Risus is not a mathematically complex game, but it would be very ableist to assume that all people are comfortable enough with counting that it doesn’t slow down play. Or patient enough. Why all the maths? We’re here for the silly stories!
This little idea comes from a question on the RISUS Discord server, where someone asked if there were any house rules for people who don’t want to bother with counting up all the dice to get to the results. I had two ideas, and will try to work them out here.
Idea #1: Highest Die
I don’t think this is a new idea. In fact I think I read it somewhere else before, but I cannot remember where. There is a lot of info on the Risusiverse website. It’s probably somewhere there.
The main idea is that in a conflict, everybody rolls dice, and only the highest dice get compared. Highest wins.
example:
There’s a new colleague at HR (Sarah) and Sylvester immediately wants to try out his charm on her. He thinks he’s sooo smooth. Little did he know who exactly he’s messing with.
Sylvester rolls his The Smoothest Guy Around (1) cliche against Sarah’s Demon Prince of the Seventh Layer of Hell Disguised As A Cute Secretary (6). Her gets a 4 and she gets a 2, 3, 5 and 6. The highest dice from both get compared to each other. So that is Sylvester’s 4 vs. Sarah’s 6.
Sylvester comes up to her and tries his cheesiest pick-up line. “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven? Because you must be an angel.” She replies in a distorted voice as if many are talking at the same time: “Oh, that was soooo long ago. I’d rather not talk about it. It’s still a sore topic.”. He can feel the voice in his bones and sees her eyes turn completely black as all the electronics in the room start to freak out. He pees himself in fear. Sarah smiles cutely, and resumes in a normal voice. Anything else I can help you with?That’s simple enough right. But then of course the next question arises. What if it’s a draw? My gut instinct is to say to compare the next highest dice on both rolls. In Sylvester’s case he still wouldn’t be able to win if they tied, because he didn’t even have a die to compare next.
So what about Target Numbers then? They need to be re-done I guess, since you are not adding dice. First thought is that there are only five difficulties that can be tried: 2-6 (a 1 is an automatic success, 2 is easy, 3 is moderate, 4 is challenging, 5 is difficult, 6 is epic). They would need to refereed on a case to case basis though, as it’s not entirely the same with results as a 1 die cliche rolling to try and attempt a TN 30 task.
example:
Sylvester now is determined to figure out what is going on with Sarah. But first, he needs to recover. “Luckily” he’s a Victim of Constant Bullying (3) and figures he will have spare change of clothes in his cubicle, especially after the incident with the baked beans. The GM figures that it’s probable that he has the clothes, seeing the name of the cliche. And sets the difficulty to 2. Sylvester rolls his three dice and gets 2, 3, 6. The highest number succeeds and as such he has a decent spare change of clothes.
Another option could be that even the target numbers are opposed rolls made by the GM. Easy Difficulty rolls would be 1 die, Normal Difficulty 2 dice, Challenging Difficulty 3, Professional 4, Master 5 and Epic 6. Just as with the above idea, it would need to be tailored to the action itself, but it makes you able to attempt something against all odds.
example:
Sylvester has found his clothes and now needs to change into them without the manager noticing that he’s missing. He needs to change speedily. His Victim of Constant Bullying (3) cliche will get him through this again, as he’s quite used to this, but the GM says that a deadline on a project is coming up, and he’s expecting the manager coming to check in soon. He has to move fast. So while it would be a normal difficulty on the regular, the GM bumps it up to a Challenging Difficulty (3).
Sylvester rolls three dice and gets 3, 4, 2
The GM rolls three dice and gets 5, 2, 1
Sylvester’s 4 gets beaten by the GM’s 5
Sylvester changed in the toilet stalls but was still so shaken that him zoning out because of flashbacks to that interaction took him longer. When he returns to his cubicle he finds a note that the manager wants to talk to him. Oh-oh!If for some reason you’d want to have a gradual success scale, you set the difficulty, either of the two options works, and count the successes. In the first example, all dice at or higher than the TN, in the second comparing each highest die with each other. The more successes, the better the result.
example #1:
We cut back to Sarah as she’s typing away at the computer and getting gradually more bored. She sees the manager angrily writing a note at Sylvester’s cubicle and stomping off. Finally something mildly interesting is happening. She wonders how much chaos she can sow by causing a string of accidents that keep delaying Sylvester from reaching the manager.
