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Arcane Arclight

talan_fire — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:08:28 CDT

Details

A Gears and Portals instance.

SeeGears and Portalsfor info

Genre: Steampunk High Fantasy

Tone: Serious play for lighthearted people

Campaign Options: 10 dice characters, No options. We're just beginners (more options later)

Description

In a city in between the worlds, Magic and Technology collide to create wonderful opportunity for adventures.

Characters

See the setting page for cliche list

Vrushos Kren (by Brian /Talan_fire)

Absent Minded Engineer (4) Rugged Survivor (3) Experimental Shardsmith (3)

Appearance: Regularly unshaven, short chestnut hair, and striking green eyes. He commonly wears rugged survival clothing (lots of pockets) with long overcoat (even more pockets), and custom made boots.

Rotwang the Steamjunker. (by Ron/Rotvang)

Operating, repairing and designing mechanical constructs and gimmicks (3)Find anything in piles of junk (2) Shardsmith (2)Bargain like a Byzantine Merchant (1)Blow stuff up (2)

Rotwang (pronounced "rote-vang", but almost everyone else says it like he has a social disease) is an irascible, scrawny, goblinlike resident of Portcullis. He is usually found dressed in grimy leather and coarse linen work clothes, consisting of leather apron with many belts and pouches and pockets, and leather gauntlets, these over a linen shirt and pants that tuck into thick, leather, hobnailed boots. Many tools and gadgets of incomprehensible function are attached to various straps, bandoliers and belts. He looks ugly and nasty, but he has a set of fine, renaissance style clothes tucked away in his flop, and when he cleans up-- he cleans up ugly and nasty. But well dressed. He is interested in beer, blowing things up, rebuilding things from the resulting junk, scavenging/stealing parts and shards, and generally trying to get to the point where people will have to respect him because otherwise he'll blow them up-- or maybe because they are impressed by his Steamjunk mastery. Babes wouldn't be bad either (though bad babes are all right, if possible, in fact preferred), but there's the ugly and nasty bit to contend with...

Tahnis Firemane (by Ben /Lodestone)

If it moves I can pilot it like you've never seen (3) A skillful hunter ofsalvageable parts (3) Child prodigy of mechanical devices (3) Fledgling pyromancer from an unpromising start (1)

6' tall muscular Leonin. Golden fur but a bright red mane (the primary color, not the orange haircolor) which turned that way after the first (accidental) demonstration of his pyromantic abilities and remained that way since. Always been good with machines. Built his A.K.I.T.A. while still fairly young and has had her ever since. Left forearm and hand replaced by a mechanical prosthetic as a result of problems with his pride when they discovered his magical abilities, even though they are only at a fledgling stage. He would have been killed but his mother intervened and he was banished instead.

Captain Rodion Black (Luka /LucasBlackwolf)

Swashbuckling Sky-Dog (4) Gentleman Pirate (3) and Razor sharp with Wit and Sword (3)

A young sky-faring human, with enough inheritance (social and financial) to think of himself as a gentleman explorer, but enough debts and discordance with societal norms (he calls it free spirit) to be tagged as a pirate in some circles. Otherwise he's well meaning and disastrously romantic.

The Adventure so far..

The explosion was heard across Portcullis. And of course the rumor mills and word of mouth spread just as quickly as the fragments of gate. Some said it was the main gate from Arcadias, though which most of the city's food comes. Others suggested there would be shortages and rationing soon, that the city was doomed. Some said that it was the start of an attack, that it was rogue Gobbers, that an elemental had got caught in the gate and caused the fritz. Others said there were secret forces at work looking to overthrow the council and the DoorGuard. Others that it was, you know, just one of those things.

Yvesko, barkeep of The Stovepipe didn't say anything. He just served drinks. But sooner or later an off duty DoorGuard would be in and need a drink, and the rumor mills would have fresh grist. In the meantime, the cellar was full and there was a run on cold drinks, business was good...

Rotwang scampered through the alleyways close to the smoking ruin of the gate. His keen eyes and sense for valuable junk soon saw a battered crate ejected from the cargohold of the skyship that was caught in the explosion. Not only were the contents intact, the shipping labels and waybill were still, mostly, legible. Perfect for substitution by forged papers declaring Rotwang the legal owner of the merchandice. Tahnis, searching in a nearby street was having similar luck, sneaking around a DoorGuard barricade and into the wreakage of the sterncastle of the skyship, he quietly pocketed the ship's log and aetheriometer.

Kren, in deep conversation with Aujo Rikk, a regular patron of the Stovepipe, ignored the retorical flourish of the man calling himself Toadwarden and continued telling the tale of the mining explosion which claimed his most promising excavator design. Rikk replied describing the mess caused by the recent explosion of the Green Gate as a skyship was passing through and in hushed tones, "An act of terror. The council had recently received threats over its ban on particular forms of shard-summoning." Equally hushed Kren shakes his head shocked, "An act of terror! That is terrible. What are times coming to..." Rikk offered a name of a junior clerk that could surely tell Kren more if he had money for beer to spend. Meanwhile "Ichabod" was forced to dodge a empty glass thrown from the crowd. The barkeep, Yvesko, loudly remonstrated with the patron and beckoned Rodion over. "It's a gate that's been blowed up" he said. "It's got everyone on edge, it's not the sort of thing that happens regularly around here. Bad for business it is. First the thefts in the alchemist's quater and then that body they found down by the docks and now this. You gotta wonder if the council isn't loosing the plot." Yvesko turned to serve another customer, leaving Rodion with much to ponder.

Next update Friday 6th Nov.

What now?

If you're new here, take a good look around before posting anything. Answers to your question are probably in the How to play thread below. If not post there and we'll get you sorted. If you want to join as a character, the How to play thread is the place to post, or send a message to Chromeknight, the GM.

If you've already got a character, post in the play thread below, the GM will reply there by Wednesday, giving required rolls, and action will be resolved. Completed actions will be posted above in The Adventure so far.

And for players, there's a discussion thread for off topic or out of character random fun chat.

Thanks for looking, Enjoy!

Rule Elucidation

Ruminator — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:15:41 CDT

Explaining things in plain English

Standard practice is to add a new page for your rule elucidation and once it is complete, add a link to it here by adding your rule elucidation to the list (use the Subhead option to list your rule elucidation name and link that subhead to your new page using the +link option) and add a brief description.

Risus GM Guide

a guide for would be GMs.

Grokking Risus Fu

words of wisdom about combat.

Winning Players Over

Overcoming objections to Risus.

Oh, the Insanity!

Adapting Call of Cthulhu's Sanity Mechanic

Bouncing Off the Walls!
Getting more out of your surroundings.

Appropriately Inappropriate

How the Inappropriate cliché rules can work for more serious games.

Target Number Roll

A tool for Risus GM to select the difficulty number of an action.

Advancement

Some thoughts on character growth.

Team Combat

An example of combat when using Teaming Up.

Team Combat

Ruminator — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:12:47 CDT

Here is a sample of team combat republished from the RisusTalk mailing list.

Not Teaming Up

You have a Skeletal Rat-horde (7) which is fighting three player characters (let's call them "Able", "Baker", and "Charlie"). The three player characters decide NOT to team.

Able decides which cliche he is using to fight the horde (Say "Swordsman (4)"). He rolls four dice, the Rat-horde rolls seven dice. Whichever has the lowest total (almost certainly Able) loses one die off his cliche.

Baker decides which cliche HE is using to fight the horde (Say "Barbarian (4)"). He rolls four dice, the Rat-horde rolls however many it has left over (probably still seven). Again, whichever has the lowest total (almost certainly Baker) loses one die of his cliche.

Charlie decides which cliche HE is using to fight the horde (Say "Wizard (3)". He rolls three dice, the Rat-horde rolls however many it has left over (probably still seven, unless it has rolled really badly). Whichever has the lowest total (almost certainly Charlie) loses one die of his cliche.

Another way of looking at this is to say that anytime someone is attacked, they get an opportunity to counter-attack. This approach to "turn order" is VERY DIFFERENT from other Role-Playing Games.

If Able, Baker, and Charlie insist on fighting the Skeletal Rat-horde (7) this way, they will almost certainly keep losing cliche dice until they are defeated. (Unless they have cliches that are comparable with the Skeletal Rat-horde's 7d6, which they won't under the basic rules of Risus) If you give an opponent or an obstacle a cliche score of (7) you are basically making it impossible for non-supers to beat in a straightforward combat. For example, in my Doctor Who Risus, I advocate using scores of (7) for Daleks and Cybermen, because the PCs should not be able to defeat these with straightforward combat.

When normal, 10-dice characters meet a foe with a (7) cliche, they are going to have to use some different approach. They should seriously think about teaming. Or pumping their cliches. Or taking advantage of the Skeletal Rat-horde's weaknesses. Or using an inappropriate cliche. Or forcing it into a type of combat that the Skeletal Rat-horde cliche can't be used in, so the Skeletal Rat-horde has to use the "when somebody can't participate" rules.

Teaming Up

Able fighting on his own is just normal combat. He rolls his cliche (Swordsman (4)) against the Skeletal Rat Horde (7).

Baker and Charlie decide to form a team. Baker will contribute his "Mighty Barbarian (4)" cliche. Charlie will contribute his "Barbarian Warrior (3)" cliche. Since Baker's cliche score is higher than Charlie's, he is designated the team leader.

When the Baker-Charlie team attacks, Baker as team leader rolls his four dice, and all four count. Then Charlie rolls his three dice, but only the dice that show six count (so if he rolls a six, a three, and a one, only the six counts). This is all added together. The Skeletal rat-horde (7) rolls its seven dice. (Note that effectively Baker and Charlie are being attacked as though they are one opponent. This is one advantage to teaming, so in effect the Skeletal Rat horde has one less chance to hurt the PCs).

If the Baker-Charlie team score is higher, then the Skeletal rat-horde loses a die of damage. If the Skeletal rat-horde rolls higher, then one of two things can happen.

1) Somebody, say Charlie, volunteers to step forward and take the damage. He then takes double damage (two dice instead of one), but then Baker gets a Vengeance bonus on the next roll and rolls twice as many dice (eight instead of four!)

or

2) Nobody volunteers to take the damage. Each member of the team rolls its cliche dice, and the lowest roller takes one die of damage and there is no vengeance bonus.

Actually, with the numbers I have given Able, Baker, and Charlie, the odds are still on the side of the Skeletal Rat-Horde (7). An opponent with a cliche score of (7) is going to be almost unbeatable, but that might have been your intention.

Arcadomai Spell Compendium

Dantopia — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:35:57 CDT

A supplement to the Risus setting Arcadomai created by Dan Suptic©2007

A note about Risus and Arcadomai
Arcadomai is a fantasy setting (created by Dan Suptic) that uses the Risus system to play. It can be found at http://risusiverse.wetpaint.com/page/Arcadomai. Risus itself is a free and easy to learn role-playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Arcadomai. Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that’s all you’ll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you’ll be able to use the Arcadomai Spell Compendium.

What lies within
This supplement contains spell lists for all magic clichés found in the Arcadomai setting. While certainly not an extensive list of every single spell for each cliché, every list here should be enough to certainly give the GM and the Player a good knowledge of what the cliché can do.

Cliché name – The name of the cliché used for the spells
Combat – A brief description of spell effects when engaged in direct cliché to cliché combat, for each level of the mage’s cliché. These are simply meant for added description, and no impact on combat itself. This section only applies to clichés that have a direct combat effect – even if the cliché can be used to help someone in combat, this area is reserved for obvious attack magic.
Level (x) – This is the header for the spells of each cliché level. The level of each spell is the optimal cliché level a character should have before trying to cast the spell. Higher level spells may be attempted by the character with no penalty (other than that the TNs will be quite high for his cliché). When making magic cards, the level of the card made is equal to the level of the spell.
Spell name – TN – Description – This is the spell name, followed by the TN you must beat to use the spell, followed by what the spell itself does

Spell lengths
Unless otherwise noted, spells last until the end of the encounter. An Encounter can be defined as a series of events in which the PCs are in the same location working towards the same immediate goal (separate rooms in a dungeon, meeting someone on the way to another city, hanging out one evening at the bar, etc). In general, spell lengths are up to the GM
Trying again
If a Player misses the TN and fails to cast the spell, they may try again in an amount of time defined as Whatever the GM Deems Appropriate.
Resisted spells
A lot of spells allow the target to resist or avoid the spell effects. The TN to resist/avoid/throw off effects is always equal to the spell's TN.

A note on Magic Cards
From the core rules, a Magic Card is used for someone to become a mage of a certain cliché level to do a certain magical effect, for one turn. Magic cards can also be made to let the user have the combat ability at the card's cliché level for one turn. The cliché of magic must be one of the clichés that have combat ability of course, but other than that, the user can use 1 magical attack at the card's cliché level. If they fail, they lose a die in a cliché of their choice as normal. Magic cards can also hold spells listed in this supplement. A card's level in a specific spell will be the level that the spell is listed under. The user then rolls to activate the spell as normal for a mage, and the target (if there is one) rolls to resist as normal. If the user fails on using a card that's not directly combat related, then they do not lose a die in a cliché - the spell simply fails.

Read on, fellow mage!
Enjoy the following spells for the world of Arcadomai. These should help to flesh out each magic cliché, and also give GMs and Players ideas for new spells for their favorite cliché. If you have any questions or comments, please email them to dsuptic@gmail.com

Pyromancer
Combat
Level 1 – Small streams of fire, fire darts, pea sized fireballs
Level 2 – Larger streams of fire, fire arrows, fist sized fireballs
Level 3 – Hand-width gouts of fire, fire javelins, melon sized fireballs
Level 4 – Explosive fireballs, white hot streams of fire, lava streams
Level 5 – Lava balls, white hot fireballs, rains of fire
Level 6 – Gouts of magma, lava rain
Level 1
Light – TN 2 – This basic fire spell lights a candle, torch, lamp or lantern
Warm Object – TN 3 – Causes an object to become noticeably warm (not enough to do damage)
Cook – TN 4 – Heats any prepared meat up, cooking it well enough to eat
Level 2
Ignite – TN 6 – Set fire to any readily flammable object (paper, firewood, etc). Will not affect anything held by or worn by someone
Dancing Flame – TN 7 – Creates a small ball of fire that follows the caster, providing light
Scalding Weapon – TN 8 – Makes a weapon you hold scalding hot against foes, giving you a +1 bonus to your combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 3
Campfire – TN 9 – Creates a campfire sized blaze that hovers over the ground. This blaze can follow you around, and lasts up to 12 hours
Resist Heat – TN 10 – You gain a +3 bonus against fire magic
Flaming Weapon – TN 11 – Your weapon is wreathed in flames, giving you a +1 die bonus in combat until the end of combat
Level 4
Immolate – TN 13 – Sets ablaze any flammable object (paper, worn clothes, held magic cards)
Halo of Flames – TN 14 – Anytime an opponent beats you in Melee combat, they must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or lose a die in their melee combat cliché.
Resist Flames – TN 15 – You gain a +1 pip bonus against fire magic
Level 5
Flametaker – TN 16 - Must be cast on a bonfire or larger blaze. The blaze is extinguished, and the next fire spell you cast is at a +1 die bonus
Flaming wall – TN 17 - Creates a wall of fire 100 feet long. Anyone passing through (or forced through) this wall takes 2 dice of damage to a cliché of their choice
Ignore Flames – TN 18 – You take no cliché damage due to fire or fire magic
Level 6
Roast – TN 20 – Reduces any flammable object to ashes
Burn Alive – TN 21 – The target creature or person is reduced to 1 in all clichés, as horrible burns cover their entire body
Raze – TN 22 – A fast burning fire engulfs an area. An entire small building can be engulfed at once. Larger buildings can have whole floors engulfed at once

Cryomancer
Combat
Level 1 – Small shards of ice, hard snowballs
Level 2 – Ice shards, small ice balls, chilling rays
Level 3 – Ice daggers, large ice balls, freezing rays
Level 4 – Ice spears, multiple ice balls, flash freezing
Level 5 – Ice storms, winter blasts
Level 6 – Blizzards storms, arctic blasts
Level 1
Chill – TN 2 – Chills a drink, making it pleasantly cool
Cubes – TN 3 – Creates several ice cubes
Frost – TN 4 – Creates a thin layer of frost on any surface
Level 2
Cold Hand – TN 6 – Your hand becomes very cold (not enough to damage someone, but certainly enough to distract)
Ice Object – TN 7 – Creates a fist sized or smaller object out of ice (cups, lock picks, rings etc)
Chill – TN 8 – The area the caster is in becomes uncomfortably cold
Level 3
Freezing Weapon – TN 9 - Makes a weapon you hold freezing cold against foes, giving you a +1 bonus to your combat cliché until the end of combat
Resist Cold – TN 10 - You gain a +3 bonus against ice magic
Slick – TN 11 – Covers an area of ground with slick ice (Dexterity based cliché roll to avoid slipping and falling)
Level 4
Cold Aura – TN 13 – Anytime an opponent beats you in Melee combat, they must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or lose a die in their melee combat cliché.
Encase – TN 14 – The subject is encased in ice. They must make a Strength based cliché roll to escape
Frostbite – TN 15 – The victim gets major frostbite on a limb and loses 2 dice in a cliché of their choice
Level 5
Arctic Weapon – TN 16 – Your weapon becomes absolutely frigid to enemies, giving you a +1 pip to your combat rolls with it
Ice Sculpture – TN 17 – You can create any object made of ice up to the size of a person
Ignore Ice – TN 18 – You ignore all cold and ice based attacks, conditions and magic
Level 6
Freeze – TN 20 – Any non living object is frozen solid, through and through. Reduce the TN to break the object by 10
Dire Cold – TN 21 – An area’s temperature drops drastically (100 square feet max). Anyone going through this area loses 1 die to all clichés (can’t go below 1 in any 1 cliché)
Ice Structure – TN 22 – You can create any object made of ice up to 30 cubic feet

Hydromancer
Combat
Level 1 – Small jets of steam, minor dehydration
Level 2 – Jets of steam, average dehydration
Level 3 – Large jets of steam, sever dehydration, high pressure streams of water
Level 4 – Blasts of steam, high pressure jets of water
Level 5 – Great blasts of steam and high pressure water
Level 6 – Tidal blasts, Geysers
Level 1
Mist – TN 2 – Creates a gentle spray of cool mist
Fill Up – TN 3 – Fills a cup or other small container with fresh water
Test Water – TN 4 – Tells you if water is fine to drink. Reveals poison or contaminates, but not magical enchantment
Level 2
Water Ball – TN 6 – Creates a gallon of water, which can be thrown. This can extinguish small fires and possibly annoy opponents
Boil – TN 7 – Boils a small container of water. If thrown at an opponent, they must make a Dexterity based cliché roll, or take a -1 penalty to rolls until the end of combat
Detoxify – TN 8 – Renders poisoned, contaminated or salty water drinkable.
Level 3
Rain – TN 9 – Creates a gentle rain in an area for about half an hour
Water Walk – TN 10 – Allows you to walk on top of water for three turns
Satiate – TN 11 – Sustains you without water for one day
Level 4
Surge – TN 13 – Creates a strong blast of water. Anyone hit by this blast must make a Strength based cliché roll or be knocked back ten feet and knocked down
Breathe Water – TN 14 – You may breathe and speak while immersed in water
Whirlpool – TN 15 – A whirlpool forms in a large body of water. Those caught in it make a Strength based cliché roll to escape
Level 5
Drown – TN 16 – Causes a target to begin to drown. For 3 consecutive turns, they must make a Health based Cliché roll or lose a die in a cliché of their choice
Deluge – TN 17 – Fills an area with dense, driving rain for an hour. This will turn the ground to mud, and destroy most crops and ornamental vegetation
River – TN 18 – Causes a raging river to spring from your hand for five turns. This can knock targets back as per Surge
Level 6
Water Tread – TN 20 – You and your companions can walk on water as long as they remain on the same body of water
Tidal Wave – TN 21 – A large body of water produces an impressive wave, smashing into the shore and causing damage to buildings and flora
Burst – TN 22 – The water in the target’s body forcibly ejects itself. The target may make a Health or Strength based cliché roll to avoid a messy death

Aeromancer
Combat
Level 1 – Small electric arcs, small debris filled gusts of wind
Level 2 – Electric arcs, debris filled streams of wind
Level 3 – Small lighting bolts, small blasts of air
Level 4 – Lightning bolts, whirlwinds of debris, blasts of air
Level 5 – Huge lightning bolts, gales of air and debris
Level 6 – Continual blasts of lightning, hurricane force blasts
Level 1
Whisper – TN 2 – You may whisper a single word that can be heard by one target in sight
Breeze – TN 3 – Creates a pleasant breeze in the area
Scent – TN 4 – Causes a faint but definable odor of the caster’s choice in the area
Level 2
Shock – TN 6 – A target that you touch is mildly shocked. They must make a Health based cliché roll or take a -2 penalty to their next roll
Wind Aura – TN 7 – You’re surrounded by gusts of wind, giving you a +1 die bonus against non-magical ranged attacks
Purify – TN 8 – Cleanses the air in an area, removing smoke and airborne poisons
Level 3
Expel – TN 9 – The air from a target’s lungs is pushed out. They must make a Health based cliché roll or lose their next turn as they gasp for breath
Conduit – TN 10 – If you’re wielding a metal weapon, and your opponent is wearing metal armor, your successful melee attacks causes the target to lose 2 dice
Wind Storm – TN 11 – The area is filled with swirling gusts of wind. Non-magical ranged attacks lose half their dice
Level 4
Arc Field – TN 13 – Until the end of combat, a random opponent each turn must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take 1 die of lightning damage in a cliché of their choice
Wind Blast – TN 14 – Creates a strong blast of air. Anyone hit by this blast must make a Strength based cliché roll or be knocked back ten feet and knocked down
Raging Winds – TN 15 – The area is filled with raging, howling winds. Non-magical ranged attacks automatically fail
Level 5
Breathless – TN 16 – You do not have to breathe while the spell lasts
Suffocate – TN 17 – The target must make a Health based cliché roll or lose 2 dice in clichés of their choice every turn for 5 turns
Neural Shock – TN 18 – Unless a Health based cliché roll is made the target falls unconscious
Level 6
Path of Wind – TN 20 – You and your companions are whisked away to a different location. You must have seen the target location in person at least once
Tornado – TN 21 – A tornado forms, devastating everything in a one mile line
Lighting Storm – TN 22 – The target is hit by 2d6 lightning bolts, and loses a die in cliché’s of his choice for each one

Geomancer
Combat
Level 1 – thin streams of sand, small stone bullets and spikes
Level 2 – large streams of sand, fist sized stone rocks and spikes
Level 3 – streams of gravel, larger stones rocks and spikes
Level 4 – streams of small rocks, multiple fist sized stones and spikes
Level 5 – streams of fist sized rocks, flying boulders and columns
Level 6 – rock storms, giant flying boulders
Level 1
Signet Stone – TN 2 – Creates a small 1 ounce stone. You choose both shape and color
Bullets – TN 3 – Creates a handful of sling bullets
Stone Claws – TN 4 – You grow small stone spikes from your fingertips. All unarmed combat rolls are at +1
Level 2
Shake – TN 6 – Causes the area under one opponent to shake. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or suffer a -1 die penalty to their next roll
Flatten – TN 7 – Flattens out a perfectly horizontal area of natural earth. This area is large enough to set up a small campsite
Stone Fists – TN 8 – Your fists turn to solid stone, giving you +1 dice to unarmed combat
Level 3
Quake – TN 9 – Causes the area under one opponent to violently shakes. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or fall to the ground
Stone Object – TN 10 – Creates a stone object, up to a pound in weight
Earth Meld – TN 11 – You sink into natural earth, and may remain there unharmed for up to an hour. You cannot see or hear anything that happens on the surface
Level 4
Sink – TN 13 – The target sinks waist deep into the earth. A Strength based Cliché roll is needed to escape
Stone to Earth – TN 14 – Changes up to 50 pounds of stone into soft earth
Flesh to Stone – TN 15 – The target must make a Health based cliché roll or be turned to stone. They will turn back to normal in 1d6 hours
Level 5
Pit – TN 16 – A 10 ft wide and 50 ft deep pit appears. Those in the area must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or fall in, taking 2 dice of damage to clichés of their choice
Earth Rest – TN 17 – Same as Earth Meld, but every 3 turns you stay in the earth, you heal 1 cliché of your choice
Stone Wall – TN 18 – Creates wall of stone 100 feet long and 10 feet high
Level 6
Stone Body – TN 20 – You and your equipment becomes a living stone statue. You gain +2 pip to your melee combat rolls
Calcify – TN 21 – The target must make a Health based cliché roll, or be permanently turned to stone
Rive the Earth – TN 22 – A giant 500 feet deep pit appears, large enough to swallow a building

Enchanter
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Minor Aid – TN 2 – Target equipment gains a +1 bonus for 1 turn
Minor Blight – TN 3 – Target equipment gains a -1 penalty for 1 turn
Minor Bless – TN 4 – Target equipment gains a +1 bonus until end of combat
Level 2
Minor Curse – TN 6 – Target equipment gains a -1 penalty until end of combat
Aid – TN 7 – Target equipment gains a +1 die bonus for 1 turn
Minor Transformation – TN 8 – Target must roll a Health based cliché roll or turn into a harmless creature for 1 turn
Level 3
Blight – TN 9 – Target equipment gains a -1 die penalty for 1 turn
Bless – TN 10 – Target equipment gains a +1 die bonus until end of combat
Major Aid – TN 11 – Target equipment gains a +1 pip bonus for 1 turn
Level 4
Curse – TN 13 – Target equipment gains a -1 die penalty until end of combat
Major Bless – TN 14 – Target equipment gains a +1 pip bonus until end of combat
Transformation – TN 15 – Target must roll a Health based cliché roll or turn into a harmless creature until the end of combat
Level 5
Minor Enchantment – TN 16 – Target equipment gains a permanent +1 bonus. You may add cumulative +1 bonuses, but this increases the TN by 1 for every +1 bonus after the first. You may only cast this spell once per day
Major Blight – TN 17 – Target equipment gains a -1 pip bonus for 1 turn
Enchantment – TN 18 – Target equipment gains a permanent +1 die bonus. You may add cumulative +1 die bonuses, but this increases the TN by 2 for every +1 die bonus after the first. You may only cast this spell once per day
Level 6
Major Curse – TN 20 – Target equipment gains a -1 pip bonus until end of combat
Major Enchantment – TN 21 – Target equipment gains a permanent +1 pip bonus. You may add cumulative +1 pip bonuses, but this increases the TN by 2 for every +1 pip bonus after the first. You may only cast this spell once per day
Major Transformation – TN 22 – Target must roll a Health based cliché roll or turn into a harmless creature permanently

Diviner
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Finder – TN 2 – You find any object that you personally have misplaced. Will not work on items that have been stolen or otherwise taken from you.
Tidbit – TN 3 – Let’s you know one minor fact about a person, like their name, age, job, marital status. Won’t let you know something that someone is actively hiding.
Find Fortune – TN 4 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. On a roll of a 6 on 1d6, the GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.
Level 2
Seeker – TN 6 – You can find any object that you’ve owned in the past 24 hours
Informant – TN 7 – You may know a minor fact about someone, even if they are trying to hide that fact
Find Future – TN 8 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. On a roll of a 5 or more on 1d6, the GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.
Level 3
The Right Moment – TN 9 – You gain a +1 bonus on your next die roll
Tag – TN 10 – You pick someone you can see. You then pick a point in the future, up to a week. At that predetermined time, you get sent knowledge of where that person is.
Find Fate – TN 11 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. On a roll of a 4 or more on 1d6, the GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.
Level 4
Tell Fortune – TN 13 – You read someone’s fortune. On a success, you learn 1 important thing that will happen to them soon. On a failure, you only pick up unimportant (but still correct) little pieces of their life.
Light of the Heart – TN 14 – You can tell whether someone is attuned towards the Light, the Grey or the Dark
Find Destiny – TN 15 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. On a roll of a 3 or more on 1d6, the GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.
Level 5
The Right Second – TN 16 – You gain a +1 die bonus on your next roll
Know Consequence – TN 17 – You know if an action you take will leave Light, Grey or Dark marks on your soul
Find Kismet – TN 18 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. On a roll of a 2 or more on 1d6, the GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.
Level 6
Perfect Moment – TN 20 – You gain a +2 pip bonus on your next roll
Second Chance – TN 21 – You may reroll the next die roll you fail, at a +3 bonus
Find Providence – TN 22 – You ask the GM one question about a future event. The GM must answer, although they can be as vague and cryptic as they like, so long as their answer is truthful. You may only cast this spell once a day.

