Hidden Gem: Adventure Funnel

So I'm sitting here stumped for a good blog post on a Sunday night...

It seems weird considering that I just saw Sherlock Holmes and I'm bursting with ideas for things to write about. Great fun! Best steampunk movie since... oh jeeze, I can't think of a better one at the moment. City of Lost Children comes to mind but...

Crap, I'm digressing. I really need to hit the sack so I do not have time for an involved post. But I was reading Guy Hoyle's spoiler blog for his upcoming campaign (go here and be spoiled) and he mentioned that he used Dr-Rotwang's Adventure Funnel technique. Yes, that's the same Dr-Rotwang that I called out for his awesome Risus Stargate SG-1 post over at I Waste The Buddha With My Crossbow (best...blog name...ever). Anyway, in his ongoing quest to find the perfect technique for whipping up top-notch adventures, he discovered a simple yet amazing process. Read the post. It's awesome. It reminds me of the adventure writing process that appeared in the Risus Companion (which essentially boils down to "list steps to achieve goal and complicate each step"). The Adventure Funnel is on a similar order of complexity but it totally supports non-linear adventures as well.

Hidden Gem: Risus Stargate SG-1

While digging around on the Intertubes for long-lost Risus content, I stumbled upon this two-year-old post over at I Waste The Buddha With My Crossbow (and really, has there ever been a better name for an RPG blog?). I'm not a Stargate fan, but Dr-Rotwang really makes a great argument for using Risus in serious (or semi-serious) games. He also created these awesome LCB (Little Cartoon Bastards) to illustrate his point.

Risus OD&D... Auf Deutch!

Over at the Risus TOTM, a German fan of that Old Timey Dungeon Fantasy (better known as OD&D) is planning a cool new Risus supplement with old-school typesetting. Too bad I don't read German. But his initial notes at rettungswurf.wordpress.com sure look impressive, especially when viewed through a very imperfect Google translator.

Another Risus Blog

Well, not specifically Risus... but since guy-wires is written by the one and only Guy Hoyle (He Who Maintains RisusTalk), you can bet that there will be a Risus connection. Guy is restarting his formerly defunct blog with the express purpose of polishing his writing chops. I totally get that. I too harbor delusions/aspirations that I may someday write for fame and fortune. Well, perhaps they are only minor delusions. I know that I have a long way to go before my writing kung fu is up to the task. Until then, this blog is a humble start.

AD&D Classes as Cliches

In this post (and this one), Andrew Boswell (bottlesorter for you folks who hang out on the Mythic yahoo group) makes the connection between old-school AD&D (Oriental Adventures) classes and Risus cliches. He seems to be making the intuitive leap that you don't really need a skill system in D&D if you treat the character's class as a Risus cliche (with all that entails). I couldn't agree more. I especially like his explicit listing of classes and the corresponding Risus-style penumbra of abilities for each. He doesn't specify the resolution mechanic , though I trust it involves the character's level and a 3d6 or d20 roll. I'll be curious to see how his line of thinking develops. I used to be of the mind you had to have a skill system in D&D or else something would be missing. After playing Risus, I see that is no longer the case.

Note, I might still allow for a "background" cliche (like "Farmer" or "Blacksmith"), to both give character a little history and to provide for more non-adventuring skills. But this isn't strictly necessary. Most classes can be renamed to encompass vastly different types of non-fighting/non-spell-casting abilities.

Dyson's Random Morph Map

I'm a little behind the curve on this one (the Ruminator beat me to the punch), but Rob Lang over at the Free RPG Blog put together a handy-dandy little web-page that randomizes the totally awesome geomorphs being produced by Dyson (of A Character For Every Game fame). I absolutely adore Dyson's map work. His style totally resonates with me. His maps evoke an old-school aesthetic, are easy to read, and best of all are bursting with ideas for cool encounters. These particular geomorphs do what I didn't think was previously possible... they incorporate multi-level ideas on a two-dimensional map in such a way as to seem totally natural.

If I get the time (and I'm not sure when I will), I may try to expand on Rob's script. It seems to me that the only thing missing is the ability to rotate or flip the geomorphs. I also can't wait to see what this all looks like when Dyson completes his set (as of today, he's on geomorph #39). At 100, there's bound to be a staggering variety.

This all makes me want to do another solo dungeon-crawl. I've done some with Mythic using my AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (or OSRIC depending on my whim). But the dungeons produced seem to lack coherence that I hope geomorphs could provide.

Gears and Portals

On my hiatus, I've missed some excellent content on the Risusiverse. To remedy that, I've been perusing the 'verse in search of lost treasure. Today I discovered Gears and Portals. Man, I so love me some dimension-traveling steampunk. Hey, wait a minute! I'm running a dimension-travelling steampunk Gurps 4e game called Knights of the Astral Sea* right now! My game's quite different but Gears and Portals is still really cool.

* Yes, I do hope to create a Risus version of this campaign for the community at some point...

