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INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
You give him credit for too
much cleverness. My impression
was that he’s just another
blundering American.
– Major Strasser
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S. John Ross has been a Game Master
since 1984 and game writer since
1990. His works include the Points in
Space series, Risus: The Anything
RPG, the Poké thulhu Adventure
Game, GURPS Russia, GURPS Ware-
house 23, Weirder Tales: A Space
Opera, Feast of Blades (the In
Nomine GM’s Kit), Among the
Clans: The Andorians, Uresia:
Grave of Heaven, the Star Trek RPG
Narrator’s Toolkit, and the creation
of Sparks paper miniatures. As a con-
tributor, his work has appeared in
other supplements for the lines men-
tioned above, as well as the Flying Buf-
falo’s CityBook series, White Wolf’s
Mage: The Ascension line, and nu-
merous periodicals, including Dragon,
White Wolf, Star Wars Gamer, Autoduel
Quarterly, and Pyramid (where he
served a brief stint as Editor). His
homepage, The Blue Room, includes
the Big List of RPG Plots, one of the
most linked-to gaming tools on the
World Wide Web. Outside of gaming,
he’s a literacy volunteer, cook, and lov-
ing husband to his wife, Sandra.
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THAT LAST #@!% CLICHÉ TABLE (1D100)

01 - Alchemist 32 - Escaped Gladiator Slave 67 - Porn Star
02 - Armchair General 33 - Ex-Con 68 - Priest
03 - Bartender 34 - Executioner 69 - Prophet
04 - Basketball Star 35 - Ex-Mercenary 70 - Prowler
05 - Battle-Scarred Veteran 36 - Exotic Dancer 71 - Psychic
06 - Berserker 37 - Explorer 72 - Psychoanalyst
07 - Black Market 38 - Fortean Investigator 73 - Ranch Hand
Contraband Broker 39 - Frat Boy/Sorority Chick 74 - Rebel
08 - Blacksmith 40 - Friend to the Animals 75 - Sadistic Megalomaniac
09 - Brain Surgeon 41 - Gadgeteer 76 - Sailor
10 - Butcher 42 - Gambler 77 - Saint
11 - Cat Burglar 43 - Gigolo/Call Girl 78 - Salesman
12 - Chef 44 - Groupie 79 - Scholar
13 - Chosen One of 45 - Hayseed 80 - Science-Fiction Fan
the Ancient Prophecy 46 - Hedonist 81 - Sensitive Artist
14 - Circus Acrobat 47 - Helpless Victim 82 - Serial Killer
15 - Civil Engineer 48 - Hit Man 83 - Slob
16 - Comedian/Jester 49 - Hobo 84 - Smartass
17 - Computer Wiz 50 - Homemaker 85 - Spare-Time Detective
18 - Con Artist 51 - Inveterate Coward 86 - Spoiled Dilettante
19 - Concerned Parent 52 - Ladies' Man 87 - Stage Magician
20 - Contortionist 53 - Law School Dropout 88 - Storyteller
21 - Couch Potato 54 - Looter 89 - Stunt Double
22 - Counterculture Icon 55 - Mad Scientist 90 - Swashbuckler
23 - Cowboy 56 - Miser 91 - Swinger
24 - Criminal Informant 57 - Misunderstood Monster 92 - Trivia Master
Building a New Life 58 - Musician 93 - Undercover Agent
25 - Cub Reporter 59 - Neat Freak 94 - Unemployed Actor
26 - Cyborg Killing Machine 60 - Novelist 95 - Vampire
27 - Dabbler in the Dark Arts 61 - Outdoorsman 96 - Veterinarian
28 - Dancer 62 - Peeping Tom 97 - Visitor From the Future
29 - Deposed Dictator 63 - Philosopher 98 - Volunteer Social Worker
30 - Disc Jockey 64 - Pilot 99 - Weekend Warrior
31 - Drug Dealer 65 - Poet 00 - Werewolf
66 - Political Activist

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CORE CLICHÉS
A nation that draws too broad a difference between its scholars and its warriors will have its think-
ing done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.
– Thucydides
Let’s return to those dozen endeavors I tossed off so casually a minute ago. They’re just an arbitrary chunk-
ing of skills, sure, but they’re a little trickier than that, too … They correspond to the molds from which many
adventure heroes are cast, because such characters – deliberately or just because it works out that way –
are written, and played, to exemplify one of that magic dozen.
Actually using a core cliché as a cliché is pretty dull; they’re just keys, not characters. But in a game as loose
as Risus, where that Starpilot/Druid/Samurai/Bard really is a likely PC, it can be helpful to decide which
flag you really fly above all the others. Recognizing your core cliché is like finding your seat in the orches-
tra, and it can help provide a solid anchor for whatever wild creation you may have spawned.
It’s useful, too, to recognize which core cliché you usually play, because if you’ve been itching to be some-
body radically different, Risus is the game to do it in. Risus provides a very forgiving foundation for “de-
parture” characters, since every cliché is equally useful, except the oddball ones which are equally more
useful. Use what you learn to turn tradition on its ear. It is generally true that, in fantasy, a Bard can belt
out a tune and enthrall an angry crowd, but who’s to say that a very charismatic Standup Comic couldn’t
be given the same kind of romantic powers to woo the masses? There aren’t any examples I can think of
in novels or films, but RPGs are, when you get down to it, much, much more powerful and versatile than
static fiction. Seize that power, and take the story where the story wouldn’t go without a warped mind like
yours to guide the way. With all that in mind, we’ll drop in on the core clichés throughout the book.

