Risus of Arabia

Risus: the Anything RPG, © S. John Ross 1993-2001 http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm

“First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature?”



Hannibal Lecter

Disclaimer.

I should take a closer look at TSR’s Al-Qadim; but I am shying away from all things AD&D. That and I have become a D6 bigot.

Second Disclaimer.

This is another attempt to untangle the Gordian Knot that is the Arabian Adventure campaign a friend and I started (and abandoned after a year and change of over thinking the whole process) for GURPS.

To avoid problems, long ago we started using Fate in place of God, Allah, or Mohammad.

For simplicity’s sake, the characters are generic Islamic Arab. The era is ‘The Golden Age of the Islamic Empire’. All other races, creeds, nationalities are fit only for villains or comic relief.

The inspiring cliché is The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, mostly.

Setting Cliches

Jinns in bottles on the beach.

Flying carpet careening through the minaret crowned skyline of Baghdad.

Lost cities in the sands of trackless deserts.

Dancing girls in diaphanous harem clothes.

A dhow in full sail in the seven seas.

Cliches for the various lands of the Land of Fate.

Maghreb (Saharan Africa): Powerful Berber Mages, Salt caravans, Timbuktu, Barbary pirates, Algiers, Morocco, Casablanca

Egypt (historically the center of the Arab world): Tombs, tombs, tombs, barging down the Nile, Nubian gold mines,

Abyssinia (East Africa): King Solomon’s Mines, the slave trade, She Who Must Be Obeyed, Mountains of the Moon.

Arabia: riding camels, sailing Dhows, resting in oases, sand swept ruins of lost civilizations.

Persia: Like Arabia, only with mountains.

Anatolia (Turkey): Like Persia, only on the Mediterranean Sea.

India: Ornate temples of Doom, jungles, the Ganges, Thugges.

Spice Islands: old men who like piggyback rides, headhunters.

Risus of Arabia Adventure Seeds

several themes: “powerful demon stories, talisman stories where a magical object protects and guides the hero, quest stories, transformation tales, and tales of demons under restraint”

The two main travel motivators in the nights are to find treasure or break an enchantment; the usual RPG ‘need and greed seeds’.

I defer to The Big List of RPG Plots by S. John Ross.

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

Risus of Arabia characters.

Characters are built on ten dice.

Options at the GM’s whim.

The Hand of Fate rule lets a player call a Mulligan once a session The HoF can be affected by the Five Pillars of Islam; or they can simply be milieu texture.

Characters should be mindful of Family, Honor, Hospitality, and Piety. They can form a bonus system or simply be milieu texture.

No classes; pick a job and work outward.

Merchant

Scholar

Caravan outrider

Dancing girl

Etc...

Fakir is a tall dark and handsome manly man. He is always on the move. Good with pack animals and horses; not so good with people.

Hook and Tale: Bad Case of Wanderlust. Pathological Need for ‘Me’ Time.

He grew up fast in the streets and alleys of Baghdad. His survival mentality is built around ‘keep moving and trust no one’. Stowed away on a ship and has been moving ever since.

Taciturn Caravan Outrider (4) was an Agile and Cunning Street Urchin (3) and left the streets as An Able Seaman (2). Is also a Well Traveled Dilettante Scholar (2) which allows him Universal Mage Abilities, and a Break Even Gambler (1).

Princess Shalimar / Taura

Little Nell’s Dancing Girl: ‘Lithe of limb, light of touch, and fleet of foot.’ She is a renowned dancer with the ability to enthrall men as if they had drunk deeply of wine. She is also a gifted thief, pickpocket, con artist, and gambling cheat.

Wiley Gypsy Peasant (4) which allows her Universal Mage Abilities, Stunning Gypsy Princess (4), Savvy Merchant (2) Itinerant Bon Vivant (2).

Tale and Hook: Price on Her Head. Secret Identity. Compulsive Thief

She is a gypsy princess who fled her tribe because a traditionally evil uncle usurped power and wants to a) marry her off to some halfwit cousin then, b) kill her off so he can take over. She was taken in by a group of traveling gypsies where she learned her trades. She can weave mesmerism through her dance, and uses her dance and social skills to locate loot and the best means to get said loot.