Risus: the Anything RPG (hereinafter just plain Risus) is a great little freeware RPG written by S. John Ross, a name that should be familiar to anyone who's been around RPGs for a while. It's quick, it's fun, it's easy, and it's long been one of my favorite games (I am proud member #C-5 in the International Order of Risus, and last I checked, my name appeared on the first page of the Risus Companion, an amazing tome of gaming goodness). If you aren't familiar with Risus, go here and check it out. Right now. Srsly, I'll wait.
Now that you're up to speed on Risus, let's talk V:tM. One could easily say that each clan is a cliché, which is a great approach in Risus, but a tad bit boring. Clichés should have some inherent element of description or characterization, allowing anyone to see that Lord Reginald Cobblebottom isn't just a Ventrue (3), he's a Snooty Ventrue Looking To Improve His Station At All Costs (3). So let's take a look at Skully Wallace, my character in the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast presentation of "The Mote of Sin", a V:tM actual play series. Originally Scott Wallace, a popular college football/baseball player who caught the attention of a local Toreador vixen and wound up falling prey to the Toreador's rival, a twisted Nosferatu. Skully's embrace contorted his body and good looks, causing the Toreador to spurn him and leave him at the mercy of his spiteful sire. Skully's only method of dealing with his fate was to embrace (no pun intended) the absurdity of it all; he left his sire as soon as he was released from the accounting and landed on Caravel Island where he fell in with a local comedy club and started doing stand-up gigs. Skully is a recent turning, having been embraced within the last 20 years or so.
Skully would undoubtedly be a Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4). That tells a good deal about him, and sums him up pretty decently. Since his embrace he's been an outcast, having to get what he needs through less than savory means, so he's also a Sneaky Cat Burglar (3). We could also say that he's a Former All-Star College Jock (2) and just to round him out a bit, how about a Library Research Assistant (1). That pretty much covers everything he's done in the game so far, and gives him some future potential what with the Former All-Star College Jock and Library Research Assistant clichés. It's also a good example of how you can easily Risus-ize a V:tM character.
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of different rules subsystems in V:tM. Disciplines, for example, or blood pool. Disciplines are easy, if you're willing to apply a liberal amount of handwavium. Everyone knows that the Nosferatu clan disciplines are Obfuscate, Potence, and Animalism; they're part of being a Nosferatu, part of that... wait for it... cliché. Should a Nosferatu (4) be able to mask his hideous appearance? Yeah, totally. Should that same Nossie throw down with feats of super-strength? Call out to animals? Yeah, totally. Just roll the cliché dice against a difficulty set by the GM based on the character and the character's actions. A Nosferatu masking their appearance to appear like anything but a horrible monstrosity might have a difficulty of 5, but one attempting a massive feat of Potence when the character has been focused on building a cadre of animal ghouls would have a much higher difficulty. Could that Nosferatu attempt to sway the opinions of the people around him a la Presence or Dominate? Nope, totally out of scope.
I came up with a rather cool Risus mechanic for blood pool, if I do say so myself. At the start of a game, roll a d4. This is the amount of Blood Dice a character starts the game with. Any time a vampire undertakes a physical action, one Blood Die can be added to their cliché dice. A Blood Die can be sacrificed to return a die to a cliché lost to a conflict (i.e. heal themselves a die lost in combat). Feeding returns a Blood Die to the character's total Blood Dice, but at no point can a character have more Blood Dice than the value of their highest cliché (so, Skully could not have more than 4 Blood Dice). Should a vampire lose all their Blood Dice, they frenzy and attack the nearest whatever to feed and gain at least 1 Blood Die.
Here's an example: Skully - the Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4) with 3 Blood Dice - is going to attack Albert using a super-vampire-strength punch. He's going to pump some blood to make it more potent, so he's going to use 1 of his Blood Dice. He'll actually roll 5 dice - 4 for the cliché and 1 for the Blood Die - and after the roll is made he'll only have 2 Blood Dice. When Albert responds and pummels Skully back, causing Skully to lose a die in Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian, Skull can sacrifice a Blood Die to "heal" that cliché. So after he takes Albert's punch, and sacrifices a Blood Die, he'll still be at 4 dice in the cliché but have only 1 precious Blood Die left.