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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE CHARISMATIC
All charming people have something to
conceal, usually their total dependence
on the appreciation of others.
– Cyril Connolly
The Charismatic is the romantic seducer, the
wily haggler, the wisecracking confidence trick-
ster, the soul-stirring minstrel. He’s all about
convincing and inspiring people, and Player
Characters often have a lot of need to be con-
vincing. Sometimes a crowd needs rousing (or
an angry mob needs quieting), sometimes a
stubborn NPC needs a little grease or sugar to
get that vital clue, and it’s just plain safer to be
invited into the Dark Lord’s compound as hon-
ored guests than it is to hack through all those
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THAN WORDS
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MRS. BUTTERBREAD
Description: A strange, pear-shaped little woman,
elderly and cheery. Her white hair is tinged metallic
blue, and she commands a small army of miniature
dogs (mostly toy poodles and Lhasa apsos). To keep
herself occupied, she stalks along foggy hedgerows
and across quiet courtyards, solving the murders that
stump Scotland Yard.
Clichés: Kindly Grandmother-to-Everyone (4),
Bothersome Fussbudget (3), Small-Breed Dog
Enthusiast (3)
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guards. You’ll be hacking through them on the eGRQoWDVNZKLFK ZDU'HVSLWHKHUIRFXV
way out, anyway. WKRXJKKHUFOLFKÅVQHYHUZDQGHUQHDU ZRUGVOLNH
In modern and futuristic games, just about any
Charismatic is either a suave-and-sexy type, a
naturally magnetic leader, or a shifty con artist.
Just watch some old A-Team episodes to catch
Dirk Benedict burning that candle from both
ends and round the middle. With fantasy the
cliché broadens a little, thanks to a tradition of
artistic characters: jesters and minstrels and
tale-tellers that can enthrall, anger, or soothe
with clever patter and a plucked string or two.
Of course, we’ve also got science fiction where
teenage pop stars can save us from alien in-
vaders, so there’s hope for the “game-effective
artiste” concept to spread its wings a little.

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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE ATHLETE

Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like
Norman Einstein.
– Joe Theismann
The Athlete is strong, fast, and limber. His forte is raw human prowess. A well-rounded band of heroes
often has one: he’s the one they ask to kick a door in, chase down the hooligan, or swing that vine across
a deadly pit of lava. He’s got a cliché like Hometown Football Hero (4), or she’s got one like Perky Gym-
nast (5). There’s another choice here, too: are you about power and raw strength? Or are you agile and
quick? Of course, some athletes are just well rounded, healthy people at the peak of human condition
and performance. Lets take a moment to resent them.
Nearly any kind of combat cliché implies a degree of athletic prowess … Certainly, a Swashbuckler (4) can
swing from chandeliers and a Medieval Warrior (4) can haul up a portcullis. And what kind of Martial Artist
(3) isn’t also an acrobat? All true, but the Athlete is something beyond a fighter’s respectable health.
In science fiction, for example, there’s a fun tradition of real sports playing a part in a character’s back-
ground. You can be an Athlete to show off the nifty low-gravity arena games of the future (and score alien
cheerleaders with exotic bedroom talents) … Or you can focus on athletics just to show that you’re good
and trustworthy. Despite SF’s general pro-brains, anti-brute-force vibe, we can still tell our hero is a stand-
up guy if we know he ran track or quarterbacked his high school football team. Fantasy invites athletes
to shine, too, as the forte of Asian-style monks who practice incredible physical feats by sitting still and
humming, or elves who can run through the forests for days at a time to deliver a vital message, Olympic-
torch style, to a king that needs to be warned of the coming army.