Druid
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Know Plant – TN 2 – Know the exact name for a target plant that you can see
Know Animal – TN 3 – Know the exact name for a target animal that you can see
Nature’s Shape – TN 4 – You become an animal with 1 die in its combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 2
Seek Shelter – TN 6 – Tells you the closest location to a natural uninhabited dwelling
Seek Sustenance – TN 7 – Tells you the closest location of edible food and potable water
Nature’s Figure – TN 8 – You become an animal with 2 dice in its combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 3
Grow Plants – TN 9 – Plants in the area grow at a swift rate. If they are fruit bearing plants, they sprout enough to feed you and your companions
Calm Animal – TN 10 – One animal that you can see becomes calm and leaves the area peacefully. If you run into it again, you may have to recast the spell
Nature’s Form – TN 11 – You become an animal with 3 dice in its combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 4
Command Animal – TN 13 – One animal that you can see obeys your commands for one hour. This only works on normal non-magical animals
Entangle – TN 14 – The target of this spell is wrapped with vines and roots. Unless they make a Dexterity based cliché roll, they will be immobile for 3 rounds
Nature’s Visage – TN 15 – You become an animal with 4 dice in its combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 5
Friend of Green – TN 16 – You cannot be tracked while in the woods. If no one can see you, no mundane form of tracking will reveal your presence.
Nature’s Ire – TN 17 – The forest itself attacks and impedes your foes. Any foe following you into the forest must make Strength based cliché rolls each round the spell lasts or take 1 cliché of damage to a cliché of their choice and are immobilized
Nature’s Façade – TN 18 - You become an animal with 5 dice in its combat cliché until the end of combat
Level 6
Nature’s Bounty – TN 20 – A special fruit grows in 3 rounds, from the ground near you. When someone eats this fruit (takes 2 rounds), they heal back all their damaged clichés.
Vita Arbor – TN 21 – The target makes a Health based cliché roll. If they fail, they permanently become a tree
Nature’s Countenance – TN 22 – You become an animal with 6 dice in its combat cliché until the end of combat

Cleric
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Detect Undead – TN 2 – You know whether a target creature is undead
Patch Up – TN 3 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 1
Life Watch – TN 4 – Choose a target you can see. For the next 24 hours, you’ll be sent a magic message if they die
Level 2
Diagnosis – TN 6 – Tells you if the target is wounded, poisoned or diseased, and the specifics of each
Cure – TN 7 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 2
Ward Undead – TN 8 – Target undead rolls a Persistent based cliché roll. If it fails, it may not attack you
Level 3
Cleanse – TN 9 – All poison and disease is removed from the target’s body
Heal – TN 10 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 3
Holy Power – TN 11 – Target weapon does 2 dice of damage against undead when used in combat
Level 4
Turn Undead – TN 13 – Target undead rolls a Persistent based cliché roll. If it fails, it must leave the area
Restore – TN 14 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 4
Compel Truth – TN 15 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they must speak the truth as they know it to any question you ask
Level 5
Sanctify – TN 16 – Once per day, you bless an area (10 foot by 10 foot) that prevents any body placed there from being raised as an undead. This spell lasts 24 hours.
Rejuvenate – TN 17 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 5
Restore Life – TN 18 – Brings a target back to life. A cliché of their choice is reduced permanently by one (until raised back up with experience). Must be cast within a number of days of the target’s death equal to your Cleric cliché
Level 6
Destroy Undead – TN 20 – Target undead rolls a Persistent based cliché roll. If it fails, it is destroyed
Renew – TN 21 – The target heals 1 die in a cliché of their choice, so long as that cliché does not heal above 6
Resurrect – TN 22 – The target is brought back to life. Must be cast within a number of weeks of the target’s death equal to your Cleric cliché

Necromancer
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Detect Undead – TN 2 – You know whether a target creature is undead
Hatch Undead – TN 3 – A dead creature becomes an undead (1) under your control until end of combat
Death Watch – TN 4 – Choose a target you can see. For the next 24 hours, you’ll be sent a magic message if they die
Level 2
Scourge – TN 6 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or takes -1 to rolls until end of combat
Create Undead – TN 7 – A dead creature becomes an undead (2) under your control until end of combat
Harm – TN 8 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or lose 1 die in a cliché of their choice
Level 3
Poison – TN 9 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or is a -1 die to rolls until end of combat
Formulate Undead – TN 10 – A dead creature becomes an undead (3) under your control until end of combat
Bolster Undead – TN 11 – All undead you in the area gain +2 to their combat rolls
Level 4
Quench Life – TN 13 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or has their highest cliché reduced to one (their choice if 2 or more are their highest cliché)
Generate Undead – TN 14 – A dead creature becomes an undead (4) under your control until end of combat
Permanency – TN 15 – This spell can be cast once per day, and adds 1 point to your Permanency Pool. Your pool cannot exceed your cliché level in Necromancer. When you spend points from the pool, the same number of points equals the total cliché worth of undead you can make permanent
Level 5
Desecrate - TN 16 – Once per day, you defile an area (10 foot by 10 foot) that reduces the TN required for the creation of undead by 3. This spell lasts 24 hours.
Fabricate Undead – TN 17 – A dead creature becomes an undead (5) under your control until end of combat
Snuff Life – TN 18 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or is reduced to 1 in all clichés
Level 6
Lichdom – TN 20 – You become an Undead Lich. Add Lich to your primary cliché. You no longer age. After casting the spell, you remove a small bone from your hand and place it in a sacred box. So long as the bone remains intact, you can never be completely killed – you’ll always come back, no matter what. You no longer gain experience. If you fail casting this spell, you lose 1 die permanently in all clichés
Spawn Undead – TN 21 – A dead creature becomes an undead (6) under your control until end of combat
Extinguish Life – TN 22 – Target makes a Health based cliché roll or dies

Telemancer
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Tap – TN 2 – A target that you can see feels a tapping sensation on their shoulder
Grab – TN 3 – Any unattended object under 1 pound within 10 feet flies to your hand
Congregate – TN 4 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take a -1 penalty to their next roll
Level 2
Manipulate – TN 6 – You can move an object up to 1 pound without touch, up to 20 feet away
Hover – TN 7 – You hover about a foot off the ground. You cannot move horizontally from the spot you’re hovering at
Converge – TN 8 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take a -1 penalty until the end of combat
Level 3
Projectile Push – TN 9 – Until the end of combat, non-magical ranged attacks you make gain a +2 bonus
Compact – TN 10 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take a -1 die penalty on their next roll
Move – TN 11 – You can move an object up to 10 pounds without touch, up to 50 feet away
Level 4
Push – TN 13 – Target must make a Strength based cliché roll or be pushed back 15 feet
Constrict – TN 14 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take a -1 die penalty on their next roll
Fly – TN 15 – You can slowly fly, at a speed equal to a brisk run
Level 5
Compress – TN 16 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take 2 dice of damage to a cliché of their choice
Hold – TN 17 – Target must make a Strength based cliché roll or they are unable to move at all for 1 turn
Teleport – TN 18 – You and your companions are teleported to another location. You must have seen the target location in person at least once
Level 6
Condense – TN 20 – Loose objects in the area fly towards the target. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll or take 2 dice of damage to all clichés
Transport – TN 21 – You can move an object up to 250 pounds without touch, up to 500 feet away
Baleful Teleport – TN 22 – You teleport to the exact location of an opponent. They must make a Dexterity based cliché roll, or die as you burst from within them

Chronomancer
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Know Time – TN 2 – You know what time it is, down to the minute
Alarm – TN 3 – This spell wakes you up at a specified time in the future (within 24 hours) when cast
Quick – TN 4 – On the target’s next roll, they may reroll their lowest die and take the higher result
Level 2
Stutter – TN 6 – On the target’s next roll, they must reroll their highest die and take the lower result
Swift – TN 7 – Until the end of combat, the target may reroll their lowest die and take the higher result
Lag – TN 8 – Until the end of combat, the target must reroll their highest die and take the lower result
Level 3
Fast – TN 9 – The target may roll their next roll twice, taking the higher of the 2 results
Delay – TN 10 – The target must roll their next roll twice, taking the lower of the 2 results
Haste – TN 11 – The target may take 2 separate actions on their next turn
Level 4
Slow – TN 13 – The target’s next die roll is made at half dice
Quick Night – TN 14 – You compress time for yourself, allowing you to get a full night’s sleep in one hour
Time Warp – TN 15 – Until the end of combat, you warp in and out of the time stream, to points (usually) where you were in better health. On every turn, roll a d6. 1 – Take a die of damage in any cliché. 2 or 3 – Nothing happens. 4 or 5 – Heal 1 die in any cliché. 6 – Heal 2 dice in clichés
Level 5
Time Stop – TN 16 – Time stops for you. You cannot affect the world around you, but you may use anything on your person to yourself when you cast the spell (eat food, drink water, lay out bedroll). You may remain in the Time Stop as long as you like (more likely until your supplies run out)
Accelerate – TN 17 – Until the end of combat, the target may reroll every roll, taking the higher of the 2 results
Idle – TN 18 – Until the end of combat, the target must reroll every roll, taking the lower of the 2 results
Level 6
Time Out – TN 20 – Target must roll a Health based cliché roll. If they fail, they may be sent up to 24 hours into the future
Alacrity – TN 21 – Target gets 5 actions, right now. If you fail to cast the spell, you take a die of damage to your Chronomancer cliché
Stop – TN 22 – Target must roll a Health based cliché roll. If they fail, they cannot act for 5 rounds. During this time, any combat rolls automatically succeed against the target, and the target may not roll to resist spell effects. If you fail to cast the spell, you take a die of damage to your Chronomancer cliché

Stasiomancer
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Mingle – TN 2 – This gives you a +1 bonus when trying to hide or blend in with a crowd
Salvage Hex – TN 3 – You find where people at one point dropped spare money. You gain 1d6 hex. This spell can only be cast once per day
Charm – TN 4 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they will not take any direct action against you (raising prices, lying to, attacking). This spell does not work in combat
Level 2
Aura of Concurrence – TN 6 – Any long project you’re involved in (training animals, building a house, teaching students) takes half the time it normally would
Deflect – TN 7 – The next 3 times you would take a die of damage to a cliché, roll 1d6. On a 6, you do not take the damage
Beguile – TN 8 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they will treat you as a good friend. This spell does not work in combat
Level 3
Circulate – TN 9 – This gives you a +1 die bonus when trying to hide or blend in with a crowd
Deter – TN 10 – The next 3 times you would take a die of damage to a cliché, roll 1d6. On a 5 or 6, you do not take the damage
Procure Hex – TN 11 – You find where people at one point dropped spare money. You gain 5 times 1d6 hex. This spell can only be cast once per day
Level 4
Captivate – TN 13 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they will treat you as close family. This spell does not work in combat
Aura of Conjunction – TN 14 – Any long project you’re involved in (training animals, building a house, teaching students) takes a quarter of the time it normally would
Blend in – TN 15 – This gives you a +2 pip bonus when trying to hide or blend in with a crowd
Level 5
Ward – TN 16 – The next 3 times you would take a die of damage to a cliché, roll 1d6. On a 4, 5 or 6, you do not take the damage
Reap Hex – TN 17 – You find where people at one point dropped spare money. You gain 20 times 1d6 hex. This spell can only be cast once per day
Aura of Synchronicity – TN 18 – Any long project you’re involved in (training animals, building a house, teaching students) takes a tenth of the time it normally would
Level 6
Unify – TN 20 – You blend in perfectly with a crowd. No one can find you, even if they go through person by person
Evade – TN 21 – The next 3 times you would take a die of damage to a cliché, roll 1d6. On a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, you do not take the damage
Enthrall – TN 22 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they will do anything you ask. This spell does not work in combat

Chaomancer
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Annoy – TN 2 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, for the next 10 minutes every new person they meet will mildly dislike them
Trade – TN 3 – Target object (worth 10 hex or less) becomes a random object of the same value
Omit – TN 4 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they forget your name
Level 2
Disarray – TN 6 – Small objects (book sized or less) in the building change places randomly with each other. This is permanent, until moved back to their normal places
Jinx – TN 7 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, roll a d6 on the next 3 spells they cast. On a 6, the spell has the opposite effect that was intended
Forget – TN 8 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they forget your name and clichés
Level 3
Estrange – TN 9 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, for the next hour every new person they meet will be unhelpful and argumentative
Curse – TN 10 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, roll a d6 on the next 3 spells they cast. On a 5 or 6, the spell has the opposite effect that was intended
Exchange – TN 11 – Target object (worth 50 hex or less) becomes a random object of the same value
Level 4
Unlearn – TN 13 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they forget everything about you
Reposition – TN 14 – Objects and furniture in the building change places randomly with each other. This is permanent, until moved back to their normal places
Offend – TN 15 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, for the next 8 hours every new person they meet will fight them (non lethal combat) or run away
Level 5
Bane – TN 16 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, roll a d6 on the next 3 spells they cast. On a 4, 5 or 6, the spell has the opposite effect that was intended
Substitute – TN 17 – Target object (worth 250 hex or less) becomes a random object of the same value
Resystamize – TN 18 – Everything in the building changes. Even floor layouts (walls, doors) completely change. This is permanent, until the building is rebuilt
Level 6
Alienate – TN 20 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, for the next 24 hours every new person they meet will try to kill them
Calamity – TN 21 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, roll a d6 on the next 3 spells they cast. On a 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, the spell has the opposite effect that was intended
Repudiate – TN 22 – The target makes a Willful based cliché roll. If they fail, they forget everything about you, and will never remember anything about you ever again

Illusionist
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Level 1
Mark – TN 2 – Creates a palm sized mark on the target, of the style and color chosen by you. On non living targets, this is permanent, otherwise it lasts an hour
Glow – TN 3 – Creates a soft glow in the area, as if it were lit by a few candles
Apparition – TN 4 – Creates a visual-only illusion. This can be of anything the caster can think of, provided it’s no bigger than 1 cubic foot
Level 2
Cache – TN 6 – Makes a small object (3 pounds or less) invisible
Torch – TN 7 – An object shines like a torch. This is permanent
Guise – TN 8 – You change slight aspects of your appearance (hair color, eye color, skin tone, body type, small variation in height, clothing)
Level 3
Sentence – TN 9 – Creates up to a full sentence of text on the target. On non living targets, this is permanent, otherwise it lasts an hour
Illusion – TN 10 – Creates an audio-visual illusion. This can be of anything the caster can think of, provided it’s no bigger than a person
Nightfall – TN 11 – The area is totally darkened. Torches and other light sources only shine for 5 feet
Level 4
Etch – TN 13 – Creates a palm sized mark on the target, of the style and color chosen by you. This is permanent
Masquerade – TN 14 – You can change you appearance drastically, from looking like a child, to a different gender and even looking like specific people
Invisibility – TN 15 – You become invisible. People can still discern your location if you make sound or stand on soft ground
Level 5
Daylight – TN 16 – Fills the area with true daylight. Undead who are damaged by daylight take full damage from the effects of this spell
Scribe – TN 17 – Inscribes up to a book’s worth of information on the subject. On non living targets, this is permanent, otherwise it lasts an hour
Phantasm – TN 18 – Creates an illusion that fools all 5 senses (although no illusion can actually affect anything real). This can be of anything the caster can think of
Level 6
Facio Mortus – TN 20 – You appear dead to any careful examination. If someone stabs you or otherwise hurts you to see if you’re playing dead, the spell provides realistic effects of the damage while you remain unharmed. This spell also provides fire resistance and air to breathe in case you are cremated or buried
Semblance – TN 21 – You change your appearance to that of any creature (undead, dragons, Cicatrix creatures, golems, all these are valid)
Obscure – TN 22 – You become completely invisible. You make no sound (unless you choose to), you leave no tracks, and you have no scent. The spell also casts illusions that cover up things you affect (opening doors, stealing objects, etc)

Summoner
Combat – This Cliché has no direct combat spells
Note – summoned creatures act on the turn after they are summoned. So if they last 1 turn, you summon them, they act on the next turn and then they disappear
Level 1
Quick Paltry Summons – TN 2 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (1) and follows your commands
Summon Familiar – TN 3 – Summons a small natural animal to serve permanently as your familiar. It has no combat clichés, but can do small tasks for you within reason. If your familiar dies, you take a die of damage to a cliché of your choice
Paltry Summons – TN 4 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (1) and follows your commands
Level 2
Quick Trivial Summons – TN 6 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (2) and follows your commands
Regenerate – TN 7 – Heals 1 cliché of damage to one of your summoned creatures
Trivial Summons – TN 8 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (2) and follows your commands
Level 3
Quick Common Summons – TN 9 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (3) and follows your commands
Amplify Summoning – TN 10 – This spell does not count as an action. When cast with a summoning spell, the summoned creature’s duration is doubled
Common Summons – TN 11 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (3) and follows your commands
Level 4
Quick Standard Summons – TN 13 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (4) and follows your commands
Unsummon – TN 14 – Target summoned creature must make a cliché roll or vanish
Standard Summons – TN 15 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (4) and follows your commands
Level 5
Quick Prodigious Summons – TN 16 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (5) and follows your commands
Poach – TN 17 – Target summoned creature makes a cliché roll. If it fails, it falls under your control for the rest of its duration
Prodigious Summons – TN 18 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (5) and follows your commands
Level 6
Quick Supreme Summons – TN 20 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 1 turn. It has a combat cliché of (6) and follows your commands
Urgency – TN 21 – You may only attempt to cast this spell once per day. All your summoned creatures can attack the moment they are summoned, for 24 hours. They still last their normal duration (a total of 2 attacks for the quick summons, 4 attacks for others)
Supreme Summons – TN 22 – Summons a creature of your choice that lasts for 3 turns. It has a combat cliché of (6) and follows your commands

Gears and Portals

ChromeKnight — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:00:35 CDT

Steampunk Fantasy in the Multiverse

This setting is for use with Risus: The Anything RPG which is freely provided by S. John Ross at the Risus: The Anything RPG site.

What is Gears and Portals?

It's a Steampunk Fantasy setting for use with Risus: the anything Rpg.

The Basic Risus Campaign Rundown:

Genre: Steampunk High Fantasy
Tone: Serious/Humorous (a little bit of both)
Campaign Options: Hooks and Tales, Pumping Clichés, Lucky Shots
Points/Dice: 10 Dice
Description: In a city in between the worlds, Magic and Technology collide to create opportunity for adventures.

The Multiverse

The multi-verse consist of a large number of Worlds, Planes and Alternate Realities pervaded by the energies of the four elements all connected through the energy of the fifth element, the void. Each world can be thought of as having an elemental 'address', At the centre, as it were, of this web is a central point: Portcullis: The city of Doors. It is from this city that it is easiest to change from one world to an other. This a place of passage for travellers and a place of exile for outlaws.

The Portals

Portals are the lifeblood of Portcullis, they supply Portcullis with its daily needs, provide the rich with rooms in different places and they are the doors through which most of the trading and commerce is done.You can find them in any shape, size and form in the city.They are created by activating and tuning a void shard. This is not something everyone can do however. There are few on Portcullis that can unlock the energy in a shard in such a way that it generates a portal. Usually shards are used for other purposes, such as elemental magic and in cogworks. See below for both of these disciplines. Once a portal is activated it can be stabilized by building a gate structure around it like a door frame.

Permanent portals
These are void shards which have been activated and set into a gateway with a continual supply of elemental power. This keeps the portal open and always active. Because they remain open they always lead to the same place in the same world. Permanent Portals tend to be big and lead to the major worlds of the Multiverse. Their gateways often have intricate designs and are used by many people and are the most common type of portal.Most of them are two-way, though some gates have locks that prevent travel in one or both directions without codes, keys or other methods. The bank vault doors in Aurum an example of one-way locks.

Recovered portals
Once a shard has been activated it will open a portal for as long as the right levels of power are supplied to it. If the power is cut the portal will close. Restoring the power will reopen a portal, since the shard remains activated, but not necessarilary to the same place. The discovery of activated shards is always of interest to The Council, the government of Portcullis since it allows expansion into new places. But the use of dormant shards can be dangerous since there is no telling where the portal will lead to save for travelling through it. The exploration of these recovered portals is a serious business and not for the faint hearted. Once on the other side the priority is to begin the retuning process, (assuming it is safe to do so!) and fix the portal to a new destination. Of course, tuning a portal changes the power requirements and runs the risk of closing the portal, possibly trapping the adventurers.

Wild portals
Shards come in two distinct types, minor and major shards. Minor shards can only absorb one type of elemental energy. Major shards canabsorbenergy from more than one element. It follows then that minor shards cannot be used a portals. Major shards are required for 'outbound' travel since some elemental energy is required to 'address' the portal. However minor void shards can be used in various constructs and for elemental magics and for creating an elemental creature. Though rare, Void Elementals, have someunusual powers including the creation of wild portals. These portals are even more dangerous than recovered portals since there is no telling where they will end up, the 'elemental address' being supplied by the Elemental creature. Such portals can be used to reach new, unexplored places, which invariably are places of great value and danger.

Major worlds of the Multi-verse

Portcullis:The City of Doors (0)

This comopolitan city sits in the center of everything. All the known planes and worlds have a door from somewhere inPortcullis. The city is a chaotic blend of cultures drawn from the different planes of living. Everything can be found or lost if you try hard enough in the City. What makes the city complex is that nothing is stable: from gravity to time, every part of the city is different. And it’s said around the tavern fire that if someone concentrates enough he might be able to make the city obey him. Some say it’s the city of wonder, others the city of lies or the city of thieves, But nobody that ever visited Porticulis can forget the sight of it. From Portcullis someone can reach any reality in the multiverse and the crowds that populate the city are composed of refugees from many different worlds and portals.

Scrapland:The Land of Iron (e1f1)

The first thing one notices when setting foot on this plane is the vast field of junk that fills the space. One can walk days without seeing the naked ground. It seems like every lost thing find it’s way to Scrapland. It’s the Homeland of the cogkin and the gobber. It’s also where they wage the wars that tear apart those two races. The major settlements in The land of Iron are underground. Vast industrially built tunnels and vaults serve as shelters. People of this land have learnt to use every ressource that the junk provides so they are expert salvagers and tend to wear and use many weird devices “scrapbuilt” from different things.

Arcadias:The Lifetree (e1w1)

This plane consists of a single gigantic forest wrapped in mist. At the centre is the lifetree, a gigantic tree whose top is lost in the mist.The denizen of Arcadias have made their homes on the branches and around the trunks of the trees, building often intricate and complicated structures. They shun the forest floor as a place of darkness and danger. This place is Home of the Feyfolk court (home of the fairy queen and king) and is also the land of the simpler Treefolk. This plane is somewhat gentle and calm. The everwatchful spirits of the Lifetree roam around the forest, tending to the trees and guarding the rare glades where sunlight reaches the ground.

Aetheria: The Elemental Islands (e1f1a1w1)

This plane consist of aninnumerablearchipelago with a islands ranging from the arctic to the tropic. Nowhere is very far from the smell of ocean and the sound of surf. The people and architecture arereminiscentof the era of Japanese feudalism. Many of these islands are simply savage. And the few that are populated are spread out. This is the land of the elemental forces, so it’s usual to see great wild elementals roaming the land. They are often worshiped by the Zenjin, and the human inhabitants of this land. It is also the main place to find Elemental crystal shards. Crystal mines dot the islands and the major settlements have seen their share of Outlanders seeking shards. Some of the best known sorcerers have their Towers or Schools here in the Elemental Lands, but getting to the front doors of such places is always a challenge and sometimes, quite deadly.

Major Races of the Multi-verse

(NOTE: Although you can choose to play G.& P. with the classical fantasy races an effort was made to break the mold of the usual Elves/Dwarves/Orc,etc.. race choices)

SCRAPLAND (land of Iron)

Cogkin: This a race of small folk ( a mix of Dwarf, gnome and halfling) that are Mechanically inclined. They are inventive and tend to get their way around in big Mechanical golems, constructs and apparatus. They are often good engineers and love to create new stuff. But many of them tend to lack social skills, so they often favor the company of machines over men..

Gobber: They are the distant relative of the cogkin. They have more of a goblinoid look (goblin, kobolt, gremlin and the like). The major difference between the cogkin and the gobber is that where one constructs the other one destructs. The Gobber are master in the art of blowing stuff up and of tearing things to pieces. There are also good salvagers and some are decent merchants (they have to make a profit off the stuff they break)

ARCADIAS( The Lifetree)

Feyfolk: They are the fairy from the tales (more from Grimm tales than from Disney one). Coming in many shapes and form. They are keeper of the great Lifetree and of nature in any form. They are often pranksters, and tend to sing, dance and drink a lot. They tend to have an optimistic way of getting throught life in general.

Treefolk:They are a breed of intelligent talking tree critters from squirel, to oppossum to racoon and koala) they evolved so they can use tools (sword and the like ...) . They tend to be goodscavengersand thief. They are a very indivialist race except for family ties.

AETHERIA (Elemental Land)

Zenjin: We can categorize the zenjin in 4 subracial groups. Each of these group is link to one of the prime elements. The Zenjin social structure is close to the Medieval Feudal Japan. The only major difference is instead of priorizing a swordweilding warrior class (the Samurai) it's a Elemental magic shardweilding one.

Air Zenjin: the air zenjin then to have fair skin ranging from bluish white to light tan and they have pale grayish eyes. Their hair is almost always white and its traditional to keep it in long flowing braids. The Air zenjin are the tallest of all the zenjin ranging from 6’ to 7’5’’. They are all slenderly built.

Earth Zenjin: they are the strongest of the zenjin. They tend to have dark skin from ebony black to dark redish browns. They have dark eyes too from black to hazelnut brown. They have little to no body hair. They then toward ritualistic marking (Branding, Scarring). They are small but powerfully built ranging from 4’5’’ to 5’10’’.

Fire Zenjin: the color of their skin range from fiery red to light orange, it’s the same thing for their hair. They always have black eyes with no visible white in it. They are mostly average height and built. One strange thing about their skin is that when they age the colour tends to change making intricate designs of red fire.

Water Zenjin: they have blue skin ranging from grennish aqua to royal blue. Instead of hair they have a fin spike across their head. They are smaller than the air Zenjin but are still tall ranging from 5’6’’ to 6’9’’. They have webbed feet and hand and sometime they also have webbed arms.

Many many other races live in the diversified Metropolis of Porticulis, so the players can get wild and invent wierd new races. As always the GM is the last judge of the validity of them.

Magic in the Multi-verse

How Magic Works:

Magic in the Multi-verse is a natural force coming from the raw elemental power. This raw elemental power is stored and released from special crystals that can be found throughout the mutiverse, but most abundantly in the caves of the Land of Aetheria. These crystals are extracted by crystal miners and shards of them are sold. But only one attuned with the arcane can harvest their true power.

In order to cast spells the “Mancer” must have a shard with enough elemental power of the right element. One can try to tap on the elemental force of the land alone but this is an arduous and exhausting task. In Risus terms, if one casts a spell without an suitable shards the difficulty is harder and you temporarily lose one level of the magic cliché because the task is tiring.

Shards are often molten and transformed into beautiful and useful objects by a Shardsmith (a lesser kind of magic user). These object are often useable by “Non-Mancer” thus creating magical artifacts. "Mancers" often carry their shard in Smithed form (Staffs, wands, rings, Amulets,daggers, etc.)

Particularly powerful Shards can make the casting of powerfull spell easier (lowering the casting difficulty). Legends speak of forgotten shard of Positive or negative energy capable of making worlds bloom or decay.

The Shardsmiths are not able to cast spells as other "Mancers" do. All they can do is make magical object to serve them.

