CPT Jax Bolton [Space Patrol]

Captain Jax Bolton is an infamous pilot in the Space Patrol, a division of space cops that police the space lanes. They are tasked with the protection of civilians, merchants, and the arrest of criminals and pirates that constantly plague the trade and travel routes between the civilized planets of the United Planetary Federation (UPF).

Cpt Jax is a charismatic pilot with a roguish smile and ace with his pistol. He is faithful to his friends, loyal to the Space Patrol, quick with his wit, a strict adherence to the law, a brilliant detective, makes the ladies weak in the knees, often a bur in authorities' boot, and endlessly optimistic. When innocents are in danger and everything is on the line, Cpt Jax is the man the UPF sends in to save the day. They may not agree with his tactics, or condone his actions, but they will usually swallow their pride because he is able to stop bad things from happening.

Due to the numerous times in which he has foiled a major theft, freed a hostage, captured a person on the top 10 most wanted list, recovered stolen goods, and tossed bad guys in the slammer, he has made quite a long list of enemies. They are out there and they want revenge.

The future is worth the fight. - Cpt Jax

Here I am.. What are your other two wishes? - Cpt Jax

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; without law and justice he is but a savage. - Cpt Jax

The Argo3 [Space Patrol]

The Argonaut 3, or more commonly Argo3, is Captain Jax's patrol craft. The ship is designated with "3" because the previous two were destroyed in previous missions. United Planetary Federation (UPF) command determined these were NOT Cpt Jax's fault and allowed him to keep his commission. His sometimes on, sometimes off again 'secret' relationship with one particular Admiral Deenala is rumored to have had something to do with this. Both parties have adamantly denied these baseless allegations.

While the Argo3 is a relatively new ship, it has already seen numerous missions, including the recent rescue mission of Senator Sharrador when he was abducted by the notorious criminal Baron Balthazar. Luckily, the Argo3's crew was able to rescue the senator without sustaining too much damage to the craft. This damage allowed Cadet Happy, the whizkid sidekick of Cpt Jax, to make a few altercations to the Space Patrol standard specifications for the XB-17, hence the addition of the 'd' to the model.

Cadet Happy's modifications include; a 23.7% propulsion efficiency, an aft-mounted Radcon mini-space mine launcher, more than doubled the strength of the magnetic coupling, adding a pleasant sensory disperser to the ScrubbertronO2 3000, adding a touchscreen to the the craft's Bentelycraft ElectroReader, and adding AtomiCorp's new RadOven to the galley so the crew can enjoy a warm meal on long flights. In his spare time, he also swapped out the crew seats to a more plush design and repainted the Argo3 to Cpt Jax's preferred shade of orange.

Space Patrol!

High adventure in the wild, vast reaches of space! Daring missions in the name of justice and protecting the innocent civilians of the United Planetary Federation from interplanetary villains with diabolical schemes!

I am playing around something more for Risus, a science fiction 'setting' and characters in the vein of an old tyme radio or tv show from the 1950s or so. When heroes were heroes, villains were always evil scum with larger than life ambitions, the hero always got the beautiful maiden, and a plucky little sidekick played the comedic foil to the always serious hero that saves the day. You know, the stuff that led to the original Star Wars films. Also, shit that would not fly in today's media. 

Who knows, maybe I will write something with this setting and characters. 

Scabbies [Risus]

 

When a rift between worlds is created, these toddler-sized buggers will come charging through the divide creating havoc. They form small mobs and swarm their victims, bringing them down with sheer numbers, biting and clawing. They will eat their victims if given the chance. Their fear of the sun is well documented by the few that have survived an encounter. The sun causes them to turn to stone and moments later, shatter into dust.

Sergeant Jim Malone [Risus]

 

Sergeant Jim Malone is a staunch law-abiding citizen, he is a firm believer in the law and takes a hard line with those who break the rules. Malone has been a beat cop for over a decade, but just recently moved to the beat that includes the St. Bartholomew church. Since moving, he has begun to question things he has always thought were set in stone, having seen things his rational mind can simply not explain.

Father Buchanan [Risus]

Father Buchanan is a recent arrival to St Bartholomew's, the largest Catholic church in the city. He is intelligent, inquisitive, and curious about his new city and congregation. He is a tireless student of history and has taken an interest in Dirk's work in the occult after the two became fast friends after the Catalogus de Mysteriis Serpentis incident.