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THE MEGAVERSAL, OMNIGROOVY BACKGROUND MACHINE (1D100)
01 - You achieved some fame
02 - You accidentally killed your pet
03 - You accepted something that shouldn't
have been yours
04 - There was a terrible accident
05 - The GM pressured you into it
06 - Someone tricked you
07 - Someone powerful or wealthy took an
interest in you
08 - Someone gave you a hickey
09 - Someone gave you a cryptic warning
10 - Someone depended on you
11 - Somebody was honest enough to tell you that
your poetry or artwork is awful
12 - Nobody understood you
13 - It seemed like a good idea at the time
14 - Good fortune brought you unexpected money
15 - Bullies picked on you
16 - A plate of spicy food affected you
17 - A new religion or philosophy caught
your interest
18 - A group you disliked or didn't trust did
you a good turn, and changed your feelings
about them
19 - A group you admired ridiculed, ignored,
or excluded you
20 - You are doing this to spite a relative's wishes
21 - You are following in a relative's footsteps
22 - You aren't of this Earth (or of this whatever-
planet-this-is)
23 - You can wiggle your eyebrows independently
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long-standing wrong
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wanted very much
28 - You failed as an artist
29 - You committed a crime with friends but
you were the only one to get away
30 - You committed a crime with friends but
you were the only one caught
31 - You gave shelter to an unusual traveler
32 - You got in a fight
33 - You had a career that you thought would last
your whole life, but it didn't work out
34 - You had a lot of siblings
35 - You had a transformingly good romance
36 - You had some incredibly good sex
37 - You had some unusual dreams
38 - You have no idea. You certainly don't want
to be what you are; it just keeps working
out that way.
39 - You saw an inspiring movie
40 - You saw a hygiene play
41 - You sacrificed something you enjoyed for
the good of another
42 - You reconciled with a parent or friend you
had separated from
43 - You realized that you're different from
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44 - You read a really good book
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45 - You never had a dog
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pride
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you up and you never learned why
48 - You met someone who does the same thing,
hated them, and it still bugs you that you
ended up similar to them
49 - You met someone who does the same thing,
did them a good turn, and in ex-
change they taught you something
50 - You met someone who does the
same thing, and he impressed
you/aided you/etc.
51 - You met someone who did
something entirely unrelated,
but it gave you the idea any-
way
52 - You met a lifelong friend when
strange events brought you to-
gether
53 - You made a moral or ethical
choice that you still regret
54 - You made a discovery that sur-
prised a lot of people, especial-
ly you
55 - You indulged in a lot of chem-
ical entertainment
56 - You single-handedly solved
a case involving stolen
cheese
57 - You solved a mystery
58 - You spent time as a sol-
dier, or among them
59 - You suffer from a disease
60 - You thought it would be cooler
than it is
61 - You took a wrong turn
62 - You took some lessons
63 - You traveled beyond your homeland
for the first time
64 - You turned left when you should
have turned right
65 - You were admitted for routine
gall bladder surgery but
something went wrong
66 - You were arrested for a
crime
67 - You were arrested for a
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wise
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some kind
70 - You were bored
71 - You were entrusted with a special object
72 - You were forced, repeatedly, to eat a veg-
etable you didn't like
73 - You were frustrated by how badly others were
doing it, so you decided to take up the cause
and do it right
74 - You were given a cool science toy
75 - You were just filling in for somebody else
76 - Your parents were a member of an ethnic,
cultural, or religious minority
77 - Your parents split up
78 - Your parents saved all of your naked baby
pictures to embarrass you with later in life
79 - Your parents are unknown to you
80 - You're just doing it because it comes in
handy in a fight
81 - You're in it for some secondary benefit, like
money, fame, groupies, or discount skin care
products.
82 - You witnessed a lot of suffering that you
hadn't been aware of
83 - You witnessed a hilarious animal act
that you hadn't been aware of
84 - You were visited by a supernatural
entity (or believe you were)
85 - Your wicked Uncle Ernie was
your babysitter
86 - Your parents were noticeably rich
87 - Your parents were noticeably poor
88 - Your parents were killed
89 - Your parents were infamous and despised
90 - Your parents were famous and admired
91 - You were too trusting
92 - You were threatened by shadows at night,
then exposed to the light
93 - You were the savior of your people
94 - You were seriously wounded
95 - You were secretly attracted to someone
you shouldn't desire
96 - You were kind of a jerk
97 - You were mistaken for somebody else
98 - You were raised in the traditions of a
religion that emphasizes guilt
99 - You were raised on a farm by foster
parents of some kind
00 - You were savaged by a turbot
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SHEETH JONAS
Description: A man with wisdom beyond his years
and sideburns beyond his collar, Sheeth is equally
comfortable in the steamy brothels of Nai-Noda and
the frozen forests of the trackless north.
Clichés: Kindhearted Northern Ranger (4), Acolyte of
the Ice Wizards of Zor (3), Spare-Time Scholar (2),
Gambler (1)
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THE TENETS OF RISUS, DISTILLED
There’s no wrong way to play.
I’m not the last word on Risus rules. I’m just a
consistent first word.
The GM is not God. God is one of his little NPCs.
Risus is a comedy RPG. It’s good for serious
games only if you insist it is.
Risus has rules for anything, not for everything.
Every cliché is beautiful (and game-useful), in its
own way.
Any Risus mechanic can resolve any diceworthy
challenge.
The character’s abilities, not his props, deter-
mine his success.
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THE RISUS ROSETTA STONE?
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If you want a fun way to while away a rainy af-
ternoon, print out the sample cliché list from
Risus, next to the same list from the many for-
eign-language Risus translations. It’s difficult to
summarize just how amusing the comparisons
can be – and it’s a great way to work on becom-
ing a polyglot.
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THE LCBS
The Risus stick figures are called the LCBs – Little
Cartoon Bastards. They first appeared in my fanzines
for an APA called All of the Above, but quickly be-
came something I’d doodle into nearly anything
given the chance. They became permanently associ-
ated with Risus in June of 2001, with the release of
Risus version 1.5 – and they so perfectly express the
feel and philosophy of Risus that I’m at a loss to
imagine Risus ever existing without them.
There are really only two LCBs, the One on the Left
and the One on the Right – so called because
they’ve often appeared as a pair exchanging dia-
logue. They have no other given names, though
they’ve taken on character names in some instances
(in the Cumberland Games ad appearing in the
Dork Storm edition of Pokéthulhu, for example,
they’re Sparky and Renfield, the heroes of Stickman
City). When more than two LCBs appear at one
time, it’s really just the same two guys, multiplied
using advanced digital trickery, animatronics and
other special effects. The LCBs have also appeared
in many non-Risus capacities on the Blue Room
website, and once decorated an article logo for
Pyramid magazine.
Some of the earliest drawings of the LCBs appear here
for the first time since their fanzine publication.

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OBJECTS ARE LESS POSSIBLE THAN
THEY APPEAR
When an Elder Boogeyman turns your brain to
oatmeal by flashing you with his improbable
geometry, that’s an attack, as surely as whack-
ant). In one sense, Call of Cthulhu’s “Sanity”
mechanic – where a monster’s weirdness does
damage to the hit points in your mind – is an im-
portant precursor to the “anything can be a fra-
cas” Risus combat philosophy.
THE UNHOLY TRINITY
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A CORE CLICHÉ:
THE COMMUNICATOR
Drawing on my fine command of the
English language, I said nothing.
– Robert Benchley
The Communicator can navigate the maze of in-
terlocking communities, barely-friendly nations,
speaks in several languages, and he knows the
tune a well as the lyrics: the quaint native folk-
ways of Distant Nowhereland, the one-mistake-
costs-your-head court rituals of the Really
Grouchy Shogun. He remembers to bring a gift
when he’s invited over.
Some campaigns gloss right past languages
with a Universal Translator or a Common
Tongue that even the mountain goblins can
manage (with an accent). Customs, though, re-
main a constant concern.
Should you kneel on your right or left knee
when addressing his August Magnificence? Is it
an insult or an honorable salute to punch his
mistress in the face as a greeting? Only the
Communicator knows. In fantasy, this kind of
knowledge is often the purview of the very
scholarly and arcane, because wizards are pre-
sumed to be more well-read and well-traveled
than basic village folk. In nearly every genre
from low medieval to high space opera, wily
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rogues can be counted on for a bit of this, and
in space fantasy, it’s traditional to have a robot
in the party to handle “etiquette and protocol”
and small-talk with binary loadlifters.
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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE DETECTIVE

