Risus

Risus: The " anything goes" role-playing game ( original title Risus: The Anything RPG) is a rule- poor generic pen -and- paper role-playing game system. It was written by S. John Ross and illustrated and can currently be downloaded on the website of his small publishing Cumberland Games for free. The game is since 1993 available online, older versions, the title GUCS: The Generic Universal Comedy System - a parody of GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System) - wore, were privately distributed since 1989. " Risus " is the Latin word for " laughter ".

Regulate

Risus is not intended as a system for " serious " role-playing game, but as a small game for fast laps in between. This is reflected in the rules in three respects. First Risus includes already included some optional rules depending on the output only six to ten pages.

The idea for the cliché goes back to the Games DC Heroes with its broad skills and Over the Edge, which differ " traits " ( traits ) in name only Risus cliches. The dice system is influenced by the Ghostbusters role-playing game and tunnels and trolls. Finally, the generic nature of Risus is an allusion to GURPS.

Game world

As a generic game Risus has no " built-in" game world, but gives his game managers and GMs the freedom to give yourself a devise - or they simply refer with a few words on a novel or film, to be located in front of the background of which the game. This works because the rules are flexible and adapt to each genre. Of course, necessitate the few and arbitrary stereotypes that Risus characters are represented much more coarse-grained than the "big" role-playing games such as The Dark Eye, which are tailored to a particular game world, and which conform to a character with a variety of Statistika fine leaves. It is noted, however, that in Risus rounds rarely emphasis on a realistic representation of the game world because of the humorous turn. This does not mean that Risus can not be used as a system for a serious adventure, for instance by the rule for " inappropriate stereotypes " is deleted.

The Risus community

Despite its compared to other RPGs small size and its frivolous nature Risus is a successful role-playing game system to which there are more than 30 websites of fans that offer sets of rules, descriptions of game worlds and adaptations of the game. Risus itself was translated into several languages, including German. In December 2003, Cumberland Games began to make the game system freely available commercial products to the side, first the Risus Companion, a PDF document, which is available to all members of the paid - fan Risus International Order of Risus available.