Silverlode on the Risusiverse

Silverlode 1908 now has a vacation home on the Risusiverse. The new site is a slightly revised and stripped-down version suitable for people who are more interested in stealing the setting for their own use. Silverlode 1908 will always have a home on the Risus Monkey and that site is due for some revisions soon.

One Page Dungeons from Snikle

Still on that Old School kick...

Early this past summer, while fire-hosing myself with retro-gaming goodness, I came across the One Page Dungeon Contest (winners and all entries can be found here). What became readily apparant from reading the many excellent submissions is that Risus is a perfect fit for the format. What other system offers such brevity in writing up opponents?

An early example of a Risus one-page dungeon that I discovered was Snikle's Zombie Tower. What I didn't realize at the time is that Snikle had created a large handful of brilliant Risus one-page adventures. Check out The Tomb of Galron Dor, The Innsmouth Lighthouse, The Spider Caves of Grinlok, and The Ruins of Kal-Kamen.

Snikle's blog also contains a healthy dose of Risus goodness, if you look for it.

No One Escapes From Village 13!

For your daily dose of Risus goodness, Berin Kinsman has the ultimate in "chocolate in my peanut butter". His crazy-brilliant idea is to cross Hogan's Heroes with the Prisoner. Sounds like an amazing Risus one-shot or mini-campaign!

Revisiting the Links Page

Just a quick update while I get back in the habit of blogging: I performed a long-overdo update to the Links page. I removed the sadly broken link to the Risus Jedi Academy and added the essential links to Risus TOTM, Risusiverse, and Uncle Bear.

Risus with Cards

The Risus Monkey is coming out of cold sleep to report on a new set of Risus rules over at the Risusiverse. The Ruminator has written rules for playing Risus with a deck of playing cards here. They are supposedly based on some old TSR game. To me, they greatly resemble the rules for one of my favorite games of all time - Castle Falkenstein! I've always had a thing for card-based systems, though I do confess that I have never had great success using one in play. But the idea of using cards seems rather cool. For certain settings and genres, like Deadlands or Falkenstein, they just seem to be especially appropriate.

Dao Sheng

Dan Suptic strikes again! Check out his new post-apocalyptic setting: Dao Sheng. I'm thrilled to be able to host it here at the Risus Monkey, though you can also find it over at the Risusiverse. I love the setting and was imagining running something similar ever since I read S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire. And if the setting isn't your thing, then maybe his new martial arts mechanics will get your attention.

Risusiverse

I mentioned that the bulk of the recent traffic on Risus Talk has concerned the start of the new Risus wiki. Without further ado, here's the plug for user contributions:

If and when my schedule opens up, I'd love to contribute something to the site. Already, Larry Bullock has moved most of his original material onto the site from it's current home. Guy Hoyle has also uploaded his new Anachroamerica setting, which is as close to an ideal Risus setting as one can imagine.

A Risus Experiment at Circvs Maximvs

The FickleGM has started a thread for his Risus rumination over at Circvs Maximvs. Shame on me for discovering it so late in the game, especially since the Risus Monkey was mentioned earlier in the post. I love it when people describe their own experiences with Risus, and FickleGM seems to be having a grand old time. Schedule permitting, I look forward to sitting in on one of his games at GenCon.

Adventure Street Omnibus

Hank Harwell is a regular on RisusTalk and a driving force behind the attempt to create a webzine for Risus fans. He's also got his own Adventure Street Omnibus, which is the place to go for all your Pulp Risus needs.

RPG Blog on Risus

Yesterday I posted to my other blog a short note in praise of the RPG Blog. In an odd bit of synchronicity, the RPG Blog has taken up the topic of my favorite game system: Risus! So, jump on over to this excellent site and post a comment in support of Risus. But please remember Article XII of our Sacred Charter.

Dungeonauts Unite!

Vincent Diakuw has created one of the coolest Risus sites in existence. In addition to being laugh-out-loud funny, it is loaded with genuinely useful ideas for running Risus. Specifically geared towards sword & sorcery games, much of the advice can be applied to other genres as well. Particularly cool: cliché Stunts and location clichés.

Risus Mariachi!

The Risus Monkey would like to welcome Dan Suptic's Risus Mariachi to the site. The poor thing was homeless and busking for tamales outside a local cantina when Silverlode's Arturo Ramirez recognized a kindred spirit. Whether your choice of foes include hoards of sleezy vampire whores or crazy Icelandic Ninjas (!), you're bound to be entertained by this most excellent Risus supplement.

Taking Care Of My Baby

(Originally posted Thursday, Febraury 9, 2006)

The Risus Monkey has been dormant as of late because my wife is out of town and I've had double parenting duties. Not much time for blogging when one is constantly taking care of an infant. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking about what to do when I have free time again. There's been some talk over at Risus Talk about the possibility of creating a Risus webzine, similar to Fudge Factor. I think it's a super idea and I will certainly be involved in some fashion. The webzine may or may not wind up here on this site. If not, I'm still going to maintain the Risus Monkey as a home for my own campaigns, as well as a place to blog about anything that doesn't quite warrant full webzine treatment.