Risus™ Royale v 0.7

Risus© 1993-2001 S. John Ross

A solitaire card game loosely based on Risus, the Anything RPG

Scenario

The Kingdom of Kardz is a mess. Rogue Clerics, Thieves, Fighters, and Wizards control the 16 castles, keeps, townships, and cities that make up the Kingdom. King Kozmo has finally had enough. He has contracted you, an adventurer with skills in many disciplines, to clean up the Kingdom. It’s been determined that the opponents listed in your contract are the ringleaders in all this chaos. If you defeat them, the others will give up and return control of the Kingdom to King Kozmo. He is counting on you to establish order and restore the Kingdom of Kardz back to the way it was in the Goode Olde Days. Good luck!

Rules

1. # Players: Risus Royale is a solitaire game. It might work for 2 players with different goals competing on the same map. I dunno.
2. Equipment: Standard deck of 52 cards, 4 or more standard d6 dice (12 dice, 6 in each of two colors, is better), and a pawn or coin to use as a marker.
3. Tip: If you ROLEPLAY this game, it’s more fun. Even if you’re sitting there alone in the dark in your underpants. Really.
4. Remove the deuces from the deck and shuffle them, then turn two face-up. These indicate your goal, as shown in the ‘Goals’ chart below. Put the deuces aside face-up to start your discard pile.
5. For your player character, make up a cool name (like ‘Errol Flynn’) and assign 10 pts. total to each of 4 attributes (in Risus, these are called ‘clichés’): Wizardry (Spades), Fighting (Clubs), Thievery (Diamonds), and Cleric-Type-Stuff (Hearts). (A 4-3-2-1 distribution works pretty well. If you want an easier game, start with 12 points instead of 10.) You must assign at least 1 pt. to each of these 4 clichés, and no cliché may be assigned more than 4 points to start. (Tip: Keep your goal in mind when you assign cliché points!) If you want some extra kick, incorporate the optional Risus rules for Pumping Dice and/or Double Pumps. These options are explained in the Risus rulebook on S. John Ross's Risus web site.

Handy Tip: Try Risus Royale with The Linear Dice System. You'll be glad you did!

