At the risk of being OT for the Hero Wars list, I've been thinking about doing a HW to RISUS conversion. Risus is a FREE, 6-page complete RPG available at http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm . The rules themselves are written in a humorous fashion, but they can be used for more serious endeavours.
What struck me about Risus and HW is that Risus is cliche-based, which bears some similarity to the concept of keywords (though it's much less detailed). Some sample cliches might be Youthful Orlanthi Herdsman, Grim Humakti Warrior, Shrewish Orlanthi Steadwife, Handsome Smooth-Talking Rascal, Aspiring Poet, Garrulous Old Coot, Swift-footed Herald, etc. Typically, you start out with two or three cliches, and divide up 10d6 amongst them. You use these dice to either roll higher than a target number, to roll higher than another character's ability rating in a singleaction contest, or to go toe-to-toe in a kind of extended contest, where you lose a d6 every time you roll less than the other person's cliche roll. You can switch from one cliche to another (even to an inappropriate one under some circumstances), but when a cliche rating hits 0, you've lost the battle.
I have a discussion list about Risus at Yahoogroups (to subscribe, send a message to risustalk-subscribe_at_yahoogroups.com, or send me an email at risustalk-owner_at_yahoogroups.com). I appreciate the indulgence of everyone else on the list.
Guy Hoyle
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