Timmy 'Two-Step" Tulaine [Risus]

 

Sometimes Dirk needs a little help, and that is where little Timmy comes in. He is a tenacious little fella, able to sneak into areas that would otherwise be impossible for Dirk to gather intel or evidence to bring a criminal to justice. While Jenny constantly worries about putting Timmy in danger, the fact is Timmy refuses to not be included and often sneaks into missions without Dirk's knowledge, and frankly the little guy is exceptionally skilled at what he does. 

Jenny Valentine [Risus]

 

Jenny has worked close with her father, one of the founding members of the Black Chamber, the pre-eminent crypto-occult studies agency of the US government tasked with defending the country (and the world) from the mysterious other-world invaders. Due to her experience with her father, Jenny has experience in dealing with the occult, paranormal, and other-worldly entities. She uses her civilian cover as a press reporter to get into areas typically difficult to gain entrance to, plus let's face it, she is simply gorgeous and men melt in her hands.

I give you Jenny's Risus character card, those of you with Risus experience may notice the dice convention here instead of the usual straight number. This is because I have adopted Norbert's fantastic Risus hack (laid out here[link]). As I have decided this is simply brilliant and immediately 'ups' the use and power of Risus, I have decided to move to using this exclusively here on the blog.

Doctor Demento [Risus]

Dirk Douglas, heroic savoir of the city has had run-ins with various criminal elements, but his most formidable foe to date was the terrifying lord of the underworld: Doctor Demento!

Dirk Douglas [Risus]

Dirk Douglas, a hard-boiled occult detective. Once a gentleman criminal, he changed his path in life after he witnessed a black magic occult ceremony (he was told it was a burlesque performance) that involved the sacrifice of the innocent. Since that fateful night, he has been on a course to right the wrongs and bring justice to those who would use dark arts and burgeoning scientific discoveries to bring the people under their evil heels!

Risus for.....Writing?

My bud Norbert posted this fantastic table on his blog:

(reposted from Norbert's blog here)

Now, this is a standard inspiration table, nothing too amazing (though quite nice and did exactly what it was supposed to do...INSPIRE), but this along with Norbert's recent posts about Risus, popped an idea in my head. 

// -------- Wait, let me backtrack a little.

I love to read, I have spent my life reading and always wanted to be a writer. Life happened and now that I am old I sort of regret never following through on that dream. I specifically wanted to write pulp men's adventure tales. I just love the fairly straight forward and short stories and find them wonderful to read. Men were men, damsels need rescuing, evil scientists want to take over the world!
His posts inspired a nutty idea. He made it for gaming...but what if we took that and used it for writing? So I quickly wrote up a random table to pulp novel themes such as Gaslight Detective, 1930's crime, sword and sorcery, etc. I ended up rolling Victorian Gaslight (think the Alienist novel or Sherlock Holmes) and created a character in Risus, I give you Doctor Horace Norbert Walker:

Dr. Horace Norbert Walker
Meddlesome Surgeon of great reputation [4]
Amateur Detective [3]
Genteel Scholar of History [2]
Reluctant heir to a Noble Fortune [1]

Then I rolled on Norbert's table and got the result: Hidden, Messages, Maps which seems oddly perfect. I pulled up my favorite online writing site https://writer.bighugelabs.com/ and started writing. I quickly wrote up about 2k words, but something else happened. I got to really thinking about writing and how easy it would be to describe everything in terms of Risus cliches as a means of providing quick and easily-remembered details of places, people, and situations. 

Where does the story take place? 

1880s Chicago
Gloomy, cold, and wet [4]
Crime Ridden streets [3]

Need an antagonistic foil for the doctor?

Lt. Samuel Cogburn 
Smarmy police detective [5]
Sticky handed venal hack [4]
High-level political connection [3]

What about the doc's sidekcick?
Witherford 'Withers" Malone
Cheerful scientific genius [4]
Always ready with the right tool at the right time [3]

I can quickly and easily create memorable place and people. It almost feels like a shorthand system to describe everything. Anyway, this discovery sounded quite interesting when I stumbled upon Risus for Writing last night while sitting at work. Let's see what will come of it!

