There's Always a Hook Attached Pt. 2

Oops I did it again.

The first rule of risus is there is no wrong way to play.  However, when tweaking Risus I keep another rule close to my heart or try to: Keep it simple. I've messed that up with my idea of cliche hooks. I trotted all kinds of ramblings about negative cliches. Not simple. Cliches help you do things. The higher the rating the better you do those things. Period. A person should not have to engage in combat against his own cliches. 

So forget all that stuff. What I meant is this:

A hook cliche is used to resist some addiction or compulsion etc. It works with the hook. If your hook is Alcoholic, your cliche would be something like On the Wagon (3). Hook cliches all start at 3. You don't pay anything for them. You receive an extra die for the hook as usual. Another, more extreme example might be Hook Womanizer and the cliche Celibate. The cliche is used to make rolls to resist the Hook. The GM sets the TN for the roll (10 being about average temptation, whatever that is.) The cliche can be used in combat which would require you to assign dice to the object triggering the hook. Our On the Wagon (3) might have to roll 5 to resist drinking hand sanitizer, a 10 to avoid a beer and a shot and 15 or higher to resist twenty year old Scotch if that is what his taste runs to. 

If you want some additional drama persons, places and things that trigger a hook might be given an appropriate cliche. Stinky Pete's Cafe might have the cliche Infamous Gambling Den (4) and a character with the Hook: Gambler and the cliche Recovering Gambling Addict (3) may have to engage in a combat to pass by. If he has other cliches that are appropriate he might use them in place of Recovering Gambler. A doctor making a house call or on the way to surgery might roll on his Hippocratic Oath cliche (4) and might see it reduced in combat instead of risking lowering his Recovering Gambler cliche (he has to pass by the same place on the way back) and being unable to make further rolls to resist temptation.

Thanks to Guy Hoyle, and Scott Lorch for  comments and feedback. 

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