To do this she definitely has to roll with her Demon Prince of the Seventh Layer of Hell Disguised As A Cute Secretary (6) cliche. The GM decides that for her, this would be a Challenging Difficulty as she would be trying to keep things hidden. So the target number is 4 and she has six dice to roll. Her eyes turn solid orbs of black and all electronics flicker again as the plays with the local laws of causality and … she rolls 3, 2, 5, 5,1, 5 as she makes it so that Sylvester has to get through 3 potential delays before he can get to the manager. This is because 3 of the dice had a result that equals or beats the target number. The GM asks what kind of distractions Sarah’s player is thinking off. Sarah’s player gives the GM the full reigns of the happenings.
example #2:
Sylvester sees the note and sighs. “Can this day get any worse?” he says. “Oh poor Sylvester,” the Greek Chorus sings, “you have no idea.”
On his way to the manager’s office he has to pass many a cubicle. Out of one of them a lady steps in front of him, blocking the way. “Oh heeey Sylvester”, Sylvia starts, ”you are looking fine today. Is that a new suit?” Sylvia is basically a gender swapped Sylvester that keeps trying to get Sylvester to go on a date with him. Sylvester is not interested. What bad timing! Can Sylvester talk his way out of this situation fast enough to get to the manager?
The GM explains that depending on the roll, the fallout of the situation will be better or worse. Basically, Sylvia has a cliche called Annoyingly Persistent Karen (3) which she will use. If Sylvester cannot beat all three of her dice he will 1. Go on a date with her, 2. to a place of her choosing and 3. in a predetermined couples outfit. (Sarah snickers as she looks on)
Sylvester knows he’s The Smoothest Guy Around (1) and is confident he can talk himself out of this. Sylvester’s player knows this too and knows that he can only hope to beat Sylvia’s highest die with his only die to at least avoid the couples outfit.
He rolls a 2 while Sylvia rolls 3, 1, 2. Time passes as Sylvia keeps him pinned down in flirty conversation and Sylvester has to relent first to the date, secondly to the place (it’s sooo expensive y’all!) and finally even a couples outfit that is completely not his style.
Meanwhile the manager looks out of his aquarium like office, gets cross, takes Sylvester’s file and writes “flirting on company time!”. He looks at it again and underlines it angrily!
Idea #2: Counting Successes
This is stolen from The Pool and games that spawned from it, like Lady Blackbird.
The main idea is that in a conflict, everybody rolls dice, any dice that come up 4-6 count as a success. The most successes wins.
example:
The first hurdle out of the way (and with a ridiculous and expensive dat that he does not even want as a consequence), Sylvester keeps trying to reach the managers office as soon as possible. He’s not even completely past the next cubicle as a dog comes bounding for him. Fifi, the Half Blind Office Bulldog (4) smells the perfume of Sylvia on Sylvester and wants to play. Luckily, Sylvester is a Dog Person (3) and as such might have a chance to get this over quickly.
Fifi rolls 2, 3, 4, 6 (2 successes) and Sylvester rolls 6, 5, 5 (3 successes) quickly realizing the situation, getting down on a knee, scratching Fifi behind the ear and pointing her to Sylvia. The dog, hearing Sylvester’s voice realizes her mistake and bounds of further down the hallway, near tackling an unsuspecting Sylvia, who was scrolling through her phone, looking at outfits for the date. The manager doesn’t even know what’s happened, but Sarah quirks an eyebrow in amused surprise.
Here as well the question about Target Numbers might arise, but it’s more straightforward than the other one. There might be an optional rule to it as well though, but that would be more of an add-on. The way to do target numbers is to give a set number of successes to get. 1 for easy, 2 for normal, 3 for challenging, 4 for professional, 5 for mastery and 6 for epic difficulties.
example:
Getting out of that one with barely any time lost, there is a third and last hurdle Sylvester must face before reaching the managers office. As he closes in all of a sudden food is flying through the hallway, followed by lunchboxes, thermos’ and slurs about one’s mother. These are Phil and Rick, and they always have these types of fights. The trick is getting through without getting hit or involved in any way.
The DM sets this difficulty at 3 (challenging). As a Victim of Constant Bullying (3) Sylvester might have a chance at avoiding a fight, but he might just prove to be a better target himself.
Sylvester rolls 6, 6, 1. He almost made it, but alas. Just as he thinks he got away with it he hears “Hey SYLVESTER! Your mom brought your lunch. It was very tasty! Here are some leftovers!”, followed by a PB&J sandwich thrown at him sullying his suit (for the second time today!). He quickly makes his getaway and arrives in the manager’s office, safe from the bullies, smeared with PB&J and shaking.The optional thing here is that —either through circumstances or because the (in)appropriateness of the cliche— the numbers to get to roll a success could be skewed. If it would be easier than normal you have to roll 3-6 for example, and if it’s more difficult 5-6! It could be even worse or better by needing to only roll 2’s (1’s are an auto-success) to succeed or so difficult you only succeed on 6’s!
example:
Now in the office, Sylvester is confronted with his manager, who is looking real upset. His sullied suit isn’t making things easier for him (+1 to number needed to succeed) and the time he needed to get here, being observed by the manager as flirting with colleagues (another +1 to number needed to succeed) makes only 6’s be a success.