Clichés of the Multi-verse

Racial Clichés

(see Major Races of the Multi-verse)

Humans
Cogkin
Gobber
Zenjin (fire,air,water,earth)
Treefolk
Feyfolk

Professional Clichés

You can use any of the traditional fantasy Profession clichés as well as some of the more contemporary ones... Here some that are specific to the setting

Druids
Keepers of nature ways

can speak and command with plants and animals
Have a good knowledge the natural means of healing one self.
Good at hugging trees

Engineers
Cog and screws workers

Operating,repairing and designing, Mechanical construct and gimmicks.
Lore of ancient and new mechanical inventions
Never knowing why there’s always a screw left

Scavengers
Recycling masters

Find anything in piles of junk
Jury-rigging things
Making friend with rats

Tomb raiders
Finder of old relics and treasures

Ancient history Lore
Dungeon crawling skills
Accurate map navigation
Good Evaluation skills
Smelling like old dust

Pistoleers
Elemental gunslinger

Gun-playand duel skills
Lesser elemental Arcane lore
Etiquette and Savoir-vivre
Knightly charm that makes virgins blush

Dragoneers
Fire crackers and demolisher

Blowing thing into little pieces
Making fire and handling gun powder
Knowledge of siege weapon
Knowledge of castle weak points
Smelling like BBQ

SkyDogs
Privateer and pirates of the vast sky

Sail the air currents
Operating an Airship
Drink strong Ale and not fall down
Sing-a-longs and Old Tales

Headhunters
Bounty collectors

Tracking and bringing back felons
Knowledge of criminal life and hangout
Looking bad ass in leather

DeathTalkers
Spirit and undead confessor

Communicate with Spirits and Undead
Turn Evil spirits
Exorcise and control dead
Spook the hell out of everyone

MAGIC CLICHÉS:

Pyromancer

Fire Mage (needs a fire-shard to power his spells)

Hydromancer

Water mage (needs a water-shard to power his spells)

Aeromancer

Air mage (needs an air-shard to power his spells)

Geomancer

Earth mage (needs a earth-shard to power his spells)

Voidmancer

Void mage(needs a void-shard to power his spells)

Shardsmith

Magic item maker, Enchanter and Shards Shaper (use any kind of power shards but can't directly cast spell)

Inspirations for Gears & Portals

Movies:

Labyrinth
Dark Crystal
The Neverending story I & II

Video Games:

The Myst collection
Arcanum
Planescape Torment

Books

The Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett
Sandman comicbook series by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Pirates

ChromeKnight — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:20:15 CDT

Pirate Characters come in all sorts and flavours, much like Ninjas.

Pirates can be found in Space, on the ocean and in cyberspace ,

stealing your music and ripping off your movies.

The ones on this page are the wet and watery sort.

So ideally, if you're going to use them, they'll need a boat of some sort,

an ocean to splash about in and some islands to fight/wench/bury treasure on.

Captain Roger Redbeard of the Dark Shark

Captain Roger is the iron handed master of the most feared ship in the islands. Which is

not to say he's mean, just that his hand is, actually, iron. He has a hook after losing a hand

during an unspecified misadventure. In fact, ask him again about his missing leg or eye or

hand and you'll get new story. He's not a liar so much as well... a pirate. He runs a tight ship

though and ishonorableand fair, ashonorableand fair as a Boozing,thieving,

womanizing pirate can be. He's sailed most of the waters and can read weather like it's written

down somewhere.

Cliches:Superbship's Captain with a weather eye(3) Biggest booziest, fightingest, womanizingest

pirate on the ship(4) Teller of tall tales of daring deeds(1) Haunted Soul seeking redemption from a

past dark deed(2)

First Mate Rummy

Much like the crew he is in charge of, Rummy is a thief, a womanizer and a drunkard.

It's mostly a matter of chance which he is more of at any particular time. Generally, as

his name suggests though, it's the Rum bottle which is his first love. Despite that he has

surprising depths, including an eye for the beautiful and tasty.

Cliches: Sharp-tongued Mate inspiring pants-wetting fear (3)Connoisseurof fine alcohols,

arts, women, treasures and Maps(3) One-eyed Drunken Master(3)

The Surly Crew of the Dark Shark

The crew iseffectivelyone large grunt squad. As such, they're not a 10 dice
character in the strictest sense. I've listed them as a sidekick for Rummy but they can
also be thought of as one of Roger's toolsof the trade. He (or any of the other named crew)
can call on them when needed.As a crew they're OK at sailing a ship or fighting, but
onshore they'recollectivelyas sharp as a box of hammers.

Cliches: Boozing,Thieving, Womanizing,UnhygienicCrew of a pirate ship (3)

Anne the Pirate Wench

It's a hard life being a woman on a ship full of womanizers. Or it would be if the crew hadn't

already learnt how dangerous Anne is. A Mistress of pointed barbs, both metaphorical and literal

means that Anne is left alone when she wants to be. She is however, still a shameless flirt and

enjoys drinking the crew under the table. A surrogate mother of sorts to Will but not involved with

Roger, Annecharts her own course, determined to prove that women can be even more piratical

than men.

Cliches: Runaway youngest daughter of theGovernor(1) Skilled with blades and witty banter (4))

Boozing, Thieving, Manizing, hygienic Pirate (3) Scrubs up alright in a pinch(2)

Will the Cabin Boy

Taken when he was young from a sinking ship, the Dark Shark is the only

home will has known, and the crew his only family. He is brighter than most

of the crew despite his lack of schooling. And his keen eyesight and surefootedness

in the rigging means that if he's not in the kitchen or the captain's cabin, he's aloft.

Cliches: Bright, overlooked, hardworking young pirate (4) Nimble like a monkey (3)

Relief Cook and occasionalQuartermaster(2) Pleasing Soprano in Pirate Ditties (1)

Adventures

ChromeKnight — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:29:31 CDT

Gateways to Fun

Standard practice is to add a new page for your adventure and once it is complete, add a link to it here by adding your adventure to the list (use the Subhead option to list your adventure name and link that subhead to your new page using the +link option) and add a brief description.

You might also want to stop check out Settings.

Five Finger Adventures

Short on time and paper? Make something up.

Fantasy First

A basic adventure outline for a first adventure in a fantasy campaign.

30 Minutes or It's Free

A real-time action adventure that is simple to run. I guarantee you can play this adventure in 30 minutes or it won't cost you a penny.

Space Pirates
Short game module you can jump right into. So so detail and large number of options.

The Nameless Village

Part one of a three part fantasy adventure.

Solo Adventure Module

Random adventure generation.

Cactus Gulch

Western adventure with a lost mine.

The Adventures of bob

A video game inspired quick adventure.

Instant adventure

Quick, instant adventure generation!

Dopethrone

You’re a marijuana grower with a mission: to grow the greatest grass man-kind has ever seen!

Meggido Unearthed
This is a two part game, loosely based on some of my favorite RPG's, notably Final Fantasy I, Star Ocean, and Shadow Hearts.

Space Pirates

Dungeonbrownies — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:02:26 CDT

Space Pirate Short Game is a pretty easy thing to play, just use your average scifi and pulp or western along with a few stock cliches and youll be fine, Ill be editing this till it's done. tone- humorous.

You start out on what is essentially a space-bus station off of a waypoint between major stops. A ship arrives. It isn't the normal ship you were expecting, but you all take it anyways. Suddenly you are all hit by crazy purple knockout gas and delivered into a larger ship. Turns out they're actually pirates who've kidnapped you right after blowing up the regular space-bus. After the revelation you are all caged (laser-caged that is) below deck. Take this time to introduce characters.

During the pirate's celebration a piece of space junk collides with the ship and you are all released. Escaping to the main part of the ship, you discover it in disarray as several of the pirates are already fighting eachother. stumbling across half of a pirate (literally half, think monty python's black knight) [because laser weapons cauterize wounds] who explains what happened. Turns out food poisoning has taken down a few of the key officers and accusations of mutinous conduct resulted. Take this time to elaborate on the pirates before they enter the fray full of highly incompetent pirates, angry cooking droids, and a few healthy but angry pirates who for some reason refrained from the poisoned dishes [ie, kosher, vegetarian, allergies, robot, photosythesize, etc].

If they manage to fight their way to the command center, they can open the airlocks to kill everyone, pilot the ship to the galactic version of the coast guard, or hit escape to jettison the command center from the rest of the vessel (sending the pirates in it flying into a sun or stranding them on some random moon).

Some good PC's: (all 10 dice of course)
Wanderers (gun slinging tough guys and mysterious people)
space-hobos (jack of all trades, master of nothing [ie, less than 4 on all])
Garugolakz witnesses (hoverbike riding missionaries of the tentcacled gods)
Turistas (Duzzinay Solar System)
Discharged soldieir/veteran of interplanetary conflict
Mechanical or Tech wiz (possibly on their way to or from an expo)
Cyborgs (robotish sort)
Aliens of all sorts

Some Ideas for some of the pirate crew (remember they're poisoned and there are ALOT of them fighting each other)
Service droids (imagine roomba in a thousand years)
Mostly Unedumacated Scallywags (incompetent at 2 or 3 dice)
Sick Ship Officers (still kicking at 4 dice)
Unpoisoned Mutinous Weirdos (set at around 5 or 6)
CyberCaptain (make sure even ill he's roughly 5 or 6, maybe with a few tricks up the sleeve)

The Ship
It's something of a hideous makeshift conversion of what was obviously once a cruise ship. Some ridiculous name like Quasar Cruises, the Prince Garth, or Galactic Escapader is crossed out and replaced with an equally ridiculous name such as Scary Mc Geedo Ship of Doom or If You Can Read This We Be Robbing You. It's overall hideous as it seems to be held together mostly by nano-engineered duct tape and Mighty Mendit bonding putty. It's shape is absurd, but that doesn't matter as aerodynamics don't apply when there's no air.

Ship Map

Ship Areas
Computer room can allow for some fancy tech work to access the command deck and all sorts of stuff like email or distress signals.
Ship guts and engine room can stop the ship permanently if ruined, so be careful.
Viewing area can be shattered and send everyone flying into the vacuum of space (which is why the pirates use this as a base and not their main attack ship).
Weapons/Heavy Equipment is complete with space suits, laser rifles, tools, and exo armor style loading units.
Cargo Galley is a combination holding area and cooking area. Cannibalism is a-ok with them and its always warm.
Command Deck is pretty much what you'd see in Star Trek, but tackier.

Risus of Arabia

Nero_Grimes — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:11:26 CDT

Risus of Arabia 3.0

Risus: the Anything RPG, © S. John Ross 1993-2001 http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm

"First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature?”
Hannibal Lecter

Disclaimer.

This is another attempt to untangle the Gordian Knot that is the Arabian Adventure world a friend and I started (and abandoned after a year and change of over thinking the whole process) for GURPS. Bits and parts will surface at my Yahoo blog.

Second Disclaimer.

This Risus take on Arabian Adventures has not been rigorously playtested.

To avoid problems, long ago we started using Fate in place of God, Allah, or Mohammad.

For simplicity’s sake, the characters are generic Islamic Arab. The era is ‘The Golden Age of the Islamic Empire’. All other races, creeds, nationalities are fit only for villains or comic relief.

If you are going to lift from RPG resources on the web; lean toward Supernatural Pulp, rather than High Fantasy.

Setting Cliches

Jinns in bottles on the beach.

Flying carpet careening through the minaret crowned skyline of Baghdad.

Lost cities in the sands of trackless deserts.

Dancing girls in diaphanous harem clothes.

A dhow in full sail on the seven seas.

Cliches for the various lands of the Land of Fate.

Saharan Africa: Salt caravans, Timbuktu, Barbary pirates, Algiers, Morocco, Casablanca

Egypt: Tombs, tombs, tombs, barging down the Nile, Nubian gold mines, (Egypt is, historically, the center of the Arab world)

East Africa: King Solomon’s Mines, the slave trade, She Who Must Be Obeyed, Mountains of the Moon.

Arabia: riding camels, sailing Dhows, resting in oases, sand swept ruins of lost civilizations.

Persia: Like Arabia, only with mountains.

Anatolia (Turkey): Like Persia, only on the Mediterranean Sea.

India: Ornate temples of Doom, jungles, the Ganges, Thugges.

Spice Islands: old men who like piggyback rides, headhunters.

Risus of Arabia Adventure Seeds

Several themes: “powerful demon stories, talisman stories where a magical object protects and guides the hero, quest stories, transformation tales, and tales of demons under restraint”

The two main travel motivators in The Nights are to find treasure or break an enchantment; the usual RPG ‘need and greed seeds’.

I defer to The Big List of RPG Plots by S. John Ross. http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

Risus of Arabia characters.

Characters are built on ten dice.

Options at the GM’s whim. The only inappropriate option is Funky Dice.

The Hand of Fate rule lets a player call a Mulligan once a session. The HoF can be affected by the Five Pillars of Islam; or the Five Pillars can simply be milieu texture. HoF points are the same as Cool points or Fate points.

Characters should be mindful of Family, Honor, Hospitality, and Piety. They can form a bonus system or simply be milieu texture.

No classes. D&D classes do not translate into The Night’s milieu. Pick a job and work outward. The merchant/adventurer or young prince/princess (noble) are staples.

Merchant

Scholar

Caravan outrider

Dancing girl

Fakir is a tall dark and handsome manly man. He is always on the move. Good with pack animals and horses; not so good with people.

Hook: Bad Case of Wanderlust. Pathological Need for ‘Me’ Time.

Tale: He grew up fast in the streets and alleys of Baghdad. His survival mentality is built around ‘keep moving and trust no one’. Stowed away on a ship and has been moving ever since.

Taciturn Caravan Outrider (4) was an Agile and Cunning Street Urchin (3) and Is now a Well Traveled Dilettante Scholar (2) which allows him Universal Mage Abilities, and a Break Even Gambler (1).
[] [] [] [] [] []

Princess Shalimar / Taura

Hook: Price on Her Head. Secret Identity. Compulsive Thief

Tale: She is a gypsy princess who fled her tribe because a traditionally evil uncle usurped power and wants to a) marry her off to some halfwit cousin, b) kill her off so he can take over. She was taken in by a group of traveling gypsies where she learned her trades. She uses her dance and social skills to locate loot and the best means to gain said loot.

Little Nell’s Dancing Girl: ‘Lithe of limb, light of touch, and fleet of foot.’ She is a renowned dancer with the ability to enthrall men as if they had drunk deeply of wine. She is also a gifted thief, pickpocket, con artist, and gambling cheat.

Wily Gypsy Peasant (4) which allows her Universal Mage Abilities, Stunning Gypsy Princess (3), Savvy Merchant (2) Itinerant Bon Vivant (2).
[] [] []

Risus of Arabia Magic

In The Nights, powerful sorcerers were trumped by Fate or cunning; and a butcher’s daughter was learned in enchantments. Magic is useful, and accessible; but not overwhelming. This magic is more enchantment than spell flinging. For a taste of magic from the Tales read the Second Kalandar’s Tale.

Magic objects can be handled like the ‘Gizmo’ advantage for the Gadgetteer in GURPS Cliffhangers; devices, objects, and equipment are prepared before hand and can fill only five of the ten regular Gear Slots*. A set number of rings, vials, flasks, amulets, etc… are not committed before a session, but are committed once they come into play; however the uncommitted slot must be named ‘ring, vial, flask, amulet, etc…. One ring and one necklace can be ‘at the ready’ for a PC, each costs a Gear Slot. No spell lists, decide what needs to be done and work out the mechanics.
(*see Vincent Diakuw’s Dungeonautica)

Summoner/Demonologist or Alchemist is taken as the cliché. With augury and letter magic as skills in either. Both Summoner/Demonologist and Alchemist clichés can be taken but only one can be double pumped. The division between Summoner/Demonologist and Alchemist was a personal preference; it was done solely to diffuse mage power, feel free to combine them. Note: most magic takes one or two turns to prepare. Being ‘combat ready’ is tricky for a mage. Mages can have passable to excellent combat skills – still it’s a good to have a trick, or two, up his or her sleeve.

Summoned jinns and demons are treated as temporary magic items* and get to make a break for it, after its task is completed, with a ‘Battle of Wills’ using either the ‘wild dice rule’ from WEG, or after a critical failure on a Control Roll - fair’s fair. Bound demons and jinns are automatically summoned and are at minus one die in 'Battle of Will' rolls; if they do make a break for it they take their creation dice with them. Jinns and demons are created with the 3 to 1 'sidekick' dice rule. Lucky Shot dice can be held in reserve for summoned jinns or demons as bonus die.+

Note: Demons are only vaguely referred to in The Nights; and the souls of the departed are in the hands of Allah, so no séances or ghosts or ghosts-like apparitions. Spirits are mentioned in The Night, these are animistic hold overs from pre-Muslim Arab beliefs.

For game purposes, jinns, as a rule, don’t do physical combat; the lower powered jinns can use their innate magic abilities to perform magical tasks. Higher level jinns can cast spells and enchantments. Demons, due to their less magical nature, are more suited for combat and physical tasks. And no, jinns and demons can’t be summoned at the same time.

*(Risus Magic Objects by Jason Puckett)

+(see Minute-Made Magic (M3) for summoning options)

Alchemy: potions, elixirs, devices, acids, explosives, tear gas, transmuting stuff, animating statues, make and use The Philosopher’s Stone, create homunculi (‘do it yourself’ Sidekick – Companion page 51), and golems, (a Sidekick as a temporary magic item), etc…
Sample potions: heroism, speed, strength, healing, flash vial, paralyzation, polymorph, cure disease, regeneration……. As well as powders for illusions and invisibility.

Alchemists can carry five vials or two flasks per Gear Slot.

Universal Mage Abilities (see Risus Magic by Jason Puckett and S. John Ross)

Sensing magic items upon seeing or touching them
Sensing other wizards on sight
Sensing other wizards nearby, whether or not they're visible ("I feel a disturbance in the Force...")
Sensing spells cast nearby
Detecting the nature (necromancy, fire magic, good/evil/hostile/friendly magic) of magic items or spells in the area
Dispelling other mages' spells *
etc.

* Dispelling an enchantment is a regular theme in The Nights, often involving time, effort, and travel. There is also a tacit ‘hands off’ agreement among all magic user, both mages and Jinns. There is a tenuous connection between the caster and the enchantment so he or she knows when it is being tampered with. It also serves as an automatic Lojack for magic objects until the enchantment is cloaked, altered, or broken. Also a door can be given a slight enchantment to act as a silent alarm (a variation of Magic Mouth).

Also:

Augury: Astrology/Geomancy (sand writing, akin to reading tea leaves), ask the oracle simple questions … (a shameless tool for the GM to use)

Letter Magic. - wards and glyphs, making amulets (protective) and talismans (empowering) to control the elements (not elemental spirits), control the weather, talk to animals, draw magic circles, create illusions, write home for help ... (necessary for making magic objects) Letter magic can be written or chanted (the 'intelligible words' often spoken in The Nights) Letter magic is fundamental to most magic in The Nights.

(Note: Enchantment, Illusions, and Shapeshifting are covered by a second tier of Letter Magic difficulty. We still need to suss out a few rules.)

(Note: illusions are just trickery, the sort minor jinn engage in to mislead humans.No mind control involved.)
Magic circles using wards and glyphs will add dice to a spell on a one shot basis. Wards and glyphs can be traced on walls or doors to make barriers or traps; or traced on the palm of the hand for a low powered quickie: flash, stun, confuse, enthrall, etc… At higher levels letters can be traced in the air and cast like runes.

(Note: Sleep is milieu passable; Charm, Suggestion, and other mind control spells are not.)
(Note: I don’t remember if mesmerism is a part of The Nights; however, jinns could work illusions, mirages, and hallucinations; but not direct mind control, that would preclude free will. Mesmerism was included in the earlier incarnation of this game as a concession to a player who wanted an 'always ready' wammy.)

Universal Mage Abilities can be a skill in an appropriate cliché: a Gypsy Princess, Gypsy Peasant, Occult Scholar, etc… with adjusted TNs. Or not. As a rule dilettante Universal Mage Abilities levels top out at either (2) or (3) no matter how high the cliche goes.

There is a Spellflinger conversion chart; most ‘classic’ spells can be replicated with this system – the point is to have a broader use of magic. To cover the biggest bugbear, there are no Magic Missiles, Fireballs, Webs, or the like. Cure Wounds or Cure Disease are handled through other skills. (although in the second incarnation of this game Little Nell used a minor ‘bind’ glyph to staunch a bleeding wound and a ‘hold’ glyph to stop the progression of paralysis)

Augury covers ESP, Clairvoyance ….

Letter Magic covers: Light, Protection from Evil, Hold Portal, Shield (detailed rules), Wizard Lock…

Risus of Arabia Bestiary

In the first incarnation the bestiary was divided by region, era, culture, and such, using the Cthulhu rule of thumb that the older the entity the more powerful it is. It was long and well over-thought.

In the second incarnation we used the Harryhausen rule. Any creature animated by Harryhausen could be used. This was a more Greco-Roman themed bestiary.

Types of monsters.

Hybrids: Half and halfs like centaurs or Nagas and/or chimeras – beasts of many parts.

Melds: a Moreau-esque manimals, werewolves, lizardmen etc….

BTL: Bigger than life. Large or giant creatures.

There are no undead in The Nights or Egyptian mythology. The mummy’s curse was a product Victorian England.

In the second incarnation demons were based on the Hindu and Egyptian pantheons, demons are minor aspects of the deities, mini avatars.

Nagas
Base Cliché: (3) slithering, listening to reedy music, hypnotizing birds….
Notes: bite, claw, whip with tail.
Can lunge.
Slow reptilian brain.
Tastes the air over short distances, heat sense.
Half man half snake, usually solo.

Anubins.
Base Cliché: (2) running in packs, having a ‘Day’, using curved bladed weapons.
Notes:. Jackelmen as from ‘The Mummy Returns’.

Sand Snake: Large snake (4)
Notes: Surprise attack
A really impressive hood.
Ambush hunter

General notes on Jinn.
They were created from smokeless fire (humans were created from clay) and seem to be the missing link between angels/demons and men. They have a parallel society, marry, have families, hold slaves, and have jobs. They can pass for human, have sex with humans, and have the same emotional range as humans; though being created from fire, they are more passionate. The most common enchantments are shapeshifting, illusions, charm, fly, element control, talk to animals, and pass through walls. All are dependent on the jinn’s class and power.

A by no means authoritative list of jinn-kind.

Classes of Jinn

Marid: A large jinn. (10)
Notes: All jinn abilities and then some.
All knowing, all seeing.
Wise, and well disposed towards polite company.
Fewest in number, strongest, solitary. Live near the coast and are masters of the weather, may appear as a wise old man or a porpoise, or a horse, leading travelers to wise courses.

Ifrit:
Base Cliché: Well meaning hothead(6)
Notes: illusions, fly, element control, talks to animals, and pass through walls.
Highly intelligent, have a quite evil temper, make homes in abandoned or desolate places. May appear as a soldier, or a great dog, often move across land as a great tornado of dust, or on magical camels made of sand and evil magic. They may also strike as giant serpents or scorpions spitting fire.

Jinn
Base Cliché: Joe Average jinn (3)
Notes: illusions, charm, fly, talk to animals, and pass through walls.
The longest lived of all the jinn, masters of deception, and can disappear in a cloud of smoke, traveling on clouds of hot air from place to place. They are well known for their pride, and are known to have human worshipers and slaves.

Jann
Base Cliché: Cherub of jinn-kind (2)
Notes: Illusions, charm, fly, talk to animals, and pass through walls
The most individualistic, could hide an oasis from those who had previously mistreated them or shown disrespect.

Qareen:
Base Cliché: Impish jinn (1)
Notes: illusions, charm, fly, and pass through walls.
According to Islamic literature, these are evil spirits, analogous to a personal demon, intent on tricking people into acts of sin. Binding a Qareen to someone is a form of a Hex.

Jinn are beings of flame or air that are capable of assuming human or animal form and are said to dwell in all conceivable inanimate objects—stones, trees, ruins—underneath the earth, in the air, and in fire. They possess the bodily needs of human beings and can even be killed, but they are free from all physical restraints. Jinn delight in punishing humans for any harm done them, intentionally or unintentionally, and are said to be responsible for many diseases and all kinds of accidents; however, those human beings knowing the proper magical procedure can exploit the jinn to their advantage.

Ghul
Base Cliché: Hillbilly cousin of jinn-kind (3)
Notes: shape shifting, charm.
Stalk the trackless wastes of the desert and prey upon the living and the dead. They can change into vultures, Their alternative forms always have asses' hooves The only way to kill Ghul is to strike them with a single blow, since striking them twice will invest within them new life.
There is a debate as to whether ghuls are jinns, sometimes they are referred to as ‘ogres’. For games purposes, a family tree of less magical ghuls formed the workhorse / cannon fodder for players to stomp (much like the goblinoid monsters in D&D).

Risus of Arabia movie list …

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (The inspiring cliché)

Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger

The Desert Hawk

The Prince who was a Thief

The Princess of the Nile

Legend of the Lost

Allan Quartermain, King Solomon’s Mines, She.

Beau Geste

The Last Remake of Beau Geste

Khartum

The Wind and the Lion

The Sheltering Sky

Lawrence of Arabia

Or Universal’s ‘tits and sand’ easterns from the forties and fifties:
The Prince Who Was a Thief
Flame of Araby
Son of Ali Baba
Veils of Bagdad
The Golden Blade

Arcadomai

Dantopia — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:52:34 CDT

Arcadomai

A fantasy Risus setting created by
Dan Suptic ©2006

Any and all comments and constructive criticism are welcome - just add you thoughts as comments to this post, or email me at the address at the end of this page

A note about Risus
Risus is a free and easy to learn role-playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Arcadomai. Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that’s all you’ll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you’ll be able to play Arcadomai.

Additional Arcadomai Resources
Arcadomai Spell Compendium
Arcadomai Warrior Creeds
Arcadomai Skill Guide

The world of Arcadomai

“Such wonders. Such diversity. So many ideas, arts, and ways of life. And we spend it squabbling about city boundaries and taxes. My friends, or to those who hear my words, I leave to search for the one thing this place does not have – peace.” last words, Dakar Frost, ex-politician.
An old world spins in the aether. Torn by magic, monsters, and the hands of men, this world is rugged, worn, and dangerous. 3 great continents mark the face of Arcadomai – the reasonable peaceful lands of Primeria, the savage and decaying lands of Sunder, and the world long strip of unearthly land known as Cicatrix. Men work, live, fight and die to make the world a better place (or at least their own part of the world). Aristocrats and politicians plan and plot with merciless efficiency. Warriors and adventurers seek fame and fortune battling monsters, fiends and other creatures of alien design. Wizards and sorcerers bend reality to their will. Thieves and beggars try to live day by day, scrounging up a few meager hex (the currency of Arcadomai). Metal and stone, wood and mana, compassion and greed – these are the building blocks of Arcadomai.

People
“She was a tall one, and a beauty too. I could tell she would be fun for a romp in the hay, if you catch my drift ~cough~. Didn’t know until later she was a damned pyromancer ~sniff~. Oh well, any tryst you can walk away from..." Gulaviar Poetaro, bard.

Character Creation
Characters are created with a base of 10 dice. Advanced options I, II and III are all used (Hooks and Tales, Pumping Clichés and Double-Pumps). Lucky Shots and Questing Dice may also be used (from the Risus Compendium) at the GM’s option. Gear and any spare hex should be determined by clichés chosen.

Races
The dominant race of Arcadomai is Human. Countless wars, and natural human dominance has all but driven the other peaceful races from Arcadomai. Being an Elf or Dwarf is possible, but non-human races are regarded with great suspicion and dislike. Those races special skills and talents offset this animosity. GMs should remember to give extra perks to those who play a non human race – whatever seems appropriate to the race in question. Nimbleness for elves, sturdiness for dwarfs, etc. There is about 1 non human for every 1000 humans on Primeria and about 1 non human for every 100 humans on Sunder. No sentient humans or non humans live on Cicatrix, as the entire continent is very hostile to visitors.

Language
Everyone in Arcadomai speaks the same language – a language so universal, the world doesn’t even need a name for it. Other races may remember a word or 2 from their heritage, but usually not enough to have a full conversation in.

Religion
“What do you mean, ‘What do you believe in?’” typically heard in conversations about religion
A long time ago, there was 3 gods. Beautiful Primiar, patient Scar, and selfish Rage. Primiar created the world with her will and curiosity. Scar slowly tamed and stitched the new creation into form and function, while Rage destroyed all that was unnecessary. It was balance, not perfect, but workable. After seeing races of man and beast rise and fall, and the slow degradation of harmony, the 3 gods grew tired and left Arcadomai. Now, the world runs on the powers that the gods left behind, the Light (from Primiar), the Grey (from Scar) and the Dark (from Rage). Religion is not diverse here – the gods don’t even care to focus on Arcadomai anymore. There are only 3 outcomes to your death based on your actions in life. You can merge with the Light, the soothing, healing and positive force of Arcadomai. You can be pulled into the Dark, the hateful, destructive and negative force of Arcadomai. Or, you can be reborn through the Grey, the power of fate, destiny, and luck. Kind, good and just people merge with the Light, to further help and heal their family and friends from beyond. Evil, selfish and unjust people get pulled into the Dark, where their hateful energies can be driven into still living enemies. Those who are neither virtuous nor vile are pulled through the Grey, their life’s experiences taken away, and are reborn into the world again.

Combat Clichés
“Do you see that? I’ve never seen anyone carry a two-handed claymore like that before. Five hex says he gets killed by the first guy he picks a fight with...” THUD “...you owe me five hex.” Daeg the Rat, beggar, former mercenary
What follows are some more of the common combat oriented clichés found on Arcadomai. While not an exhaustive list, the clichés presented here are by far the most commonly seen.

