When comparing Risus vs Warrior, Rogue, & Mage, the Slant community recommends Warrior, Rogue, & Mage for most people. In the question“What are the best tabletop RPGs?” Warrior, Rogue, & Mage is ranked 11th while Risus is ranked 12th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
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 Light ruleset
Pro Easily expanded and adapted
Pro Beginner-friendly
Pro WR&M derivatives can be shared and even sold freely
Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, which means you can create WR&M derivatives and share them freely or even sell them. It’s the same open license Fate Core uses.
Pro Good if you like Simulationist RPGs
If you like RPGs putout by the big publishers, you will probably like this game.
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 Simulationist
GM-based
Unequal distribution of authority
If you like Story Games (i.e. GMless, Collaborative RPGs) this is not for you.