6. Remove the 12 face cards and 4 aces from the deck. Shuffle these together and place in a separate pile. Then shuffle the remainder of the deck. Deal the top 16 cards from the deck face-down into a 4x4 grid. Then deal the 16 cards from the faces/aces pile face-down on top of these. Finally, deal the remaining cards face-down on top. You will end up with 16 piles of 3 cards each, face-down in a 4x4 grid. Each pile will consist of a numbered card on the bottom, a face card or ace in the middle, and a numbered card on top. These piles form a ‘map’ of the Kingdom.
7. Begin by placing your player marker on any pile on the edge of the map. Each turn, you will move your marker from the pile you’re on to an adjacent pile horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
8. Flip the top card of the pile you’re on face up. This is your opponent’s ‘guard creature’. Creatures have strengths in 2 different clichés depending on their pips, as described below. You must first defeat the guard creature before you can battle your opponent.
9. You battle a creature or opponent by pitting your strength against theirs in one of the clichés you hold in common. For example, the Nine of Diamonds Sneaky Nasty Yeti creature has a strength of 5 Diamonds (Sneaky) and 4 Clubs (Nasty). If you assigned 2 to your Thief (Diamonds) cliché, you have a strength of 2 in Diamonds. If you choose to battle the Yeti in Diamonds, you would roll 2 d6, and it would roll 5 d6. However, if you decide to battle it in Clubs instead, and you have a strength of 3 in Clubs, you would roll 3 d6 and it would roll 4 d6. (All things considered, it seems this might be the more prudent choice...)
10. If you wish to use a ‘Plus’ or ‘Minus’ treasure item (or both) to aid you in your battle, you must declare which one(s) you intend to use before fighting. (More on this in the 'Treasures' section below.)
11. Roll your cliché dice, and the creature’s. Compare the total of your roll against the creature’s roll. Whichever roll is higher wins the round. (You lose ties.) The loser loses 1 die in that cliché for the remainder of the battle. When either you or the creature is reduced to 0 dice in the currently contested cliché, they lose the battle.
12. You may change which cliché you are fighting with between each round of the battle if you wish. You each then roll the number of dice you have (or have left) in that cliché. (Remember, any treasure items you declared are only good for the cliché indicated by their suit.)
13. If you are defeated by a guard creature, you must immediately retreat to an adjacent occupied space. The guard creature remains face-up, ‘on guard’ for your return. Your wounds and the creature’s wounds are all immediately healed.
14. If you are defeated and were using any treasure items in the battle, you must discard those items.
15. If you defeat a guard creature, it is removed to the discard pile, and you turn the opponent card that was beneath it face-up. Any wounds you sustained while fighting the guard creature DO NOT HEAL for the ensuing battle with your opponent. All wounds heal only when you leave a map space.
16. If defeating the revealed opponent isn’t necessary to achieving your goal (and you aren’t interested in defeating him just to get his treasure – see below), you may try to escape before the fight starts. To escape, make a single roll of your cliché against his. If you win, you escape to an adjacent space of your choice. If not, you must fight your opponent. (Note: Escape only works against an opponent – you cannot try to escape a creature.)
17. An opponent has cliché strength only in his own suit, as described below, so you must battle him using that cliché. Otherwise, battle is the same as with a guard creature.
18. Put defeated opponents who are relevant to your goal into a separate ‘victory’ area. Put other defeated opponents onto the discard pile.
19. When you defeat an opponent, turn up the remaining card in the pile. This is the ‘treasure’ you win, as shown in the chart below. Keep treasures in your treasure pile. Treasure has properties that can aid you in future battles.
20. Once you've taken a treasure, that space is 'cleared'. You may no longer move onto a space once it has been cleared. If you ‘paint yourself into a corner’, you lose. That is, if you are required to leave a space because you have been defeated, or if you clear a space and there is no occupied adjacent space to move to, you lose. Likewise, if you isolate a space by clearing all others around it, and that space contains an opponent who you must defeat to reach your goal, you lose. So if you do somehow manage to isolate a space, you might as well turn up the cards there right away to see if you've lost.
21. Achieve your goal and you win!

Goals

1. Defeat all Wizards
2. Defeat all Fighters
3. Defeat all Thieves
4. Defeat all Clerics
5. Defeat any one of the above stated types
6. Defeat all Halflings
7. Defeat all Dwarves
8. Defeat all Elves
9. Defeat all Humans
10. Defeat any one of the above stated races
11. Defeat all Opponents in any row, column, or diagonal, or in all 4 corners
12. Achieve any one of the above stated goals (if you want to play an easier game, as when just learning to play, simply pick this goal)

Creatures

Each numbered card has two groups of pips. The group with the largest number of pips determines a creature’s strength in its base cliché, which is the suit of the card. The group with the lesser number of pips determines its strength in its secondary cliché, which is different for each suit: For Spades, it’s Hearts, for Clubs it’s Diamonds, and vice-versa (i.e., for Diamonds it’s Clubs, and for Hearts it’s Spades). For example, the 3 of Hearts is a Mystical Magical Skeleton, with a cliché of 2 in Hearts (Mystical) and 1 in Spades (Magical), while the 8 of Clubs is a Nasty Sneaky Troll, with a cliché of 5 in Clubs (Nasty) and 3 in Diamonds (Sneaky).

*Pip grouping is impossible to see in Diamonds, but the chart breaks it out for you.

Opponents

For Opponents, each suit represents a single cliché: Spades are Wizards, Clubs are Fighters, Diamonds are Thieves, and Hearts are Clerics. Each face card or ace represents a different character class (or race): Aces are Halflings, Jacks are Dwarves, Queens are Elves (huh!), and Kings are Humans. Each race has different clichés they are strongest in, according to the chart below. While creatures each have two clichés (see ‘Creatures’, above), each Opponent is only skilled in a single cliché. For example, the Ace of Diamonds is Frito Pockpicket, a Halfling Thief (3), while the King of Spades is Ian McKellan, a Human Wizard (4).