When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it.
– Sam Spade
The Detective hears what others don’t catch, sees what others overlook, finds what others have concealed,
and understands how these details play connect-the-dots with the questions facing the party. In a sense,
choosing to play the Detective of the party is like volunteering to be the player-side mouthpiece for the
Game Master. Clues are, after all, the traffic signals of a game’s pace and flow. What the Detective “un-
earths” often amounts to encoded instructions from the GM. “This way, you dorks.” The fun of playing the
Detective isn’t so much in the detecting as it is in the power of knowledge … When you’re the smartass
that knows the tangled social landscape better than the bad guys do, you can lord that over them, crack
wise, and generally feel all big in the pants.
The Detective of a high-tech world is different, though, from a Detective in the Dark Ancient Renaissance
Medieval Age. In modern games, detective work is tied to acumen – intellect and perception. Detectives
are trained investigators, canny professors, nosy busybodies with minds like a steel trap, and so on. In
games where the hocus pocus is real, it’s usually tied instead to spiritual and natural attunement – to de-
veloped intuition. Detectives are those close to the spirits, close to nature, close to the mysteries of the
fairy otherworld. In games that combine these elements, we get the mystery cliché of the Psychic Detec-
tive, neatly fusing the notions into one.

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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE DRIVER

It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant; it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It’s
a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it
the new Bluesmobile or what?
– Elwood Blues
The Driver doesn’t just get you from point A to point B, he does it at high speed, with hairpin turns and
tricky maneuvering. He does it better than any chasing him, or better than any he’s decided to chase. He’s
the hotshot dogfighter, the stunt-riding cowboy, the hooting hayseed in the General Lee.
In most game worlds, it’s a given that any character can drive/ride/et cetera in a basic sort of way. So,
this cliché is about driving in that special way that makes the physicists scream and holler and throw a lit-
tle physicist tantrum. Players who plunk dice into a driving or piloting cliché can generally expect to be re-
markable drivers and pilots, not merely “good” ones.
The Driver has a place of honor in every adventure genre. When the best car is still a horse, equestrian
skill can save a kingdom, prevent a war, or terrorize the footsoldiers just for the style of it. In fantasy worlds
where knights mount dragons and gryphons and other odd beasts, these clichés can allow a ride on crea-
tures others dare not approach. In a caper crime story, the driver is a vital member of any crooked gang,
and in a modern or futuristic military piece, the master of the dogfight is often the star of the climactic
battle scene. And in any genre where people can chase or race each other, the driver – from Ben Hur to
Ben Throttle – is a special kind of hero.

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10: The character would be contributing his fair
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part of the team.
15: A mildly selfish effect that steals the thunder of
others in the group.
20: This would entirely upstage the other players,
turning the other characters into bystanders for the
rest of the scene.
25: This would upstage (or at least instantly rewrite)
the whole scenario.
30: This not only hogs the spotlight, it shoplifts it and
runs off with it tucked down the front of its pants.
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YOU’LL GO BLIND DOING THAT
Q: What happens if you pump yourself right out
of commission?
A: You’re right out of commission. Save that tac-
tic for last-ditch emergencies or going-out-in-a-
blaze-of-glory.
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of them explode into ham sandwiches. My guy is LWoOOWDNHWHQWLPHVDVORQJDQGYLVLEO\GDPDJH
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man. FRPELQHGHIIHFWV%DFNWRWKH:KHHOFKDLU%RXQG
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Other Player: So?
GM: Difficulty 30 for the diamonds. 32 if you add the
ham sandwiches.
Zorbok: Holy … 30, huh? Okay, skip that. How
about if I just turn them all into newts?
GM: Difficulty 25. There are ten whole guards, and
they don’t look like schmucks.
Other Player: Are newts edible?
Other Other Player: Dude. Stop it.
Zorbok: How about if I put them to sleep?
GM: Difficulty 15, for all of them at once.
Zorbok: Hrm. I can pump and get that easily
enough, but I’ll need you guys to clean up if anyone
comes running to attack us afterward.
Other Player: Go for it. I’ll ready my dachshund.

