Risus vs TSRPG
Compare Risus and TSRPG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Risus | TSRPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Universal | Universal |
| Tags | Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Beginner-Friendly, Comedy, Low-Prep, Narrative, Fiction-First, Freeform Magic, Tag-Based | Rules-Light, Diceless, Theater of the Mind, Tag-Based, Beginner-Friendly, Fast-Paced, Low-Prep, Solo-Friendly, Freeform Magic, Modular |
| Core Mechanic | Characters are defined by Clichés rated in d6s (e.g., Viking (4), Hacker (3)). Roll your Cliché dice vs. a target number or in opposed rolls where the low roller loses a die. | The storyteller sets a Challenge Rating (CR) and secretly picks a target number from 1 to the CR, by choice or at random. The leading character adds one attribute, every relevant trait and one piece of special equipment. Helpers add their traits and one piece of equipment each, capped in total at the leader's bonus. The target plus or minus the total bonus, wrapping around the range, is the span of success. The lead player then guesses a number. An exact guess is a critical success, and a guess one away is a near critical. A guess on either end of the span is a near miss, which succeeds with a complication. A guess outside the span fails. With a total bonus below +3, the only results are success and failure. Failure can impose penalties on participating characters' traits or attributes, weakening their later attempts. |
| Dice | d6 dice pool | Diceless |
| Complexity | Very Low | Low |
| Availability | Free core rules | Free quickstart |
| Runnability | Book tools not listed | 3 of 5 book tools |
| License | Free (non-commercial) | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Big Dice Games | Skirmisher Publishing |
| Year | 2021 | 2026 |
| Languages | English | English |
| Best For | Pick-up games, emergency one-shots, comedy campaigns, or anytime you need a complete RPG in four pages that handles any genre. | Groups who want one simple guessing procedure for risky actions, usable across fantasy and other genres without needing dice, maps or stat blocks. |
| Highlights | Fits on four pages, broadly universal, character creation takes minutes, completely free | The distance between a player's guess and the hidden target sets up to five outcome grades, so one guess decides both whether and how well a Challenge succeeds. Injuries are penalties on the same traits and attributes that build the bonus, and reducing every one of them to zero kills the character. Sacrificing a durable item or weapon after the guess turns a near miss into a full success and empties that slot until the next session. |
| Considerations | Cliché-based resolution can feel one-note over multiple sessions, limited advancement rules, team combat heavily favors larger groups, creating a strong incentive to always combine dice, comedy tone permeates all mechanical language | Adventure opponents are written as Challenge Ratings rather than statistics, so the storyteller judges a rating for each approach to any new fight or obstacle. Fights resolve as one or a few group Challenges rather than individual turns, with fictional positioning in place of a tactical movement system. The storyteller calculates a fresh span of success from the group bonus for each guessed Challenge, and spans can wrap past the ends of the range. |