Sunday, January 22, 2023

Risus Solo Experiment 1:The Adventures of Codrin the Just Goblin Rogue

I decided to put newly-discovered Risus through some solo sea trials and see what came up. I use the Lair of the Dread Kalypso for the scenario...

The Lair of Dread Kalypso, Liche-Queen of the Fens

 

And drew up a random-ish character using the Risus Character Generator over at Perchance

Codrin 

Just Goblin Rogue (4) 

Supercilious Oracle (3) 

Persevering Swashbuckler (2)

Pretty Vampire Hunter (1)

Hooks and Tales

You were threatened by shadows at night, then exposed to the light

You can wiggle your eyebrows independently

You were forced, repeatedly, to eat a vegetable you didn't like

Then I played, dammit (any solo experiment that gets to writing stage is a good one)

Codrin was not your average goblin, he was a goblin runt. Born in the deep bowels of an abandoned mine, he was ignored by his brethren. Until the bowels turned to crumbs and  discovered the lair of the dreaden Kalypso. 

Greeted by a noxious pit, up to his armpits in the rubbish and disease it was almst like the refuse, filth and just let me say shit of the whole fenagle of the elder goblins came into being. Luckily he trained himself as a Just goblin rogue so he tried to move through the pit. 

He moved through it, cautious, supressing his swashbucker tendencies and trying to be see that future out there. He sees the future, it says that he will make it and let us see if it true. 

Succeeding in the roll of the fates, Codrin (and even his name appeared to be not of the usual Col, Praz and Churm, things like Flag, Stir, or Grimm stood out in the remains of the mine- who cares what you say as long as it is a damn writing that is all that matters besides the puppy's licks on the cornerstone of leather) churned his way, like a boiled potato past the pit with minimum harm. 

Then he encountered the river of goo, surely it was the urine of all the goblins and their minions that turned into this green (ala You cant do that on television's green goo from the ceiling- splash and crash). A perilous bridge hung with a decrepit wood holding it together with old tendons and pieces-parts of minions. 

Coldrin crossed, using his righteous goblin rogue instincts that served him so well against his jealous or furious brethren in avoiding a swath or backhand. 

He tripped and burned in the noxious goo, slipping through a gap in the wood paneling. 

Grabbing a hand on a surprisingly strong rope, Coldrin did a mighty man pull up and tried to throw a leg onto a leaning plank. Throws it on there, vaulting halfway through, he noticed the edge of the other end. He was almost over this damn cliche. 

Slip and another ouch, running his good toe across the piss smelling goo, he tripped up again, growing a bit weaker in the rogue-ness. 

Gripping, Indiana style, he launched a gloved (?) hand onto another rope. It looked easy enough but alas was not. 

He tried one final leap, one final brush with doom (though the goo did throw a lovely green glow to the room, a wonderful cozy place if not for the poisonous air and all that.

So he wasn't the most just rogue, but he was still a goblin, though not as sneaky. He made it. After two scary attempts that left him tired of being undetectable he made it to the other side. 

This anxiety caused him to try and see a desperate future, try to look to see what is beyond the 

Energy-draining Trapped Passageway [3]

He saw it, saw the Energy-draining Trapped Passageway just beyond. To see the future is to change it. To know it is to make it easier, so the Energy-draining Trapped Passageway [3] was not as threatening so its very existence went down to a [2]. 

Thus he knew, Coldrin knew, that he had to rest, had to take it easy for a bit and regain his rogueish qualities. He did rest and picked up another. But to pick up a third he would have to test his injuries. [Rolling again 15, can't roll that again with an 8. He will stay at 3]

But how will Coldrin get passed the passageway. It is going to have to be this way. The oracle power told him how to get through, and awesome without any real danger. 

The curtains of fate clouded the future, he could not only not see into the future but it became occluded and murkier, as if rapidly sinking into a muddy river- which is what fate was...

In a desperation, knowing his goo burns could not heal too well, he decided to go enter anyway...

