Rivers of London: ‘Tis the Season for Novellas
This is part three of a series exploring the source material from The Rivers of London novels by Ben Aaronovitch which inspired and supports a streamlined BRP roleplaying game by Chaosium. The motivation behind the series is to explore approaches to playing the game, and to acknowledge and inspire gamers to look past the upbeat and humorous writing, punctuated by police procedure and magical action, to find the beautiful and moving moments of perhaps unexpected potency which make the books stand out. The combination, if grasped and brought into a game, is killer.
Rivers of London: Riots, and Jazz, and Sten Guns, oh my!
This is part two of a series exploring the source material of The Rivers of London roleplaying game by Chaosium which should surprise no one is the Rivers of London book series by Ben Aaronovitch. In part one, we did a ridiculously quick overview of the premise of the series, an even faster overview of the game, and made a note about how the upbeat and humorous writing, punctuated by police procedure and magical action, was also home to beautiful and moving moments of perhaps unexpected potency. In this installment, the first three books are to be brought into the Achieving Best Evidence suite and without benefit of Molly’s cooking, will give up some of the secrets they have been hiding.
Rivers of London: Not all Magic and Laughter (or dice)
The reason I am doing this small series on the Rivers of London is motivated by the existence and quality of the RPG, of course, but it is also about the real moments of truly beautiful writing which present moments of profundity in what could otherwise be taken as an yet another urban fantasy or police procedural. Looking at a book cover or hearing a description is more likely to be reductive or simply comparative. Those moments, secreted throughout the series, deserve better.
From a certain point of view… On RPGs.
What if, for the sake of discussion, everything that you believe to be true about roleplaying games were true, but let’s also note that that “you” is not the singular, but the plural. We can rightfully expect, I think, for the sum of all those perspectives to seem chaotic. Of course, not all that each … Continue reading
#RPGaDAY: Day 31 – Edge (Ability; Fair; Continuum)
Today is Monday, August 31st and the final day of #RPGaDAY2026. As usual, it has been a privilege to witness how different communities all over the world have taken time out of their lives and social media activities to share their love and appreciation for roleplaying games and the people who play them. It’s fantastic. David and I talk a little about it in our Closing Video so I don’t need to use space and your time to write about it here. Instead, let’s get to the final prompt: Edge. On the infographic, today starts its own single-day week, so we get ‘ability’ as one filter, and ‘fair of face’ for the other. The game I have chosen for today is one that is out on the fringes of RPG conversation. Today, my response will be drawn from Continuum: Roleplaying in the Yet by Aetherco / Dreamcatcher Multimedia.
Casting Shadows 