JohnK

Hullo, folks, As noted, last weekend was CanGames, 2024 here in Ottawa, and I ran two sessions of the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game at the convention. Here's the report, taken right off my blog about the Friday at CanGames, for folks to hear how it went. The scenario I ran on Friday night was the "Fairycakes" adventure. 🙂 ***** Right off the bat things were fun from the point of view of sign-ups for the game. It turned out that two of the six players signed up for my game Friday night dropped out because it was running so late (until 11:00 pm), but someone else had signed up in one of the two vacant slots so that was good. Then another person dropped out of the game because of an emergency at home, dropping me back to four players, but then *another* person came up to the sign-up table and joined the game, and someone else noticed that the game was short a player and they signed up as well! So the game was filled. The irony of it all was... the three players who joined up to play the game were all people whom I'd spoken to at length about the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game during the afternoon because of the lack of information about the games in the CanGames booklet! Fate and irony, I guess! Then it was back to join the players at the table, and completing the set-up process for the evening. The adventure I ran on Friday night for the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game is called "Fairycakes". The adventure is set against the urban fantasy mystery roleplaying game based on the Rivers of London series of books by Ben Aaronovitch, and concerns a group of investigators from the London MET Special Assessment Unit (SAU), also known as "The Folly," investigating an attack on a homeless man who is actually a troll in order to find out what really happened and whether magic and the demi-monde are involved. The player characters for the adventure, called a case file in the game system, are: Nafeesa Jones, a London MET police constable and apprentice magic practitioner; Morgan Omans, a hedge wizard turned police officer, and also an apprentice magic practitioner; Mina Patel, an entertainer who does data entry work for the London MET and works with the Folly on odd cases; Jordan Schneider, a medical doctor who works with the Folly and rather enjoys the "weird bollocks" cases; Jules Garland, a chancer (opportunist) who works at times with the Folly; and Eli Venturini, a lecturer/historian on the 17th Century and particularly the life and times of Sir Isaac Newton who consults for the Folly. Thus, all of the player characters work for the Folly or act as consultants with them from time to time. I'm not going into detail about the plot here (because others might run the adventure down the line, and I'd like to run the scenario again sometime!), but suffice to say that the adventure went very well, though I did alter a couple of the plot's aspects to make it fit within the time limits somewhat. The six players who played in the game were a good mix of people, some of whom I've played with at the convention before, and most whom I had not. In a neat twist, none of the players were familiar with Ben Aaronovitch's novels or the game itself, but most of them were intrigued by the game system and the world on which it is based. Bruce McDiarmid (a good friend of mine who plays regularly in games I run at CanGames) took on the role of Mina Patel. A nice young woman named Jenny played Morgan Omans. Ken Aranda (another fellow that I know at the convention) played the character Nafeesa Jones. Eli Venturini was played by a person new to me at the convention, Tyler, who said he was looking forward to the game as he'd heard a good deal about it from his father that afternoon. Another young woman whom I know at the convention, Emily, played the character of Dr. Jordan Schneider. And finally, a newcomer to my games, Caroline, came into the game and took the character of Jules Garland. She told me that she was playing the game as the basic premise was really up her alley. 🙂 Overall, the players really enjoyed themselves, and it was a fun game session of Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game. I talked to the players about the basics of the Rivers of London series of books, the game world, how (Newtonian) magic works, and the basics of British police investigations, and then went over the game mechanics and rules. After answering any questions the players had, I took Ken and Jenny (who were playing the magic practitioners) aside and talked with them briefly a bit more about magic and their spells. All of the players grasped the d100 rules and how Luck worked very easily, and we then got into the adventure proper. The player characters started with a briefing with their mentor and boss, DCI Nightingale, about the incident involving the attack on the homeless man/troll, and then proceeded to start their investigation into the matter. They quickly got into the setting and the world, proceeding with their investigation and learning what they needed to in order to move to the next bit. I helped them out with British law and police procedure when they needed it, and the case moved a bit slowly at first as the players got their feet wet, but soon picked up momentum and the players did a great job of things. There was some really good roleplaying throughout the four-hour session, some of the best moments of it coming during the briefing/reporting to Nightingale about what they'd learned, during some of the investigation moments that give players the "AHA!" insights, and the like. Each of the players played their characters quite well, though Tyler struggled a bit playing Eli Venturini, as he wasn't certain how to go about researching certain topics. Caroline told me later that she wasn't sure how to play Jules Garland, the opportunist, but gradually figured out what her character's strengths were and started to play with them. Both Ken (playing Nafeesa) and Jenny (playing Morgan) did a great job playing the two apprentice practitioners. With Nafeesa as the team leader, Ken did a good job of keeping the others in check and focused on the investigation paths that they needed to follow. Jenny had Morgan focus on some of the research at times with Tyler's Eli Venturini, but both she and Ken had a marvellous time with the Sense Vestigia Skill. And I've got to say that the whole vestigia/signare aspect of the game in terms of the magic had most of the players fascinated and intrigued. Though they all did get tired of the "hints of apple" vestigia until they figured out the connection to what was going on in the plot. My favourite moment in the game was the look on the faces of the players when I showed them the images of the [redacted] when they saw the drawings of the [redacted] and finally met them later on. The final sequence in the scenario was a bit anti-climactic to me for a variety of reasons, but worked to bring the case file to a satisfying conclusion and the players told me later that they were pleasantly surprised at how the adventure wrapped up. Due to some lovely roleplaying sequences that I didn't want to disturb, and the limitations of the time restrictions on the game, I had to cut a couple of scenes down or out of the scenario, but nothing that would have made a difference to the overall plot. After finishing up the scenario around 10:35 pm, two of the players stuck around for a bit to talk about the adventure and the game, but all the players told me that they loved the simple game mechanics (especially the dice mechanics and the Luck system). Two of the players told me that they were going to buy the game and the first few novels in the series based on how the game played and how much fun they'd had with it. One of the players, Caroline, stuck around a bit longer and we talked about the Rivers of London RPG and a bit about the books as well, and gaming in general. ***** Anyway, that's the report on how the Friday night game at the convention went. Thoughts and comments are always welcome. 🙂

