This build for the #CharacterCreationChallenge uses the exceedingly light RPG called Risus: The Anything RPG. The character is Edwin Hale Ramsey, detective.

Edwin is a proper English gentlemen with a love of horses and a restless mind. He’s sort of Sherlock Holmes without the drug addition. When he’s not at the track gambling on horses, he is often in his workshop tinkering with clocks and other mechanical devices. He is also often consulted regarding mysteries of a criminal nature, where his critical knowledge of human behavior and sharp mind can uncover clues missed by others.

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Description: Well-appointed Englishman with lush facial hair and a passion for horses, particularly racing horses. A hacker long before the invention of computers, he is greatly interested in how things work, whether they be mechanical, chemical, or biological.

Clichés: Investigator (4), Tinkerer (3), Gambler (2), Culturalist (2)

Hook: Edwin can’t resist showing his (presumably) extensive knowledge about anything, and is always willing to put down a wager.

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Risus: The Anything RPG

If you’re not familiar with Risus, the first thing to know is that it is the epitome of rules light! The rule book is a 4-page pamphlet.

Yes. Four pages.

Character creation, then, is very unrestricted and that can present a challenge. If an RPG gives me ancestries, classes, attributes, and skills to choose from, the universe of options is constrained. With something like Risus, there are no such constraints.

It took my much longer to come up with a character concept for this RPG than for most of the others so far (Fate being an exception).

You basically pick a name, generate an interesting description that can be used to generate interesting game activities, and then designate up to 10 “clichés”, each of which can be assigned one or more dice that represent how… good? powerful? you are with that cliché. It’s the number of dice you will roll when you have to test for success or failure.

You can also add a Hook (weakness) and/or develop a Tale (backstory) to earn an extra die or two to add to your clichés. The goal being to bring to the table enough interesting items to support good storytelling.

Risus is certainly fits a tiny niche of the RPG community, and I can’t say I have much likelihood of bringing it to a table to try it out. If I had kids, it might be fun to pull out for a family game night, but alas…

I’m not sure it would really support a long-term campaign or character development, but it seems like it would be a blast to pull out with a few friends as you sit around with a beverage and a few appetizers.

You can grab Risus for free at DriveThruRPG and check it out yourself. I love the novelty of it and wish I had a few locals to try it with.