Fighter – Generic fighter, can use weapons and armor and fists and feet.
Soldier – Highly trained fighter, able to also plan and strategize an attack
Barbarian – One who loses himself to the rage of battle; a truly frightening foe
Fencer – A swordsman with education, flair, and 3 ½ feet of thin, pointy metal
Guard – A hired combatant, usually pestering adventurers about their habits
Mercenary – A hired combatant, usually pestering adventurers with their habits
Archer – A skilled person who can stop a fight before you get to him
Assassin – A frightful adversary who uses shadows and feints to land a killing blow
Brawler – Never unarmed, a warrior who uses his own body to hurt you
Paladin – A servant of the Light, his faith gives his weapons great strength

Skill Clichés
“Sure, being a peasant isn’t the most interesting life. But when I look at those poor bastards who have to actually learn to read and write? Thank the Light my life’s better than that!” Julia Gander, peasant
The clichés present here all focus on a particular skill. While certainly no list can encompass every skill worthy of focus, chances are that you’ll run into a fair amount of the following people before you run into that Cat Choreographer.

Politician – One who can manipulate bureaucracy to incredible ends
Aristocrat – A ruler of a local area
Thief – One who sees your wealth, and seizes it well
Blacksmith – One who makes your weapons and armor
Merchant – Buy low and sell high. The merchant’s credo
Sailor – He knows how to sail a vessel across the seas, and that’s just useful
Bard – One who inspires with poem and song, even in situations that seem wrong
Teamster – Getting groups of animals working together is his occupation
Cook – Give him random ingredients, he’ll give you random ingredient stew
Farmer – He grows and cultivates what you eat
Peasant – Great for manual labor. Not so great for anything else
Scribe – Read stuff, write it down, hear stuff, write it down. Fun

Magic Clichés
“Typical ebb and flow in the Dark can be mixed with the vitalizing forces of the Light to generate effects both spontaneous and destructive. Here we have a great text detailing combat and tactical utility of the spell ‘Fireball’” overheard in the Arcane College
Clichés present here are gathered through the understanding of the powers that still permeate the world. While any cliché can be a double pump cliché, magic clichés tend to be double pump much more than others. These clichés are the most studied, but others are certainly possible.

Pyromancer – A fire mage, able to cause great destruction
Cryomancer – An ice mage, subtle, clever and deadly
Hydromancer – A water mage, useful in many ways
Aeromancer – An air mage, can use the power of wind and lighting
Geomancer – An earth mage, can cause even the ground to betray you
Enchanter – Magic item maker, and someone who can turn you into a frog, too
Diviner – One who can read fate, fortune and destiny
Druid – Nature mage, the woods is their playground
Cleric – A healer, with enough training, can pull someone back to life
Necromancer – A user of Dark magic, creating undead and snuffing life is their skill
Telemancer – A force mage, can move people and things all about
Chronomancer – A time mage, folding cause and effect to his whim
Stasiomancer – An order mage, things always go smoothly for him
Chaomancer – A chaos mage. Every fight is different with her
Illusionist – An illusion mage. Hard to defeat when even your senses betray you
Summoner – A summoning mage. Able to call forth all sorts of interesting allies

Plunder

“Just 40 Hex, that’s right 40 Hex for this authentic God crafted dagger. Yessir, it’ll cut, slice, stab and puncture any beast, demon, monster or madman. No? How about 35 Hex? 30? Sir, this is a true God crafted....sir!” nameless merchant
There are three types of Bonus Gear in Arcadomai. + (number), + (number) die or dice, and + (number) pip. God crafted items simply refer to any item created in the times where the Gods still watched Arcadomai. These items will always have a +1 pip bonus, along with the ability of being indestructible. Most God crafted items are weapons, armor, and magic staves, but it seems like everyone knows someone who knows someone who owns a God crafted mug or pair of sandals. Bonus equipment only add their bonus when used for their implied purpose – fighting for weapons, magic for staves, picking locks for lockpicks, etc.

+ (number) = These items add the number after the plus to the final result of the roll. A +2 sword adds 2 to the final result of any roll with the sword. While this definitely appears to be the weakest bonus, some items come with a great bonus of this type. Lord Gunther, mightiest Paladin in Arcadomai, carries a +16 greatsword. These items typically cost an additional 25 hex per bonus point. Items with more than a +3 are unusual and hard to find.

Note: Certain spells and effects can give you a minus (number) to your rolls. This cannot lower your final roll below the number of dice you rolled. Therefore, if you are a Soldier (3) and have a large minus (number) to your roll, your minimum roll result is a 3.

+ (number) die or dice = These items add dice equal to the number whenever used. A +2 dice sword would add 2 dice to any roll used with it. These bonus dice don’t add to your actual cliché – if you’re a Guard (2), using a +2 dice sword, you still go down after you lose 2 dice. These items are powerfully helpful to those of low cliché levels, but become less important the higher that cliché becomes. These items typically cost an additional 100 hex per bonus die. Items with more than a +2 dice are unusual and hard to find.

Note: Certain spells and effects can give you a minus (number) die or dice to your rolls. This effect does not count as cliché damage. So long as the cliché you're using has any dice left in it, this effect won't bring the dice you roll below one.

+ (number) pip = These items add the number to each die rolled in the cliché using it. A +2 pip sword would add 2 to each die when the wielder used a sword using combat cliché. Thus, a Soldier (2) who rolled a 2 and a 3 would add 2 to each, getting a 4 and a 5. A + pip item cannot raise a die roll above a 6; therefore, a +5 pip item is the best you could ever get. In the hands of a trained person, this can easily become the best bonus for equipment, especially if the character is already getting + dice from seomthing else. These items typically cost an additional 150 hex per bonus pip. Items with more than a +2 pip are unusual and hard to find.

Note: Certain spells and effects can give you a minus (number) pip to your rolls. This cannot drop a die roll below one, and if you roll a six on a die, that die still counts as a six.

Hex
“Take away the happy looks on the crowd’s faces. Take away the honorable and skilled combatants. Take away the cheers, the music, the food, and the glamour. All I love is the sound of hex being poured in my pockets” Darren Axesmith, arena master
Hex is the currency of Arcadomai. Hex (both singular and plural) are 1 inch wide hexagonal pieces of black glass inscribed magically with an amount (always 1, 5, 10 or 100). The pieces themselves are taken from the islands that surround the continent of Cicatrix. These islands (and Cicatrix itself if anyone is foolish enough to gather hex there) are composed entirely of this metal-hard black glass. When enough Geomancer force is applied to it, it naturally breaks off in these hexagonal pieces. When new currency is needed, a team of soldiers sail to one of these islands, bring back some large chunks of it, and get it to one of the larger cities (usually Corlavi, the biggest city in Arcadomai) to be broken apart and inscribed. It takes a TN 25 Geomancer check to break a main chunk into the single hex pieces and a TN 25 Illusionist check to inscribe them properly. 130 years ago, an Enchanter started infusing these pieces with a permanent mana supply (TN 30). Most shop keepers (at least on Primeria) are giving a null mana box (in exchange for slightly higher taxes) that will nullify any counterfeit coin put in it by dispelling the illusion cast on it. Since all currency now is made with it’s own mana supply, real hex keep their illusionary notation in these boxes. Hex is the only official currency in Primeria, although bartering and IOUs are neither prosecuted nor uncommon. In Sunder, hex is nearly worthless; bartering, IOUs, blackmail and debt are much more useful currency. In Cicatrix, hex is pointless since 1 – the whole continent is made of it and 2 – there’s nothing to buy there.

Weapons
“This blade was given to me by my father, and to my father by his father before him. It shall go to you one day when I no longer need it’s power. It has slain evil men and monstrous creatures by the thousands, and always has kept it’s keen edge and perfect balance. Now, son, please describe to me exactly how this dagger was found stuck point up in the seat of your tutor’s chair...” Johnathael Lighthand, former soldier
Most basic weapons are standard gear for clichés, and usually only cost 10 to 15 hex to replace if broken, stolen or lost. Bonus gear of all types is available for all cliché types, and follow normal equipment rules for prices of bonus die equipment. A unique set of weapons exists in this world – the Sledge Sword, the Hammer Axe, and the Twin Maul. Each of these swinging weapons has an additional piece coming off the hilt – a thin band of metal with a strong weight attached to the end. When swung, these weapons first hit their foe, and then the weight knocks in the blade or maul head, driving the weapon further into the foe. These items are +1 dice equipment, and normally cost around 80 to 90 hex. The only downside is if they’re swung too hard – a roll of all 6’s when used causes the extra weight to destroy the main weapon, making it useless. God crafted items are +1 pip items that never break or become dull. They usually range around the 130 to 160 hex range. Their only disadvantage is that they may not be further enchanted or improved.

Skill Gear
“I need some oil, metal springs, cogs, tension coils, glue, and flexible metal rods. Yes, this purchase is entirely legitimate.” Sandi the Quick, master thief
Like weapons, most skill gear (lockpicks, bard’s instrument, etc.) is standard equipment, costing only about 10 to 15 hex to replace. Bonus gear of all types is available for all cliché types, and follow normal equipment rules for prices of bonus die equipment. 2 examples of bonus equipment follow.

Clockwork Lockpicks - +1 dice lockpicks. These lockpicks use a combination of springs, cogs, and coils set in a small wind up box. The thief inserts the correct picks into the box and lock, winds the box and then listens while 20 or 30 minutes of work clanks away in second.

Glass Lute - +4 lute. This lute is made of carefully blown and calibrated glass. The tunes it gives off are crystal clear, sharp and melodically perfect.

Magic Staves and Wands
“So I said ‘If you want this ancient staff, you’ll just have to take it from me!’ What did he do, you say? He took it from me. Turns out it wasn’t an ancient Necromancer staff at all....it was a curtain rod, ok? Shut up about it.” Theodynin Blackbone, apprentice necromancer
For magic staves , bonus gear of all types are available for all magical cliché types, and follow normal equipment rules for prices of bonus die equipment. Each staff is connected to a certain cliché of magic, and only adds it’s bonus to that type of magic. Thus a Pyromancer staff only adds it’s bonus to the Pyromancer cliché, etc etc.

Wands may be of any bonus type, but only cost 10 hex per +(number), 25 hex per +(number) dice, and 40 hex per +(number) pip. This is because wands only add their bonus to one particular spell, and only a mage of the appropriate type can use it. So only a Necromancer can use a +1 die Wand of Create Skeleton, and only an Aeromancer can use a +20 dice Wand of Create Soothing Breeze.

Magic Cards
“I don’t like them at all. Magical cards that can give powers to anyone who has them? We have enough trouble keeping law and order around here. Do I use them? Well, of course. But, see, I’m a guard. I’m a good guy.” Thomak, city guard
Magic cards are enchanted slips of stiff parchment that have specific spells embedded in them. These can be used by anyone, and vanish after one use. The cost for magic cards varies widely, depending on what the spell does. A card of Minor Healing may be only 5 or 10 hex, while a card of Extremely Potent Explosions of Deadly Doom may cost a bit more. Combat oriented cards usually let the character act like a magic using cliché for one round, at a level determined by the power of the spell on the card. So, a card of Electrical Spark can let someone act as an Aeromancer (1) for a turn, while a card of Entomb in the Core of the World would let someone act as a Geomancer (6) for a turn. If you lose a round of combat while using a magic card, you lose a die in any of your clichés of your choice. If you have at least 3 clichés total in mage clichés, you know what any card does when you see it. Anyone can use magic cards, but someone who doesn't have 3 dice in magical clichés will have to either know what the card does and have it prepared in a certain place (left pocket is heal, right pocket is ice dagger) or they could just cast it blindly (I’m sure that could never go wrong). Mage characters that have 4 dice in one specific magic cliché can create cards. The mage specifies what spell he wants to inscribe, and what cliché level it will be. A mage may only make a certain number of cards a day – he cannot make more cliché levels of cards total than his mage clichés. So a Pyromancer (5) can create a total of 5 cliché levels worth of cards in a day. Blank cards cost 1 hex per card.

Other Items
Other magic items (and mundane items too) exist in this world, of course. GMs are free to come up with anything that seems interesting and useful. A few items are presented here to help spark that imagination.

Hex Armor
This suit of armor is made entirely of uninscribed hex, fused together to fit an individual by a powerful Geomancer. It provides a +5 dice bonus to any combat situation where being almost unkillable is useful...which is pretty much any combat situation. It cost about 1500 hex to get a personalized suit made, even if you can find a suitably powerful Geomancer to take the time to make it for you.

Smoking Pipe
This pipe is enchanted to always be full of burning tobacco. It’s always the favorite type of the smoker in question, and even persists in keeping lit in rains and high winds. A simple command word stops the tobacco from burning. These items cost about 20 hex.

Lucky Charm
This small charm gives the bearer a +1 die bonus to one roll. After that, the charm breaks and becomes useless. This plus one must be used before the dice are rolled, and only 1 Lucky Charm may be used in a day. These charms are usually hex pieces that have been enchanted with a special luck symbol, and cost 5 hex.

Places

“I’ve been around Arcadomai, but I swear I’ll never understand why every new place I find has higher inn prices...” Kara Steppes, traveler
The map to Arcadomai need not be precise. Cities, towns and areas of interest can be placed wherever the GM feels. That said, there are certain spots in Arcadomai that are iconic to this world.

Primeria
“I’d much rather live on Primeria than that horrible continent, Sunder. They’ve got horrible beasts, robbers, thieves, and all sorts of unpleasantness. I’ll gladly take life here, thank you.” Irena DeVault, Corlavi citizen
Primeria was blessed by Primiar when she left the world, giving it’s inhabitants a great feeling of peace and unity. Of course, over the countless ages, these feelings of cooperation and compassion have died down a bit, but Primeria is still the most civil of the three continents. The whole continent is ruled by the Council of 3, located in the city/state of Corlavi. The council consists of 3 members – a great politician, a great warrior, and a great mage. These positions change constantly, but the newcomer to any position must be personally approved by the holder of the current position. Underneath each main council member is their Council Advisory - other politicians, philosophers and other idea men and women who help the Council make and enforce decisions. The council usually promotes members of their own Council Advisory to take their place, but it is not unheard of to take exceptional people into their position. Most of the continent of Primeria is verdant grasslands, with some notable forests, lakes, and some mountains towards the north.

Corlavi
Corlavi is the greatest city in Arcadomai. It houses about 500,000 people, all from different walks in life. The housing districts range anywhere from cheap slums (20 hex a month for a small 2 bedroom) to giant mansions and manor houses (300 to 500 hex a month for the smaller ones. Larger mansions and manor houses almost always belong to royal or political families, and are available on heritage only). Arcadomai has many training facilities, from the royal guard barracks, to the towering Arcane College. Finding a job in Corlavi is easy – anyone is willing to hire simple labor for a few hex a day, and people with more professional goals will find great places to start almost any career imaginable. In the giant market square, there are literally hundreds of different shops selling anything imaginable. All the laws in Arcadomai originate from the great Council here, even though the laws are really only respected in Primeria. Adventure in Corlavi can keep a group of PCs busy for weeks. Even with the city guard making a great presence here, there’s enough small time criminals to catch, outbreaks of monsters to contain and all sorts of odds and ends to tie up for anyone willing to sign on.

Talonstrike Mountains
The main mountain range in Primeria is about 3 days travel from Corlavi. These great mountains house a lot of interesting creatures, including the main population of Arcadomai’s dragons. There are many caves, both up in the mountains and underneath them. A few clans of people live near the base of the mountains in a series of connected camps called Vailan. These people are always willing to house travelers, since most visitors come from Corlavi, bringing with them a lot of hex and dreams of fast riches in the mountains cave network. Adventurers must be wary of their travels here – it makes a short life to accidentally stumble upon a dragon’s lair.

The Plains of Conviction
These great plains are dotted with old temples and churches dedicated to the old 3 gods of times past. Anything of value has been stripped from these once noble houses of worship. Once in a while, a group of people may make a pilgrimage here to pray to the gods, asking for their return. Most people scoff at anyone who thinks the gods would ever return to this neglected place.

Gravelight
This bizarre city is entirely composed of the undead, plus a few living guards borrowed from Corlavi. In the middle of this city stands a great obelisk of black stone, carved with many glowing runes and sigils. This obelisk is simply called the Gravestone, and emanates with a strange power. Any undead within 5 miles of this stone remember their entire life they had in perfect clarity. Therefore, the undead of Gravelight are content to live their unlives as they had in life. The Gravestone also supplies the undead’s requirement for continued unlife. Thus, vampires don’t need blood, ghosts don’t need raw emotion, zombies don’t need fresh flesh, etc. The town guards here are given quite nice housing to stay in this land of the living dead. Their job is to corral any stray undead found outside of Gravelight into the city (so they stop causing trouble and just live like normal), and to stop anyone from destroying the Gravestone. A very powerful necromancer on Sunder loves sending ringers in to Gravelight in hopes of destroying the Gravestone and having the once controlled undead run amok. She sends in undead that were murderers or anarchists in life, and tells them she’ll give them lichdom if the succeed. No one has thankfully even gotten close. Much to the disappointment of the peaceful undead, Gravelight has become a bit of a tourist attraction for the wealthy and the vogue. Right now, the current leader of Gravelight (a ghost named Fior Litar, a once powerful member of a royal family) is trying to get a law passed requiring that visitors have a special pass. While not disposed to dislike the living (a couple taverns in Gravelight even have potable water and non-perishable foods on demand), the undead are sick of being viewed as an exhibition. They just want to live in piece.

Port Towns
Port towns are plentiful on the edges of Primeria. The ones leading to the islands around Cicatrix bring in the raw hex for Corlavi to process. These port towns are built more like forts, in case creatures from Cicatrix find a way to hitch a ride back to Primeria. The port towns leading to Sunder take people with an exaggerated sense of adventure, and those criminals whose crimes are not ever, but likely to be repeated (repeated theft and vandalism, and certain crimes of passion). Being exiled to Sunder is a little embarrassing, but most common criminals get used to the lawless lands of Sunder pretty quick.

Other Places
Primeria has many towns and cities, and many other places of interest. When building places in Primeria, keep in mind that a respect for life and order permeates the general areas. Even dungeons and caves have a structure to them here.

Sunder
“I’d much rather live on Sunder than that boring continent, Primeria. There, it’s all politics and rules. Nothing interesting ever happens, and you can’t even come up with anything to do that doesn’t break at least 5 laws. I’ll gladly take life here, and the Dark can take those who think different.” Vek Bloodpaw, Sunder barbarian
Scar left the world without so much as a backward glance. He felt that the people of the land now known as Sunder should be left to their own fates. When left to their own will, the people here became more savage and brutal – honor and prestige are foreign notions in Sunder. There is no law, other than what few rules and restrictions local rulers set up. It is a dangerous land to be a traveler in, as theft and murder are largely unchecked. The guards of Primeria make no presence here, as whoever has power in this land are the ones who rule. Most of the lands in Sunder are wastes of desert or swamp, with cities and towns springing up around any areas of drinkable water and usable vegetation.

Chaocisca
This is the largest and most hospitable city in Sunder. It is currently ruled by a warlord named Kurias. His law is simple – do what you like, but when times of war come, stand by my side. He constantly conducts small raids on nearby towns, and keeps those willing to fight as new soldiers for his city. Chaocisca is a port city, and most visitors come to Sunder through here. The city boasts a great arena, where most of it’s populace spends it’s free time. Bets are taken on winners, and the arena masters always find new and interesting monsters to fight. Once in a while, they sometimes even find a creature from Cicatrix that they can goad into battle. Housing here is cheap and dirty – the only nice place to live is in the fortress of Kurias. Shops sell whatever they can scrounge up, and usually have to be haggled down before prices look anything close to reasonable. It’s unwise for visitors here to be out after dark, as thievery is rampart in this town. Most natives of Chaocisca know to carry expendable valuables for the thieves here. The city here also has a small non-human population. Half-orcs, goblins and even ogres and trolls can be seen from day to day. An assassins guild of elves also reside here, and a small group of gnomes and dwarves make their living by engineering the expansion of the city.

The Broken Lands
There was a time, long ago, when 3 archmages waged a great war against each other. They all perished in the final battle, but the lands are still devastated and the 3 great castles and their surrounding cities still lie in ruins. Lorua (a great Pyromancer) died when her castle was cast into a giant fissure. Her castle ruins are all underground, scattered in the bottom of a giant pit drilled into the earth by magic. Kato (a powerful Geomancer) died as demons summoned from some unknown realm swept through his castle, killing and eating most of the inhabitants. His castle stands well and whole, heavily populated by the furious devils who now roam the Broken Lands. Shilneous (a skillful Summoner) died as fireballs, flame spears and burning clouds rained upon his castle and lands. His castle reeks still of smoke, and the burnt and melted halls still hide great treasure. The land around this area is incredibly hostile. Mile deep fissures are everywhere, anything that grew has been burnt to ashes, and demons and devils freely roam the land. There is treasure here, but also great danger to those adventurers brave enough to search these lands.

The Necropolis, Termniar
This is what a city of the dead should look like. Built like a graveyard, this city hosts a varied range of powerful undead, all under the control of Marika. She is one of Arcadomai’s most powerful necromancers, and has every undead creature here under her iron clad will. She revels in death, and wants nothing more than to take control of Gravelight and the undead there. Thankfully, she spends all her time trying to figure out new ways to cause Gravelight to fall, so the other residents of Sunder rarely see her legions outside the wall of Termniar. If Marika ever succeeds in taking control of Gravelight, all of Arcadomai will likely fall.

Other Places
Sunder has many small towns and villages and other interesting places. There are even small camps entirely composed of non-humans. When creating places in Sunder, keep in mind that the strong rule, and that chaos and conflict permeates the land here.

Cicatrix
“That place has creatures I could never imagine. By night, their howls and strange language dance on the air and chill the bones. I miss those I took with me, but am glad I returned to tell the tale. 12 hex? Thank you sir, just put it right in my cup here – I’d shake your hand if I still had arms. 4 more hex? You’re a saint. May the Light be with you.” Adam Tirkin, former adventurer
Cicatrix was formed when Rage attempted to destroy the world with his leaving. Rage pulled down a star from the heavens and crashed it into Arcadomai. This boiled the seas and left a world long continent of land dotted on each side with small islands composed of some unearthly material, known as hex. Whatever star Rage pulled down already teemed with life, and now the strange and alien creatures of Cicatrix call this place home. At night, wavering arcs of deep red and purple lights can be seen over the main lands of Cicatrix from the islands, and bizarre howls, groans and screams carry over the water from the large continent. No one knows what the denizens of Cicatrix are doing, and aside from the hex, there is nothing to be gained from travelling there. The only time anyone has anything to do with Cicatrix’s natives are when they are sometimes found on the small islands or when a creature manages to make it’s way to Primeria or Sunder.

The Fortress of Damnation
There exists one place of note on Cicatrix. The Fortress of Damnation is a giant building comprised entirely of hex that sits in the southern area of the continent. The only person who has ever seen it and returned to talk of it is a ghost name Rachela, who now resides in Gravelight and takes much coercion to even talk about it. Nothing else is known about the fortress, for all who have even caught sight of it has been torn apart by the seemingly endless supply of guardians that surround it.

Creatures

“Can I keep it?” often heard request from children
Aside from mundane creatures like lions and wolves, Arcadomai hosts a number of unique creatures. The creatures below are present in whichever continent they are native to. In both Primeria and Sunder, any creature below may be found. In Cicatrix, non-native creatures tend to have very short life spans, and are not usually found here, save for a few bones. The dice presented for the creatures are the average dice for a creature of that species – they can certainly have more or less, depending on the age and skill of the individual. The creatures below are not a full list of Arcadomai’s bestiary – anything the GM feels appropriate may be included.

Primeria
“Watch for turtles” a Primeria cautionary saying

Dragonblood Turtles
These turtles have dragon-like wings on their shells. They rarely fight, unless someone disturbs a nest. Then they take to the air, recede into their shell, and drop like a rock onto the interloper with surprising accuracy. On the first round of combat, they always pump their cliché up to the point of leaving them 1 die left (representing their dive bomb attack), then snap at the enemy on the ground.

Dragonblood Turtle
Accurate Rock-hard Projectile from the Skies (3)

Elder Dragonblood Turtle
Accurate Rock-hard Projectile from the Skies (5)

Dragon
Dragons come in all shapes and sizes, and all different types. They tend to be hostile and solitary, but a few goodhearted ones have been known to exist. They are all intelligent and cunning, and very protective of their homes. They usually reside in the Talonstrike Mountains. All their dice are double pump dice, and they are built like characters, save that they usually have more dice

Gorvexis
Acid Spewing Dragon [5]
Raging Reptilian Beast [4]

Wallcat
These bizarre cats are found in city areas. Not only are they smarter than regular cats, these cats can also walk on walls and ceilings. They make oblique surface to surface jumps, raking enemies with razor sharp claws. The can be identified from regular cats in that their tail splits in two from about 1/3 of the way to the end.

Wallcat
Gravity Defying Mass of Claws and Fur (2)

Golem
Golems are created by mages and usually perform menial tasks. While normally under the control of their creator, golems sometimes go berserk because of wayward spells or deliberate magical curses. Golems can be made from any solid material, but stone and wood are the most common. Golems can only be harmed by magic, or magically enchanted weapons – if you succeed a round of combat with a non-magical weapon, it only counts as a tie.

Wood Golem
Mindless and Powerful Automaton (2)

Stone Golem
Mindless and Powerful Automaton (3)

Steel Golem
Mindless and Powerful Automaton (4)

Gem Golem
Mindless and Powerful Automaton (6)

Burning Wasp
These little bastards ignite whatever they sting. While quite weak, their flammable venom lets them have a bonus in combat.

Burning Wasp
Stinging Insect with Flaming Venom (1) +2 dice

Sentipede
These man-sized centipedes tend toward the caverns and caves found in Primeria. They are intelligent, and can use weapons and armor. A few have even been found using enchanted gear. The walk on half their legs, and carry anything useful in the other half.

Sentipede
Man Sized Insect Warrior (3)

Sunder
“Oh, that’s a good one! Catch it, it’ll fight like mad!” Elvirae Crule, arena herder

Saddle Gator
These overgrown and surprisingly swift alligators have a dip in their back, perfect for sitting in. While normally violent and uncontrollable, they can be trained, if training is done from hatching. These make terrific mounts, and also capable combatants on their own. Most fighters who use them as mounts ride them quickly into battle, then dismount and fight alongside these creatures.

Saddle Gator, Untrained
Viscous Beast (4)

Saddle Gator, Trained
Viscous Mount (4)

Demons and Devils
Spawned from violent magic, demons and devils are drawn to places where they fit in. Demons and devils can be of any power and from any school of magic. The most commonly found are of the 4 basic elements – earth, air, fire and water. Demons and devils are immune to the magic that spawned them.

Fire Demon
Annoying Burning Pest (2)

Earth Devil
Obstinate Earthen Brawler (3)

Necro Demon
Ravenous Necrotic Horror (4)

Needle Crow
These avian menaces can shoot thin feather-like darts from their wings. They are almost always found in groups, yet always attack in single units. The razor sharp darts are easy to throw, giving the thrower a +1 to the combat cliché they use.

Needle Crow
Dangerous Arial Assailant (2) +1

Severing Spider
These giant spiders walk on legs that are sharp as daggers. The web they spin is so thin and strong that, opposed to being stuck to it, it slices and impairs those who walk into it. These arachnids attack with their front two legs, puncturing and slicing any they see as prey. Their super sharp legs give them a +1 pip bonus, and small daggers made from their legs will have the same quality.

Severing Spider
Bladed Arachnid (3) +1 pip

Leaping Snake
These poison snakes can coil up and leap amazing distances to a foe. They usually pump 1 die up, strike and then recede and wait for their quarry to die. If anyone loses a cliché to a leaping snake, have them roll a die. On a 1-3 they are fine and may stop rolling. On a 4-6 they lose a cliché next turn, and must roll again on the next turn.

Leaping Snake
Venomous Snake (2)

Rat Dog
These large dogs have a head and a tail like a rat. They hunt in packs of 3 to 5, and can display cunning pack tactics. When rat dogs team up, they act as a PC team does. If a PC team is noticeable stronger than the rat dog team, they will divvy up and force the PCs to attack on a 1 to 1 basis

Rat Dog
Large Canine Vermin (3)

Cicatrix
“Where should I aim? It doesn’t even have a head!” Broque Cleriman, archer

Thinglings
These creatures all have one leg that they hop around on, one arm with serrated claws and a clump in the middle with one eye. They attack in large swarms, and seem to be the most numerous creatures on Cicatrix. In battle, after all the PCs have done something, add 1 die to the cliché of the swarm – when fighting, these things keep coming from everywhere until brought down to zero dice, in which they finally leave.