3DJH
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3DJH
0DVWHULQJWKH*DPH5XOHV
THE FUNKY AXIS
When using Funky Dice, the number of dice still
indicates expertise, on exactly the same scale as
normal Risus. So, a Soldier (3) is just as skilled as
a Super-Soldier (3d20). The funkiness of the dice
represents raw power, magical energy, super-
speed, poetic insight, or other unusual might.
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unconscious?
GM: He’s down and out. Just roll the dice; we’ll see
what happens …
Zorbok: [Nervously rolls the dice] … A 14. Made it.
Thank god.
Other Player: I have my weapon out. I mentioned
that earlier. I called it. It’s out.
Other Other Player: Mine too. I also have that pro-
tection amulet ready just in case. I said so while you
were in the bathroom, but the others are witnesses.
And I sleep in my armor.
Everyone Else but the GM: Yeah.
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Zorbok: And bleeding.
GM: And bleeding, sure.
Zorbok: [3.2 seconds of silence]
Other Player: [3.0 seconds of silence]
Other Other Player: [4.7 seconds of silence]
GM: Zorbok, give me a roll against “Master of the
Elder Arts.” Target 12.
3DJH
GM: You made it; good. [Steeples his fingers, flashes
an evil grin] You … sense something. A magic aura
clings to this guard. He’s been ensorcelled recently,
or charmed. You only made it by 2 so you don’t get
much of a detailed sense of it, but the aura is there,
you catch it out of the corner of your third eye, so to
speak. You are filled with a sense of foreboding, a
sudden gloom. You suspect something is happening
somewhere, and that this magic is connected to it.
Everyone Else but the GM: [Babble of theories and
concern]
GM: [Takes notes, picking the best theories to be
true, mentally pats self on back for a tantalizing line
of total and utter rubbish]
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r ½ tsp salt
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r 1-½ sticks butter, slightly softened
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r ½ cup chopped walnuts
r ½ cup chopped pecans
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salt and baking powder; set this mixture aside.
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sugar and butter, and to this add the spices,
vanilla, banana, pumpkin, eggs, lemon and
nuts. Fold the flour mixture in so that all ingre-
dients are combined into a batter. Pour equal
portions of the batter into each loaf pan, and
bake for about an hour, until a tester comes out
clean. Cool the loaves on a rack, then chill
overnight in the refrigerator. Serve cold, or
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happens to Veculos the Truculent?
Zorbok: Hrm. With that last maneuver, I’ll cause his
head to fall off.
Other Player: It’s lunchtime in hungry-for-
brainsville!
Other Other Player: Oh, man, just give that up.
GM: Zorbok and Veculos were just playing chess. Or-
dinary chess. Not even magical chess.
Zorbok: Well … yeah … just his eyeballs explode,
then?
GM: Hmmmmmm …
Zorbok: And he begs me to take him as my slave.
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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE MECHANIC
I came into this game for the action, the
excitement. Go anywhere, travel light,
get in, get out, wherever there’s trouble,
a man alone.
– Harry Tuttle, Heating Engineer
The Mechanic knows the machinery of the
world, and he knows it well enough to fix it
when it’s broken, push it to achieve more when
it’s not, and invent more of it in his spare time.
Despite being a celebration of applied knowl-
edge, the Mechanic gets more powerful as real-
ism slips to the side. In a purely grounded game,
he might still make the ship go a little faster …
But in a more fanciful one, he can turn the trac-
tor beam into a matter purifier or whip up a
makeshift nuclear weapon from a dozen glow-
in-the-dark watch hands and a microwave oven.
The Mechanic is a reflection of the Wizard.
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in some genres it becomes a single sphere. Both
represent a rare breed privy to something that
surrounds us without explaining itself. They
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ifest. The difference is often just aesthetic, or a
matter of handwaving: a Wizard achieves what
he desires without implied “causation” in the
traditional sense, while the Mechanic achieves
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and engineering. In the realms of science fanta-
sy (or good old fashioned pulp adventure, or
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mecha are made of wood) the distinction just
means different breeds of gobbledygook.
It’s fun to keep the distinction, though, because
when one approach fails, the other can kick in.
It’s never a bad thing to give the GM more clay
to slap onto his wheel.
GM: Okay, that sounds about right. [With emphasis]:
You weren’t going to eat that last slice of pizza …
right?
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pollute. He looks spiffy in earth tones.
The Nature Boy is very versatile when he’s in his
element. Nature can (even in fairly sober and
realistic world) serve up nearly anything: clues, an
edge in combat, sudden danger, and equally sud-
den remedy.
This core cliché is timeless; it doesn’t change
much as the genres move from the ancient world
to distant galaxies. A far-future Nature Boy might
be able to pick up the spoor and trail of a Deadly
Vacuum Worm the size of a star cruiser, but it’s
the same shtick as his more primitive counterpart
tracking a deer or finding the dragon’s lair by
observing which way the Dragon Mushrooms are
pointing at sundown.
Like the Detective, he’s often a handy dispenser of
the Game Master’s secret roadmap. Like the
Mechanic and the Wizard, he’s privy to unusual
and versatile knowledge. Like the Scholar, he can
drone on about it. For extra-credit fun, he gets to
play Fish Out of Water when he’s away from the
wild too long.
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Zorbok: I still have those herbs we found in the
witches’ hovel. I’ll smear those on in the form of a
balm.
GM: Okay. He’s still decapitated, but now he smells
soapier.
Zorbok: Still? These herbs suck. I’ll try a glue spell.
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When the party has the crap beat out of them,
the Medic kisses it and makes it better (mixed
metaphors can be very unpleasant). The Medic
is rarely a glamorous cliché, but most groups of
heroes would rather not sally forth without at
least one healer in the party. Because healing is
usually something that happens after rather
than during the action, a lot of genres tuck the
medical arts into the sphere of the party Wizard,
or provide healing from the gods, or in the form
of miracle quick-cure pills and other super-sci-
ence gizmos. When the medicine becomes part
of the story, though, healers and doctors and
their kin can take the limelight as a legitimate,
even crucial, breed of hero.
In one sense, Risus undermines the healer char-
acter by design. Since physical healing is left as
a dramatic tool without objective mechanics tied
to it, nobody needs to be a healer if the GM is
going to be generous with post-carnage recov-
ery. What this means is just this: in Risus, you
play a doctor because you like playing doctor
(who doesn’t?), not because it’s compulsory. You
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play the healer because you’ve enjoyed too
much Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman, or you
like bandying insults with the green-blooded Sci-
ence Officer. Healers are often the firmest voice
of morality in an otherwise bloodthirsty party,
and that can be a refreshing note of variety.
In another sense, Risus opens up the healer
character to a broader, more metaphorical
canvas. Since Risus combat never has to be
physical, and the losses from combat likewise,
a “healer” can usefully be a counselor, a
teacher, an inspiring general, a supportive
friend, an excellent lover – anyone who can
pick up an abused cliché, dust it off, and stand
it on its feet again.
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05-06 - Annoyed 53-54 - Lied To
07-08 - Burned 55-56 - Manipulated
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11-12 - Cheated 59-60 - Misquoted
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FRQIXVHG,JHW 15-16 - Corrupted 63-64 - Nagged
17-18 - Crashed/ 65-66 - Offended
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19-20 - Cursed 69-70 - Overindulged
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Uzis, Bombs, and A CORE CLICHÉ: THE SCHOLAR

