Risus for.....Writing?

My bud Norbert posted this fantastic table on his blog:

(reposted from Norbert's blog here)

Now, this is a standard inspiration table, nothing too amazing (though quite nice and did exactly what it was supposed to do...INSPIRE), but this along with Norbert's recent posts about Risus, popped an idea in my head. 

// -------- Wait, let me backtrack a little.

I love to read, I have spent my life reading and always wanted to be a writer. Life happened and now that I am old I sort of regret never following through on that dream. I specifically wanted to write pulp men's adventure tales. I just love the fairly straight forward and short stories and find them wonderful to read. Men were men, damsels need rescuing, evil scientists want to take over the world!
His posts inspired a nutty idea. He made it for gaming...but what if we took that and used it for writing? So I quickly wrote up a random table to pulp novel themes such as Gaslight Detective, 1930's crime, sword and sorcery, etc. I ended up rolling Victorian Gaslight (think the Alienist novel or Sherlock Holmes) and created a character in Risus, I give you Doctor Horace Norbert Walker:

Dr. Horace Norbert Walker
Meddlesome Surgeon of great reputation [4]
Amateur Detective [3]
Genteel Scholar of History [2]
Reluctant heir to a Noble Fortune [1]

Then I rolled on Norbert's table and got the result: Hidden, Messages, Maps which seems oddly perfect. I pulled up my favorite online writing site https://writer.bighugelabs.com/ and started writing. I quickly wrote up about 2k words, but something else happened. I got to really thinking about writing and how easy it would be to describe everything in terms of Risus cliches as a means of providing quick and easily-remembered details of places, people, and situations. 

Where does the story take place? 

1880s Chicago
Gloomy, cold, and wet [4]
Crime Ridden streets [3]

Need an antagonistic foil for the doctor?

Lt. Samuel Cogburn 
Smarmy police detective [5]
Sticky handed venal hack [4]
High-level political connection [3]

What about the doc's sidekcick?
Witherford 'Withers" Malone
Cheerful scientific genius [4]
Always ready with the right tool at the right time [3]

I can quickly and easily create memorable place and people. It almost feels like a shorthand system to describe everything. Anyway, this discovery sounded quite interesting when I stumbled upon Risus for Writing last night while sitting at work. Let's see what will come of it!