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Old 02-27-2021, 09:52 AM   #17
thrash
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: traveller
Default Re: First rules-light roleplaying game?

Quote:
Originally Posted by thrash View Post
So, Tunnel & Trolls is likely the first rpg deliberately offered as simple and rules-light. Is it also the first explicitly low-prep and/or pick-up-and-play rpg, or is that a later innovation?
I've already mentioned Kobolds Ate My Baby! (1999). My 1999 copy of Risus: The Anything RPG (v1.4) states,
Quote:
Risus is a complete Role Playing Game (RPG) designed to provide an "RPG Lite" for those nights when the brain is too tired for exacting detail. Risus is especially valuable to GMs assembling a quick convention game, or any late-night beer-and-pretzels outing.
This is pretty unequivocally the kind of thing I'm looking for. Note that the thread of comedy systems continues.

I can get back to a (c) 1998 version with identical text via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The Wikipedia entry for Risus states that Risus was first published in 1993, and a precursor (GUCS: The Generic Universal Comedy System) dates from 1989.

Does anyone have earlier versions of Risus (or even GUCS!) to confirm when this text was first introduced?

Does TWERPS have a similar statement?

Last edited by thrash; 02-27-2021 at 04:16 PM.
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