Thingling Swarm
Nasty Swarm of Limbs (any number, usually starts around 3 or 4)

Hell Lanterns
These red glowing balls of light can teleport around the battlefield, confusing and annoying foes. They attack be firing red and purple beams of light that leave hexagonal shaped burns on the victim. These are nearly always found in groups of 3. Roll a die whenever a hell lantern would lose a cliché – on a 1-4 it loses a cliché like normal, on a 5-6 they teleport out of the way and keep the cliché.

Hell Lantern
Ball of Destructive Light (3)

Pounder
This large (20 ft tall) man shaped creature has 2 arms that end in giant fleshy mallets. Instead of a head, it has a tentacle ending with a ball of solid bone. These creatures attack by pounding whatever they sense into paste. They’re never seen in groups or pairs, which is good, because they are almost unkillable.

Pounder
Huge Abomination with Many Ways to Pummel You (8)

Air Snake
This is a floating strip of flesh covered in many mouths, filled with jagged teeth. These things love wrapping around an opponent and chewing away.

Air Snake
Floating and Wrapping Toothy Snake-like Thing (4)

Hex Ray
These look like manta rays (that can fly through the air) with several barbed strands trailing behind them. They can also dive seamlessly through hex, which can make them annoying to fight. When down to one dice in their cliché, they always dive into the hex of Cicatrix and disappear. They attack by raking their barbed tails across their foes.

Hex Ray
Flying Manta Ray with Nasty Barbed Tails (4)

Walker
This house sized creature looks like a giant ball of heads with 5 very long and many jointed legs coming out of it. The heads laugh constantly while the spindly legs attack any who get near it. The legs end in metal hooves, and severely electrocute any that they touch. This electricity gives the walker a +1 die bonus

Walker
Electrified 5 Legged Freak (5) +1 die

Adventure Seeds
“I can’t believe it! We found the lost tomb of Ol-Shar-Gyre! We’re gonna be so rich! Right guys? Guys?” last words, Kelon Freeman, adventurer
What follows are adventure ideas, either to start a campaign with, or to add to an existing campaign. Each adventure presented here is geared towards a certain area, but the GM may feel free to adjust anything he sees fit.

Primeria

Wallcat Infestation
There’s been a large number of wallcats found in Corlavi as of late. They’re simply everywhere! They’re hurting kids and peasants, eating the stocks of food and generally making life miserable for everyone. The PCs are hired to find out where these things are coming from and to put a stop to the inflow of unwelcome residents.

Needle in a Haystack
The PCs are hired to track down an undead creature that has been snuck into Gravelight to destroy it. In life, the man was a cunning assassin. In death, he looks just like every other skeleton in the city. The guard is currently busy dealing with a tide of thinglings that have swam to the mainland, so the PCs must root out this little troublemaker.

Dragon Problems
A daughter of a rich nobleman has been kidnapped by a dragon and taken to a cave in the Talonstrike Mountains! The PCs must rescue her. When they find the dragon, it seems that the girl and beast have fallen in love, and that the dragon is really a nice guy. When the nobleman learns of this, he berates the PCs for failing and hires a band of ruthless mercenaries from Sunder. The PCs must now work with the dragon to fend of the bounty hunters now on the way to slay it.

Sunder

Arena Battles
The PCs are in Sunder, and kidnapped by the arena master’s servants. They are set up for battles in the arena. It starts out easy enough, but pretty soon the PCs should see that they are overmatched. They must find a way to escape, and to hopefully return to the main land. Some other prisoners may be willing to help, but in Sunder, there’s always a price.

Getting the Goods
The PCs are hired by a local ruler to find a specific item in one of the ruined castles in the Broken Lands. Too bad he doesn’t know which castle it was held in. The PCs must go from castle to castle, battling demons and devils on a quest to retrieve this item. Every ruined castle seems to point to the other ones as the final resting-place of this item. The PCs must solve ancient riddles and see through misdirection to find it.

Dawn of the Dead
A lot of undead have been seen in a seemingly useless area of land. They all bear the mark of Marika, and have been setting up something that looks like an excavation camp. The PCs must break into the camp, find out what’s going on and stop it before it gets out of hand. Since the undead are already here, it may have gotten out of hand already.

Cicatrix

Lost
The PCs have been marooned on the main continent of Cicatrix. Whether through shipwreck or a teleporting spell that went foul, the PCs must somehow find a way back to their home. It will take a lot of swordplay to get through the natives of Cicatrix, and very clever thinking to find a way home.

The Fortress of Damnation
This is the ultimate adventure. Infiltrate the Fortress of Damnation, battle though tons of alien creatures, explore the catacombs and rooms of the fortress and return to tell the tale. Who knows what items of great power can be found within it’s depths? This is only suitable to a group of very high-powered PCs.

Character Examples

“Keep an eye on these two. The one with the sword can cut you 100 times before you unsheathe whatever weapon you like, while the quiet one can freeze the blood in your body with a gesture of his hand.” Big Brad, tavern owner
Here’s a couple of ready to go adventures fit for the Arcadomai setting. They work great as an NPC team as well, to either help or hinder your PCs from their quest.

Reskori the Brave
Jovial Barbarian (4)
Trained Soldier (4)
Charming Story Teller (3)
Singer (1)

Hook – Lecherous – Reskori is always looking for a warm bed, it seems. In any situation where an attractive lady is present, he will always do what he believes will impress her the most.

Tale – Reskori was born in Vailan at the base of the Talonstrike Mountains. He was a very energetic lad, and learned the ways of the barbarian from an early age. Eager for adventure, he headed to Corlavi, where he begun training as a true soldier. After years of boring and routine work, he quit the army and began freelance work. He teamed up with Edgar and together have been making a very decent living as adventurers for hire. He’s always looking for a lady to spend time with, and constantly pesters Edgar that he doesn’t do the same. He sees Edgar as a boring and stuffy mage, but respects his magical skills greatly.

Edgar Cotrell
Condescending Cryomancer [4]
Condescending Scholar (4)

Hook – Neat freak – Edgar must have everything around him clean and orderly. He is always cleaning something and tends to annoy people with his perfectionism.

Tale – Edgar was born in Corlavi to a wealthy merchant family, and always taught to be cleanly. When he turned 14, he found he had magical skill, and was sent to the Arcane College. His perfectionist nature helped him greatly here, and he quickly learned the powerful art of Cryomancy. He also learned quite a bit of other useful information, and always has something to say about everything around him. He met Reskori after graduating, and teamed up with him to travel about the world. He can’t stand his womanizing ways or his teasing, but does respect his skill with a blade.

Join us Again, Fellow Traveler
This concludes the world of Arcadomai. All it needs now is a group of adventures to delve into it, and a GM to steer the world in the best direction they feel. If you have any questions or comments, please email them to dsuptic@gmail.com
Adventure on, and may the Light guide you.

Optional Rules

Wheelockian1 — Sun, 24 May 2009 22:20:06 CDT

Alternatives Exist

Standard practice is to add a new page for your optional rule and once it is complete, add a link to it here by adding your optional rule to the list (use the Subhead option to list your optional rule name and link that subhead to your new page using the +link option) and add a brief description.

Evens Up
A New Dice Mechanic for Risus.

The Blank Slate

Developing your character over the course of a few adventures.

A Matter of Size

dealing with large variances in character size.

Alternity Inspired Dice Mechanic

a different way to use some dice that might be lying around.

FickleGM's Risus Gear

the method that I am using to deal with gear

Forget Something

A way to change characters over time.

Diceless Risus

Getting rid of dice altogether.

Lethal Risus
A simple rule to inject verisimilitude into your Risus games.

Using Risus for solitaire play

A way to use your imagination for playing Risus by yourself.

When The Cure Is Worse Than The Disease

Dealing with healing...why have a healer.

Dungeon Master the RPG

Using DnD material to enhance your game.

The Oracle

How to play Risus without a gamemaster (solo or group roleplay).

Saga Rules

Notes for using the mechanic from TSR’s out of print Saga mechanic (a nice simple card-based mechanic). Now you can play Risus without any dice, just a deck (or two) of cards.

Bouncing Off the Walls!
Getting more out of your scenery.

Minute-Made Magic
Simple approach to a no target number optional magic system.

Skill that Cliché

Rules for adding a specialty skill system to Risus.

Skills Within Cliches

Alternate way to add skills to cliches from S. John Ross.

Travelling Heavy - Starships
Converting starships to Risus.

Evens Up: A New Dice Mechanic for Risus

Wheelockian1 — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:42:33 CDT

Evens Up: A New Approach to Risus

What follows is a new way to play Risus using the dice mechanics from Faery’s Tale (FT), a RPG by Patrick Sweeney and friends. The two games work well together because both use the same core conflict mechanics—the “Unholy Trinity” S. John Ross outlines in his Risus Companion: the “single-action contest” (simply called a “contest” in FT), “combat” (referred to as a “duel” in FT), and the “target number roll” (called a “challenge” in FT). The only major difference lies in how the dice are counted.

The Basic Rule:

Unlike in Risus, where dice numbers in a roll are added to form a sum, in Faery’s Tale, when dice are rolled, each even-numbered result is counted as a “success.” Odd numbers are discarded. In addition, sixes always “ace.” That is, each six not only counts as a success, it is immediately re-rolled, with an even result added to the success total (and continuing to ace as long as a six is rolled—the beloved “exploding dice effect.”)

How It Works in Risus:

1) Single-Action Contests: Both sides roll the appropriate number of dice for their respective clichés. The side with the most number of successes wins. Ties can either be rerolled or go to the side who rolled the fewest (or most!) dice depending on the group’s preference. (See the “Goliath Rule” in the Risus Companion)

2) Combat: Each round, both sides roll the appropriate number of dice for their respective clichés. The side with the most successes wins, resulting in the loss of one cliché dice (or more, depending on the situation) for the loser. Ties can be handled as above.

This dice mechanic works particularly well for combat, especially as a variant for the “Deadly Combat Rules” also described in the Risus Companion. It provides a nice middle ground between the original Risus combat rules—which can make even small numerical differences between competing clichés devastating—and the “Best of Set” variant, which minimizes those differences.

The “teaming up” rules can be handled in one of two ways: either all even results count as successes toward the team leader’s total or just sixes, as in the original rules. If just sixes count, allow those sixes to ace as normal. If all evens can contribute, just allow the team leader’s sixes to ace.

(Players should remember that in single-action contests and combat, opponent’s dice can ace, as well…)

3) Target Number Roll: Instead of rolling against a target number, a certain number of successes is required to achieve the desired result using the following difficulty scale:

Easy: 1 / Tricky: 2 / Hard: 3 / Heroic: 4 / Legendary: 5 / Impossible: 6+

The process used to determine the difficulty rating in Risus—by figuring out how hard the task is in the context of the cliché’s relevance—is still used the same way here, as is the idea that the degree of success or failure may affect the overall result. And yes, sixes still ace.

4) Funky Dice: Funky dice can still be used in this system. Just make sure that ALL even results of six and higher ace. Obviously, the odds of acing on a 12 or 20-sided die-roll are pretty good, but that’s what makes them so damn funky.

So Why Bother?

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with playing Risus as-is. It’s a brilliant rules-set that's encouraged me to think about RPGs in a totally new way. Risus liberated me from a library of stat-filled gaming books and at the same time made them valuable again, since all the cool stuff in them can just be expressed as clichés.

So why bother with this method? For me, the FT dice mechanic is clean, simple, and easy. Yes, I know—Risus is pretty clean, simple, and easy already, but why not make it even more so? Counting evens is quicker than trying to tally up a lot of individual numbers; thinking of difficulty ratings for challenges in terms of ordinary language tied to a 1-6 scale is easier than trying to pin down a precise target number for a task. Most of all, exploding dice are fun!

Of course, there’s no reason why you have to use this method for all three core conflict mechanics. You could just use it for single-action contests and combat, and stick with the normal target number system. Or even just use it for combat as a substitute for the “Best of Set” option. At the end of the day, a cliché gives you a certain number of dice to roll regardless of how you want to count them.

—D Stahler

Deck Breakdown

Ruminator — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:15:36 CDT

This article provides a more detailed deck of cards for Saga Rules in Risus.

The Saga deck that comes with the Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game is made up of 96 cards. Of these, 16 cards are used for the Doom suit (i.e. the GM Payback suit). In other words, 16.7% of the cards are of the GM Payback variety. In order to do something similar with regular playing cards, you could take 3 decks of cards, but only include 2 sets of Spades. This will get you to 18% of the deck being GM Payback. If you limit the Spades to only include one Ace and one ten (instead of two), you would be right at 16.7%. Close enough for this.

If you want to create a deck where the odds of a specific card being available match what is in the Saga suit, you would need 4 decks of cards to do it. Here is how each suit would break down:

Regular Suits

Aces	1
2	1
3	2
4	4
5	4
6	4
7	2
8	1
9	1
10	0

GM Payback Suit

Aces	1
2	1
3	2
4	2
5	2
6	2
7	2
8	2
9	1
10	1

However, if you use these breakdowns, the chance of getting a GM Payback card jumps to 21% (since we have only 4 suits to use instead of 5). If you change it so that there are only 1 of everything except for 5s and 6s in the GM Payback suit, then the odds remain about the same: 16.67%.

It might be more work this way, but then you get a better distribution of cards to use that might actually work better for play (assuming that TSR did their research when the originally developed Saga.

Saga Rules

Ruminator — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:13:35 CDT

What follows are notes for using the mechanic from TSR’s out of print Saga mechanic (a nice simple card-based mechanic). Now you can play Risus without any dice, just a deck (or two) of cards.

Creating Your Character

Guess what, nothing has changed here. Create your character exactly as you would using the main Risus rules (or whatever agreed upon variations you are using). However, there is one additional step. Your GM will need to tell you what your default Edge and Handsize are.

Edge and Handsize

Edge is a rough way to say how much experience you have (i.e. if you can edge out your competition). Edge is a numerical value from 1 to 4. 1 represents an inexperienced hero, and a 4 represents a greatly experienced hero. Edge comes into play during resolution. It is recommended that players start out with an Edge of 2.

Handsize is a representation of how many cards are in your hand at any given time (barring any injury). It is directly tied to your Edge: Handsize = Edge + 2. If you have an Edge of 2, you have a Handsize of 4.

Building A Deck

All you need to use this is a deck (or two, or more) of cards. Just take out all of the jokers and the face cards (i.e. keep A-10 for all suits; Aces count as 1). Deal cards out to the players up to their Handsize. The rest of the deck becomes the draw pile. For a more complicated deck, refer to Deck Breakdown.

Trump Bonus: Using the Deck to Encourage Roleplaying

The GM should map 3 of the suits to broad action styles. The recommended approach is: Clubs are physical actions; Hearts are social actions; Diamonds are other actions; and Spades are GM Payback. Feel free to modify these actions to meet the needs of your group (i.e. Diamonds represent magic actions in a Sword and Sorcery campaign). The card you play on your turn may turn into a Trump Bonus later.

A Note About GM Payback

GM Payback represents cards that, when played, do not go to a normal discard pile. Instead, these cards move to the GMs “hand”. These cards can be played by the GM at any time to make things more difficult for the players.

Actions Against a Target Number

The basic resolution mechanic is play a card from your hand, add it to your appropriate cliché rating, and see if you’ve won. Nice and straight forward, but there are some twists.

Applying Edge

If the value of the card you play is equal to or lower than your Edge score, you may play another card from your hand. If you have an Edge of 3 and play a 2 of Clubs, you can also play another card and add it to your total. This continues until you play a card that is higher than your Edge score or you run out of cards in your hand.

Trump Bonus

If the suit of the card that you play matches up with the type of action you are performing, you may flip the next card from the draw pile and add it to your score. If the card you flip is also of the same suit, you flip the next card as well. This continues until the suit no longer applies (but you do keep the total from the last card and every card in between).

Let’s say you need to scale over a fence to get away from a dog in the junk yard. The GM determines that the difficulty for this is a 10 for your weekend warrior (3) cliché (the dog has rabbies). Your hand is a 4C 3S 2H. Since this is a physical action, you play your 4C – this gets you to a 7, but since Clubs is a trump suit for physical actions, you can flip the next card on the draw pile. You flip over a 2C. Still only a 9, but since it was a Club, you can flip the next card (a 5H), and add it to your total: now you have a 14, more than enough to make it.

Combining Edge and Trump Bonus

In the last example, you could have played your 2H, which being equal to the default Edge of 2H would mean you could have played another card from your hand also. Playing the 4C, you would have a total of 9, and then thanks to the trump bonus, you’d get the next card from the deck (in this case, you’d succeed no matter what).

Applying GM Payback

At the GMs whim, he can decide to play any (and all) card(s) he’s collected from players playing a Spade. The total of the cards he plays is automatically added to the difficulty of an action. Your success can suddenly turn into dismal failure.

Pumping Clichés

Pumping a cliché makes it so that the card that you play from your hand is doubled in value. If you are pumping a double pumped cliché, the card you play is doubled, plus you get to add the value of the next card from the draw pile.

However, if you pump your cliché, you do not get to redraw the card at the end of the round, it is lost until such time as the GM has determined you’ve “healed up.”

Refilling Your Hand

After you have completed your action (either successfully or not), you replenish your hand back to your initial Handsize (minus any cards lost due to pumping).

Single Action Conflicts & Full Combat

Single action conflicts and full combat really works in much the same way as an action against a target number. However, the default target number is the rank of the cliché that your opponent is using plus the GM will flip the top card from the draw pile and add it to the value. So if you are fighting a Ninja: 4, and the GM flips the 8 of Hearts, you are going up against a 12.

Opponents and Trump

If the card that the GM flips for the round is of the appropriate trump, he will also flip the next card (until there a non-trump card is flipped). If that Ninja 4 had flipped a 8 of Clubs in your martial arts extravaganza, he would flip the next card as well. If he got a 4 of Hearts, you’d be facing a difficulty of 18.

Damage

If the opponent loses the round, their cliché rank is dropped by one. Once the opponent gets to zero, the players win.

If the player loses the round, their hand size is dropped by 1 (or more if they were pumping) for the remainder of the fight. If they get to zero cards, they are out of the fight.

Hard Roads

cleireac — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:31:48 CDT

Hard Roads

A Risus Adaptation of Car Wars by Hank Harwell
Version 1.0 3/7/05

Introduction: In 1981, a small Texas game company released a game using a Post-apocalyptic SciFi setting to simulate combat between vehicles. The game quickly took off, and on the strength of Car Wars and many other releases, Steve Jackson Games is now one of the largest game companies in the business.

Throughout the years, Car Wars has developed a loyal following and many regional tournaments all over the . Not long after its introduction, some players would string together scenarios, forming a very simple, extremely rules-lite role-playing game.
Capitalizing on these variants, SJG release Autoduel as one of the first worldbooks for its revolutionary new rpg, GURPS.

In the early 1990's, a former writer for SJG (and former president of the American Autoduel Association (AADA))S. John Ross, released a rules-lite rpg that is flexible enough to be played in any genre, Risus. Risus, too has developed a loyal fan base of folks who have adapted many genres to play.

Risus uses clichés to describe player characters. These clichés describe a variety of skills, motivations, experience levels and many other themes.

It is long past time for these two great systems to be combined into the document you now see before you: Hard Roads.

Inspirations: The most obvious inspirations for Car Wars are the Mad Max movies (Mad Max, The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome). The Mad Max films are loaded with Risus-worthy clichés. Look at the list of sample clichés below and see how many you can identify as characters from any of the Mad Max films.

In addition, Roger Corman's film Race 2000, and Roger Zelazny's story Damnation Alley contribute also to the themes.

Sample PC Clichés:

Cliché	What It’s Good For

Cliché What It’s Good For

Burly Trucker	Wearing sweat-stained t-shirts and “gimme” caps, driving big rigs, talking on the CB, living on little sleep and caffeine, driving in convoys
Cocky Arena Duellist	Playing to the crowd, wearing flashy colors, shooting cars, driving cars, taking chances
Cold-hearted Mercenary	Selling combat skills to highest bidder, knowing about weapons, using weapons
Crackerjack Mechanic	Tinkering with engines, fixing engines, improving engines
Geeky Computer Hacker	Wearing glasses, never having a date, breaking into computer networks, building computer equipment
Law Enforcement Officer	Arresting people, giving people tickets, chasing people, shooting people
Merciless Bounty Hunter	Hunting criminals, capturing criminals, shooting criminals
Miracle-working Medic	Saving lives, administering first aid, giving drugs
Outlaw Biker	Wearing leather, riding motorcycle, terrorizing women and children, hijacking lone vehicles
Punk Anarchist	Wearing orange hair, having piercings, advocating the overthrow of the government, planting bombs
Repo Man	Breaking into vehicles, driving vehicles, getting shot at
Road Duellist	Driving cars, shooting cars on highway, taking license plates
Scavenger	Looking for wrecks, picking over wrecks, salvaging items from wrecks, selling salvage
Trustworthy Courier	Delivering packages, taking tips
Vehicle Gunner	Riding “shotgun”, shooting other cars

Vehicles: The real stars of Car Wars are, well, the cars. In Car Wars, vehicles are even more highly detailed than the drivers! In Risus, players purchase vehicles as per "Sidekicks and Shieldmates" rules from the Risus Companion. The GM may rule that certain vehicles must be purchased at “double-pump” values. In other words, the cost will be two dice for a four-dice vehicle, but at least one cliché must be double-pumped. All equipment and weapons must be detailed in the character, er, vehicle description. Weapons will be considered "tools of the trade" for any combat-oriented clichés. If the item is not listed on the description, it cannot be used.

Sample Vehicle Cliches

Cliché	What It’s Good For

Cliché What It’s Good For

Lightly-armed Subcompact	Driving fast, carrying courier packages
Machine-gun-equipped Compact	“Hit and run” fighting, Drive-by shooting
Rocket-Launching Mid-Sized	Arena Autoduelling
Marauding Big Rig Truck	Carrying heavy loads cross country, running roadblocks
Assault Van	Transporting SWAT Team members, carrying sophisticated equipment
Heavy Police Cruiser	Car chasing, carrying “perps”

Vehicular Combat: The mechanic for this uses the Teaming Up rules from page 3 of the standard ruleset with the following variations: PC's and their vehicles are considered a "Team". The Vehicle is the Team Leader and the PC will add his "sixes" to dice rolls where appropriate. In a combat, only the vehicle takes "damage," i.e., loses dice upon losing a combat round. There is no “noble sacrifice and vengeance” rule in effect. When the vehicle is reduced to zero, the team is Disbanded, and the PC takes the one-die loss to his driving (or autoduelling) cliché.

Where more than one vehicle wants to form a team, then standard Teaming Up rules apply; only the vehicles form teams (not vehicles plus their drivers), and when the team loses a combat round, the "noble sacrifice and vengeance" rules apply. When the Lead Vehicle is reduced to zero, then the team disbands and all remaining vehicles lose one die of "damage."

Additional Notes:There are some elements of cyberpunk in Car Wars. However, these will be minimal. The vast World Wide Web was severely compromised in the collapse of society. Some of the major metropolitan areas still maintain extensive computer networks, but these will be minimal.

Go to an Adventure Writeup by StrongBif

Disclaimer: material presented here is an adaptation of the Car Wars/GURPS Autoduel system from Steve Jackson Games for Risus: The Anything RPG
by S. John Ross. This material is not official and is not endoresed by Steve Jackson Games nor by S. John Ross/Cumberland Games and Diversions.

Arcadomai Warrior Creeds

Dantopia — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:51:13 CDT

	Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Fighter	Normal	Normal	+3 to TN
Soldier	Normal	+3 to TN	Normal
Barbarian	Normal	+3 to TN	Normal
Fencer	+3 to TN	Normal	Normal
Guard	Normal	+3 to TN	Normal
Mercenary	Normal	Normal	+3 to TN
Archer	+3 to TN	Normal	Normal
Assassin	+3 to TN	Normal	Normal
Brawler	Normal	+3 to TN	Normal
Paladin	Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

Mundane Weapons
This list shows common prices for non magical weapons. High quality weapons (those that add a +1 to your combat roll) cost 25 hex more

1 hex weapons
Dagger – a small blade, easy to hide
Sling – a sling that throws hard metal bullets
Sling bullets – a pack of 10 bullets
Quarterstaff – a 5 to 6 foot long sturdy staff
3 hex weapons
Short sword – a short sword, machete or any other blade around 2 feet long
Short bow – a normal bow
Arrows or Bolts – a pack of 10 arrows or crossbow bolts
Mace – a heavy metal ball attached to a foot long handle
Axe – a hand axe, refit for battle
Spear – a wooden or metal spike attached to a long pole
5 hex weapons
Long sword – a long sword, katana or any other blade around 3 feet long
Epee – an epee, rapier or other fencing sword
Long bow – a longer bow with greater range
Crossbow – a crossbow or any other automated bow
Morning star – a heavy, spiked and large metal ball attached to a foot long handle
Battleaxe – a woodcutters axe, refit for battle
7 hex weapons
Great sword – a great sword, claymore or any other blade longer than 4 feet
Flail – a spiked ball attached by chain to a foot long handle
Warhammer – a large hammer
Polearm – any military polearm
Exotic weapons – double edged swords, double axes, nunchucks, war fans or anything else that wouldn’t fall under the classification of common weapons
10 hex weapons
Custom weapons – any weapon made to specifically fit your grip. Anyone else who tries to use this weapon suffers a -1 penalty to all rolls with it
Ornate weapons – these weapons have ornate designs or sigils engraved on them. Besides the prestige of such weapons, these have no effect on combat
50 hex weapons
Silver weapons – any weapon made of tempered silver. Were-creatures lose 2 dice instead of one when hit with these
100 hex weapons
Gold weapons – any weapon made of tempered gold. Undead must make a Persistent based cliché roll (TN = to the wielder’s combat roll) or be destroyed when the lose a round of combat against these weapons
500 hex weapons
Gemstone weapons – any weapon made of solid gemstone (ruby, emerald, etc). Due to the razor sharp edge of these, any creature damaged by a Gemstone weapon loses 1 die in the cliché that was damaged each turn until healed

Mundane Armor
This list shows common prices for non magical armor. High quality armor (those that add a +1 to your combat roll) costs 25 hex more

1 hex armor
Cloth – tightly woven cloth armor
Leather – specially cured leather fashioned into armor
Wood – planks of wood attached by strong cords
Buckler – a shield made of wood
3 hex armor
Banded Mail – leather armor with bands of metal sewn in
Ring Mail – leather armor with a net of large metal rings woven around it
Studded Leather – leather armor with numerous metal studs woven into it
Shield – a metal shield
5 hex armor
Chain Mail – small metal rings, chained together into an entire outfit
Scale Mail – overlapping metal pieces
Plate Mail – plates of metal with loose leather joints
Large shield – a large metal shield
7 hex armor
Full plate – full body plate mail, including helmet
2 layer armor – chainmail sewn into any other armor
Tower shield – a shield so big, you can almost hide behind it
10 hex armor
Custom Armor – armor made to specifically fit your body. Anyone else who tries to wear this armor suffers a -1 penalty to all rolls with it
Ornate armor – this armor has ornate designs or sigils engraved on them. Besides the prestige of such armor, this has no effect on combat
50 hex armor
Pale Armor – this suit of cloth or leather armor is soaked in embalming fluid. Unintelligent undead will perceive the wearer as undead. If the wearer gets within 5 feet of an nineteenth undead, the associated smells of the living will overpower that of the armor, causing the undead to react to the wearer of this armor normally
150 hex armor
Silver armor – any metal armor made entirely of silver. Were-creatures will not willingly attack the wearer of this armor. If a were-creature is forced into touching this armor, they take one damage to their were-cliché
1500 hex armor
Hex armor – this fullplate suit is made entirely of uniscribed hex. This item must be made custom for the wearer. The wearer gains a +5 dice bonus to their combat cliché, as hex is nearly indestructible on its own. Hex in this quantity radiates the natural rage of Cicatrix; while wearing this armor, any cliché may be used as a combat cliché

Strength based cliché rolls
What follows is some information on what you can do with Strength rolls

Arm wrestling, other contests of strength
Simple Strength versus Strength roll
Breaking down doors
Wooden door – TN 5
Wooden banded door – TN 8
Stone door – TN 11
Metal door – TN 15
Reinforced – adds 3 to the TN
Oversized – adds 4 to the TN
Barricaded – adds 5 to the TN
Lifting
Half your weight – TN 8
Your weight – TN 12
One and a half times your weight – TN 15
Double your weight – TN 19
Two and a half times your weight – TN 22
Three times your weight – TN 24
+2 TN for every full increase in times-your-weight (4 times you weight, TN 26 etc)
Jumping
1 foot up or 5 feet across – TN 6
1.5 feet up or 7 feet across – TN 10
2 feet up or 10 feet across – TN 13
2.5 feet up or 12 feet across – TN 17
3 feet up or 15 feet across – TN 20
+5 TN for each extra foot up or 5 feet across
Breaking constraints
Rope – TN 7
Leather straps – TN 10
Chains – TN 14
Wire – TN 18
+2 TN for every extra binding used beyond what was necessary
Climbing
Ladder or knotted rope – TN 4
Rope, or handholds – TN 8
Very rough wall, or natural chinks in the wall – TN 12
Rough stone or brick wall – TN 16
Smooth stone or brick wall – TN 20
Pushing opponents back
Strength versus strength roll
For every 2 points you beat your opponent by, you push them back 1 foot
Throwing
Used for normal objects, not weapons made to be thrown. Straight Strength roll. Multiply the result by 2 to get the number of feet you can throw the object.

