When comparing Risus vs The Pool, the Slant community recommends Risus for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Risus is ranked 12th while The Pool is ranked 34th. The most important reason people chose Risus is:
Risus has a very minimalist rule system that breaks down all actions to their core function. Risus comes with a super short, four page rulebook (available in many forms and formats) that's easy to read, includes examples and has a bit of humor thrown in to make the process or learning more enjoyable.
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Pros
Pro Can be taught in less than 10 minutes
Risus has a very minimalist rule system that breaks down all actions to their core function. Risus comes with a super short, four page rulebook (available in many forms and formats) that's easy to read, includes examples and has a bit of humor thrown in to make the process or learning more enjoyable.
Pro Very flexible rules
Risus is not confined to a selection of pre-defined character-classes, settings or abilities. Characters are described via clichés such as Witch Doctor, Gambler, Musician with a number of dice assigned to each cliché that are then used in challenges that relate to the appropriate cliché.
Pro A large following that provides a lot of content
A large amount of adventures, artwork, characters, clichés as well as optional rules can be found for Risus. An excellent resource for all aforementioned things as well as many others is Risusiverse, a fan-made website of all things Risus.
Pro Rolls are made to resolve intent not actions
Instead of rolling to perform actions such as swinging a sword, rolling is used for resolving intent with descriptions of actions left to players and GM to describe.
Cons
Con Little guidance can be found for GMs and players
Some prior understanding of how an RPG is played and what is the role of the GM is required as the rules cover only the very core of the system.
Con Monologue of Victory may stop any GMs plans
The Pool includes a system, called the Monologue of Victory, that allows a player to take over narration of the game in the event of a successful roll without the GM being able to interfere. As such using the system for complex plots may be difficult, because the player may remove an essential part of the story without knowing it.