Characters in this game can be scoundrels and criminals, but should be essentially good people, willing to help others.  Each character must have a reason to not want to be involved in the Empire.

In Risus a character is built of descriptive phrases called Cliches.  You have 10 points to distribute between cliches.  No cliche may have more than 4 points.

One cliche should be your character's job.  Examples include administrator, miner, diplomat, doctor, farmer, pilot, Jedi, mechanic, merchant, pirate, smuggler, soldier, stormtrooper, etc.

Other cliches can be hobbies, personality traits, etc.

The Force is a cliche like any other, and can get some of the initial 10 points put into it.

One Gadget or Pet may be purchased with up to 2 of the initial 10 points.  Each point spent gets 2 points in the Gadget.  The Gadget points may be added to other cliches when it's an appropriate use for the Gadget.

Note that Gadgets run the risk of being confiscated based on the story, and not available for use.

Droid characters get a free Droid cliche at 1 point.  That gets added to another cliche when the droid is resisting environmental hazards.

The character's race doesn't affect the game mechanically, but can affect the story.  Pick a suitable race.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:57, Thu 01 Apr 2021.

Rules

When you are trying to accomplish an action, you will roll d6 equal to the level of your most appropriate cliche.  Results of 4, 5, or 6 are counted as a success.  The more difficult the action, the more successes needed.

The dice roller is preconfigured for rolling based on the above.

What If No Cliche Applies?

Pick a cliche based on what you're trying to do, but only count 6s as successes.  You'll need to change the 4 in the dice roller to a 6 for these rolls.

As an example, let's say that you're trying to defuse a bomb and the closest cliche you have is Hotshot Speeder Pilot. You know your way around speeders and can repair them, but that doesn't really help you with the bomb.  You roll your cliche dice but only count 6s.

The Force

The Force cliche can be used in three main ways.

1) As a "sense" roll, even in situations where a sense roll might not be appropriate for other cliches.

2) As a pool of dice to add to other cliches.  Each die spent from The Force cliche reduces the strength of The Force by 1 but adds 3 dice to another cliche for one roll only.  The Force cliche's dice will replenish after sufficient rest/meditation.

3) Spend 1 point from The Force to make an unskilled roll a skilled roll.  This can be used in conjunction with option 2.

The Dark Side

The Dark Side is a cliche that gains dice based on a character's actions.  No character can start the game with any dice in this cliche.

The Dark Side can be used in similar ways to The Force, but can also be used against the character to compel them toward evil acts.

Vitality

Each character has 7 Vitality.  Vitality represents a combination of a character's physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing.  When you lose a contest you reduce your Vitality by 1.

The maximum number of dice you can roll for a cliche is the minimum between the cliche level and current Vitality.  Get beat up enough, and you'll be less effective until you get a chance to recover.

Recovery is based on the fiction, and generally requires time to rest.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:10, Sun 11 Apr 2021.

Character Advancement

Cliches can improve through the use of advancement points.

Cliche specific advancement points are gained in specific circumstances:

1) The first time in a session (defined by the GM) that a cliche is successfully used for a non-trivial task

2) The first time in a session that all the dice in the cliche are successes

General advancement points can be invested in any cliche, and are gained as follows:

1) 1 for participating in the session

2) 1 to 6 for completing a story arc

Spending Advancement Points

At the end of a session, Advancement can be made for any cliche with advancement points.  New cliches can be learned using general advancement points if the story justifies it.

To Advance a cliche by 1 point (maximum 1 point increase at a time), spend AP equal to the current cliche level times 3.  Those AP may be a mixture of general and cliche specific points.

To learn a new cliche, spend 3 general Advancement Points.

Gadgets

Gadgets may be improved at a cost of 3 Advancement Points times the current level.  A new Gadget can be gained at a cost of 3 Advancement Points.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:17, Fri 10 Sept 2021.

Rolling The Dice

In general, go ahead and roll if you think that what you're doing will probably require it.  Better to roll and not need it than the reverse.

To work out how many dice you roll, you:

1) Pick one cliche to use (only one) and start with that number of dice

2) If you can reasonably justify using your gadget in the task, add the gadget's dice

3) If you are spending Force points, add 3 dice per Force point used, and then reduce your current Force score by the number of Force points used

Difficulty Levels

In general, you're looking for a number of success according to the difficulty of what you're trying to accomplish.  For unopposed tasks, that difficulty will be set by the GM.  For opposed tasks, the difficulty will be determined by the opponent's cliche level.

1-Easy
2-Normal
3-Hard
4-Even harder
5-Nearly Impossible
6+: Superhuman