and II flash game was the backbone of the first part, and Mardek RPG flash game was the second part. It was peppered with Tiny Adventures mini quests and mini adventures from DnD Book of Liars.

• Genre: Mixed fantasy and post apocalyptic sci-fi.

• Tone: Heroic Slapstick

• Campaign : It used to be a clear campaign, now it is just intertwined crooked mesh of story lines, continued by whichever thread the players want to follow.

Optional Rules

We used a lot of optional rules at the beginning, but it boiled down to a small set and by now we are very picky about introducing new ones.

• During a clash of cliches we use a 3 stage resolution, which makes active hits more frequent than passive standing of hits:

  1. the attacker determines the action and target, rolls his basic roll

  2. the target rolls whatever he can do in his defense. He has to comit here all the pumping he wants

  3. The attacker does his pumping of the Cliche.

• We use 7 elements in the game

• 1. WASABI: this is the original element. The name might be funny, but still this is what covers the original Risus. If yu just play Risus your Cliche has the element WASABI. It works the way you are used to it. In our game only really complex beings have the WASABI elements, like Greywulf's famous Dungeon(5) Cliche at Greywulf's Lair: New Clichés for Old would be of WASABI element.

  2. The natural elements: WATER, FIRE, and FOREST. Some call it rock, paper, scissors. Here I have to inroduce a new concept: Trumps. If an element trumps an other and wins a clash, it will not only cause 1 damage, but completely nuke the other element: empties its dice pool. WATER trumps FIRE, FIRE trumps FOREST and FOREST trumps WATER. This means if a Cliche of the element WATER wins against FIRE, then the FIRE based Cliche will have 0 dice left. If the FIRE wins agianst the WATER based Cliche, then there is the regular 1 damage only. It is really simple.

  3. Supernatural elements. There is 2 of them. LIGHT and SHADOW. They are week in the primary material plane, so everything trumps them, and they too trump each other. The advantage of having them is that they come naturally double pumpable. So if you want a single action blast, this is your element. At least one of your cliche should be based on this. Only Cliche based on supernatural elments can be used for Magic in our game. The natural elements can still be used for prayers, and for some shamanic activities like begging for help in the ghost world, but real magic is basically Supernatural only. so your WASABI based wizard from the original Risus world would find in our world that he either lost his mojo, or his wizard cliche is really either LIGHT of SHADOW based.

  4. BLOOD. This is some kind of barbarian element. It can not be purchased double pumpable. Every time you use it, it pumps automatically at least 1. You can pump more, but you have to pump at least 1 in it. It Trumps all other elements except for WASABI. As I said nothing Trumps WASABI. (Maybe we will have later a NOTHING element too just for the pun.) BLOOD element based cliche does not heal up at the end of the turn. It needs a healer, and on its own it heals 1 point after every a day of rest. Furthermore: everyone has to have at least 1 element based on BLOOD. This is a strong element it can quickly clear up the play ground. Hitting with a Blood Barbarian (5) pumping 5 can take care of a lot of problems.

• Spell casting has a very different set of rules now than how we startd the game a year ago. Every spell has a combo that you need to roll to cast the spell. When attempting a spell you roll your spell claster cliche's dice pool, and you try to achive a combo. For example 2 pairs. Mostly after rolling the Cliche you will have to start pumping one by one because the combo doesn't manifest itself that easily. When you are there, the target might have an opportunity to save. The clash of cliches goes down according to the 3 stage resolution above. If you want to keep the spell going you will have to commit your dice into it. Lets say you wanted to conuse your target, and you want to keep him that way. You rolled a terc (3 of a kind) as required, 1 die came from your original roll, 2 more from pumping. This means that you have to commit that 1 die from the original roll to keep him confused. You have that much less dice in your dice pool. When you stop making him confused, you dismiss the spell, you recover this 1 die. Same thing applies for magic items. Of course with magic items you try to make them using only the die that comes from the pumping, so you don't actually have to any real dice from your dice pool into it.

• Disadvantaged/Advantaged: in a clash of Cliches when you are Disadvantaged you get a -1 on every dice you rolled. If you are advantaged in the situation you get a +1 on each one. The advantages and disadvantages are cumulative. You might be disadvantaged by a short weapon, but if you can get the high ground that can balance it out.

• Weapons and armor. We have some scaling in this area, so it will be important from a game play point what do you use for battle.

• 1. Twohanded weapons are Advantaged against smaller weapons, but they are slow. You will be the last one in every turn if you use 2 handed things, and if you use them to defend yourself, you will have no other action in that turn at all.

  2. Small weapons like daggers are disadvantaged against larger weapons.

  3. Bare hands - even assuming the use of improvised weapons - are disadvantaged against any kind of real weapon.

  4. Dazed characters are disadvantaged. Hammers, clubs and such cause the characters to become Dazed as long as the hit was done by pumping at least 1 die.

  5. Poisoned character either have to take a generic magic antidote, have a healing from a healer (at least laying hands or heal minor wounds), fight the poison on their own, or go out of action. To fight th poison you need a Ciche that includes something like very good health or toughness or poison resistance. Any Blood based cliche is good for it. Poisons are represented by a natural element based Cliche, and their dice pool is based on the strength of the poison. For example Blac Lotus (5) in our game is a Water based cliche. If you got cut with a poisoned blade in every turn you have to fight it until either you completely beat it or you run out of cliches that could be used to beat it.

  6. Armors are Cliches and their dice pool depends on their strength. Stronger armors are Fire based, just as stronger weapons. lighter armors are of Forest based. Really light and still tough armors that spell casters can wear are based on supernatural elements. There are rally nasty Blood based magic armors too. Water based armors and weapons are rare. For some reason it is difficult to make them. The natural armors of Monsters are usually WASABI based. Bosses can have several layers of armor each based on a different element.

  7. Passive effects: sometimes you beat an attack with a passive effect. In this case you do not damage the other's cliche, except if your element trumps his element. If you dodge a Fire arrow using a Water based Cliche, you got your opponent in a strategically inferior situation thereby decreasing his Cliche to 0.

  8. Tactical skill is a healing skill in this game.

  9. Wounds are Cliches that you have to beat just as you had to beat a poison. Magic potions and healing skill of healers can help you in this.