Dexterity based cliché rolls
What follows is some information on what you can do with Dexterity rolls

Sports, other contests of skill
Straight Dexterity versus Dexterity rolls
Weapon demonstration
This allows you to show off your combat cliché to please a crowd
Average demonstration – TN 5
Decent demonstration – TN 8
Entertaining demonstration – TN 10
Great demonstration – TN 14
Masterful demonstration – TN 16
Amazing demonstration – TN 20
Nearly unbelievable demonstration – TN 26
If you have other combat clichés, you may incorporate their moves into your demonstration. Roll each of the other combat clichés (TN 10). For each success, add 2 to your primary performance
Balancing
6 inch wide plank – TN 8
4 inch wide plank – TN 12
2 inch wide plank – TN 15
1 inch wide plank – TN 18
A tightrope – TN 21
A wire – TN 24
Falling
Fall 3 feet with no problem – TN 6
Fall 6 feet with no problem – TN 9
Fall 10 feet with no problem – TN 12
Fall 15 feet with no problem – TN 15
Fall 20 feet with no problem – TN 28
+4 TN for every additional 5 feet
Staying afoot on unstable ground
Gravel strewn, 15 degree tilt – TN 4
Slippery or waxed, 25 degree tilt – TN 7
Shaking, breaking apart, 40 degree tilt – TN 11
Greased or Icy, 50 degree tilt – TN 16
Severe shaking, falling apart right underneath you, 65 degree tilt – TN 21
Frictionless, 80 degree tilt – TN 26
Maneuvering
Jump on or off a table, roll under a table – TN 5
Swing on a chandelier or rope – TN 7
Slide down a banister or safely tumble down steps – TN 10
Dart through chair legs, roll over tables while attacking – TN 14
Run across a crowd’s shoulders, dart through the spokes of moving wheels – TN 18

Health based cliché rolls
What follows is some information on what you can do with Health rolls

Races, other contests of stamina
Straight Health versus Health rolls
Holding your breath
30 seconds – TN 4
45 seconds – TN 6
1 minute – TN 8
1 minute and 30 seconds – TN 11
2 minutes – TN 14
+4 TN for each additional minute
Resisting pain without yelling out
Stepping on a sharp rock barefoot, scraping your arm – TN 3
Small cut or pin pricks, slight heat – TN 6
Major cuts, stabs, burning heat, bruising something – TN 10
Wild animal bites, searing heat, breaking a small bone – TN 14
Stripped flesh, searing continuous heat, breaking a major bone – TN 20
Prolonged strenuous activity
30 minutes without rest – TN 5
An hour without rest – TN 8
4 hours without rest – TN 12
8 hours without rest – TN 17
12 hours without rest – TN 22
+4 TN for every additional 4 hours
Less sleep
Only sleep 6 hours with no problems – TN 4
Only sleep 4 hours with no problems – TN 8
Only sleep 2 hours with no problems – TN 12
No sleep at all – TN 16
+2 TN for each consecutive night of less sleep
Drinking
Act without penalty after 1 drink – TN 3
Act without penalty after 2 drinks – TN 5
Act without penalty after 4 drinks – TN 8
Act without penalty after 8 drinks – TN 13
Act without penalty after 16 drinks – TN 18
+4 TN per 8 additional drinks
Recovering Cliché damage after resting (One hour’s rest)
1 die in a cliché – TN 4
Up to 2 dice in clichés – TN 7
Up to 3 dice in clichés – TN 10
Up to 4 dice in clichés – TN 14
Up to 6 dice in clichés – TN 18
Up to 8 dice in clichés – TN 23
+5 TN per additional 2 dice healed

Fighter

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	Normal	+3 to TN

The Fighter is a character who has been trained in many different types of weapons and armor. If it has been made for battle, chances are likely that the Fighter has spent significant time training with it. While time spent focusing on so many weapons and armor leaves the Fighter little time for basic body building exercises, the Fighter is still a dangerous foe on any battlefield

Incorporate Style
This ability lets the Fighter use different weapon styles with the weapon they’re using (chopping like an axe with a sword, fencing with a katana, etc). The Fighter takes a -3 penalty to his roll results, causing his opponent to take a -1 die penalty to their rolls

Weapon Collection
Fighters collect a lot of weapons and armor over the years of training with so many diverse armaments. If a Fighter is in his home area, and has 15 minutes to himself, he may exchange any weapon or suit of armor with one of equal or lesser value

Customize
The Fighter can customize his weapons and armor to fit his personal grip and body type. The Fighter must spend 1 hour working on a weapon, or 3 hours working on a suit of armor. After he’s done, the item is now a Custom Weapon or Custom Armor. Anyone else trying to use that weapon or suit of armor takes a -1 penalty to their combat rolls with it

Specialize
At the end of any game session, the player of the Fighter may choose to permanently change the Fighter cliché to any other combat cliché of their choice

Generalize
This ability stays with the Fighter even when he changes his cliché away from Fighter with the Specialize ability. At the end of any game session, the player whose character has this ability may choose to change any combat cliché to Fighter

Soldier

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

The Soldier is a member of the local military, usually trained from a young age. The Soldier’s life is usually dictated by their commander, but Soldier’s do get off time to take care of their personal lives. The training Soldiers received is focused on rote memorization, strength building weapon drills and tests of endurance. Little time is spent on fancy weapon tricks or creative fighting

Loyalty
A Soldier is trained to accept the commands and missions given to him by his superiors without compromising his personal views. When a Soldier is following a command or mission, he may choose to have his actions he takes to complete the command or mission to not have any effect on his personal relation to the Light, the Dark or the Grey.

Courage
The Soldier receives a +2 bonus against intimidation, torture, magical fear effects and anything else that would lower his morale. This bonus becomes a +1 die bonus if the Soldier is within eyesight of his current commanding officer

Discount
The Soldier can get a discount on the cost of replacing his cliché equipment, by letting the merchant know that they’re helping refit a member of the army. They roll their Soldier cliché, and the TN they beat determines the discount of all their cliché equipment. This ability can also be used on any single item in the Weapon or Item list earlier
TN 4 – Soldier pays 90% of cost
TN 8 – Soldier pays 80% of cost
TN 12 – Soldier pays 70% of cost
TN 16 – Soldier pays 60% of cost
TN 20 – Soldier pays 50% of cost

Teamwork
This ability may be used when the Soldier teams up in combat with other Soldiers. After rolling, team members supporting the leader’s roll may decide which number they contribute, instead of always contributing sixes

Plan
The Soldier can work with a group of people to plan a certain mission (breaking into a base and rescuing someone, fighting an encamped group, storming a fort head on etc). They must plan for a number of hours in advance equal to the number of people involved in the mission. Everyone involved must be present the entire time of planning. After the planning, the mission must be completed within the next week. The first 3 rolls that each individual person makes while on the mission are made at a +1 die bonus

Barbarian

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

The Barbarian is not trained by a mentor or at an institution like the army. His training comes for wild beasts, harsh terrain and a heart filled with fury. Barbarian equipment usually includes large clubs, handmade swords and leather armor made from skinned animals. The wild has made the barbarian strong and hearty, while the many dangers of the wild has left scars and poorly mended wounds

Rage
The Barbarian may make a Barbarian cliché roll before pumping his cliché. Depending on what TN he beats, the pumped cliché will stay pumped for additional turns
TN 8 – Pumped cliché stays pumped for 1 additional turn
TN 14 – Pumped cliché stays pumped for 2 additional turns
TN 20 – Pumped cliché stays pumped for 3 additional turns

Smash
The Barbarian receives a +3 bonus on any Strength roll made to break something

Tough Gut
The Barbarian can ingest almost any food or drink without ill effect. Deliberately poisoned food or drink will still affect him, but the Barbarian can consume raw, rotten or diseased food or drink with no problem

Excessive Force
Before making a combat roll, the Barbarian may choose to take a die of damage in the Barbarian cliché. If they succeed at their next attack, their opponent loses two dice instead of one

Patch Up
The Barbarian may make his base Barbarian cliché roll (his cliché level before he took any damage) immediately following combat. The chart below shows how many dice the Barbarian can regain in his clichés. The Barbarian must be victorious in order to use this ability.
TN 8 – 1 die in a cliché
TN 12 – Up to 2 dice in clichés
TN 17 – Up to 3 dice in clichés
TN 22 – Up to 4 dice in clichés
+6 TN per additional 1 die healed

Fencer

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
+3 to TN	Normal	Normal

The Fencer is a high class combat cliché. They are taught honor, fairness, flair and respect for the upper class. Many high class individuals will have at least 1 die in this cliché. The Fencer’s combat skill comes from an almost acrobatic learning of their weapon style (usually epee, but can be applied to rapier and saber). Brute force is rarely utilized in the Fencer’s art

Taunt
The Fencer rolls their Fencer cliché against a target’s Willful based cliché. If the Fencer succeeds, the target must pump their cliché by 1 on the next round of combat. If the Fencer fails, the target will be immune from taunt for the rest of the combat

Double Strike
The Fencer attacks twice in quick succession. The Fencer rolls twice, while his opponent rolls only once. If the Fencer beats the opponent’s roll with each of his rolls, the opponent loses 2 dice in their cliché. If the Fencer beats the opponent’s roll with one of his rolls, but fails to beat the opponent’s roll with the other roll, both the Fencer and his opponent lose a die in their cliché. If the Fencer fails to beat the opponent’s roll with both rolls, the Fencer loses one die in their cliché and may not double strike against this opponent for the remainder of the combat

Theatrics
The Fencer receives a +1 die bonus to all rolls involving the Maneuvering list for Dexterity based cliché rolls.

Scar
The Fencer makes a combat roll as normal. If they succeed against their opponent, they may leave a scar on them instead of dealing cliché damage. This scar will last a number of weeks equal to the cliché level of Fencer that the Fencer has. If the Fencer fails the roll, they take damage to their cliché like normal

Insult
The Fencer can do anything he wants with his free hand (except activating magic cards) without penalty to his combat rolls with Fencer. He may drink from a cup, read a letter, jingle hex – anything that only requires one hand may be done while fighting

Guard

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

Guards are used to watch over objects of value, act as bodyguards to important people, and to act as a police force for the city. Guards are usually hired and trained by the army (for policing) or by wealthy aristocrats and politicians (for more specific tasks). Guards are trained to stick with their job at all costs, for long periods of time. They are strong and well trained, but standing around for long periods of time leave them a little stiff

Stoic
The Guard can stand in one place or escort one person for a period of time without any need for any breaks. At the start of their shift, the Guard rolls a straight Guard cliché roll – the TN they beat determines how long they can go before a break
TN 4 – One hour
TN 6 – Two hours
TN 10 – Four hours
TN 16 – Eight hours
TN 24 – Sixteen hours

Summon Help
The Guard can give a shout that will draw other guards in the area to the spot. The Guard roll his Guard cliché – the TN they beat determines how many guards (with a Guard cliché equal to one less than the Guard that called him) respond to his call
TN 10 – One Guard
TN 14 – Two Guards
TN 18 – Three Guards
+5 TN for every additional guard

Resupply
The Guard’s employer will supply the Guard with his cliché equipment, so long as the cost of the weapon plus the armor does not exceed 10 hex. The employer will not pay for Custom or Ornate weapons or armor, either

Retribution
The Guard gets +1 dice to their combat rolls against someone who breaks or steals an item their guarding. For each cliché of damage an opponent does against a person the Guard is guarding, the guard receives +2 to their combat roll against them

Steadfast
Guards gain a +3 bonus to resist intimidation, torture or any other tactic to get the Guard to leave what he’s guarding

Mercenary

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	Normal	+3 to TN

The Mercenary fights for money or his own desires, nothing else. Honorless, brutish and violent, the Mercenary usually has a preferred weapon he uses when doing his job. The life of the Mercenary attracts those who are physically strong and good at fighting, but also tends to attract those who have grown up in areas that are either unhealthy, dangerous, or both

Intimidation
The Mercenary rolls his Mercenary cliché against the target’s Willful based cliché. If the Mercenary succeeds, the target will do whatever he thinks will make the Mercenary leave him alone. If the Mercenary fails, the target will be unimpressed and unhelpful

Torture
The Mercenary must have the target bound or otherwise helpless. He rolls his Mercenary cliché against the target’s Health based cliché. If he succeeds, the target takes a cliché of damage to a cliché of their choice and does whatever the Mercenary wants. If he fails, the target still takes a cliché of damage to the cliché of their choice, but does not submit. The Mercenary can try again and again. Each attempt causes a cliché of damage and gives the Mercenary a cumulative +2 to his roll, until his target submits or dies

Friends in Low Places
Mercenaries have a lot of powerful friends of questionable morals. Whenever the Mercenary is in jail, there’s a chance that one of his friends will break him out, or pay for his release. The chance of this happening is related to the cliché level of the Mercenary
Mercenary (1) – A roll of 6 on a d6
Mercenary (2) – A roll of 5 or more on a d6
Mercenary (3) – A roll of 4 or more on a d6
Mercenary (4) – A roll of 3 or more on a d6
Mercenary (5) – A roll of 2 or more on a d6
Mercenary (6) – Someone always breaks the Mercenary out if they’re jailed

More for the Money
A well paid Mercenary is a happy Mercenary. And a happy Mercenary puts a lot more effort into the job he’s paid for. The table below shows how much extra money (above the normal costs) it takes to give a Mercenary more fervor in his job
+50 Hex – a +1 bonus to all rolls made while completing the job
+100 Hex – a +2 bonus to all rolls made while completing the job
+150 Hex – a +1 die bonus to all rolls made while completing the job
+250 Hex – a +1 pip bonus to all rolls made while completing the job
+500 Hex – a +2 pip bonus to all rolls made while completing the job
+1500 Hex – a +3 pip bonus to all rolls made while completing the job

Hatred of Authority
Mercenaries receive a +1 bonus to combat rolls against Soldiers, Guards and Paladins

Archer

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
+3 to TN	Normal	Normal

Archers devote their combat skills to bows and crossbows. Any team of serious combatants should include an Archer – their long distance ability makes them perfect for long distance opponents and wary mages. While pulling a strong bow string increases arm strength, the strength that Archers gain from this is not very applicable to other tasks. The Archer is better at hand eye coordination and staying out of the melee

Aim
An Archer can skip up to 3 consecutives turns of combat to get bonuses for aiming at a target. The Archer must be stationary, and the target must remain in sight for the entire time. The Archer needs to be protected too – if they’re attacked, they lose any bonus from aiming. The bonus stack for each previous turn of aiming – if they aim for 2 turns, they get the bonus for both 1 and 2 turns of aiming
1 turn aiming – +2 to the next combat roll against the target
2 turns aiming – +1 die to the next combat roll against the target
3 turns aiming – 2 damage to the target’s cliché if combat roll succeeds

Double Shot
The Archer may shoot 2 different opponents at once. They must divide the dice they have in their Archer cliché between the opponents. Therefore, an Archer (4) could shoot 2 opponents as an Archer (2) each, or one as an Archer (1) and one as an Archer (3). Even if the Archer fails both combat rolls, they only take 1 cliché of damage

Trick Shot
The Archer can bounce a shot off of walls, floors and other solid objects, making the shot much harder to defend against. For every -3 penalty the Archer takes, their opponent takes a -1 die penalty to their combat roll against that shot (won’t bring their roll below 1 die). If the Archer fails the combat roll, they may not use trick shot on the same target again for the remainder of the combat

Pin
The Archer can take a -1 die penalty to their roll to attempt to pin someone to the ground or a wall. If the Archer succeeds the combat roll at a -1 die penalty, the opponent takes a die of damage and is pinned to the spot, and must make a Strength based cliché roll (TN equal to the Archer’s roll) to escape

Slayer
The wooden shaft of an arrow that the Archer fires pierces the heart of a vampire, killing it instantly. The Archer must spend at least 2 turns using aim, and must use Pin when firing the shot. If they succeed in combat against a vampire with this tactic, the vampire is instantly slain

Assassin

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
+3 to TN	Normal	Normal

Silent and deadly, the Assassin dispatches enemies through stealth and cunning. While most Assassins are tainted deeply with Dark, there are a few noble Assassins who take out enemies of the Light. The Assassin’s training focuses all about stealth, patience and masterful skill with his weapons. An Assassin should never be in a position where they’d have to overcome an opponent with strength alone

Assassinate
The consummate skill of the Assassin, killing an enemy with one strike. If the Assassin can catch an opponent completely by surprise, the Assassin may attempt a straight Assassin versus combat cliché roll. If the Assassin wins, the target dies. If not, the Assassin takes a die of damage to their Assassin cliché, and normal combat starts

Stealth
The Assassin rolls his cliché. The result is the TN that an opponent needs to roll on a Perceptive based cliché roll to notice his presence. The Assassin must be out of sight of anyone before using this skill

Always Alert
The Assassin can wake instantly from even the deepest sleep, ready to fight or flee. Assassins suffer no penalties to any activity they perform right after they wake up. The Assassin may suffer penalties later, if he did not get enough sleep

Combat Poison Making
The Assassin can make and use combat poisons. One dose can be made per use of Combat Poison Making. The poison is applied to a weapon that breaks the skin. The poison will last until successfully used. When the Assassin makes a successful combat roll against an opponent with a poisoned weapon, they must make a Health based cliché roll (equal to the roll to create the poison) or suffer the effects listed
TN 5 – a -1 penalty on the opponent’s next roll
TN 9 – a -1 penalty on the opponent’s rolls until end of combat
TN 14 – a -1 die penalty on the opponent’s rolls until end of combat
TN 18 – a -1 pip penalty on the opponent’s rolls until end of combat
+6 TN for each additional -1 pip penalty

Ingested Poison Making
The Assassin can make and use ingested poisons. One dose can be made per use of Ingested Poison Making. The poison is put in the target’s food or drink. After consuming the food or drink, the target makes a Health based cliché roll (equal to the roll to create the poison) or suffer the effects listed
TN 12 – target suffers pain all throughout the day and is at -1 to all rolls
TN 16 – target suffers delirium and hallucinations, taking -1 die to all rolls all day
TN 18 – target immediately falls into a deep sleep for an hour
TN 20 – target dies

Brawler

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

Brawlers learn that quick fists and feet can do just as well as honest steel in a fight. Brawlers use their massive strength and their endless stamina to pound a world of hurt into their enemies. While not the most skilled or dexterous opponents, Brawlers can hold their own. They come from all walks of life, from the fighting-to-survive slum dweller, to the bored and idle aristocrats

Always Ready
The Brawler has no specific cliché equipment he needs to fight. Brawlers never suffer the half dice penalty of using a cliché without its equipment

Pummel
A Brawler gains a +1 bonus for attacking the same enemy he damaged last turn in combat. This bonus will stack with itself for every round the Brawler continues to win combat rolls. Once the Brawler fails a roll, or if he attacks a different opponent, he no longer gains the bonus until he does damage again

Brutalize
Sometimes a Brawler gets into a battle just a little too much, resorting to tactics that some would find…unpleasant. If a Brawler rolls more than double his opponent’s combat roll, the Brawler’s opponent loses 2 dice instead of 1. If a Brawler rolls more than triple his opponent’s combat roll, the Brawler’s opponent loses 3 dice instead of 1.

Take the Hit
Immediately after taking a die of damage to a cliché, the Brawler may try to see if his bodily bulk took the brunt of the hit. The Brawler can only try this against blunt damage (clubs, maces, staves, unarmed combat, other Brawlers). After a combat roll against blunt damage has failed for the Brawler, he may roll a single d6 and add the result to his failed roll. If his adjusted roll now either ties or exceeds the opponents, neither the Brawler or his opponent takes damage for that round of combat

Drunken Rage
Brawlers are mean drunks. Instead of rolling on the Health based cliché Drinking list, a Brawler makes a Health based cliché roll on the following list
Drinking
1 drink – TN 4 – the Brawler gains a +1 to combat rolls until sober
2 drinks – TN 8 – the Brawler gains a +2 to combat rolls until sober
4 drinks – TN 12 – the Brawler gains a +1 die to combat rolls until sober
8 drinks – TN 16 – the Brawler gains a +1 pip to combat rolls until sober
16 or more drinks – TN 20 – the Brawler gains a +2 pip to combat rolls until sober

Paladin

Strength TN	Dexterity TN	Health TN
Normal	+3 to TN	Normal

Champions of the Light, Paladins fight evil all across Arcadomai. Paladins must conform to a strict code of honor, and must never let their souls slip into the Grey or the Dark. If they do, they lose their cliché abilities until they atone and re-attune their souls to the Light. Paladins are always strong, imposing visions of Light. While their great armor and brilliant weapons slow them down a little, no one doubts a Paladin’s combat ability

Darkbane
The Paladin receives a +2 bonus on any roll against anything that is associated with the Dark, even if the Paladin is not aware of the association

Noble Sacrifice
The Paladin may heal 2 dice of a target’s clichés. In order to do this, the Paladin must be in physical contact with the target, and must take a die of damage in his Paladin cliché as well. This damage to the Paladin’s cliché may not be healed until a Paladin has had a full night’s sleep

Purity
The Paladin is immune to disease, poison and any form of mind control. This ability extends to magical or supernatural poisons and diseases. No form of Torture or Intimidation works against them, and they cannot be Taunted

Leader of Men
When acting as Team Leader during a PC Team up, the Paladin inspires courage and ability in the other members. Other team members in a Paladin led team add their fives and sixes to the final roll, instead of just their sixes

Scourge of the Undead
Undead that are weaker that the Paladin can be instantly destroyed. If the Paladin wins a combat roll against an undead, and the Paladin’s Paladin cliché is at least two dice higher than the undead’s Undead cliché, the undead creature is instantly and completely destroyed

Code of Honor
A Paladin must maintain his strict code of honor. No attacking first, no ambushes, honor any surrender, no killing in anger, a vow of chastity, no drinking to excess etc etc. Very minor acts of transgression can be done, but the Paladin must be careful, lest his alignment shift to Grey. If the Paladin shifts to Grey or violates his code of honor, he loses all cliché abilities, and must atone for a number of days equal to his Paladin level

Rogue Risus

Dantopia — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:45:49 CDT

Rogue Risus

A note about Risus
Risus is a free and easy to learn role-playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Rogue Risus. Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that’s all you’ll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you’ll be able to play Rogue Risus.

What’s a Rogue Dungeon?
A rogue dungeon is an RPG computer game that creates a random dungeon every time you play it. All items are random drops, and usually must be used before you know what they do. The characters, items and monsters are usually represented by ASCII characters, making these games very popular in the early 80’s, as you didn’t need a powerful machine to run them.

So Rogue Risus…
...is rogue-like dungeon emulated by Tarot cards and Risus rules. You are a lone adventurer, attempting to get to the heart of the dungeon to retrieve the powerful Worldstone. Only the Worldstone can save you village from the curse that rots the land and makes the people ill. You must get down to the 20th level, get the Worldstone, and get out again in one piece.

What you’ll need to play
The Character sheet in this document (there's also a seperate character sheet linked to this page if you just want to print that - you can find it here)
Printed out forms for monsters, potions, scrolls, wands and special items in this document
A pack of Tarot cards (can usually be found at most book stores, the Rider-Waite deck is preferred)
An opaque bag with identical tokens numbered 1 to 14

Note - If you'd like the really nice printer friendly .doc file of Rogue Risus, just EMail me at dsuptic@gmail.com and ask for a copy.

Your Character
Extra Shots – You begin the game with 5 extra shots. An Extra Shot may be used to add one die to any combat roll after the dice have all been rolled. Any number of Extra Shots can be used on one roll.

You start the game with 1 die in one of the following clichés –

Fighter
Fire mage
Ice mage
Lightning Mage

Fighters start with a sword and basic armor
Mage clichés just start with a robe (counts as armor for them, but they cannot wear any other armor or wield any weapon found in the dungeon)
Mage clichés are pumpable, but aside from this, no other advanced options are used (no pumping the fighter cliché).

Each cliché also does a certain type of damage in combat

Fighter – Physical
Fire Mage – Fire
Ice Mage – Ice
Lightning Mage – Electricity

Monsters may have resistance or weakness to a damage type. If they are resistant to the type of damage you are dealing, subtract a number equal to the total number of dice you rolled from your final roll (so if you rolled 3 dice, subtract 3 from your total roll). If they are weak against the damage type, add a number equal to the total number of dice you rolled to your final roll (so if you rolled 5 dice, add 5 to your total roll). With certain equipment items, you can become resistant against types of attacks as well – the monster rolls are reduced by the number of dice that they roll (so a Monster (4) that you are resistant against subtracts 4 from their roll).

Equipment
A Fighter has his 1 weapon and 1 suit of armor, and may equip 1 amulet and 2 rings
The Fighter’s weapon and armor bonus dice start at zero.
A Mage has his 1 robe (armor), and may equip 1 amulet, 2 rings and 1 special item
The Mage’s armor bonus dice start at zero.
If you get an equipment item type that you already have equipped, you must choose which one to keep.
Any class may carry any number of Potions, Scrolls and wands.
Potions, scrolls and wands are notated by the suit cards of the Tarot deck.
W = Wands, C = Cups, P = Pentacles
A = Ace, P = Page, Kn = Knight, Q= Queen, K = King
So, a 3 of cups is noted 3C under the potions list, while a Queen of Pentacles is noted as QP under the scrolls list.
All other equipment uses the Major Arcana (like Death, the Lovers, etc.) and should be notated by the card’s name. The Worldstone takes up no equipment spots.

Usable Items
When you get a usable item from exploration, you’ll write down how many you get next to the card designator in the item list on your character sheet. Potions and scrolls are always 1 per find, but wands are 3, due to having multiple charges on them. If you already have an item of that card, just add another to that item’s total (or 3 in case of wands). When you first use an item, the effect area will be blank. Pull a random token from the token bag, do what that number says for the item and write down the effect number by the item slot. Now, every time you get this item again, it does the same thing. If you pull a number that already is in the effect list for that item type, simply set it aside and draw again. Return all tokens to the bag after you’ve found out what the item does. Wands may be only used in combat, and can target either you or your opponent – choose BEFORE you find out the effect. Potions and scrolls may be used at any time, and can only target you. If an effect says Combat, this means for the whole next combat, or until the end of the current combat.

Starting the game
Separate The World card from the deck and lay it aside. Separate the suits from the major arcana cards and shuffle each of these separately. Put the Dungeon Level 1 monster roster in front of you. Deal out 25 of the suit cards face down into one pile – this represents the first level of the dungeon. You explore the dungeon by drawing a card from the level deck. Depending on what you draw you can either get a chance at gaining at item, or fight a monster. Put the cards aside after you deal with them. After you’ve draw 16 cards from the deck, you may choose to go down to the next level. If you don’t, you may keep drawing cards until you either run out of the 25 cards (in which case you must go to the next level), or you decide to go down to the next level. When you go to the next level, shuffle all the suit cards together again, draw 25 new suit cards for the dungeon level and put the next level dungeon monster roster in front of you.

Reaching level 20
When you reach level 20, put in The World card in the mix of 25 suit cards. If you draw The World, you get the Worldstone item and may attempt to escape from the dungeon. When you choose to escape, pull out all swords cards from the suit deck and shuffle them. You must now beat a monster from every level in the dungeon, starting with level 20. Draw a random sword card for each level, placing back in the deck when your done fighting. If you beat all levels worth of monsters, from 20 to 1, you win the game!

Exploring the dungeon
When you’re ready to explore, draw a card and place in face up in front of you. Then, follow the below instructions depending on the suit you drew.

Swords
Fight a monster. Look up the card on the current monster roster (if you drew the 8 of swords, look up 8S) and fight that enemy. If the enemy cliché level is ½, simply roll a die and divide by 2 (rounding up). Enemies with a ½ cliché are defeated when they lose it, just like a 1 die cliché character. Enemies will also have one of the 4 subtypes, abbreviated P for Physical, F for Fire, I for Ice or E for Electrical. After that, there will be any Resistances, Weaknesses and immunities that monster may have. If they have a weakness, it will have the letter of the attack and then the letter W (so fire weakness is FW). If they have a resistance, it will have the letter of the attack and then the letter R (so Ice Resistance is IR). If the monster has the word Item at the end of the entry, you draw one random major arcana equipment card after the battle, and then shuffle that major arcana card back in. If the monster beats you, you lose the game.
Experience - If you kill a monster, mark off the next number on you Monsters Killed list, starting with 1. Every time you mark off a number with an exclamation point (!) by it, you gain 1 die in your cliché. You cannot go above 6 in your cliché (which is why the Monsters Killed list stops after 150, where you get your 6th die). You gain a die in your cliché after you kill 10, 30, 60, 100 and 150 monsters.

