Simpler Risus

Simpler Risus: Based on Evens Up

Here's the Risus version that Domme plays with his roleplaying group. That changes some aspects of risus.

Character Creation

You have 6, 8 or 10 dice to create your Character based upon the tone that your group wants to have for its campaign (6 for Mundane, 8 for Heroic, or 10 for Epic). However, unlike standard Risus, the standard scale is 1-5, not 1-6. The maximum beginning cliché is determined by the GM, usually 3 or 4.

Dice Changes

Here's the thing: The player rolls their cliche dice, and every result of 4, 5 or 6 is considered a success. A 6 also explodes, allowing to re-roll it, adding successes (if any occur).

Simply count the number of successes and compare it to the number of successes needed based on Target Difficulty (for rolls against a Target Number):

• 1: Easy

• 2: Normal

• 3: Hard

• 4: Even harder

• 5: -Nearly Impossible

• 6+: Superhuman

Trying to accomplish an action for which the Character does not have an applicable cliché, only count sixes for success from whatever cliché is used.

In opposing rolls, the higher number of successes wins the round. In a draw, the Goliath rule from the Companion is applicable.

The Death Spiral!

Combat uses this kind of resolution (counting the number of successes). Five successes or more are considered a critical success, and the result is exceptionally good. In combat, that does inflict one extra dice of damage (unless the defender also has a critical success).

If you declare you are running away from combat, you make your combat rolling as usual. If you win, you run away, no damage, but if you lose you take damage and combat continues.

Innapropiate Cliché rule is substituted for the Imaginative Use rule: If you can explain how do you use your cliché , you can try it. In combat, a Imaginative Use of a cliché (appropriate or not) deals an extra dice of damage.

Teaming up

There's no leader. Every character in team rolls their cliché , and the successes are added. When a team takes damage, the damage is taken by the player with the lower number of successes, or, in a draw, with the higher cliché . If a teams member's cliché is reduced to zero, the character goes apart and his destine will be decided by the winner team.

What a mess!

Some teams, equipped characters, or NPCs may have access to more than five dice. Who wants to roll that many dice? The rule is that no more than five dice can be rolled. If a cliché is higher than five, every two dices over five adds a success. So a Really Big Dragon (20) would roll five dices and add seven succeses.

Experience

At the end of the game, or at any moment the GM says, a character can make a roll for improve one cliché. Two dice are rolled. If the two dice shows the same number, and that number is higher than the actual level of the cliché, that cliché adds one level. That can also be used for learning new clichés.

Optional Rules

The standard optional rules of Hooks and Tales, pumping clichés, and double pumping, are used, but not the rules for funky dice.

Complementary Clichés

If a character has a cliché that can help in a task, but is not exactly related with the task (for example, a Mechanic (3) with Biplane Pilot (2) trying to repare a biplane), the complementary cliché adds the half its level rounded down (so the mechanic would roll 4 dice). A helping character can do that instead of teaming.

Descriptive Clichés

Descriptive Clichés are clichés with a single dice. For example, Dwarf, or Griffindor. That is bought as usual, but usually it have an associated drawback. That kind of clichés aren't used by themselves. The adds one dice to any roll in which the type of character character being described by the cliché has any advantage (running in a cave for Dwarves, and... Euhm... Playing Quidditch? For Griffindor).

Hero Cliché

This a kind of lucky shot. Each dice of Hero can be wasted to "heal" a damaged cliché, in pumping or double pumping without losing any dice, and in adding succeses to a roll (or taking them out of a enemy roll). This cliché is reloaded by performing heroic acts (not time).