Rivers of London (2022) was a complete surprise for me. I heard Chaosium was developing a new game of that name, but I had no idea what it was about beyond involving magic, nor did I know about the Ben Aaronovitch novels it was based on. It came out, my wife got it for me for Christmas and I entered sans preconceptions. That’s sort of an unusual state for me and an RPG to meet in!
What we have system-wise is a very light weight version of BRP, with room for learning magic and a common skill aimed at detecting the supernatural. It’s all very smooth and welcoming and I daresay…cozy? This is not Call of Cthulhu, where the stakes are high and solving the mystery will send you around the bend. Players are meant to get the clues and push the story forward. Aaronovitch titles his introduction “An Introduction to Collaborative Storytelling,” and I think that says quite a bit about the game’s priorities. Another: combat is just one part of the “Basic Rules,” taking up about 18 pages of 60 (an additional five pages later on introduces some optional rules to give it a bit more tooth, if that’s desired). The next 100 pages deals with magic, lore and all the sort of stuff you need to know about the world in order to properly run the game. In reading that material, I eventually decided to put the RPG aside and read the first Rivers of London novel, titled Rivers of London, or, in the US, because we’re dreadfully dull, Midnight Riot.
The novel sees policeman Peter Grant joining a special department that deals with magical problems in London. He learns some magic himself and gets embroiled in a case involving a powerful supernatural figure. It’s a pretty long novel, and pretty funny. I would say the atmosphere is intriguing rather than anything approaching scary, at least, until it is scary. There are really only three moments that are genuinely frightening and of those, only one, the last, involves anything resembling “combat.” I bring this up because more than most RPG adaptations, I feel like Rivers of London the RPG really matches the tone of Rivers of London the series of novels. Or, at least, the first one, anyway. It’s a collaborative storytelling game, the story is meant to move forward and players are meant to quip and think their way through it, rather than bashing, burning and shooting. It’s a pleasant change of pace.
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