Risus: Fortifying Foes
Typically seen when the
by Dan Suptic
For one-shot and comedic Risus games, the normal
combat rules are excellent. Toss some dice into an
enemy's clich, point the PCs to the bad guy's hangout,
and let the dice fly. The system's simplicity is perfect for
silly, quick fun.
Those odd members of the Risus community who like to
run serious Risus campaigns (myself included) know that
house rules and other tweaks are needed here and there
to help keep things interesting and give players a sense
of advancement. For players, Advanced Options in both
Risus and the Risus Companionbolstered by material
found on the Risusiverse page and throughout the online
Risus communityprovide many options for giving
characters unique abilities and opportunities for growth
beyond simply adding dice to clichs.
But GMs also need their share of options to make
campaigns and serious Risus play work, and this
supplement is geared towards suggesting abilities and
options to enhance their NPCs and monsters. The goal
here is to make sure combat never feels stale in a serious
Risus campaign and give players new and challenging
obstacles to overcome in the field of battle.
Abilities are presented with a name, a description, and
options for even more powerful versions of the ability.
Backup Clich
The simplest way to make a combat more interesting is
to give an enemy another combat-capable clich. Having
the enemy switch clichs once they're about to run out
of dice in their primary clich is a good way to wake up
the PCs and make them take the combat a little more
seriously.
Extra backup
Give the opponent even more than two combat worthy
clichs to make a long lasting, epic battle. More than
three combat clichs may feel excessive to players, so
add extra combat clichs with caution.
Playtime's Over! Grant Me Power!
Similar in theme to the Backup clich. Once defeated,
the opponent becomes something new altogether, with
new clichs and a fresh start.
human-looking bad guy is defeated, then turns into
something monstrous and resumes fighting.
Behold my true form and despair!
Toss in yet another post-defeat transformation for
transcendent baddies. As with Backup clichs, more than
two transformations may feel a bit excessive to players.
Player Options for Baddies
Any starting Risus character should have no problem
defeating an Orc (3). But toss that Orc a +1 die sword, a
sidekick/shield-mate Wolf (3) and some lucky shots, and
the odds change. Risus's simplicity tends to make GMs
forget than their NPCs and monsters can benefit just as
much from options normally reserved for PCs.
Powered-up player options
With enough player options, even a lowly Baddie (1) can
be a force to be reckoned with. No one may respect
Tommy the Incompetent Space Mercenary (1), but with
his +3 die Megawatt Power Blaster, +3 die Mecharmor
and loyal Killbot (6), he can be a major problem.
Healer
Make one or two in a group of enemies healers. They can
use their turn to restore one die to another monster or
NPC's damaged clich. Naturally this will make the
players want to take out the healer first, leaving the
other baddies alone to do their own thing.
Greater healing
Let your healer units heal more than one die in a clich
on their turn, or allow them to revive their allies after
they drop to zero dice. This will really force your players
to go after the healers before dealing with secondary
threats.
Regeneration
Every turn, a unit with this ability automatically heals one
die in their damaged clichs, while still being able to take
normal actions. Concentrated teamwork by the players
will be necessary to take down a foe with regeneration.
Greater regeneration
Increase the number of dice healed each round. If this
number gets higher than then number of PCs in the
party, then the players will need to think of alternative
ways to defeat their foe.
Lingering Damage
Any PC who took damage from this enemy in combat will
lose a die in that same clich every scene after that
combat, until healed via magic, super-science, or some
other special means. This can represent poison, disease,
massive damage or mutilation, a lingering curse, or any
other form of ongoing clich damage. Increase or
decrease the frequency of die loss in relation to the
severity of the lingering damage. Losing all clich dice
due to lingering damage can result in anything from just
being too fatigued to fight anymore, to a coma, or even
death.
Infection
If someone loses all clich dice do to an infection
lingering attack, they transform into whatever dealt that
damage to them. Perfect for zombies, werewolves and
vampires.
Armored
Unless a player rolls at least five more than the armored
opponent when beating them in a round of combat, the
combat round only counts as a tie. The opponent still
beats the player when rolling above the player's roll, no
matter by how much.
Heavily armored
Increasing the excess amount needed to ten or even
fifteen will make the players burn through lucky shots,
questing dice, and their pumpable clichs.
Dodge
Anytime a foe with Dodge would take damage to their
clich, they have a chance to proactively avoid damage.
When they would lose a die, have them roll a d6. On a
roll of 6, that combat round ends in a tie. Similar to the
armor ability, but the foe has a chance to avoid damage
no matter how high the player rolled.
Avoidance
Increase the foe's ability to dodge, letting them avoid
damage on a 5+, 4+ or better on a d6. A 2+ dodging
enemy would be a pain to beat, even if their clich isn't
too powerful. Obviously, 1+ dodging shouldn't exist,
unless there's a way to cancel the foe's dodging ability.
Life Steal
Whenever an enemy with Life Steal damages a player's
clich, they can heal a die in a clich of their choice. So
long as the enemy can consistently win combat rounds,
they can pump their clich by one everyone round,
healing the damage from pumping after each successful
roll.
Bottomless cup
The enemy not only can heal damaged clichs when they
win a combat round, they may also choose to add a
temporary bonus die to a fully healed clich. These
bonuses stack (so someone better beat the baddie
quick), but disappear at the end of combat.
Immunity
The NPC or monster is immune to a specific type of
attack. Fire magic, laser blasts, slashing weapons any
general group can be taken. When a player wins a
combat round using an attack to which the enemy is
immune, the combat round ends in a tie.
Invulnerability
The NPC or monster is immune to anything except for a
specific type of attack. Learning what that one weakness
is can make an excellent adventure arc all by itself.
Area Attack
The monster can let loose an attack that affects all the
PCs in the area. They roll just once, and the PCs use that
as a TN to beat in order to avoid taking a die of damage
in their clich. The monster or NPC does not lose dice if
players beat the TN of their area attack, but they can
only do the area attack on their turn.
Selective Area
Minions and allies of the bad guy using the area attack
are immune to the effects of the area attack, able to go
toe to toe with the players without worrying about
getting caught in the blast.
Massive Damage
This ability allows the user to do two dice of damage
when winning a combat round instead of one.