For a harder game, simply increase the strength of each Opponent by 1 or even 2.

Treasures

1. To use a treasure item during a battle, you must first make an ‘ability roll’. Using the number of dice you have in that treasure’s cliché, roll at least that treasure’s number to be able to use it. (Example: You want to use the 8 of Spades ‘Magic Aura’ and you have an ability of 2 in Spades, so you roll 2 dice. You roll a 7, which is less than the 8 you needed, so you can’t use ‘Magic Aura’ in this battle.) If you don’t make the roll, you can’t use that treasure for this battle, though you can try to use other treasures. You roll when declaring a ‘Plus’ or ‘Minus’ item, or when trying to use an ‘X’ or ‘W’ item. If you fail to make an ability roll for an item, you cannot make another attempt to use that item during the same battle.
2. You may use only one ‘Plus’ and one ‘Minus’ treasure item per battle. You must declare which item(s) you are using before a battle starts, and may not switch during that battle, even if you switch clichés.
3. ‘Plus’ items add a die to your cliché for that item’s suit for the duration of the battle. ‘Minus’ items remove a die from your opponent’s cliché for that suit for the duration of the battle.
4. Creatures or Opponents who are reduced to 0 strengh in the cliché you have chosen for battle are automatically defeated.
5. Items marked with an ‘O’ work only against Opponents.
6. Items marked with a ‘C’ work only against Creatures.
7. Items not marked with either an ‘O’ or a ‘C’ work against both Opponents and Creatures.
8. Items marked with an ‘X’ let you ignore the highest number rolled by an opponent during every round of a battle in that suit’s cliché. Such items are not declared, and may be used in addition to declared items. (Example, your opponent rolls a 6,6,4,3. You ignore one of the 6’s, so his roll only totals 13.)
9. Items with a ‘W’ may be used to automagically win a battle against any creature or opponent in that cliché Such items are not declared, and may be used in addition to other items, but once used they are destroyed.
10. You may use both X and W type items in a battle, in addition to a maximum of one ‘Plus’ and one ‘Minus’ declared items..
11. If you are defeated while using any item, that item is permanently destroyed, and must be discarded.

Variants

• Different Treasures: Maybe the 'X' spells are fun things like, say, a Magic Crystal Ball to see what opponent is in a stack before you move there (this would require an ability roll, of course.) Or you could have a Talisman of Incredible Power that lets you declare all your dice in one cliché for a single roll (at a Cost Too Terrible to Contemplate, of course). Make up your own nifty cool treasure chart. Just try to keep it somewhat balanced. Or not. (A +7 'Bazooka of Destruction' would be dope, man!)
• Different Creatures: There could be a whole bunch of weird creatures out there, and they could have 3 or 4 different clichés each. Maybe you can even influence one of them to join up with you as a sidekick to help you kick some butt. And it seems to me that a Magical Mystical Unicorn Horn might make an awesome magikal weapon...
• Different Opponents: Opponents could be as skilled as you are, with strengths in all 4 clichés. They might negotiate instead of fighting.
• Tool For the Lazy Gamemaster: Your friends are due in five minutes, and you haven't worked on that new Risus adventure you promised them? Nolo problemo! Just set up the big GM screen and lay out a Risus Royale setup on your side. Walk 'em through. Make adjustments on the fly. Roleplay the Begeebus out of it. Maybe they won't catch on.
• Different Adventures: This isn't the map of a Kingdom at all, it's a Star Chart! Those aren't Wizards, Clerics, and whatnot, they're Evil Space Dudes on the Slightly Shady Side of 'The Farce', and the Creatures are Slime Beasts and Bug-Eyed Monsters. The treasures are blasters and spaceships, et. al. Or maybe you're fighting Gunslingers in the Old West. Or Black Ops in the streets of Cyber City. Hey, this could be cool! All you need are your own custom Creature, Opponent, and Treasure tables. Remember, this isn't just Solitaire, people, this is Roleplaying!

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The original material on this site is licensed under and is copyright © 2005 by Mark R. Brown.