Inflicting Curses in Risus

Half the fun of running Risus is figuring out how seeming complex things work in a a simple framework. In my current campaign I had a monster with Curses as a cliché. Starting with basic opposed combat, if the player rolled high the monster lost a die, if the monster rolled high the player lost a die. How was that a curse effect? Here are three things that I did, all of them playing off of the characters’ clichés.

Power Reflects
One of the player characters can inflict disease. This in itself seems curse-like, so I figured a good curse to put on them was to have it backfire. When the monster rolled high, the player character contracted the disease they were trying to inflict.

Fumble-itis
A character that Alters Probability tried to make the monsters (which can fly) fall out of the air. The monster rolled high, so the player character’s power got deflected to a nearby fire escape, which tore loose and fell on him. A character with Martial Arts slipped and took damage from falling when he rolled low.

The Curse That Sticks
The curse that resulted in a player cussing at me was the one that stuck. Her character can change into various elemental forms. She was in the form of rock during the fight, pounding on the monster. When the monster rolled high, I decided that rather than take damage I’d make her become stuck in rock form. The number the monster rolled is now the target number. After the battle, when she tried to change back to human form, she couldn’t. The number the monster rolled was really high (we’re using Funky Dice), so the character is stuck until she can either roll that number or otherwise find a way to lift the curse.

Have you ever used curses or a similar function in Risus? How did you do it? Tell us in the comments below.