Hullo, folks, Just thought I'd mention, that for those attending CanGames, 2024, the local gaming convention here in Ottawa (Ontario, Canada), the (long) weekend of May 17th to the 19th, I'll be running a couple of Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game sessions at the convention. Hope to see a few folks there! Fairycakes Game: Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game Time: Friday, 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm Number of Players: 5 Description: When a very normal, respectable but somewhat dull businessman savagely attacks a homeless man that he swears is some sort of monster, the case file comes to the Folly. Because the homeless man isn’t a monster – but he is a troll. And DCI Nightingale would like some answers. So your investigators are tasked to find out what's going on. This adventure is one for the urban fantasy mystery roleplaying game based on the Rivers of London series of books by Ben Aaronovitch. The Bookshop Game: Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game Time: Sunday, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm Number of Players: 5 Description: An employee at Stonewaters Bookshop has been assaulted by assailants unknown while working late. The Charing Cross police have sent the case over to the Folly, as they believe it will be of interest to them. While it may or may not be a Falcon case, DCI Nightingale wants your investigators to question the bookshop employee and see if there’s anything unusual about the case. This adventure is the introductory case file (adventure) for the urban fantasy mystery roleplaying game based on the Rivers of London series of books by Ben Aaronovitch. Don't know if anyone here on the forums is going to be attending CanGames, but would love to meet folks there. And game with you, of course. 🙂

Hullo, folks, As the Subject line says... It's been almost a year since the rulebook for the game came out. Is there any news on when some new product will come out for Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game? I haven't seen any mention of new stuff for the game on announced product lists, and Chaosium seems focused on stuff for several other systems. Hopefully, the game is not dead.

Hullo, g33k, Oh, I'll definitely let folks know how things are going with the game and all. 🙂 I've actually got two gaming groups, 5 players on Friday night and the 2-player group on Sunday afternoons, but have fallen behind on writing up the blog entries on the games in question. So plenty of info on stuff when I get the chance and my arm heals from being sideswiped by a car in a grocery store parking lot.

Hullo, folks, Was wondering if anyone happens to have or know of a Halloween scenario for the game? Would like to be able to run something this weekend or next with the theme. Thanks, in advance. 🙂

Hullo, g33k, I'll try to address your comments/questions to me here. As to the first question, it's a matter of having to ignore the issue for the most part regardless. I've only got two players in the Sunday group, including the one we're talking about, and have decided to focus on her practitioner aspects rather than the forensic aspects. The element of the setting in question is one that, to be honest, is key to running the game in the UK. to playing a Rivers of London game, and how the British police handle the matter of forensics in their investigations. If I were running the game in North America or in a CSI type of game it would be one thing, but I'm running a Rivers of London game. That said, it's not spoiling my enjoyment of the game for the most part, though I've been clearly stressing out about it at times. Having the forum here to discuss the matter has cleared my head about how to approach the matter at hand, and has been stress reducing and somewhat cathartic. 🙂 Insofar as your second question is concerned, yes, I've made it abundantly clear to the player that the character can't work exactly as envisioned as it doesn't fit the essence of what makes the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game what it is. I've even had her read the relevant sections of the game text pertaining to the use of forensics in the books and the game, but she still wants to play this character. As is. Frankly, she refuses to step into the headspace or mindset of playing in the UK cop system - but she's like that with any game system setting that she doesn't know intimately. And her biases towards only urban fantasy police stuff like what she's previously read or seen on tv are...abundantly clear as well. As noted above, I've decided how I'm going to handle the matter and the approach I'm going to take to this with her and the character, and see how that works out. And yes, the frustration is there obviously, but it's not something new with this player. Nothing really more to add to this post or the entire subject for that matter. But I want to thank everyone who posted in this thread and helped me figure out how to handle the matter. Appreciated. 🙂