It vs him, and Codrin saw into the trap, knowing that the red wire would zap his energy he tugged at it. Knowledge is power thus it became easier to read. 

He tried again, the box-like, crystal ball, trappidy trap menaced him. But he preserved. There feeling very rogue-like at a [3]

It drained, it drained his roguish abilities into its own, appearing to disappear into a great white decay. 

He closed his eyes, something he did many times, and seemingly blended into the energy-draining passageway, he would try to look again into the future, until he felt good enough as a swashbuckler to do anything of that sort. 

The great It-Him battle proved in his favor. The trapped object looked passed him, perhaps at a passing squirrel and ignored the goblin rogue. He looked into the future and it looked better, and squinting with his oracle-nature he looked again into the veil, before the veil could look into him. 

Disarmed the trap Codrin looked again and looked better, a brighter future. As if he were wearing some short of bright pink sunglasses. 

Does he find a pair of bright pink sunglasses. Let us ask the tough .

Risus GME

Describes the scene with dangers (4)

Resolves Combat grimly (3)

Is stingy with the PC reward (1)

Throws out randomness (1)

No he has no real sunglasses (which would give him a +1) it is a temporary thing. Fortunately, with the GM he doesn't lose any dice in-game. 

Scry, Codrin, scry to get some sort of healing wonderment, something positive. That will give him an advantage in the Zombie Infested Crypt of Fallen Foes [4]?

But his oracle is down down to 2. 

Nor does it matter. For just before entering the Zombie Infested Crypt of Fallen Foes [4] he finds a trope (is that another word for cliche?) healing potion. Nice and round and shiny, its cherry red good sure to heal his rogue qualities. 

Thursday, January 12, 2023

Writing with Dice 2

  Why am I writing this? 

Who am I? 

Are those cyborg beavers damming up my brain? 

Just a small example of the freedom and just outright joy that Bitter Birds Baking Brittle Bread bakes for both the writer who likes to play with dice. Or is it the role-player that likes to write? I get those two confused. 

5B's is a wonderful romp through surreal and post-modern (post-structure) writing and role-playing. In it, the player is set loose on a wide and open pasture of possibilities. Thanks to this 17 page manifesto I felt the same joy when I got an electric typewriter for Xmas. Anything and everything was (and now is!) possible. But this time I have dice too!

Not to be repetitive, but 5'B's is for the writer who likes to occasionally roll with dice (didn't Gygax himself say that dice were on the table just for the noise they made, or for the Dungeon master to do something while the players decide?)

I read over this document and honestly cannot decide if it is speaking to the role-player or the writer in me. Just look at this quote and tell me which one...

"What feels right? Where does your random stream of

consciousness go? What symbolic associations jump to

mind without thinking about it? What rings true to happen

next in the song of the theme and lyrical story?"

Can't tell can you? So for all those that are bipolar over role-player/writer, just pick up this pamphlet of (no) rules and feel the freedom. 

Writing with Dice Again

         I cannot believe it has been almost five years since I wrote in this blog. But then again I wonder how many times that happens with any given blog. Some just write for income, I write for it all to be know. 

Now for an update of things, and things to come. 

I finally got tired of the play by post scene. Where once I turned to it because people here in New Orleans role-play on the streets, be it parade, funerals, festivals or just rolling out of a bar at sunrise; it no longer satisfies as it once did. 

I write and no one responds. Or perhaps my thoughts are simply to scattered, too mundane, too weird to be captured by the likes of mortal men. 

For this reason, and others that I will explore at another time in this Dungeon Book, I am going to be writing/playing solo. In other terms it would be called writing with dice. I plan on posting it here, the adventures of I don't know who, adventuring I don't know where. 

A complete unknown, doesn't it sound wonderful?

Thus far I have gotten into the ironsworn/ powered by the apocalypse trip, but the freedom and expression that Motif and its incredible 5B's (more to come in my next review) is more like writing with dice. 

Its where I plan to go and let us begin with some sort of muse. 

Or is this a complete waste of time?