by Tim Huntley
Inappropriate Clichés, Pumps, and Double-Pumps
For serious gaming in Risus, the inappropriate cliché rules are... well, inappropriate. However, if they are not used, pumps and double-pumps become quite nonsensical - regardless of how much a character pumps a cliché, the opponent will lose a maximum of one die.
Serious games can use the following rule: if the pumped cliché wins the round, the losing cliché takes one die of damage for each full 6 points that the pumped cliché rolled higher than the opposing cliché (minimum of one die).
Optional Inappropriate Clichés, Pumps, and Double-Pump Rules
Health Rules for Risus
Risus is a wonderful gaming system, but the only way of recording damage is a loss of dice in a given cliché. From time to time, the Laws of Dramatic Necessity might dictate that the player characters will need to take some damage from an unknown source. Perhaps a robber bludgeons them with a blackjack from behind, or a sniper takes a pot-shot at them from a hidden location and hits them in the leg. Using the basic Risus rules, there is no way to handle this, until now. Enter health dice.
Health Dice
Each Risus character has a number of health dice. Health dice are not distributed as are normal clichés. The number of health dice a character has is determined by dividing the number of starting dice allocated to that character by five, rounding towards one. In addition, each Risus character gets another health die for each significant physical cliché, subject to GM approval. So, a five dice character, with the clichés Armchair Quarterback (3) and Couch Potato (2) would have one health die (5 /5 = 1, no significant physical clichés). However, a ten dice character, with the clichés Professional Quarterback (4), Avid Bodybuilder (4), and Hopeless Romantic (2) would have four health dice (10 / 5 = 2, two significant physical clichés). Finally, a three dice character with the Slothful Layabout (3) cliché would have one health die (3 / 5 = 0.6, rounded towards 1 = 1, absolutely no significant physical clichés).
Damage Resolution
If a Risus character takes damage from a source that is not directly attacking a cliché (i.e. the robber and sniper described above), subtract the damage from the character's health dice. As with other clichés, if health dice reaches zero, the opponent has won and decides the ultimate fate of the character.
Health Rolls
Whenever a Risus character wants to do something that a recent wound or other damage could hinder, the player rolls the characters current health dice. If the number rolled beats the target number that the GM sets, it is a success! Otherwise, it is a failure. The target number should follow a similar scale to that described in the Risus rules.