Some of the older PB games used to have a problem with the fact that saves were located in C:\. Even though R2 uses "...\User\Saved Games" instead of "...\Game Folder\Saves", running the game as administrator is worth a shot.
You're a Canadian, so I don't suppose you have diacritic or non-alphanumeric chars in your username. If you do, try renaming it.
How about quicksaves? Do they make it crash as well or not? I believe they don't overwrite themselves, so if everything else fails, that could be an option.
---
Have you tried
<span class="bold">this</span>? (It's written for Steam version, but it should work for GOG, too.)
[PROBLEM] save files not created/can't save the game Problem 1: Despite no error message, game is not saved.
This problem occurs since the beginning of the game.
Problem 2: Same as above but only after a certain time.
Solution to problem 2: Probably because your disk is full: see here.
Solution to problem 1: The following could help:
Download file
mountlist_packed.zip and replace the old file "...\Steam\SteamApps\common\risen 2\data\ini\mountlist_packed.ini" by the file from the archive.
Or you can correct the file manually, without replacement. To do this, open the original and make the changes:
Find: save=$(savedgames)/Risen2/SaveGames
Change to: save=SaveGames
This saves you redirect a folder from my profile in the game folder. After the changes, run the game, start a new game and make the saves. The game will create a folder "...\risen 2\SaveGames" and will store there a new save game.
If you already have a few saves, create a folder "...\risen 2\savegames " yourself and copy there the old saved games (for Win 7, they are stored here - "C:\Users\username\Saved Games\Risen2\SaveGames\").
[Error with saved games most likely occurs because of Russian letters in the name of the profile. Vysheukazany way to help if the path to the folder "Risen 2" there are no Russian letters.] ---
nor relevant for us. If the problem persists - try to run the game as administrator (right click-> run as administrator). On Windows 7, the executable is in ...\Valve\Steam\SteamApps\common\risen2\system\ris en2
After fixing all that, the saved games for all user profiles on your computer will be shared.
Source: WoR/Russian