The Wayward Home For Lost Children [OOC]

[JNAProductions]

System: Risus (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170294/Risus-The-Anything-RPG)... Probably
Player Count: Four At Most
Style of Play: Child-like adventures in a big city
Allowed Content: Imagination!
Character Creation: For now, make a post on the forum with your concept.




Backstory: Skirt length, and matching the blurb below
Wealth: Not too much-you're an orphan
Alignment: Be kind
Starting Dice: Ten d6s
Maximum Starting Clichés: Five



Other Notes: I'm trying to get away from 5E D&D for everything. This is related to that.
This is also related to another game I'm running! So if you recognize Psentos, you're out of the running for this game. :P


Psentos is a big city, just north of a massive lake. It is one of eight linked city-states surrounding the lake, and quite a magical one.

As for you? You're young-not quite a teenager, at most. Might be younger too.
You might be recently orphaned-an accident, or perhaps not, took your parents away from you. You might've been an orphan a while, living off the streets. But regardless of your situation, you've found your way to The Wayward Home For Lost Children, run by Snattle Brighthome, a middle-aged dwarven woman. She took you in, pretty much without questions-where there are children in need, Snattle will be there. She's got her hands full, both with you newcomers, and with the existing orphans she looks after.

But as you settle in to your new home, something seems amiss-not with The Wayward Home For Lost Children. But the city around it-Psentos is growing colder, despite it approaching summer. You heard rumblings of some kind of Inquisitor that was mucking about, and apparently a lot of people almost died. The heroes of the day-Lady Rebecca Himura and her companions (who wished to remain less famous) have, apparently, saved Psentos and Crenbridge. But they've left on another mission-meaning that Psentos is undefended! Okay, maybe not undefended, but still! You have to do something.


Working out some kinks with the pitch-the key points are:

1) You're orphans taken in by Snattle
2) Psentos and possibly the other city-states are in danger
3) You want to help, and will try to do so, despite your youth and lack of power

If you have ideas to help refine an introduction, lemme know. :)

Please repost all character details, and claim a color for conversation.

IC Thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654161-The-Wayward-Home-For-Lost-Children-IC)

[animorte]

Panaka will be using purple.

Description: 9 years old, shorter than average stature, bowl cut dark hair, prefers dark clothing with a hood. All great for being more elusive. Takes comfort and pride in being able to create fire and smoke out of nothing. Easily able to befriend other little critters of the dark alleys.

Clichés:
Hide and Seek (4)
Pyrotechnics (4)
Crazy Cat Boy (2)


"Everything is warm and bright. The fire is all around, cloaking every peripheral. It creates a tunnel directly in front of you. It's like a luminescent frame dancing around a beautiful face. The eyes are focused on you, a long look of adoration and, somehow, loss. It blows you a kiss and then... the face descends backwards, or do you? Suddenly it is smaller, smaller, completely encased by the fire and... Everything is black, cold. You smell smoke and taste ashes. This is the feeling of home."

That's all Panaka remembers of his mother, or whoever that woman was. That face brings him comfort and he has become invested in the memory. On the streets he learned to hide from authorities or any other entities that might cause him harm, made easier by his ability to squeeze into smaller spots. He also has a particular affinity with fire, more specifically with smoke, able to create it under any circumstance. It fuels that memory, almost like a happy place, when he creates these clouds to escape from dangerous situations or otherwise influence his already exceptional elusive talents. Through a bit of observation and perhaps making a close friend, he discovered The Wayward Home For Lost Children, with the wonderful Snattle Brighthome.

[MaltholLoth]

Frank - "If I could have green please? Thank you."

Description: Fairly average in size for a 9 year old, blue eyes, long blonde hair normally tied back in a tail. Tends to natural colours in clothing, greens, browns. The knife was what his murdered father gave him as well as his final words "Run, stay safe, be kind".

Clichés:
A good listener, 2.
Knives are my friend, 3.
Logical, 2.
A doctors breath (or touch), 2.
A little more than green fingers, 1.


Childhood pre-event was normal enough, a bit of an incident with the parents (a doctor and gardener, both magical at times) having been moidered and giving him a parting gift and advice, he ran off to the streets. The teddy that he took provided for a interesting sheath just in time before he was taken in by the authorities who brought him into the welcome arms of Snattle Brighthome. He walked the streets until he found greenery to sit amongst, though of course returned. It was good to follow the rules and do as he was told, and loyalty would follow.

[JNAProductions]

IC Thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?654161-The-Wayward-Home-For-Lost-Children-IC) has gone live.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Looks like we are a festive purple-green-orange kind of team!

Mai Watterson
Age: 11 (Orphaned by a recent plague. Her parents spent most of their savings spoiling and tutoring their inscribed kid, leaving little left to inherit. Works through her bereavement via her art.)
Weapon: Chalkboard (plus quiver of chalk)
Epithet: Animate
Mai is a budding sorcerer and can use her power to move images and objects or to boost her own agility. It doesn't work on other people nor on animals; they are plenty "animate" already. While her telekinesis seems strong on paper, she's still a novice to magic in general, as represented by her low Sorcerer proficiency.
Artist - ■■■
Dancer - ■■■
Telekinetic - ■■■
Sorcerer - ■

[animorte]

Looks like we are a festive purple-green-orange kind of team!

Love it! I also love how very different Frank, Mai, and Panaka are and how much potential they have to complement and learn from each other.

I also realized I don't actually have any kind of weapon. It would probably just be a poking stick. That's ok, alternative methods can be fun and useful.

[MaltholLoth]

To notice snattle, using "A good listener"

[roll0]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I imagine the Artist cliche is good at perception for noticing details (mastery of nuance) but bad for noticing someone sneaking up on you (absorbed in their work). So, I guess I'll roll it, and then we'll decide whether it should be easy for her or not?

