Editing Risus (section)

== History ==
''Risus'' ([[Latin]] for “laughter”) is a comedy game<ref name="RPGnet"/> (often described by its creator as a "joke game") and uses a cliché (character class) system<ref name="gamegrene"/> inspired by the broad "career scale" skills in [[Greg Gorden]]'s ''[[DC Heroes|DC Heroes RPG]]'' ([[Mayfair Games]]), and later influenced by [[Atlas Games]]' ''[[Over the Edge (role-playing game)|Over the Edge]]''. The core systems of ''Risus'' owe their largest debt to the ''[[Ghostbusters (role-playing game)|Ghostbusters RPG]]'' published by [[West End Games]], and to ''[[Tunnels and Trolls]]'' by [[Ken St. Andre]]. The game itself also cites ''[[GURPS]]'' as an influence, along with ''[[FUDGE]]'', another free RPG released to the web a year earlier. Several more recent games have been, in turn, influenced by ''Risus.''

Despite the game's small size and admittedly joking nature, there are more than 30 fan-authored websites devoted to ''Risus,'' some including several rules variants, simple worldbooks, and wholly rewritten adaptations of the game. ''Risus'' itself has been translated into Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.<ref name="cumb">{{cite web|url=http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm| title=Risus: The Anything RPG homepage |access-date=2003-09-30}}</ref> In December, 2003, Cumberland Games began to support the free game with commercial supplements, beginning with the ''Risus Companion'' and the founding of the International Order of Risus.  An example of another commercial product is ''A Kringle in Time'', "an adventure about saving Christmas from ancient evil."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ogrecave.com/reviews/kringle.shtml| title= A Kringle in Time (review)|last=Katz|first=Demian| publisher=www.ogrecave.com|access-date=2007-09-30}}</ref>

''New Risus'' won the 2001 inaugural [[RPGnet]] award for ''Best Free RPG''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/awards05dec01.html| title=RPGnet 2001 Award Results| publisher= [[RPGnet]] |access-date=2007-09-30}}</ref>