Public Speaking Back off man. I’m a scientist.
,WLVQRWHQRXJKWKDW,VXFFHHGEXWHYHU\RQHHOVH – Dr. Peter Venkman
PXVWIDLO
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The Scholar’s forte is lore and trivia. He knows
stuff. In pure form, a scholarly character can’t do
a darned thing (those who can’t do, teach), but
he can explain things at length. In theory, this
3DUDPRXQWWRPRGHUQSDVWLFKHVOLNH'DZQ character is another form of voluntary GM
RIWKH%LQGLQJ*OXH$3RVWQXFOHDU2G\VVH\ mouthpiece, but in practice the Scholar usually
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becomes a world-building collaborator. A Risus
Game Master at the top of his game will let the
Scholar run rampant inventing amusing details,
provided they don’t go undermining anything
important in the campaign. And then, that same
canny Game Master will construct a petard from
those details, on which the party might hoist
themselves. Feel the love. Traditionally, the
scholar is like the Medic … usually an accent to
other roles instead of a central character con-
cept. This flags it as a particularly excellent core
cliché for Risus campaigning.
Gamers often enjoy genres where knowledge is
respected, even revered, so the Scholar is al-
ways welcome. In the far future, Scholars are
often aged scientists, mad theorists, child prodi-
gies, and artificial beings like robots (with ency-
clopedic stuff brimming out of their brains like
so many came-boxed-with-the-operating-sys-
tem extras). The archetypes erode slightly as the
genres drift toward fantasy, and eventually only
sages and wizards and others fond of dusty old
scrolls and tablets carry the load – but that’s
sensible enough in a world without Google. In a
world where folks believe in magic but it doesn’t
actually work, any “wizard” becomes a scholar,
alpha to omega.
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$GYHQWXUH'HVLJQ $GYHQWXUH'HVLJQ

A CORE CLICHÉ: THE SNEAK

A-ha. The old rubber ducky with invisibility-spray trick. Check.
– Kermit the Frog
The Sneak can make himself unseen and unheard, and slip into places where he’s not welcome.
He can steal away with what others own, and spy where others feel safe and private. This is no
role to bury in a bundle; it can helm a whole cliché – or two – all on its
own. Ironic, really, that a core cliché that’s all about subtlety and secre-
cy is so often a flamboyant, likeably cocky show-off.
Spies, assassins and thieves are as timeless as Nature Boys. Once
technology arrives, they gain a lot of specialized categories, includ-
ing many that seem (on the outside) like respectable engineers and
academics: safecrackers, electronics security experts, computer wiz-
ards that can hack deep into the Imperial Banking Network and
give fat bonuses to every garbage collector with a birthday in June.
In fantasy, some greybearded mystics are privy to the rituals and sym-
bols that unlock wards and avoid scrying, and they amount to the “hack-
ers” of their genre … They can crack past runes older than the rocks, and chuckle at curses
that would burn a lesser man’s soul to cinders.
If the core clichés were some kind of divinatory playing cards, the Sneak would represent
things like a playful disregard for authority … and the anarchic nature of most gaming is per-
haps the greatest source of his enduring and central role in adventure games. Of course, he’s
also the guy most likely to be slipping little notes to the GM, so make sure you count your stash
of gems every few hours, when he’s around …

ZKHQWKLQJVJHWGLIILFXOW3OXV,FDQSOXJDSL]]D II. THE TRIP

GHOLYHU\EXVLQHVVLQWRSUHWW\PXFKDQ\JHQUHRU
A. Get into vehicle
WLPHSHULRG
B. Turn vehicle on
,IDQ\WKLQJLQWKHSDUDJUDSKDERYHPDGH\RXGURS
C. Drive/Fly/Teleport/Sail to address
\RXUMDZLQSURWHVW\RXKDYHQoWUHOD[HGHQRXJK
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III. THE DELIVERY
7KHSUHPLVHKDVDIDLUO\REYLRXVUHZDUGWKHSOD\
A. Get out of vehicle
HUVZLOOJHWWRNHHSWKHLUVQD]]\3L]]D6KDFNYLVRUV
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VKHOORXWDIUHHSL]]DDQGWKHEODPHZLOOOLHVTXDUH
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RIQDLOELWLQJDGYHQWXUHULJKWWKHUH/HWoVRXWOLQH F. Collect money/Give Change/Take Tip
WKHURXWLQH
IV. GO BACK TO WORK
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A. Answer the phone LQFOXGHG6NLSQRWKLQJ7KHQFRPSOLFDWHLW
B. Write down order 7KLVVLPSOHRXWOLQHVXIILFLHQWO\MXLFHGXSFRXOG
PDNHDQHQWHUWDLQLQJWKUHHKRXUJDPHsRUD
C. Give order to cook
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D. Wait for Pizza