Cups
Roll one die. On a 5 or higher, fight a monster as if you had drawn a sword. After that battle, roll one die. On a 2 or more, you gain 1 potion in the slot for this card you drew. Potion effects are applied immediately when drunk.

Pentacles
Roll one die. On a 5 or higher, fight a monster as if you had drawn a sword. After that battle, roll one die. On a 3 or more, you gain 1 scroll in the slot for this card you drew.
Scroll effects are applied immediately when cast.

Wands
Roll one die. On a 5 or higher, fight a monster as if you had drawn a sword. After that battle, roll one die. On a 4 or more, you gain 3 wand charges in the slot for this card you drew.

When you roll a 5 or higher to see if you battle for a card draw that is not a sword, you always resolve the battle before you roll for the item - you can't get the item from a cup, pentacle or wand draw before you resolve the battle (if there is one).

Some effects can raise or lower your weapon or armor cliché. Your weapon and armor can never go below -1, and may never rise above +3. These bonuses and penalties are the number of extra (or less) dice you roll in combat. If you get a -1 enchanted armor or weapon, and you only have 1 die in your cliché, you divide your roll results by 2. If you get a -1 enchanted armor AND weapon, and you only have 1 die in your cliché, you divide your roll results by 3.

Resting
Before you draw a card, you may choose to rest. Roll one die – on a 2 or higher, you heal one die in your cliché. If you roll a 1 instead, you must immediately draw the next exploration card, you do not heal and any roll to see if you fight a monster counts as a six. You may attempt to rest only once between each exploration card draw.

Go and explore, adventurer
That’s all the rules you need to know the play Rogue Risus. Everything else is devoted to item lists, monster descriptions, the character sheet and the quick rules sheet. If you got this setting from an online website, it’s strongly advised that you copy and paste the item lists and monster rosters into a word processor before printing. Other than that, enjoy Rogue Dungeon! If you have any questions or comments, please email them to dantopia5@hotmail.com

Item Roster Information
First is the effect number
Second is the item name
Third is the item effect

Monster Roster Information
First is the Swords card the monster corresponds to
Then, their name and combat cliché level
Then, the type of damage they do (P – physical, F – fire, I – ice, E – electrical)

Effect Number Lists
-Potions-
1 – Minor Healing – Heals 1 die in your cliché
2 – Major Healing – Heals 2 dice in your cliché
3 – Poison – Deals 1 die of damage to your cliché
4 – Haste – Combat – Roll twice for each attack, taking the better of the two
5 – Slow – Combat – Roll twice for each attack, taking the worse of the two
6 – Berserk – Fighter only – Combat – You get +2 bonus dice to all rolls
7 – Invisibility – Combat – If you're damaged, roll 1 die. On a 4+, cancel the damage
8 – Gain Strength – Mark off 2 monsters on your monster killed list
9 – Confusion – Combat – If you do damage, roll 1 die. On a 5+, cancel the damage
10 – Levitation – Combat – You get +1 bonus dice to all rolls
11 – Clarity – Mage only – On your next pumped roll, you lose no dice afterwards
12 – Paralysis – Combat – The next monster roll against you is multiplied by 2
13 – Revivify – Go back to your full cliché
14 – Water – Does nothing, but sure is refreshing!
-Scrolls-
1 – Enchant Weapon – Fighter only – Your weapon’s bonus increases by 1
2 – Curse Weapon – Fighter only – Your weapon’s bonus decreases by 1
3 – Enchant Armor – Your armor’s bonus increases by 1
4 – Curse Armor – Your armor’s bonus decreases by 1
5 – Remove Curse – If your weapon and/or armor is at -1, set them back to 0
6 – Identify – Pull and record an effect token for any 1 blank effect item that you have
7 – Teleport – Immediately draw a new suit card and do that room now
8 – Fear – Combat – On their next roll, all opponents’ dice count as showing a 1
9 – Immolate – Deals 1 damage unless you have fire resist and you lose 1 random scroll
10 – Magic Mapping – Turn the Dungeon Level deck face up for the rest of the level
11 – Blink – End the current Dungeon Level card and place it in your set aside pile
12 – Chaos – Erase all effect numbers by all items in one group of your choice
13 – Gift – The next roll to see if you get an item automatically succeeds
14 – Blank Scroll – It’s just a piece of paper with nothing written on it
-Wands-
1 – Teleport – Target is affected by the Teleport Scroll effect– if on a monster, it vanishes
2 – Haste – Target is affected by the Haste Potion effect
3 – Slow – Target is slowed by the Slow Potion effect
4 – Polymorph – Monster is now the monster 2 down or up on the list, chosen at random
5 – Stone Missile – Counts as a Physical (4) attack
6 – Fire Bolt – Counts as a Fire (4) attack
7 – Ice Bolt – Counts as an Ice (4) attack
8 – Lightning Bolt – Counts as a Lightning (4) attack
9 – Disintegrate – If the monster is not physical resistant, it takes a die of damage
10 – Fire Storm – If the monster is not fire resistant, it takes a die of damage
11 – Blizzard – If the monster is not ice resistant, it take a die of damage
12 – Ball Lightning – If the monster is not electrical resistant, it takes a die of damage
13 – Invisibility – Target is affected by the Invisibility Potion effect
14 – Empty Wand – This wand has been all used up, sorry

Major Arcana Equipment List
The Fool – Jester’s Cap – Special – You get a +3 bonus to your cliché if you are fire mage. Otherwise, the bonus is just +1
The Magician – Magic Staff – Special – You get a +3 bonus to your cliché if you are a lighting mage. Otherwise, the bonus is just +1
The High Priestess – Ice Crown – Special – You get a +3 bonus to your cliché if you are an ice mage. Otherwise the bonus is just +1
The Empress –Ring of Warmth – Ring – You gain ice resistance
The Emperor – Ring of Coolness– Ring – You gain fire resistance
The Hierophant – Ring of Grounding – You gain electricity resistance
The Lovers – Amulet of Health – You heal 1 die after every combat
The Chariot – Amulet of Speed – When you explore, you now draw 2 dungeon exploration cards, pick the one you want to encounter and put the other face down on the bottom of the deck
Strength – Amulet of Strength – Fighter only – You win ties and may pump the fighter cliché
The Hermit – Alchemist’s Ring – You automatically succeed when rolling to find potions
The Wheel of Fortune – Fate’s Ring – You succeed when rolling to find scrolls on a roll of 2 or more
Justice – Justicar’s Ring – You succeed when rolling to find wands on a roll of 3 or more
The Hanged Man – Amulet of Torture – Whenever your opponent loses a cliché, you heal a cliché on a roll of 5 or more on one die
Death – Amulet of Decay – Whenever you lose a cliché, your opponent loses a cliché on a roll of 5 or more on one die
Temperance – Amulet of Life – You ignore the first cliché of damage you would take in any combat
The Devil – Ring of Infernal Knowledge – Mage only - You gain +2 in your mage cliché, but take 2 clichés of damage whenever you lose a combat roll
The Tower – Ring of Rage – Fighter only – When you win a combat roll without using any item (or being under the effect of an item), you do 2 dice of damage instead of 1
The Star – Ring of the Heavens – You do 2 dice of damage instead of one when using a wand that damages your opponent
The Moon – Polar Ring – Your opponents lose ice resistance
The Sun – Solar Ring – Your opponents lose fire resistance
Judgement – Storm Ring – Your opponents lose electricity resistance
The World – The Worldstone is added to the dungeon level cards when you reach level 20. It takes up no equipment spaces and allows you to go through the escape

Dungeon Level 1 – The Entrance Caves
AS – Rat (½) P
2S – Bat (½) P
3S – Small Snake (½) P – CW
4S – Poison Spider (½) P – PW
5S – Baby Alligator (½) P – EW
6S – Polar Bear Cub (½) P – FW
7S – Snapping Turtle (½) P – PR
8S – Cougar (1) P
9S – Jackal (1) P
10S – Fox (1) P
PS – Feral Cat (1) P
KnS – Feral Dog (1) P
QS – Coyote (1) P
KS – Wererat (1) P – PR – Item

Dungeon Level 2 – The Goblin Caves
AS – Goblin Digger (1) P
2S – Goblin Builder (1) P
3S – Goblin Scout (1) P
4S – Goblin Fire Adept (1) F – IW
5S – Goblin Ice Adept (1) I – FW
6S – Goblin Archer (1) P
7S – Goblin Grenadier (1) F
8S – Goblin Warrior (2) P
9S – Goblin Fire Mage (2) F – FR
10S – Goblin Ice Mage (2) I – IR
PS – Goblin Storm Caller (2) E – ER
KnS – Goblin Brute (2) P – PR FW IW EW
QS – Guard Dog (2) P
KS – Goblin War Chief (2) – FR – Item

Dungeon Level 3 – The Spacious Tunnels
AS – Crow (1) P
2S – Pixie (1) E – ER PW
3S – Dragonnette (1) F – FR IW
4S – Snow Spirit (1) I – IR FW
5S – Dust Cloud (1) P – PR
6S – Hawk (2) P
7S – Vulture (2) P
8S – Giant Bat (2) P
9S – Whirlwind (2) P – PR
10S – Silver Sparrow (2) I – IR
PS – Winged Cat (3) P
KnS – Nightmare Colt (3) F – FR IW
QS – Storm Hawk (3) E - ER
KS – Griffon (3) P – Item

Dungeon Level 4 – The Gnoll Camp
AS – Gnoll Scavenger (2) P
2S – Gnoll Crossbowman (2) P
3S – Gnoll Guard (2) P
4S – Gnoll Brawler (2) P
5S – Gnoll Priest (2) F – FR EW
6S – Gnoll Sorcerer (2) E – ER IW
7S – Gnoll Wizard (2) I – IR FW
8S – Gnoll Beast (3) P
9S – Gnoll Warrior (3) P
10S – Gnoll Basher (3) P
PS – Rockeater (3) P – PR
KnS – Guard Beast (3) P – EW
QS – Albino Gnoll (3) P – IR FW
KS – Gnoll Commander (3) P – IR – Item

Dungeon Level 5 – The Orcish Mines
AS – Grunt (2) P
2S – Orc Soldier (2) P
3S – Orc Stone Thrower (2) P
4S – Orc Cave Maker (2) P – PR
5S – Orc Blaster (2) F – FR
6S – Orc Warrior (3) P
7S – Orc Pit Fighter (3) P
8S – Orc Drill Sergeant (3) P – IR EW
9S – Orc Slave Enforcer (3) E – FR PW
10S – Orc Kapeetan (3) P – Item
PS – Orc Monstrosity (4) P
KnS – Orc War Priest (4) I – IR FW
QS – Orc Metalbeast (4) P – EW
KS – Orc Leader (4) P – FR – Item

Dungeon Level 6 – The Lair of Beasts
AS – Bull (3) P
2S – Wild Horse (3) P
3S – Giant Tortoise (3) P – PR EW
4S – Salamander (3) F – FR IW
5S – Lion (3) P
6S – Ox (3) P
7S – Giant Spider (3) P – Item
8S – Lioness (4) P
9S – Giant Gecko (4) P – FR IW
10S – Boa Constrictor (4) P
PS – Gorilla (4) P
KnS – Winter Wolf (4) I – IR FW
QS – Tiger (4) P
KS – Giant Trapdoor Spider (4) P – Item

Dungeon Level 7 – The Necropolis
AS – Skeleton Warrior (3) P – FR
2S – Zombie Warrior (3) P – IR
3S – Ghost (3) E – PR FW
4S – Skeleton Mage (3) F – FR
5S – Zombie Blighter (3) I – IR
6S – Necrophage (4) P – ER
7S – Wraith (4) I – IR PR FW
8S – Hungman (4) I – IR
9S – Hellhound (4) F – FR IW
10S – Mummy (4) P – ER IR FW – Item
PS – Necromancer (5) I
KnS – Ghoul (5) P - IR
QS – Damned Spirit (5) I – IR PR FW
KS – Executed Blasphemer (5) E – ER – Item

Dungeon Level 8 – The Watery Passage
AS – Alligator (4) P – EW
2S – Giant Crab (4) P – EW
3S – Jelly Fish (4) E – ER
4S – Electric Eel (4) E – ER
5S – Water Wyrm (4) I – IR FW
6S – School of Piranhas (4) P
7S – Merfolk Warrior (4) P – Item
8S – Tiger Shark (5) P – EW
9S – Merfolk Mage (5) I – FR
10S – Merfolk Assassin (5) P
PS – Great White Shark (5) – EW
KnS – Merfolk Priest (5) E – IR
QS – Leviathan Spawn (5) P – IR
KS – Merfolk Lord (5) P – FR – Item

Dungeon Level 9 – The Ogre Caverns
AS – Orc Slave (4) P
2S – Guard Orc Slave (4) P
3S – Ogre Grunt (4) P
4S – Ogre Mage (4) F – FR IW
5S – Ogre Priest (4) E – ER – Item
6S – Ogre Slavedriver (5) P
7S – Two Headed Ogre (5) P
8S – Ogre Tunnel maker (5) P – PR FW
9S – Ogre Magus (5) E
10S – Ogre Blacksmith (5) P – FR – Item
PS – Three Headed Ogre (6) P
KnS – Guard Hydra (6) P – FR
QS – Dire Wolf (6) P
KS – Ogre Commander (6) P – Item

Dungeon Level 10 – The Hive
AS – Giant Worker Ant (5) P
2S – Giant Killer Bee (5) P
3S – Giant Soldier Ant (5) P – PR
4S – Giant Mayfly (5) P – PW
5S – Scarab Swarm (5) P – ER
6S – Army Ant Swarm (5) F – FR
7S – Giant Dung Beetle (5) P – Item
8S – Giant Scorpion (6) P
9S – Giant Centipede (6) P
10S – Giant Wasp (6) P – PW
PS – Giant Shield Bug (6) P – PR – Item
KnS – Swarm of Killer Lightning Bugs (6) E – ER FW
QS – Big Pile of Nasty Insects (6) P
KS – Giant Queen Bee (6) P – IR – Item

Dungeon Level 11 – The Dark Elf Dungeons
AS – Dark Elf Scout (5) P – IR
2S – Dark Elf Warrior (5) P
3S – Dark Elf Moon Mage (5) I – IR FW
4S – Dark Elf Storm Mage (5) E – ER
5S – Dark Elf Cleric (5) F – FR – Item
6S – Dark Elf Assassin (6) P – IR
7S – Dark Elf Knight (6) P
8S – Dark Elf Betrayer (6) F – FR IW
9S – Dark Elf Dread Cavalry (6) P
10S – Dark Elf Lieutenant (6) P – Item
PS – Dark Elf Elite Guard (7) P
KnS – Dark Elf Enchanter (7) E – IR – Item
QS – Dark Elf Sergeant (7) P
KS – Dark Elf Night Lord (7) I – Item

Dungeon Level 12 – The Underground Forest
AS – Vicious Vines (6) P – ER FW
2S – Wooden Soldier (6) P
3S – Needle-Burst Bush (6) P – IR FW
4S – Ent (6) P – IR ER FW – Item
5S – Flaming Vines (6) F – FR
6S – Living Marsh (6) I – IR
7S – Trapping Foliage (6) P – Item
8S – Assassin Vine (7) P
9S – Topiary Guardian (7) P – PR FW
10S – Living Hedge Maze (7) P – IR ER
PS – Ent Soldier (7) P – IR ER FW – Item
KnS – Cold Spore Mushroom (7) I – IR FW
QS – Jolting Roots (7) E – ER PW
KS – Lord of Leaves (7) P – PR IR ER FW – Item

Dungeon Level 13 – The Elemental Fissures
AS – Dust Elemental (6) P – IR FR EW
2S – Glass Elemental (6) P – IR ER PW
3S – Smoke Elemental (6) F – FR PR IW
4S – Snow Elemental (6) I – IR ER FW
5S – Mud Elemental (6) P – PR FR EW – Item
6S – Ice Elemental (7) I – IR ER FW
7S – Magma Elemental (7) F – FR ER IW
8S – Metal Elemental (7) P – PR FR EW – Item
9S – Sandstone Elemental (7) P – FR IR PW
10S – Copper Elemental (7) P – PR IR EW - Item
PS – Fire Elemental (8) F – PR FR IW
KnS – Water Elemental (8) I – IR ER FW – Item
QS – Air Elemental (8) E – ER FR PW
KS – Earth Elemental (8) P – PR IR EW – Item

Dungeon Level 14 – The Factory
AS – Mechanical Arachnid (7) P – PR EW
2S – Animated Hammer (7) P
3S – Animated Lathe (7) P
4S – Clockwork Blacksmith (7) P – FR ER – Item
5S – Trained Fire Breathing Wyrm (7) F – FR IW
6S – Giant Mechanical Arm (7) P
7S – Mechanical Overseer (7) E – ER PW – Item
8S – Clockwork Warrior (8) P
9S – Clockwork Magus (8) F – FR IW
10S – Freezing Construct (8) I – IR FW – Item
PS – Juggernaut (8) P – PR
KnS – Bladestorm Mechanica (8) P – Item
QS – Hammerer (8) P – FR IR
KS – Grand Mechanic (8) E – ER IR – Item

Dungeon Level 15 – The Slime Pits
AS – Gelatinous Cube (7) P – IR
2S – Copper Jelly (7) E – ER
3S – Bronze Slime (7) P – PR – Item
4S – Flaming Ooze (7) F – FR
5S – Slush Ooze (7) I – IR – Item
6S – Green Slime (8) P – PR
7S – Caustic Jelly (8) F – FR
8S – Bubbling Sphere (8) P – ER – Item
9S – Tar Slime (8) F – FR
10S – Glacial Ooze (8) I – IR – Item
PS – Boiling Pitch (9) F – FR
KnS – Mercury Slime (9) P – PR – Item
QS – Winter Ooze (9) I – IR
KS – Electric Jelly (9) E – ER – Item

Dungeon Level 16 – The Maze
AS – Animated Armor (8) P – PR
2S – Tunnel Crawler (8) E – ER FR IW
3S – Minotaur (8) P – IR – Item
4S – Tunnel Rat Swarm (8) P – PR
5S – Chaos Mage (8) F – FR IW – Item
6S – Mimic (8) P - IR
7S – Soul Collector (8) I – IR FW – Item
8S – Mirror Monster (9) P – ER PW
9S – Lost Soul (9) I – IR PR FW
10S – Animated Vault (9) P – FR – Item
PS – Skulking Devourer (9) P
KnS – Minotaur Barbarian (9) P – FR – Item
QS – Stonework Golem (9) P – PR
KS – Lord of Madness (9) E – ER FR IR - Item

Dungeon Level 17 – The Giant’s Fortress
AS – Guard Giant (8) P
2S – Desert Giant (8) F – FR IW
3S – Frost Giant (8) I – IR FW – Item
4S – Storm Giant (8) E – ER
5S – Soldier Giant (8) P – PR – Item
6S – Giant Feral Hound (9) P – IR FR
7S – Fire Mage Giant (9) F – FR ER IW – Item
8S – Giant Feral Lion (9) P – IR ER
9S – Ice Mage Giant (9) I – IR PR FW – Item
10S – Barbarian Giant (9) P – PR
PS – Assassin Giant (10) P – FR IW – Item
KnS – Giant Mammoth (10) P – IR
QS – Queen Giant (10) P – PR IR FW – Item
KS – King Giant (10) P – PR FR IW – Item

Dungeon Level 18 – The Forgotten Pit
AS – Abomination (9) P – PR ER IW
2S – Chaos Beast (9) E – ER IR PW – Item
3S – Will o’ the Wisp (9) I – FR IR
4S – Patchwork Man (9) P – FR EW – Item
5S – Alien Creature (9) F – FR PR IW
6S – Ferryman (9) I – IR ER PW – Item
7S – Floating Eye (9) E – ER FR PW
8S – Tessellating Nightmare (10) P – PR FW – Item
9S – Chimera (10) F – FR IR EW
10S – Doppelganger (10) P – PR ER FW – Item
PS – Living Wall (10) P – PR FR IW
KnS – Psychic Warrior (10) E – ER PR – Item
QS – Apocalypse Spirit (10) F – FR ER
KS – Mindflayer (10) P – PR FR IR EW – Item

Dungeon Level 19 – The Dragon’s Lair
AS – Red Dragon (10) F – PR FR ER IW
2S – White Dragon (10) I – IR ER PR FW – Item
3S – Blue Dragon (10) E – ER IR FR PW
4S – Green Dragon (10) P – PR ER IR FW – Item
5S – Black Dragon (10) P – PR ER FR IW
6S – Fire Dragon (10) F – PR FR ER IW – Item
7S – Earth Dragon (10) P – PR FR IR EW – Item
8S – Water Dragon (11) I – IR PR ER FW
9S – Air Dragon (11) E – ER FR IR PW – Item
10S – Death Dragon (11) I – IR FR ER PW
PS – Mud Dragon (11) F – FR IR PR EW – Item
KnS – Chaos Dragon (11) E – ER IR PR FW
QS – Time Dragon (11) P – IR ER FR PW – Item
KS – Dragon Lord (11) F – FR PR ER IW – Item

Dungeon Level 20 – Hell
AS – Anubis (11) P – PR FR IR
2S – Legion (11) E – ER IR FR – Item
3S – Mammon (11) F – FR IR PR
4S – Aneris (11) I – FR IR ER – Item
5S – Lilith (11) P – PR IR ER
6S – Hades (11) I – PR FR ER – Item
7S – Dante (11) F – PR ER FR – Item
8S – Chaos (12) E – PR ER FR
9S – Gorgon (12) I – PR FR IR – Item
10S – Lucifer (12) F – PR FR ER
PS – War (12) P – PR FR ER – Item
KnS – Famine (12) I – PR FR IR
QS – Pestilence (12) E – PR IR ER – Item
KS – Death (12) P – FR IR ER – Item

Sample Character Sheet

Character Name:________________________
Character Cliché:________________________( 1 2 3 4 5 6 )
Weapon (N/A for Mages)( -1 0 +1 +2 +3 )
Armor: ( -1 0 +1 +2 +3 )
Amulet:____________________
Ring 1:_____________________
Ring 2:_____________________
Special Item (N/A for fighter):_____________________
Extra Shots ( )( )( )( )( )

Potions	-	-	Scrolls	-	-	Wands	-	-
Card	Qty	Effect	Card	Qty	Effect	Card	Qty	Effect

Monsters Killed – 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10! 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30! 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60! 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100! 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150!

Worldstone in inventory – ( )

Escape - 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Quick Sheet
25 cards per dungeon level, Must have drawn 16 to go to next level.
Add The World Card on level 20.
If you get the world, beat a random monster from level 20 to 1 to win.

-Sword-
Fight a monster!
-Cup-
5+, fight a monster
2+, get 1 potion
-Pentacle-
5+, fight a monster
3+, get 1 scroll
-Wands-
5+, fight a monster
4+, get a wand w/ 3 charges

Resting
Once before exploration, roll 2+ to heal a die in your cliché
Otherwise, immediately draw the next card - monster roll counts as a six

Monster Stuff
If they have a ½ as their cliché level, roll the die and divide the result by 2 (rounded up)
P – Physical, F – Fire, I – Ice, E - Electrical
PR – Physical Resist, FR – Fire Resist, IR – Ice Resist, ER – Electrical Resist
PW – Physical Weak, FW – Fire Weak, IW – Ice Weak, EW – Electrical Weak

Resistance and Weakness
If they are resistant to the type of damage you are dealing, subtract a number equal to the total number of dice you rolled from your final roll.
If they are weak to the type of damage you are dealing, add a number equal to the total number of dice you rolled to your final roll.

Equipment
Mages carry no weapon
Fighters cannot carry special items
If you get a -1 enchanted armor or weapon, and you only have 1 die in your cliché, you divide your roll result by 2 (rounded up).
If you get a -1 enchanted armor AND weapon, and you only have 1 die in your cliché, you divide your roll result by 3(rounded up).

Usable Items
Potions and scrolls can be used anytime, and only target you.
Wands can only be used in combat and target either you or the opponent – choose who you target BEFORE you find out the effect.

SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF

Dantopia — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:38:53 CDT

Super-Happy-Go-Go-Fun-Time-

All-World-Speedy-Good-Delivery-Service-

Special-Force-Delta-Five

A note about Risus
Risus is a free and easy to learn role-playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Super-Happy-Go-Go-Fun-Time-All-World-Speedy-Good-Delivery-Service-
Special-Force-Delta-Five (from now on, simply called SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF). Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that's all you'll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you'll be able to play SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF.

So, what’s this setting all about then?
SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF is a special team of Delivery Agents that are sent across time and space to deliver Important Stuff to Important People. The PCs are conscripted out of their normal lives and sent to a space station (in the year 73,491) where they are given anything they desire (including a very nice apartment) so long as they continue to make deliveries for the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF.

Who’s in charge of this craziness?
The entire SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF is run by one man – Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san. He runs the delivery service to put particular items into the hands of influential people in the past (and sometimes future), in the hopes of guiding the timeline to make the year 73,491 as perfect as possible. Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san recruits people from all over the timeline, sends them on missions once a week for a year, and then puts them right back when they came from (with appropriate age reversal and memory deleting, of course). He is a normal looking middle aged Japanese man, who acts very much like the stereotypical Japanese slave-driver boss. He’ll also smack anyone on the head with a bamboo sword if they mispronounce his name, or if they leave any words out when referring to the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF.

Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san
Stereotypical Japanese Slave-Driver Boss (6)
Time Traveling Scientist (6)
Enough of a Ninja to Defend Himself (4)

Characters
First off, and most importantly, DON’T TELL THE PLAYERS WHAT THEY ARE MAKING CHARACTERS FOR. Just tell them to make any character they want. From any setting or time period. They can use any Advanced Option they want, and they can use any extra options out of the Risus Companion they want. Another important note – NONE OF THE PLAYERS MAY CONVERSE WITH EACH OTHER, OR COMPARE CHARACTERS AT ALL. Once all the players get done with there PCs, give them all a copy of the Welcome to the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF letter. As they read it, tell them that they are surrounded by a blue light, and they appear in some type of lounge.

Where are we again?
The PCs are now in orbit around the Earth in the space station called D5. This space station has all the amenities that the year 73,491 has to offer. It has very large and well furnished apartments for the PCs. It has a high tech stable for any mounts the PCs may be riding. There’s an arcade, sport arena and gym for the PCs when they aren’t on the job. There’s a giant electronic library for the bookworms of the group. There’s holodecks, restaurants, theatres, pools, indoor parks…everything. This place has it all. It also has high tech weapons and tools (which will surely add dice to some PC clichés), but those are given out only as rewards for a job well done. Robot workers roam the halls, doing everything from repairing the reactor, to serving the PCs some grilled cheese sandwiches. There is also one more item of note – the Transportatron.

The Transportatron
This device looks like your typical Sci-Fi teleportation device. This will transport the PCs through time and space (and sometimes alternate dimensions) to where they need to go to deliver their item. The problem is, it’s hard to get exact coordinates with the Transportatron. Therefore, anywhere the PCs end up will be at least 3 Plot Points away from their target. The problems the PCs can run into can be literally anything, anywhere, at any time period. Dragons on a starship, robots in ancient Greece, ninjas at the Dawn of Time – anything. Why is this so? Simple! While the PCs are working for the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF on the D5, the D1 through the D4 all have their own similarly named projects to change the past to their own ideas of a perfect world. So, not only do the PCs have to worry about normal threats in the time they show up in, they also have to worry about four other organization’s teams of highly skilled delivery personal to deal with.

The Mission
Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san always gives the PCs a choice of 3 different missions to choose from each week. Therefore, as the GM, it’s handy to make a list of all possible missions, pick 3 of those, and write an adventure for them. Then, next time you play, choose a new mission to replace the one the PCs chose last time. Or you could choose 3 all new missions. Anyways, always give the PCs 3 choices of what mission to take.