I think I might put together a one-shot of this. Just to see how well it actually plays out.
Now that you're up to speed on Risus, let's talk V:tM. One could easily say that each clan is a cliché, which is a great approach in Risus, but a tad bit boring. Clichés should have some inherent element of description or characterization, allowing anyone to see that Lord Reginald Cobblebottom isn't just a Ventrue (3), he's a Snooty Ventrue Looking To Improve His Station At All Costs (3). So let's take a look at Skully Wallace, my character in the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast presentation of "The Mote of Sin", a V:tM actual play series. Originally Scott Wallace, a popular college football/baseball player who caught the attention of a local Toreador vixen and wound up falling prey to the Toreador's rival, a twisted Nosferatu. Skully's embrace contorted his body and good looks, causing the Toreador to spurn him and leave him at the mercy of his spiteful sire. Skully's only method of dealing with his fate was to embrace (no pun intended) the absurdity of it all; he left his sire as soon as he was released from the accounting and landed on Caravel Island where he fell in with a local comedy club and started doing stand-up gigs. Skully is a recent turning, having been embraced within the last 20 years or so.
Skully would undoubtedly be a Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4). That tells a good deal about him, and sums him up pretty decently. Since his embrace he's been an outcast, having to get what he needs through less than savory means, so he's also a Sneaky Cat Burglar (3). We could also say that he's a Former All-Star College Jock (2) and just to round him out a bit, how about a Library Research Assistant (1). That pretty much covers everything he's done in the game so far, and gives him some future potential what with the Former All-Star College Jock and Library Research Assistant clichés. It's also a good example of how you can easily Risus-ize a V:tM character.
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of different rules subsystems in V:tM. Disciplines, for example, or blood pool. Disciplines are easy, if you're willing to apply a liberal amount of handwavium. Everyone knows that the Nosferatu clan disciplines are Obfuscate, Potence, and Animalism; they're part of being a Nosferatu, part of that... wait for it... cliché. Should a Nosferatu (4) be able to mask his hideous appearance? Yeah, totally. Should that same Nossie throw down with feats of super-strength? Call out to animals? Yeah, totally. Just roll the cliché dice against a difficulty set by the GM based on the character and the character's actions. A Nosferatu masking their appearance to appear like anything but a horrible monstrosity might have a difficulty of 5, but one attempting a massive feat of Potence when the character has been focused on building a cadre of animal ghouls would have a much higher difficulty. Could that Nosferatu attempt to sway the opinions of the people around him a la Presence or Dominate? Nope, totally out of scope.
I came up with a rather cool Risus mechanic for blood pool, if I do say so myself. At the start of a game, roll a d4. This is the amount of Blood Dice a character starts the game with. Any time a vampire undertakes a physical action, one Blood Die can be added to their cliché dice. A Blood Die can be sacrificed to return a die to a cliché lost to a conflict (i.e. heal themselves a die lost in combat). Feeding returns a Blood Die to the character's total Blood Dice, but at no point can a character have more Blood Dice than the value of their highest cliché (so, Skully could not have more than 4 Blood Dice). Should a vampire lose all their Blood Dice, they frenzy and attack the nearest whatever to feed and gain at least 1 Blood Die.
Here's an example: Skully - the Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4) with 3 Blood Dice - is going to attack Albert using a super-vampire-strength punch. He's going to pump some blood to make it more potent, so he's going to use 1 of his Blood Dice. He'll actually roll 5 dice - 4 for the cliché and 1 for the Blood Die - and after the roll is made he'll only have 2 Blood Dice. When Albert responds and pummels Skully back, causing Skully to lose a die in Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian, Skull can sacrifice a Blood Die to "heal" that cliché. So after he takes Albert's punch, and sacrifices a Blood Die, he'll still be at 4 dice in the cliché but have only 1 precious Blood Die left.
I think I might put together a one-shot of this. Just to see how well it actually plays out.