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Complications
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pizza and each other from burning wreck, and
steal a nearby car.
C. No complications here. That’d be too obvious.
But make the players sweat a little. Describe the
suspiciously light traffic, the ease with which they
find Exit 666 on the interstate, the fact that hell has a
Stuckey’s every three miles.
XQH[SHFWHGZD\VDQGPRVWLPSRUWDQWZKHUH
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I. THE ORDER
A. The cook swallows the phone, convulses with elec-
tric shock. The PCs must fish it out.
B. The customer is Beelzebub; it turns out the pit of
hell is technically part of the delivery area.
C. Woopsie. No cook.
D. The PCs must cook the pizza themselves,
dealing with dangerous oven equipment and
odd ingredients.
II. THE TRIP
A. The car is being stolen as the PCs arrive. They must
stop the theft and deal with the thieves.
3DJH
III. THE DELIVERY
A. The door has been fused shut from incidental licks
of hellish flame.
B. Fences, guard animals (if you think all dogs go to
heaven, make them penguins and kiwis – most PCs
are terrified of flightless birds), rivers of fire, tempting
illusions, images of childhood fear, brush salesmen.
C. A placard reads: The house of evil has no door save
unrepentant sin. The players each need to commit
some. When they do, it turns out Beelzebub has a
musical doorbell (“Do You Know the Way to San
José?”).
D. Nobody comes to the now-revealed doorway. The
PCs must venture in and explore.
E. Beelzebub is angry that they’ve broken in, and
complains that the pizza is burned, cold, and has an-
chovies on it instead of Canadian bacon.
F. He doesn’t have any change smaller than a human
soul. If the PCs are willing to haggle and jump
through a few surreal hoops to make him happy, he’ll
find a way to pay them and give them a handsome
tip in the form of an extra mortal life apiece. If the
PCs don’t make him happy, they’ll enrage him and
have no choice but to utterly destroy the Source of All
Evil before they can collect on his bill.
$GYHQWXUH'HVLJQ
IV. GO BACK TO WORK
The car has once again been stolen, and the PCs are
stuck hitchhiking in hell. The end.
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PLACE DESCRIPTION STUFF
11 Abode [A Number from 2-10] Beasts 11
12 Butte [A Season] Chaos 12
13 Castle Accursed Children 13
14 Caves Ancient Demons 14
15 City Barren Dragons 15
16 Cliff Blessed Dreams 16
21 Cove Broken Ghosts 21
22 Dale Damned Gods 22
23 Desert Dark Heroes 23
24 Dunes Dead Jewels 24
25 Dungeons Doomed Kings 25
26 Fen Enlightened Magic 26
31 Fields Fire Men 31
32 Forest Forgotten Monsters 32
33 Fortress Golden Mystery 33
34 Glen Great Oaks 34
35 Hills Hairy Oracles 35
36 Island Haunted Pleasures 36
41 Kingdom Holy Rains 41
42 Lake Icy Riches 42
43 Land Iron Sacrifices 43
44 Marshes Lost Sages 44
45 Meadow Mystic Secrets 45
46 Mountains Perilous Serpents 46
51 Pass Sacred Songs 51
52 Ridge Shadow Sorrow 52
53 River Squandered Spirits 53
54 Steppe Sunken Stones 54
55 Tor Terrible Swords 55
56 Tower Twilight Tears 56
61 Trails Unambiguous Thieves 61
62 Vale Unknown Troubles 62
63 Valley Veiled Truths 63
64 Veldt Vile Warriors 64
65 Village Wandering Wisdom 65
66 Wood Wasted Witches 66

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haired beauty, Cuno can apply his quest-
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head captive, they aren’t directly in
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2: A challenge for a Professional.
3: An Heroic challenge. For really inventive
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4: A challenge for a Master. Nearly superhuman
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6: Throwing a motorcycle.
10: Throwing a tank.
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17: Throwing a pile of 15,000 loaded trains . . .
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Example: Grolfnar Vainsson the Viking is angling for
a night of sweaty affection with Urda, the Saucy Bar-
maiden (3) at the local mead hall. She’s out of his
league – his Womanizer (2) cliché is a little under the
curve – but nothing ventured, nothing gained. In the
opening round of combat, Urda rolls a 14, but Grolf-
nar rolls a 12, a pair of sixes. Since that’s a break-
through, he rolls again … and gets another pair of
boxcars. His total is up to 24, and he rolls again,
scoring a fairly humble 5. But humble on top of mag-
nificent is plenty; his total of 29 wins the round. Urda
loses a die from her Saucy Barmaiden cliché, im-
pressed by Grolfnar’s charm … or at least, by his
charm relative to the three dozen other screaming
Vikings in the smoky hall. The battle for her affection
continues …
Example II: Barry Parker, in his heroic guise as Burn-
ing Rubber, has carelessly set yet another building on
fire, and he’s trying to rescue those leaping from it
using his Stretching Guy (4d10) cliché. The GM says he
can save all of them if he can beat a Target Number of
40. The dice drop, and three come up six. The fourth
one comes up 10. A total of 28 – not nearly good
enough. The GM isn’t watching carefully, though, so
Barry’s player cheats and nudges that last die so it,
too, shows a six (total 24) – a breakthrough! Barry rolls
the dice again, and the new roll totals 20 (grand total
44). Thanks to Burning Rubber’s heroic determination
and quick thinking (and the GM’s distracting infatua-
tion with a pop singer dancing half-dressed on TV in
the next room) Burning Rubber rescues everyone ex-
cept his publicist. Oops! Butterfingers.
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A CORE CLICHÉ: THE WIZARD
I was thrown out of N.Y.U. my freshman
year for cheating on my metaphysics
final, you know. I looked within the soul
of the boy sitting next to me.
– Alvy Singer
The Wizard is two things at once: he’s a jack-of-
all trades, able to stand in for any of the other
core clichés at some kind of cost (a handful of
newt eyes, the soul of his pet goldfish, his eye-
sight and hair color), and he’s a willful plot de-
vice, able to achieve the impossible simply by
wanting and needing it to happen. If the group
is without a helicopter, the Wizard can fly them.
If they’re without allies, the Wizard can summon
magical brutes. If a beloved party member has
died, the wizard may be able to cheat the hand
of death.
Of course, “wizard” is a broad metaphor for any
kind of hocus-pocus wielder, whether the hocus-
pocus is black magic, white magic, mental pow-
ers, or cosmic duct tape. That said, he’s most
comfortable in unabashed fantasy, where he
can stride around being cryptic, muttering in
dead languages, and delivering dire warnings in
a booming baritone. When he makes the jump
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tion, he simply merges with the Mechanic as
Clarke’s famous axiom takes over, and every
god is a god from the machine.