Sample Mission Roster

-Available Missions-	-Person to Deliver to-	-Item to Deliver-
Not yet	Elvis	Blue Suede Shoes
Yes	Young Charlton Heston	Rifle
Not yet	Area 51 Personnel	Spaceship Repair Manual
Not yet	Ugg the Caveman	Wheel
Not yet	Aleksey Pajitnov	Lego’s Building Blocks
Yes	Captain Kirk	Toupee
Not yet	Napoleon Bonaparte	Booster Seat
Yes	Frodo Baggins	Crocs Therapeutic Shoes
Not yet	Julius Caesar	44 B.C. Calendar
Not yet	Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san	Transportatron Schematics

Mission Start
The PCs are always given a small device with a button on it by Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san. They can use this to instantly return to D5 after the mission is done. Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san will describe where (and when) they are going to, describe the person that the parcel is to be delivered to and of course, give them the item for delivery. They get into the Transportatron, it goes (insert Sci-Fi power up sound here) and the PCs find themselves within Getting There in One Gaming Session distance from the target.

The Mission Itself
The PCs must overcome humorous and bizarre obstacles to get to the target. Many anachronistic jokes, horrible puns and general mayhem ensues.

Mission Success!
If the PCs succeed in their mission, and do so under any restrictions from Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san (stealthily, no innocent hurt, no buildings blown up, no art damaged, etc etc etc), they’ll be rewarded. With better equipment. That probably gives a +1 (or more, if they already have a +1) die bonus to a cliché.

Mission Success…sort of…
If the PCs deliver the item, but make a huge mess of things (being seen in a stealth mission, hurting an innocent in a no innocent hurt mission, blowing up the Vatican in a no buildings blown up mission etc etc etc), Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san will berate them for being clumsy fools, but still give them some kind of positive recognition. Maybe extra pudding at dinner. Yeah, extra pudding is nice.

Mission Failure!
If the PCs just utterly fail in delivering the item, they’ll get a whole day of being smacked around with the bamboo sword.

Character Example
Um, yeah. Pretty much any character ever made for any Risus setting works.

SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF Campaigns
If you can actually keep this up for more than 3 or 4 sessions, more power to you. One thing you MUST do in an ongoing campaign is to have the PCs go on a mission where they need to stealthily deliver the Welcome to the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF letters to themselves.

You Go Now! Make Delivery!
Well, hmm. Yes, that’s a rather silly setting. But it’s a great way to introduce players who have played Serious-And-Not-Silly-At-All RPGs into the world (and mindset) of Risus. So have fun, relax, and enjoy the whole wacky ride. As always, Email me at dsuptic@gmail.com if you have any questions. Oh yeah, the Welcome to the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF letter is at the bottom of this page. Enjoy.

Welcome to the SHGGFTAWSGDSSFDF letter

TO: New Employee
FROM: Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san
RE: Employee Orientation

Welcome to Super-Happy-Go-Go-Fun-Time-All-World-Speedy-Good-Delivery-Service-
Special-Force-Delta-Five, new employee! I, Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san, feel so much happiness in my bowels that you are here. You are in the future! On a giant space station! Hooray! You have been chosen because you have special skills. Your skills are needed for special delivery service. You go into the past, or into maybe future, all over the world, even maybe other dimension. You take package with item in it to very important people. Then you hit button and come back to space station. Very fun and good time. You work only one day a week. Very relaxing! In off time, you train and have fun in gym or sporting field. After one year, you go back home. You go back right when you left. You will not remember space station. You will not remember Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san. But you have happy feelings now, since you do important job. I give you any instructions you need when time for delivery. For now, you walk around space station. Eat food, ask robots if you need help around space station. You get your own sufficient apartment living place to sleep in. After sleep, you go on first mission. Happiness is ready for you! Success is coming to us and to you too! Succeed in missions, and you get neat stuff and yummy food for your stomach to enjoy. Fail in missions and you get hit on head with my bamboo sword that I use for hitting people on the head! Do not fail! You will not fail because I pick you to be my team! Welcome to my team that I picked that includes you. Welcome to Super-Happy-Go-Go-Fun-Time-
All-World-Speedy-Good-Delivery-Service-Special-Force-Delta-Five! Okay!

Your honorable employer,
Mr. Kuri-kana-suro-san

PS – There are donuts and coffee on the table which is located in the break room. The donuts are well and good to eat for your stomach. You only eat two donuts. You eat more than two donuts and you get hit in the head with my bamboo sword. The coffee is also well and good for drinking. You may drink all cups of coffee that you wish to drink. Thank you. Okay!

Risus Mariachi

Dantopia — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:37:21 CDT

Risus Mariachi

Any and all comments and constructive criticism are welcome - just add you thoughts as comments to this post, or email me at the address at the end of this page

A note about Risus
Risus is a free and easy to learn role playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Risus Mariachi. Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that’s all you’ll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you’ll be able to play Risus Mariachi.

The world of Risus Mariachi
All across the USA are people who love music. Some people love rock and roll, some love rap, and some even love disco. But you and your companions know the truth. The best music in the world is…Mariachi! Yes, that beautiful Spanish guitar, the folk harp, and the guitarrón and vihuelas make the perfect musical performance that people will love. But a lot of muchachos and muchachas are lured into less perfect music by many performers around the country. So it is you and your band mate’s duty to convert these misled peoples to the wonder of mariachi, and to also stop the other band’s seemingly endless bids for world domination. Yes, you will play for crowds, hone your mariachi playing skills, and battle the other non-mariachi bands and their minions as they try to take over the world. Welcome to Risus Mariachi. ¡Olé!

Character Creation – Me Llamo Risus
In Risus Mariachi, you play a Spaniard mariachi band member who has come to the USA to impress and possibly convert the ignorant masses to the great beauty of mariachi. You need appropriate clichés to play for crowds, to fight the minions of other bands, and to speak good enough English to get information to and from the locals. Options I and II are both used (hooks and tales, and pumping clichés).

Musical Clichés – Me Canto
In order to entertain (and hopefully convert) fans of other music types, you have to have some ability to play music. In fact, it works better if your whole group can play, so make sure everyone in the group takes at least 1 cliché in some type of mariachi instrument playing. Some example clichés follow.

Spanish guitarist
Bass player
Muted trumpeter
Spanish vocalist
Tambourine or maracas percussionist
Folk harp player
Violinist

Your musical cliché will be quite important as it is used to gain new followers in the mariachi culture and to deplete other bands of their fan base.

Combat Clichés – ¡Estoy Enojado!
Sometimes you have to beat down a group of angry heavy metal fans to get to your gig. Sometimes a rapper will try to bust a cap in your skull for trying to steal his fans. Sometimes a group of disco lovers will walk up ready for a break-dance style beat down. But fear not, hombre! Just because you are a kind and peaceful mariachi player doesn’t mean you can’t fight back! And taking a decent combat cliché like the ones below will ensure you come out with your cajonés attached.

Brawler
Wrestler
Bullfighter
Boxer
Desperado
Bandito
etc.

Your combat cliché is also an important cliché, but it should not be the main focus of your character. Even if you can hit a bull’s-eye from 200 feet away with a .22 cal, your true love and purpose belongs to mariachi!

Special cliché – English Speaker – Yo Hablo Inglés
Your character has just come off the boat/plane/etc from Spain or Mexico. Therefore, it can be useful to take the English Speaker cliché. At least one character in the group should take this at a reasonable level; otherwise, it’s hard to get around the good ol’ US of A. You never need to roll against your English Speaker cliché – the level of this cliché simply determines how you have to talk when you’re talking in character. Whenever you’re explaining actions to the GM, or explaining things to the other PCs, you may use your normal voice, regardless of your English Speaker cliché.

English Speaker (0) – You must always speak in Spanish. If you can’t speak Spanish, you must talk in as close to Spanish as you can fake. Most people outside of your band don’t understand a word you say.

English Speaker (1) – 50% of what you say has to be Spanish or fake Spanish. You must talk with a heavy accent (rolling your R’s, etc.)

English Speaker (2) – You have a moderate Spanish accent. 10% of what you say must be in Spanish or fake Spanish.

English Speaker (3) – You have a slight Spanish accent. Once or twice in a conversation, you will throw in a Spanish or fake Spanish word.

English Speaker (4) – You may use your normal voice all the time. A little boring, but useful if you are not good with Spanish or accents.

Handy Spanish phrases
Yes – Sí
No – No
Good – Bueno
Bad – Malo
Help – Ayuda
Run – Corra
We’re on fire! (as in, we’re rocking hard)- ¡Estoy en fuego!
Hello - Hola
Goodbye - Adios
Hello (city) – Hola, (city)
Goodnight (city) – Beuno noches, (city)
One, two, one, two, three, four – Uno, Dos, Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro
Prepare to die! - ¡Preparas a morir!

Entertaining and Converting Fans - ¡Escuchame!
One of the most important parts of this game (and your character’s life) is to entertain and even convert groups of fans to the mariachi type. Whenever you and your band play for a group of fans, you use the Teaming Up option in the main rules. Whoever is the Leader at that show counts all their dice when they roll, and the other band members contribute any sixes they roll. If you don’t beat the entertain target number, the crowd gets annoyed and forces you off the stage. If you beat the entertain target number, but not the convert target number, the crowd really enjoys the show, but stays true fans to their original type of music. If you beat the convert target number, this local of fans is now a mariachi fan base! To find the target numbers, just look under Fan Type to find what type of fans you’re dealing with. If you don’t see the Fan Type, select one that is as close to the fan type as possible.

Fan Type Entertain TN Convert TN
Mariachi 0* 0**
Salsa, Mexican polka, anything Spanish 5 10
Classic rock, blues, classical, ska 10 20
Hard rock, alternative, new age 15 30
Heavy metal, hip hop, rap 20 40
Death metal, speed metal, techno 25 50
Very esoteric regional music, Björk 30 60

* it takes no effort to entertain mariachi fans
** they’re already mariachi fans – you don’t need to convert them

If another band tries to entertain or convert mariachi fans away from your fan base, use the same table above, but instead of looking at the fans (which will be mariachi), look for the performer type in the fan type field. Therefore, if a New Age group tried to play for a crowd of mariachi fans, they would need to get a 15 to entertain them, and a 30 to convert them to New Age fans.

Inevitable Battle - ¡Es el tiempo para muerte!
Mariachi is pure, holy, and el mejor buena música. Other types of bands hate mariachi and all it stands for. While mariachi band members are naturally peaceful and kind, there comes many times where they must defend themselves. Attacks come from many fronts, but the main 3 are from fans, hired security, and band members. ¡Es malo multiplica de tres! The samples provided below are just samples – feel free to make your own fans, security, and band members.

Sample Fans

Metal head – Brawler (2), Mosher (2)
Hippie – Bottle chucker (2), Drug user (4)
Cowboy – Marksman (3)
Goth – Apathetic fighter (2), Apathetic drinker (4)
Gansta – Gangster (2), Brawler (2)
Rave Junkie – Hyperactive berserker (3)
Old time rocker – Ass kicker (2), Whiner (4)
Alternative rocker – Brawler (2), Whiner (2)
Punk – Thug (2), Skateboarder (3)
etc. etc. etc.

Sample Security Personal

Rent-a-cop – Marksman (2)
Rent-an-actual-cop – Marksman (3), Brawler (2), Taser expert (2)
Big beefy bruiser – Brawler (4)
Karate Cop – Martial arts (3)
Taser cop – Taser expert (3)
Pepper spray cop – Crowd control personnel (3)
etc. etc. etc.

Sample Band Members

While both fans and security can be pretty generic characters, it’s always good to have your band members be fully fleshed out. Band members should be built around 10 dice, so as to present a true threat to your PCs. The band members below work well as leaders of their bands; build bands around these iconic characters. ¡Qué especial!

Bling-a-thang
Rapper (4), Gangster (3), Legal loophole expert (3)

Dorian Greyblood
Creepy goth singer (3), Actual real life necromancer (4), Whiny goth (3)

Paul McSampson
Country music guitarist (4), Bar room brawler (4), Binge drinker (2)

Attax
Heavy metal drummer (4), All around thug (3), Drug dealer (2), Songwriter (1)

Timothy Salderson
Classical pianist (4), Fencer (4), Poet (2)

DJ Suptic
Techno DJ (4), Mixer (3), Discordian (3)

Sian Sukaru A
sian sitar player (3), Martial artist (4), Zen monk (2), Artist (1)

Björk
Crazy singer (4), Crazy songwriter (3), Crazy Icelandic ninja (3)

Adventure Seeds - ¿Qué haces ahora?
These adventure seeds will help set up a Risus Mariachi campaign, or breathe new life into an existing campaign. Feel free to adjust the specifics to your own group’s liking.

Home base
This is a good seed for the beginning of a campaign. The PCs enter the USA with no money or place to live. They must find a gig, preferably with fans that will be easy to convert. Once they find a local with loyal mariachi fans, the PCs can start to build a power base to spread the music.

Jail break
The PCs have ended up in jail after a really bad show. They must gather a team of skilled inmates by converting them to mariachi fans. First problem, all the inmates are either heavy metal or rap fans. Second problem, the PCs have no instruments. Third problem, the PCs are set for execution by elevator music in one week.

The race for the stage
Some huge city has an opening for a band to play. The catch is, the populace of the city has been listening to such dull music, that any band that plays for them will win them over as fans! The PCs must sign their band in person, and will have to race against metal head, goths, punks, and hippies to get to the prize.

Blue man blues
The PCs find out one of their fan bases has been turned into Blue Man Group fans (use statistics for new age fans). They found a way to play a show right after the Blue Man Group, but because of the unique nature of how Blue Man Group performs, not only must they outplay them, they must also put on a more interesting and bizarre show. Good luck!

A plea for help
One night, after a really good rehearsal, one of the PCs finds a note is his tequila bottle. It seems a city far away has come under the total grip of Björk fans. The writer of the note is sending a desperate plea to free his city from the grip of the fans. The PCs must hone their skills until they are ready to take on the crowd of Björk fans and win them back over to the light. The light called...mariachi!

Stage fright
The PCs are on stage performing when out of nowhere, skeletons attack! For real! It’s the work of Dorian Greyblood, the evil, goth singing necromancer. Dorian is trying to win back a fan base the PCs recently stole from him, and won’t rest until the PCs are dead. Looks like it’s time to pay Señor Dorian a visit. Character Example – ¡Hola, Amigo! Here’s an example of a character ready to jump into the world of Risus Mariachi. If he can a few band mates and a place to call home, he’ll be ready to start converting fans to the greatest cause in the world – mariachi! ¡Bueno trabajo, hombre!

El Torrido
Bass player (4)
Bandito (4)
Cook (3)
English speaker (1)

Hook – Alcoholic – If El Torrido ever gets his hands on a few drinks, he will drink himself stupid. While drunk, all of El Torrido’s cliché roll results are divided by two, rounded down.

Tale – El Torrido grew up in the town of Meso Pueblo in the northern parts of Mexico. His father taught him from a young age to love and respect mariachi music. El Torrido was a street punk, who soon learned he had a knack for overly dramatic criminal flair. When El Torrido turned 16, he got a job at the local Wal-Mart (they’re everywhere, aren’t they?). Once he saved up some money, he bought himself a 5 stringed bass and started teaching himself some great mariachi tunes. On his 20th birthday, he bought a plane ticket to the USA and landed in Denver Colorado. He still can’t speak English to well, but when the going gets tough, he reverts to his younger days as a little bandito and scares problems away with his two silver plated desert eagles (painted with gold frillwork to look very impressive). El Torrido is now looking for bandmates to help him get going in the strange new world.

Adios, mi amigos
Well, that’s the world of Risus Mariachi. I hope you enjoy running it. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at dsuptic@gmail.com
Until then, keep that guitar tuned, muchachos. ¡Adios!

Dao Sheng

Dantopia — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:34:54 CDT

Dao Sheng

A martial arts Risus setting by Dan Suptic and Nicholas Suddarth ©2006

Any and all comments and constructive criticism are welcome - just add you thoughts as comments to this post, or email me at the address at the end of this page

A note about Risus
Risus is a free and easy to learn role-playing game (created by S. John Ross) that is used to play Dao Sheng. Simply go to the freebie page on http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm and download it there. The whole system is 6 pages long, and that's all you'll need to play. Download it, print it, heck, even put it in a nice 6-page binder. So long as you understand it, you'll be able to play Dao Sheng.

Dao Sheng
Dao Sheng is a Mandarin Chinese phrase meaning Birth of a New Way. Our planet has gone through some changes in the Dao Sheng setting, and the people of our world have taken up a new way of life. In this section, you will see what happened to our world, and why almost everyone you meet knows some form of martial arts.

Good intentions
About 20 years in the future, the world is doing great. No war raging on, no places of great famine or disease, and the economy is doing better than it has in a very long time. With the growth and spread of humanity, the biggest concern of most countries is that energy costs are starting to get a bit out of control. So, to solve this, a team of US and Japanese scientists got together to build a power plant greater than any other running in the world. Using cold fusion and point-mass fuel cells, they found a way to generate limitless energy with a nearly unending supply of power. The power plant itself was built in Uranium City, in Saskatchewan, Canada. They built giant relay towers all over the world and attached them to the power plant in a web of high transfer power lines. Once the world was connecting, they powered up the plant.

Glitch
The power plant turned on. It generated immense and limitless power. But it did not transfer it. Somewhere, somehow, components of the plant were installed wrong. The plant let out an EMP so massive that it spread over the entire earth. All over the world, lights flickered, screens dimmed, and everything electrical shut off. Everything except the plant, which still emits its powerful EMP, keeping the earth in a powerless state.

So why not just turn the power plant off?
Good question. The EMP field around the power plant, and about 15 miles out from it, is so strong that it stops even the electricity in the human body. Get within 15 miles of the plant, and your heart stops instantly. No one has figured out a good way to get to the power plant, and the fuel cell still has 35,000 years worth of life in it. So, for now, the world is stuck as it is.

Unrest
Riots broke out pretty quick. In a few days, after a lot of food spoiled and people were getting hungry and angry, fighting broke out everywhere. Gunshots filled the streets, and many people died. The world’s armies tried to maintain order, but without communications or mobility, they fell to rioting like the rest. For weeks, the world was a battlefield. But, city by city, country by country, the gunfire ceased. Bullets ran out, and without supply caravans or factories running, no one had ammunition. The riots calmed down, but resources where still scarce, and people armed themselves with whatever implements were at hand.

Learning
It didn’t take long to see that groups and individuals who could fight without guns were winning battles and getting the best land, housing and non-perishable foods. So, people began to look into unarmed and melee weapon fighting. Asia already had a great wealth of knowledge on martial arts, and North America began seeing people using boxing skills along with Tae Kwon Do and versions of Karate and judo. Even the most peaceful recluse would hire someone or acquire manuals on defensive martial arts. It didn’t take long to see martial arts and other close range combat skills spread through the lands. You learned a martial art to defend your home or to take supplies from those less worthy.

Life Today
Living in the world of Dao Sheng is a constant test of your will to live. Money no longer means anything – goods and services are bartered and traded. With resources in short supply and people all over the world needing them, day to day life is filled with hard work and occasional run ins with people who want what you have. You may live alone, maintaining a small family and area to farm. You may live in a small commune or clan of people who work together to maintain a block of houses and stores of food. You might live in a military style complex, likely in an abandoned office building or skyscraper, as a member of a scouting team finding new places to farm or caches of old non-perishable food. Any way you choose to live, you have to work everyday to maintain your way of life. And any free time you have is devoted to your martial art or weapon style to keep what you have from countless enemies. This is the world of Dao Sheng. It’s your job to keep your place in it.

Combat in Dao Sheng
Combat in Dao Sheng works like normal Risus combat, with the addition of stances. Every time you use a Martial Art, Animal Style or Weapon Style cliché, you choose one of three stances. The GM (or opposing player) does the same. You and the GM reveal each stance at the same time. The easiest way to do this is with a deck of cards, with each person getting 3 different suits. Each stance does better against one other stance, kind of like Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Stances
There are 3 stances for each Martial Art, Animal Style or Weapon Style cliché: Offensive (abbreviated O, and using Spades), Defensive (abbreviated D, and using Clubs) and Technique (abbreviated T, and using Diamonds).

Offensive beats Technique – You go in very fast while the opponent wastes time setting up a complicated technical maneuver.

Technique beats Defensive – While the opponent waits for your attack, you do something complex and unexpected.

Defensive beats Offensive – You bide your time while your enemy tires himself out, waiting for the perfect chance to strike.

Each style has different numbers for each stance. When you beat someone’s stance, you get a bonus to your total die roll equal to the stance you took. So, if you take an Offensive stance (and your Offensive score is 3), and your opponent was in Technique stance, you add 3 to the total roll of the dice. Ties give neither side a bonus.

Characters
Characters are created with a base of 10 dice. Advanced options I and II are used. Lucky Shots and Questing Dice may also be used (from the Risus Compendium) at the GM's option. When picking a Martial Art, Animal Style or Weapon Style cliché, the level you take it at determines it’s name according to this chart.
~name of style~ Student (1)
~name of style~ Adept (2)
~name of style~ Disciple (3)
~name of style~ Warrior (4)
~name of style~ Sensei (5)
~name of style~ Master (6)
So if you take Tae Kwon Do at cliché level 4, you would have Tae Kwon Do Warrior (4).

And remember –
O – Offensive win bonus
D – Defensive win bonus
T – Technique win bonus

Martial Art Styles

Tai Chi – A fluid art that focuses on redirection and well timed attacks.
O-1 D-2 T-3
Wing Chun - A Chinese martial art that emphasizes short-range combat and quick, strong strikes.
O-2 D-1 T-3
Muay Thai - Muay Thai is referred to as "The Science of Eight Limbs", as the hands, shins, elbows, and knees are all used extensively in this art.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Kenpo – Also known as Karate, this is a standard art that teaches a well rounded suite of moves.
O-2 D-2 T-2
Tae Kwan Do – A Korean art that focuses very heavily on all types of kicks.
O-2 D-1 T-3
Jeet Kun Do – Bruce Lee’s style, very quick and agile, and very showy.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Aikido – A defensive martial art that focuses on using your opponent's energy and strength against them.
O-1 D-3 T-2
Jujitsu – Also known as Judo, this is an art that focuses on throws and take downs.
O-2 D-3 T-1
Parkour – A French art that uses constant movement and the environment around you to take down your foe.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Capoeira – A Brazilian art that incorporates dancing into their powerful attacks.
O-1 D-1 T-4
Boxing – A simple attack style that uses fierce punches exclusively.
O-4 D-1 T-1
Hung Gar – This martial art features a low stance and focuses on hand strikes.
O-3 D-2 T-1
Drunken Boxing – This style’s moves are hard to predict as the practitioner emulates being drunk.
O-1 D-2 T-3
Shinwa Tae Do – A mostly defensive martial art that focuses on locks, throws and sympathetic pain points.
O-1 D-4 T-1
Dim Mak – A martial art that uses knowledge of pressure points to cause suffering to opponents.
O-2 D-1 T-3

Animal Styles

Tiger – A very powerful style that incorporates a 2 hit strike with the palm and fingers that can literally tear off skin.
O-4 D-1 T-1
Crane – A defensive and reactive art, Crane style users almost always wait until their opponent moves in.
O-1 D-4 T-1
Leopard – A more agile and defensive version of the Tiger style.
O-1 D-2 T-3
Dragon – A powerful style full of advancing and rushing hand strikes.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Snake – A very quick style that uses spear hand, ridge hand and knife hand strikes in quick succession.
O-1 D-1 T-4
Small Monkey – An art where you dart around and distract the opponent while timing your strikes.
O-2 D-1 T-3
Stone Monkey – A more aggressive form of the Monkey style.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Mantis – A fluid art that forces your opponent into very close quarters.
O-2 D-2 T-2
Eagle – In this style, you strike fast with a curved hand, digging into your opponent.
O-2 D-3 T-1
Bear – This style emulates a bear’s ferocity, power and rage.
O-3 D-2 T-1

Weapon Styles

Katana – This curved sword is handy for any close combat encounter, also can be a Samurai sword.
O-2 D-2 T-2
Bo Staff – A long wooden staff with excellent reach.
O-3 D-2 T-1
Bow & Arrow – A bow an arrow, easy to make, easy to use.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Three Section Staff – A very complex weapon made of 3 sticks attached in a line by chains.
O-1 D-1 T-4
Nunchaku – 2 short sticks attached by a chain or rope; very fast and hard to predict in it’s movements.
O-2 D-1 T-3
Butterfly Swords – 2 short and thick blades with a slightly rounded edge; almost always used in pairs.
O-1 D-3 T-2
Hook Swords – Swords with a half-circle curve on the end and a bladed guard; almost always used in pairs, and useful for disarming opponents.
O-2 D-3 T-1
Rope Dart – A long rope with a metal spike on the end, thrown spike first at the opponent and quickly pulled back.
O-3 D-1 T-2
Chinese Strait Sword – A straight blade, useful in both thrusts and slices.
O-3 D-2 T-1
Eskrima – 2 20-25 inch straight wooden sticks, always used in pairs. Uses the 12 angles of attack routine.
O-2 D-1 T-3
Iron Fans – Collapsible fans made of sheet iron. Fast and easy to conceal, usually used in pairs.
O-1 D-2 T-3
Sai – A small 3 pronged weapon, perfect for defense and disarming; usually used in pairs.
O-1 D-4 T-1
Kama – A small stick with a curved sickle blade on the end; almost always used in pairs.
O-3 D-2 T-1
Naginata – A long polearm with a long, curved blade on the end. Very powerful with long reach.
O-4 D-1 T-1
Throwing stars – A pack of small bladed stars, easy to conceal and accurate in throwing.
O-2 D-1 T-3

But my style isn’t on the list!
No problem. All you need is a Name, Description, and the 3 stance statistics. You get 6 points to allocate between the 3 stances. None of the 3 stances can have more than a 4, or less than a 1. That’s all there is to it.

Gun clichés
Despite not having mass produced bullets, simple guns are still appearing here and there. Any cliché that uses a gun (like Gang Member or Soldier) assumes that you have an older gun and home made bullets. Your gun using cliché also lets you create new ammunition. When a gun is used in battle, it has a 1 in 6 (a roll of one on a d6) chance of failing, reducing the gun cliché to 1 (where you can now just pistol whip your opponent). Every consecutive turn you use a gun cliché, the odds of failure go up by one. So, the second turn you use the gun cliché, it fails on a roll of a 1 or 2 on a d6, etc. Martial Arts, Animal and Weapon styles get no bonuses for stances, and anyone damaged by a gun cliché loses 2 dice instead of 1.

Non-martial art clichés
Any cliché that is not a Martial Art, Animal or Weapon style (with scores in the 3 stances) does not get to choose a stance. Any style’s stance used against them automatically beats their non-stance, and gets the stance’s bonus. Thugs, street fighters, brawlers and any other combat cliché that doesn’t imply formal training fits into this category.

Adventure Seeds

Defend our home
The PCs are paid to protect someone’s living area. The PCs must formulate a plan to protect it and keep stamina up for the entire assault. What the PCs don’t know is that their employer paid several groups to attack his own home, hoping the PCs (who wronged him previously, at least in his opinion) will be killed.

In need of healers
Someone in the PCs home area is very sick or injured. They need them to get well since they train the people here in martial arts. The PCs must go forth and find doctors and supplies to bring the Sensei back to fighting form.

Get him!
A local gang of fighters is causing hell for the community. The PCs must infiltrate the enemy’s stronghold and dispose of the leader. It doesn’t help that this group has a bunch of guns, and that their soldiers are trained marksmen.

Supply chain
The PCs are selected to guard the caravan that brings food and supplies to the local community. They must defend against thieves, protect the caravan from the elements and help choose what food and supplies are needed for their home.

Character Example

Angela Wall
Kenpo Warrior (4)
Nunchaku Disciple (3)
Amazing Scrounging Cook (3)
Bluegrass Violin Player (2)

Hook – Bad Temper – Whenever things don’t go right, or people tick her off, Angela tends to fly off the handle. And break stuff.

Tale – Angela was born in a commune south of Chicago where she was trained to be a cook. She took to it quite well, but was always interested in being a fighter. Angela would always sneak into the training dojo and practice the moves, out of sight of the instructors. She constructed her Nunchakus herself, and is quite skilled with both those and her Kenpo. Angela helps with a little bit of everything, and cheers the whole commune up with her lively music. She’s happy to remain a cook for now, but will take any chance she can get to go into battle.

Go in Peace
Enjoy the world of Dao Sheng. Thanks go out to Nicholas Suddarth for help with the martial art styles and to Ben Clay who created our great Dao Sheng title page art. If you have any questions or comments, please email them to dsuptic@gmail.com May you find food and shelter in these dark times.

Fan Type	Entertain TN	Convert TN
Mariachi	0*	0**
Salsa, Mexican polka, anything Spanish	5	10
Classic rock, blues, classical, ska	10	20
Hard rock, alternative, new age	15	30
Heavy metal, hip hop, rap	20	40
Death metal, speed metal, techno	25	50
Very esoteric regional music, Björk	30	60