Hullo, Crazy Canadian, Just saw this one and gave it a quick browse through. Quite nice. Looking forward to running this one. 🙂

Hullo, g33k, You may well be right about that being my (big) mistake here. It's not really a dislike on the player's part for the genre, as she's a huge fan of urban fantasy mystery books (less so tv series and even less so comics), and she told me that she loves the "basic premise" for the game. However, she's very "American" in her tastes in certain things, and doesn't read a lot of non-North American written fiction even in the genres she likes. She told me she does want to play the game, just with her own "perspective" of it. That said, with only two players in the Sunday group, it wasn't an option that she not join the campaign to begin with. 🙂 The concept of the "outside consultant" works very well for the most part, except for two things. First, the way I understand the Rivers of London books, and how things work, is that anyone the Folly brings in for specialist knowledge outside their main areas of expertise and all *is* an outside consultant, and that includes the forensics folks that help them out. However, the second problem is the bigger of the two... If she had created a forensics specialist who had magical potential but didn't start out with being able to do spells and stuff, that would have worked fine... but she wanted the character to also be a practitioner as well from the start, and part of the Folly in that regard. So she is an outside consultant but with a big inside edge to her. 🙂 Ah, well... I'll see how things work out now that I've decided to shift the focus of the character more towards the magic side of things rather than the forensics side of it.

Yes, that first paragraph pretty much sums things up. She tends to do the same things in other game systems, but since I rarely run games based on licensed books or movies or tv shows or whatever, this rarely ever comes up. I felt pretty frustrated running the first adventure, since her actual player character only got into the story towards the middle of the plot, and she played the PC partner of the other player character for much of the adventure. Now that I have an idea of how I'm going to approach this, we'll see if she decides to create a new character, or whether she doggedly continues to play this "part-time" character. The player in question is part of my Sunday group, which only consists of her, one other player, and me. I've been playing with them for decades now, and she hasn't changed in this regard over the years. The Session Zeroes do help in many regards in this respect, but not for this game; she was intent on what she wanted to play. I've done what you suggested here (run a few sessions with characters I've created for them), but she's not fond of that as she gets a good feel for the system, but still prefers to create the character concept and character that she wants, regardless of the system. If you knew the number of games that have gone by the wayside because she doesn't like them or I can't run them with her "play style"... Oy, vey!

Hullo, buckyball, Thanks for posting this thread up. This is quite the nice approach to take with the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game and one that I had considered in a sense. Since I'm not familiar with Peter Grant's Vestigium Awareness Outreach Program (having only just finished reading Foxglove Summer this past month), I didn't know about that - and can't remember if it's been mentioned in the game book. That said, the player I've been talking about in a separate thread here was adamant about playing a practitioner to start the game, so... But this is a fine approach to take to creating characters and the campaign. All that said, you definitely have an interesting set of player characters there. I look forward to hearing more about them and their case file adventures! 🙂

Exactly, g33k! The game rulebook points out very specifically that the Folly may have certain experts or people in services outside the Folly itself that they rely on for assistance, and the forensics side of things is notable in this respect. It seems rare in the books that non-Folly personnel are ever part of the Folly itself directly, though author Ben Aaronovitch has created several characters in the novels (I've read through the first five) who do have closer ties to the Folly. Sometimes I think this is the problem with roleplaying games that are based on book series and the like, but that's getting away from the original intent of the thread, and is a subject for elsewhere and elsewhen. 🙂

In a Folly campaign, not all case interviews should be supervised by a practitioner, until magic (Falcon-ry?) definitely is found to be associated with the case. But a forensics expert or forensic specialist doesn't tend to have a lot of social skills, except on shows like CSI and the like. And this is Rivers of London, not CSI, to begin with, so... When it comes down to it, the player isn't playing the Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game or basing her character on the series of books, she's created her character because she likes a current urban fantasy system that she's been reading and wants to fit that square character into a round player character space. And this, despite the Session Zero discussion we had on the subject. *sigh*

That last line sums up the whole issue for me, g33k!

Hullo, g33k, Yeah, I was hoping that @LynneH would come into this discussion, since like you, perhaps she could add a few comments on what I've brought up here in relation to the American sourcebook. Hope springs eternal. 🙂

Hullo, Radmonger, I've seen a couple of episodes of I, Zombie and I'll be honest... I wasn't impressed, though the basic premise was interesting. I think that when it comes down to it, I'm going to focus on the forensic character's practitioner aspects of the character, rather than her medical aspects. I can of like that line you came up with for DCI Seawoll, and will be stealing it, if you don't mind. 🙂