Excessive damage
Increase the dice lost to three or more for truly powerful
foes. An enemy that can take out a PC in one hit will give
your players a run for their money.
Lucky
Every time the NPC or monster with this ability is
involved in a round of combat, they may roll their dice
twice and take the better of the two rolls.
Really lucky
Not only does the opponent take the better of two rolls,
the player fighting them must roll their dice twice and
take the worse of the two rolls. Coordination and luck
will be required for PCs to win fights against really lucky
foes.
Splitting
When losing a die to their clich, this enemy splits into
two identical entities. For example, in a fight with a
group of PCs, when a Blob Creature (4) loses a die, it
becomes two Blob Creatures (3).
Rejoining
On their turn, an enemy with rejoining can merge two of
its split forms into one form with +1 die to the clich. For
example, if the two Blob Creatures (3) from above take
their turn now, they can rejoin into a Blob Creature (4).
Boom!
When reduced to zero dice in their clich, the opponent
with this ability releases some type of energy or
projectile that deals one die of damage automatically to
the player that defeated it. This damage is done to the
clich that reduced the opponent to zero dice.
BOOOOM!!
Like above, except every player in the area takes an
automatic die of damage. This damage is done to
whatever clich each player used last. Hopefully the
party has a good healer on hand.
Compel Duel
The enemy can focus on one character, drawing their
attention away from the rest of combat. The player
targeted by this ability may attack the goading enemy
normally, but attacks made against any other enemy
take a penalty to the combat roll. This penalty may be
minor (-1 or -2 to the total roll), significant (-1 die rolled,
or halving the combat roll) or crippling (only gets to roll 1
die, or any combat rolls against other enemies
automatically lose). Only one enemy can use compel
duel against a specific character at one time.
Enforce duel
Instead of creating a penalty for attacking other enemies,
the character takes a die of damage in their attack clich
if they choose to attack an enemy other than the one
who used enforce duel on them. As per compel duel,
only one enemy can use enforce duel against a specific
character at one time.
Cursed
Whenever a character wins a combat round against the
creature with this ability, that character takes a -1 die
penalty to their next roll. This penalty can be increased
even more for truly blighted monsters, but no matter
how many negative dice the player is rolling, the player
can roll at least 1 die for their action.
Voodoo doll
Whenever a character wins a combat round against the
creature with this ability, that character takes a die of
damage to the clich they used. Increasing the damage
reflected will be painful to any character fighting this
monster if you do increase the damage, consider
letting a specific type of weapon or power negate the
ability.
Deprivation
Bonus die gear does not work against this foe. Any bonus
die gear used counts simply as tools of the trade for
combat against this enemy.
Denial
This entity is immune to anything manufactured at all.
Unless the character has a clich that implies it can fight
barehanded, or with natural weapons, the character is
considered to be fighting without tools of the trade.
These characters will be forced to roll half their dice
against combat with creatures using this ability.
Control Assigning Foe Powers
Instead of doing a die of damage to a character when
winning a round of combat, the opponent may instead Looking for Random Inspiration? Roll a d20 and use the
choose to control the character for their next combat following table. Feeling especially evil? Roll twice! For
round. The opponent may force the character to attack each power, roll 1d6. Foe has enhanced version of power
any other character, or even hurt himself (automatic one on a result of 5+.
die of damage to their clich technically the same as
doing a die of damage from winning combat, but 1 Backup Clich
stylistically cooler). 2 Playtimes Over! Grant Me Power!
3 Player Options for Baddies
Domination 4 Healer
If the opponent wins a combat round against a character, 5 Regeneration
they may take control of the character until end of 6 Lingering Damage
combat instead of doing a die of damage. The opponent 7 Armored
may still take normal actions on their turn as well, but 8 Dodge
they may only have one player character dominated at a 9 Life Steal
time. 10 Immunity
11 Area Attack
12 Massive Damage
Time Out 13 Lucky
Either through magic ensnarement, high tech entangling 14 Splitting
ammunition, or some other form of restriction, a 15 Boom!
character that loses a round of combat against this 16 Compel Duel
enemy can no longer participate in combat until making 17 Curse
a non-combat related roll to escape their bonds. 18 Deprivation
19 Control
Punishment 20 Time Out
As above, the character is restrained until they escape. In
addition, the character also takes a die of damage to
their clich (the one originally used in the failed combat
round) every turn until freed.

That's the list - I hope you enjoy using these abilities to

make some fights more memorable. Feel free to add
multiple abilities to your boss-level baddies, and
remembernot every enemy needs an ability. Giving
special abilities to about one out of three or two out of
three should provide a good balance, giving your PCs
challenging fights while still letting them beat up on
generic Cliche (#) foes every now and then. Any criticism
is welcome, as are submissions to this list. As always,
email me at dsuptic@gmail.com with your ideas.

Finally, a special Thank You goes out to S. John Ross for

helping with the title of this article.