[roll0]

[animorte]

Panaka really loves the idea of "scout" if hide and seek was any indicator.

(Also, I want to bump the thread so it doesn't get lost.) :smallsmile:

[animorte]

Just a bit of technical inquiry...

How many d6 would one use for a basic, non-specific-cliché attack?

Oh, and once we use the full count of d6 (say 4d6 for pyro), is that out for the rest of the encounter? Or are we running on a turn-by-turn basis (reset)?

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

How many d6 would one use for a basic, non-specific-cliché attack?

My understanding of the matter is that there is no such attack. If you're cornered in a fight for which you have no appropriate cliché, Risus punishes your cowardly attacker by letting you use an inappropriate cliché in self-defense. You can sometimes even deal triple damage this way, representing how thoroughly you've bamboozled them with your illogical prowess.

You can keep using your cliché at its full rating whenever you roll it. However, whenever you lose in a combat round, you lose one die in the cliché you're using, and will thus roll the reduced rating until the end of the fight. For example:

The combat starts, and you roll 4d6 for Pyromania for an unlucky total of 6. Your opponent, a Goblin Wizard, rolls 2d6 for a total of 8. You set their hood on fire, but they use mage hand to take it off and fling it back at you! Your pyromania cliché takes a point of damage, and you'll only be rolling 3d6 next round.

Undaunted, you roll your 3d6 and get a total of 12. The goblin gets another 8. You set something on fire that they can't reasonably take off! Their cliché takes 1 damage, so now they only have 1 die left in their Goblin Wizard cliché.

Last round! You roll your 3d6 for a total of 9, and they roll their last 1d6 for a total of 5. They lose their last die and lose the battle! It's up to you to decide whether the humiliated goblin winds up lightly browned or extra crispy.


Whenever you enter a fight, I think you're supposed to only use one cliché for the whole fight, whether it's appropriate or not. So, if Mai is fighting a Zombie cliché-user as a Dancer cliché-user, that's the fighting style she's stuck with for the duration of the combat. Right?

[JNAProductions]

I don't think you have to stick to the same cliché. You can mix and match as befitting the circumstance.

[animorte]

Thanks! Yes, you plenty cleared that up for me. I see where it mentions inappropriate and lost, etc. Now I'll answer this one for you:

Whenever you enter a fight, I think you're supposed to only use one cliché for the whole fight, whether it's appropriate or not. So, if Mai is fighting a Zombie cliché-user as a Dancer cliché-user, that's the fighting style she's stuck with for the duration of the combat. Right?
It does specifically state the following:


You needn’t use the same Cliché every round. If a Viking/Swashbuckler wants to lop heads one round, and switch to swinging on chandeliers
the next, that’s groovy, too. However, anytime a character has a Cliché worn down to zero dice in combat, he’s been defeated, even if he has other Clichés left to play with.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Oh! Okay, so the game rewards you if you can use multiple cliches in an encounter too! That's cool, thanks!

[animorte]

About your dancing, did you know that several martial arts are actually based on a foundation of dance? Specifically, I've trained in Capoeira which "is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality."

[JNAProductions]

[roll0]

[roll1] plus [roll2] if the first one is 11 or 12.

[animorte]

Hide and Seek: [roll0]

[MaltholLoth]

A little more than green fingers [roll0]
A doctor's breath [roll1]

[animorte]

Pyrotechnics: [roll0]

[JNAProductions]

FYI, I am not going to call for checks to do minor things like that.

Little flourishes, not under pressure, are a-okay!

[MaltholLoth]

Cool, sometimes I like to do it for the chance of failing all the same. Good to know though. 😊

[JNAProductions]

Cool, sometimes I like to do it for the chance of failing all the same. Good to know though. 😊

I like to assume competence from characters in my games. Even the young ones.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I don't think Mai really has any "Knowledge(local)" cliches. I could say that a Dancer or Artist might happen to know the high-society part of town since that's where ballroom dancers and patrons tend to be from, but it's a bit of a stretch.

[JNAProductions]

I don't think Mai really has any "Knowledge(local)" cliches. I could say that a Dancer or Artist might happen to know the high-society part of town since that's where ballroom dancers and patrons tend to be from, but it's a bit of a stretch.

I’ll allow it.
But roll one extra die and discard the highest.

[animorte]

Also a stretch, but my Hide and Seek could help to at least know the difference between higher vs lower class areas (bad and good spots to hide, respectively), as he's been on the streets for years.

Not that he's even part of that conversation. Maybe useful later.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I don't think Hide and Seek is a stretch at all! We're literally Seeking someone, right?

Artist (Local Art Patrons): [roll0]

Oh hey, 5+2+3 just makes the check!

[animorte]

Quite interested in this "Jill+Natalie" ordeal. Getting wild!

[MaltholLoth]

[roll0] Logical

[animorte]

I'll catch up this evening.

[MaltholLoth]

To see if i noticed on that check. It seems Logical that he looks at the building or person to see what they are like in case they need to return here or they suddenly become a bag monster.... Right...
[roll0]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

This seems like another perception check that Artist would work on: Noting details in her character design :elan:-style

[roll0]

[MaltholLoth]

A good listener, 2. For non magical assessment, yes I know it's unlikely for 6+6 but hey ho. [roll0]


A doctors breath, 2. for the magical assessment. [roll1]

[animorte]

I would like to apologize in advance. I'm going to be a bit slower to respond for at least the next week. (We're moving to a new house and all that fun stuff that goes with it.)

[JNAProductions]

I would like to apologize in advance. I'm going to be a bit slower to respond for at least the next week. (We're moving to a new house and all that fun stuff that goes with it.)

It happens. Thanks for letting us know. :)

[MaltholLoth]

Something I have to look forward to next month, or I sure hope I do