Bugbear - Risus

A recent post by my pals over at Pits Perilous (link) got me thinking about a Risus version of the OD&D monster, the bugbear. I am a visual person so naturally I wanted to have a bugbear image in this latest style I am playing around with, so I headed over to MidJourney to play around. What follows is my journey (no pun intended) to get a solid image to use. At the end I will have a Risus bugbear!

Nice, a little weird (though given Gary's description of merely a "great hairy goblin-giants" it somewhat does the trick)

I love the face here, somewhat pumpkinish and very monstrous, but the rest is too civilized for my tastes.

Too weird...and wth is with that grip on the sword??

Oh now here we go. Giant and hairy monstrous thing, with a "large, round flat oval" head

Let's give it one more go, see if we can get something a little nicer.

There we go, I like that one. Gives me a "Where the wild things are" vibe. A wild and feral beast, with the smidgeon of intelligence like a Neanderthal. Plus, as a bonus, he is carrying a pumpkin.
Perhaps bugbears have an uncontrollable love of pumpkins? I would imagine they can speak in a deep, guttural voice, able to formulate very simple sentences such as "Me hungry. Eat you." kind of thing.

Here we go, a Risus monster card.

Cwene of Bamburgh - Risus

Cwene is a young woman on the run. Originally from York, she slayed a man when he trapped her in an alleyway one late night. Barely escaping with her life, she stowed away on a boat heading north, ending up in Bamburgh. One cold winter night, Finan rescued Cwene and provided food and shelter. As days turned to weeks, she learned of God's grace and discovered a new purpose in life. Now, she travels with Finan as he spreads the word and does the churches work around Northumbria. She is a capable young women, with some skill as an herbalist but she has also proved to be skilled in the use of a spear and fending off bandits on the road.

Happy 4th of July

I salute all those who have served and especially those who have given their lives so that this great country shall not perish from the Earth. This land of the free, home of the brave, may she ever endure for all time.

Aidan of Mellitus - Risus

Finan's companion on the roads, a man I can connect with fairly well: a grumbly old veteran.  ;-) 

Aidan has retired but his ex-wfe (now run off with another, younger man) has racked up considerable debt in his name. Now he looks to earn coin by serving as Finan's armed escort and guardsman as he wanders about preaching and spreading the good word. Additionally, constantly being on the move means Turag has a harder time locating him and forcing him to pay his debts. While he is a believer in the "nailed god", he is not truly a man of faith and only regularly speaks to Saint Cuthbert in the traditions of his people.

Finan of Lindasfarne - Risus

 

Playing around with Risus and listening to a most excellent history podcast on the history of Saxon England resulted in this.

Risus Character Cards

Well, now I am really in a Risus sort of mood. I went looking for a character sheet (silly, I know, but hey) and could not find one I liked so I made one. I just uploaded to Itch.io where all my other stuff is. Made a couple of variations so people could use the one they like. Should fit nicely on a US letter sized page, then cut into fours to provide a handful of sheets for each page printed. Hope you like them!

You can find them here: 
https://mattjackson.itch.io/risus-character-cards

Antiquus Fabula - a Risus supplement

 

My pal Norbert is celebrating this amazing game by having a Risus Appreciation celebration and posting various cool rules, ideas, and discussions about the game. Check it out at https://darkwormcolt.wordpress.com/

A long time ago - 20 years??? - I discovered a game called Risus and it completely rewrote everything I thought about RPGs at the time and subsequently turned me on to the lighter side of RPGs and my love of rules-lite systems. Now, I wanted Risus to run D&D at the time, so I threw together some ideas and released a Risus supplement to enable a more D&Dish feeling to your games. To keep this Risus love going, I thought I would remind everyone of my Risus Fantasy Supplement. Antiquus Fabula! https://mattjackson.itch.io/antiquusfabula

MidJourney image dump

 

I love this fun, sort of child-like artwork for fantasy images, maybe nostalgic? Not sure but I love it!

Writing again...?

I had a good idea for an adventure using the map I previously posted, so I threw it into Affinity Publisher and started writing it up. So far I am liking where it is going and I thought I would share a few images of the wip (very early images, so lots of typos and such that need fixed.

I will likely be putting this up on my page on itch.io for free. To see all my games/adventures/tools, click right here!

June Map II

 

nummed & an unnummed version

 Nothing fancy, just an old, run down cathedral whose contents need to be freed from their gaol.