Making a good first impression is gonna be difficult. Since the boss is already upset with him, the GM sets the difficulty of making a good impression on a sliding scale. 2 successes is not fired yet. 3 successes is getting a chance to explain, 4 successes is somehow being believed, at 5 successes he even feels sorry for you, and at 6 successes you might even get a raise for enduring all this hardship!
Sylvester can choose one of two approaches. One is being The Smoothest Guy Around (1) which is not going to help him one bit here. But he can try to play it cool. The other option is being a Victim of Constant Bullying (3) which would be playing the pity card. Now while it would be very funny for Sylvester to still try to play it cool, after all this I think the pity card will be the way to go.
He rolls a 2, 4 and 6, meaning he only has one success, and he needed at least two to not be immediately fired. He can go and clean out his desk after being chewed out by his manager!Another optional thing you could do here (probably instead rather than combined) is having complications and bonuses. In traditional gamer language critical hits and critical fumbles/misses. In this case every 6 is a bonus (something beneficial happens, wether or not you succeed) and every 1 is a complication (something happens that complicates things for you, wether or not you fail the roll). If there are multiple of these in a roll, you could say that bonuses and complications cancel each other out (the success or fail of them still counts, just the additional effects cancel each other out), or fully embrace the chaos and come up with something for each and every one of them. (For pro-improvisors or groups where the players are as happy to brainstorm for result ideas as the GM would be).
example:
Gathering his stuff from his cubicle, Sylvester has his cardboard box with various things in it. A desk lamp, a potted plant and framed pictures. Now he has to do the Walk of Shame to the elevator doors. To see what this does to his ego, and wether he can do some damage control, he has to roll. Not feeling confident or smooth, he chooses to take the more anxious route, walking it as someone who’s used to the unfairness of life. He’s rolling his Victim of Constant Bullying (3), and the GM makes this entire thing an apposed conflict against the Walk of Shame (2), the walk of shame would have been stronger if the verdict hadn’t been so obviously unfair.
Round 1: Leaving the Cubicle, let’s roll.
Sylvester rolls 5, 6, 2 vs. The Walk with 1, 5
Sylvester has two successes, while The Walk has only one, setting The Walk to only 1 die! Additionally, Sylvester has a Bonus and the Walk rolled a complication. This means that not only does Sylvester get to save his reputation for now, but the walk of shame has a complication happen to it making it even less of a shameful walk. The GM has to think for a bit and finally narrates:
Sylvester walks and Phil and Rick start bullying him and laughing at him again. “You gonna go cry to your mommy now?” Phil asks mockingly? “You better use simple words, Sylvester,” Rick joins in, “‘cause I heard your mom is sooo dumb, that…” and he gets interrupted, because Sylvester, having nothing to lose anymore, just punches him in the face. (This is the bonus.)
Sylvia, seeing that cries out “Yeah Sylvester, they had it coming for a while!” and starts applauding, which gets the attention of the others, including Sarah, the Demon Prince in Disguise. She’s having conflicting feelings here. She enjoys a good downfall, but Sylvester has proven more entertaining that she thought he would be. Maybe she should become his Guardian Demon for a bit, making sure she can torment him for longer? That would be fun! (The Compication)
Round 2: Victim of Constant Bullying (3) vs. Walk of Shame (1)
Sylvester rolls 3, 4, 2 vs. The Walk’s 4, 1
Both have one success, so it’s a draw, but the walk has a complication. The GM rules that in this case it breaks the tie in favor of Sylvester. Sylvester enters the elevator to an office inexplicably giving a standing ovation!
Credits roll for Episode One of The Lady At HR Is A Demon Prince, a new sitcom.
After Credits scene:
Sarah walks into the manager’s office with a stack of paper. “I noticed that you just fired a very competent employee.” She says, “It would be a shame”, she continues as the lights start to flicker and electronics glitch out, “if he were to be fired. I compiled a list of documents to convince you.”
“Well, I’m the manager! I do what I want!”, he starts to argue back. At which Sarah smiles and gestures with her hand in the air and an old timey parchment scroll appears. “I could always let you read the *other* peace of paperwork between us, if you want?”, at which the manager becomes white as a sheet.
Cut to black, end scene.
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