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<FONT COLOR=”#FF80FF”> when coding
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around with web graphics. The purple used in
Risus itself (and in the Risus Companion) is
called – for reasons too silly to worry about –
“Risus Green.” It’s Hue 302.997 degrees, Satura-
tion 100%, Brightness 44.7% (or, if you prefer
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Beat – To equal or exceed the
Target Number is to “beat” it;
it’s how characters succeed at an
unopposed cliché roll.
Bonus-Dice Gear – Any Tool of
the Trade exceptional enough to
provide some kind of bonus in
game terms.
Classic Countdown – The prac-
tice of assigning a character
Cliché (4), Cliché (3), Cliché (2)
and Cliché (1) as a sure-fire mix
of useful (and entertainingly less-
useful) power levels …
Cliché – A character class. But
so much cooler.
Combat – Any contest in which
opponents jockey for position,
utilize attacks, bring defenses to
bear, and try to wear down their
foes to achieve victory. Either lit-
erally or metaphorically.
Difficulty – The Target Number
for an unopposed cliché roll.
(q.v.)
Double Whammy – One of
many terms for a character de-
sign strategy focused on combat.
By taking two clichés that are
clearly appropriate for the same
kind of combat, the character has
a “fallback” cliché that will en-
sure greater endurance, but not
necessarily greater success.
Ford Prefect Strategy – A
number crunching “trick” in char-
acter design. A character built
with the Ford Prefect Strategy has
at least one cliché of reasonable
potency that will never be appro-
priate in the game, insuring that
he can deal out “triple damage”
in any combat. Named for Dou-
glas Adams’ hitchhiking journalist
character, who carried an Ameri-
can Express Card with him be-
cause it was useful to have a
form of payment nobody would
ever be willing to accept.
A RISUS LEXICON
Funky – Any polyhedral die that
isn’t a cube with faces numbered
and/or pipped 1 through 6 is
“funky.” Specifically, though,
Risus applies the term to dice
with more than six sides, since
the d4 doesn’t exist in the Risusi-
verse and the d2 is just a coin,
people. And pro wrestling is fake
and there is no Santa Claus.
Don’t read a glossary if you can’t
handle the truth, man.
Grunt-Squad – Any collective
NPC entity assigned a Cliché and
some dice. Grunt-Squads may
have any number of dice.
International Order of Risus
(IOR) – The worldwide Risus fan
club. Members of the Order re-
ceive a signed, numbered, stick-
figured membership card and a
copy of the Risus Companion.
But you knew that.
LCB – A Little Cartoon Bastard,
a Risus stick figure.
Little Cartoon Bastards – The
official name of the Risus stick-
figure mascots. Usually shortened
to “LCB.”
Order, The – The International
Order of Risus (q.v.) is often re-
ferred to as the Order.
Potency – The number of dice
invested in a cliché. So, a Mighty
Sailing Man (3) has a potency of
three dice; a Skipper Brave and
Sure (5) has a potency of five.
Primary – Your “primary” is
your primary cliché; it’s usually
the first one listed on your char-
acter sheet, indicating your char-
acters central role (and race, if
he’s not human, etc). The rule
“when in doubt, roll against your
primary” is so simple and funda-
mental to how I GM Risus that
I’ve never written it down. Oh.
Bugger.
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Risus – A Latin term for laugh-
ter and smiles, with connotations
of foolishness or silliness. The
proper pronunciation of the Latin
term seems to be something like
RREE-soos, with a bit of a roll on
that R. The official pronunciation
of the game’s title is REE-suss,
with the vowel in the second syl-
lable voiced as briefly as possible
– just enough to keep the conso-
nants from rubbing against one
another and catching fire.
Risusiverse – The world of
Risus, including (but not limited
to) the game, the International
Order, the mailing list, and the
bizarre headspace they all share.
Pronounced Ree-SUSS-ih-vers.
Single-Action Conflict – Any
conflict represented by all the
parties involved rolling the dice
just once. The GM compares the
results to determine the outcome.
Target Number – The difficulty
of an unopposed cliché roll. The
player must equal or exceed the
Target Number to “beat” it and
achieve what he wants.
TN – Difficulty. Short for “Target
Number.”
Tools of the Trade – A charac-
ter’s equipment. This includes any
portable item strongly implied by
his clichés (a revolver, fedora and
trenchcoat for a private eye, for
example), but also – in some
campaigns – larger, non-portable
property and yes-men (q.v.).
Yes-Men – Any Tools of the
Trade that can move around with
a semblance of free will. It’s only
a semblance, though. Tools are
tools. Yes-Men can also be Yes-
Robots, Yes-Spirits, Yes-Golems,
Yes-A.I.s, Yes-Zombies, Yes-Pets,
and (most importantly) Yes-Red-
headed-Triplets-In-Catholic-
Schoolgirl-Outfits.