Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 18: Risus

Risus: The Anything RPG is a 4 page comedic RPG that is simple to play yet can do a surprising number of things.  It was intended to be a comedic RGP but can do serious just as well.  Many people have done settings and games based on it.

 

It is a simple dice pool game.  When you create a character you have 10 dice to allocate to Cliches.  Cliches are descriptors of your character.  If you are playing a Viking character, one of your Cliches should be Viking.  When a challenge arises you roll the number of dice assigned to the most appropriate (or inappropriate) Cliche and beat a target number.  There are a few more rules but that's essentially it.  For those who want more there is a companion book with a lot of different options.  Oh, and Risus is free. 

 

Flavius Flacidus, Roman Centurion

A burly Roman Centurion who likes parading his men, red horse hair plumes, shiny armor and fish sauce. 

Cliches: Centurion (4), Armorer (3), Hiker (2), Garum Maker (1)

Risus Mini-Settings

 I can't believe I haven't mentioned this before.  The Truckee Games Blog has a bunch of mini-settings for Risus.  There are some cool and funky ones there.  Check it out if you are looking for something new or interesting.

You can find a list here.

Character Creation Challenge - Day 9 Risus

Ah, Risus.  What can I say about Risus?  Such a simple, lovely little game.  And so easy to

create characters for.  Come up with a concept and split 10d6 between them with none starting higher 4d.

So, I think I'm going to create an Action Archaeologist from the 30's.  

Dr. Achilles Peters

Description:  An accomplished archaeologist whose field expeditions always seem to turn into adventures despite his best efforts and his classes turn chaotic as both female and male students seem to daydream the time away.

Daring Archaeologist (4)

Befuddled Professor (3)

Students Love the DR. (2)

Irremovable Hat (1)

Risus Star Wars

While poking around the Web that is World Wide for resources for my BoL Star Wars project I remembered that there is a Risus Star Wars setting that someone created for Risus.  You can find it here.

Update 5/20/22

The link above no longer works.  You can still find the document at Archive.org however.  Check here.

Two Page Risus

The fine proprieter of the Risus Monkey blog pointed out, amongst other interesting news, that Risus is now available in two page form.  You can find it here.

Risus Esperanto

I knew Risus had been translated into several languages other than English. I did not know until recently that Esperanto was one of them. I think this is great!

You can find it at S. John Ross' website here.

There is another link here.