Boulder Skull and Flanking!
Or how I had to interpret some rules in a PbP game of RISUS
Cavemen and Dinosaurs
That was the pitch that was chosen for a teaching game of RISUS on the Risus Discord Channel. Someone wanted to learn the game through seeing it in play, and being the fanboy I am, I volunteered to teach the game, at a slow pace. It’s about one post a week, sometimes two! What a luxury! But yes, first lesson, you can play about anything with this game. (It does call itself “The Anything RPG” after all!)
Yabba Dabba Doo!
Rules light, interpretation heavy?
The thing that stands out immediately in this game is that because there are not a lot of rules, invariably there will be situations where you need to interpret the rules, and in that way, everyone might play RISUS differently. Some might make a lot of extra rules, others might handwave situations, trusting their GM to make a worthwhile decision.
Since I tend to go rules light in general, and prefer (at least at the moment) a more story game approach to things, I tend to avoid making new rules if I can. I do want it to make sense and seem fair, so the designer part of my brain like to see how the game can be interpreted to handle a situation. If I can find a way that uses or mimics another similar rule, it feels like I’m making the game sing, and that is very satifying to my (very possibly neuro-spicy) brain.
Today I present to you two interesting and teachable situations that came up in the game. One involving improv, and the other flanking, which seems to be on two different sides of the traditional game vs. story game spectrum, but I think I’m making it sing.
Setting the scene
Players and Starting Prompt
We’ve got three players here:
Barbu: a Happy Tribal Warrior from the Goo Clan (4), who is also a Fast and Witty Trickster (3), a Strong, Oversized Left Armed Rock Thrower (2) and a Plains Explorer with a Specialization in Dinosaurs and Common Wildlife (1)
Zard (yeah, like Lizard, it's a Small feathered Dinosaur): a Small Carnivorous Dinosaur with Great Eyesight (4), who is also a Sprinter Who Can Fly For Short Distances (3), an Ambush Predator (2) and Like a 5 Year Old Smart-ass (1)
Har-Har Harrington Hard-Head: a Boisterous, Bumbling Neanderthal Vigilante with a Harder than Granite Head (4) and also a Former Dino-Wrangling Ranch-hand (3) and an Amateur Bowling Fanatic (3)
Har-Har just showed up (as he joined later) while Barbu and Zard are looking for a rumored new type of dinosaur. They are said to be in The Gardens of the Mountain God1, and so they set out for it.
Boulder Skull!
So, Har-Har gets introduced as Zard and Barbu are trying to deal with some quicksand and is given carte blanche by me to explain how and why he enters. His player takes me up on this wonderfully2, as Har-Harcomes runing in, panicking about being chased by Bolder Skull, whoever that might be.
I was already planning to let some kind of danger reveal itself as Barbu was trying to wrest himself free from the Quicksand (2), and this was the perfect excuse. I had some minions show up yelling to their boss, imagining it to be Boulder Skull, but not communicating this directly. I was planning on a little boss battle.
Some time passed (it was the holliday season, posting stopped almost completely, since we all have social family obligations in the “real world” etc.) and it seemed that Har-Har’s player was gonna have to drop from the game. Some back and forth was had trying to clarify things in the game when we got the good news he was able to continue with the game. But a twist had happened as everyone was trying to interpret previously in-character dialogue and statements.
Suddenly it turns out that Har-Har is Boulder Skull himself, but doesn’t know it! Sometimes he hits his head so hard as Boulder Skull, that he switches personalities completely! When this happens, his tribe found that they have to hit him with the Stupendous Secret Shift-Stick! And I had a choice to make, because I had made plans!
I could have just said no. This was not established in character creation, it’s not on any character sheet, and I was planning for Boulder Skull to show up myself. I would have been justified in saying no. But saying no is boring and kills the fun. Especially since I really liked this twist.
I could have explained why we would need to twist some things or go back and re-do some things in the scene, basically doing a re-write so that it all fits neatly. But that’s also quite involved and lets things drag out in time, especially in a 2 posts a week play-by-post game.
What I did do was go Yes And! Of course I did! Har-Har’s player had even set up the Big Stick, so I let a Big Guy With A Big Stick (4) (named Bonk!) show up. The big stick of course being the Stupendous Secret Shift-Stick! And we had the set-up to our mini-boss battle still… unless they try to talk themselves out of it, but guess what, in RISUS, that is combat too!
Flanking Lizards!
So we are coming at the point of the “mini boss battle” now in the game, and most of the people here to learn are coming from a more traditional style of TTRPG’s, and so almost immediately, Zard want to get in a position where he can flank Bonk. There are no flanking rules in RISUS, but it would fit Zard’s character very well to think it these type of hunting patterns. So I needed to think about this for a second.
Normally I would handwave flanking as description. You are an Ambush Predator (2), so of course flanking is how you would do this. But I’m trying to show off this game, and Zard was willing to give up his turn for positioning himself, which should count for something. So lat us keep thinking.
We could go with giving Zard an extra die for attacking from ambush, but that seems clunky, and once you start giving extra dice for benefits, the amounts of dice are possibly going to increase over time, and the amount of new rules will increase too, and that’s not what I’m looking for. I don’t want rules to get in the way of the fun. So let’s keep thinking.
I found an elegant solution in the rules about Tools of the Trade, that shows how to treat someone who is at a disadvantage. They roll half their dice, or fail automatically.3 So, Bonk would defend at half dice. (Big Guy With A Big Stick (2) instead of Big Guy With A Big Stick (4).)
Elegant. Simple.
Smooth.
They were told this by Stinky Jugga, as payment for an advanced cooking set consisting of 3 sticks and a few rocks for making fires on the go.
Both me and this player are into a more improvisational style of play, where characters get to introduce story details as well as the GM does.
Tools of the Trade come “free” as part of each Cliché, but they’re vulnerable to loss or damage, which can (sometimes) cripple or limit the power of the Cliché. A Roguish Space Pirate, stripped of his star freighter, loses all ability to haul booty to distant suns … while a Psychic Schoolgirl loses none of her ability to be freaked out by murder scenes if her plushy backpack is stolen. A Hirsute Barbarian (3), forced into a pit-fight without his trusty blade, can still rely on his bare hands, but he’ll operate at half-dice – a mere Hirsute Barbarian (2) – until he’s once again properly armed. The backpack-deprived Schoolgirl might face similar penalties when it’s time to do her homework.