Kobold Press Announces 'Cozy' RPG Riverbank

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Kobold Press--known for its D&D 5E compatible products--is diversifying into the world of cosy TTRPGs with Riverbank, a game of 'elegant animals, chaos, & whimsy'. The game has a page on Backerkit already, and launches in April.

Illustrated by Kathleen Jennings, and designed by Kij Johnson, the game allows you to attend tea parties, compete at the village fair, and dance at fancy balls. It uses a new game system which utilises a balance between the Animal and Poetry sides of your character.

In a RiverBank game, you join an intelligent society of anthropomorphic Animals and enter their life of cake and teatime by the slow part of the river. Here, the charm of cottagecore meets the whimsy of sophisticated critters as they navigate the intricacies—and often the bedlam—of polite Animal society.

Riverbank is a game about roleplaying, where your character choices directly impact the narrative. Weave farcical or dramatic tales of elegant characters on curious quests as you celebrate friendships, navigate social niceties, and weather the unique dynamics of Animal life. Attend tea parties, stroll through gardens, dance at fancy balls, and win the prize at the village fair—all while trying to keep a stiff upper lip and dodging difficult relatives.
 

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When my girls were young I tried roleplaying these sorts of games of small drama simulating the world of make-believe that small children play in - skinned knees, pickup games of baseball, going fishing at the pond behind the house, having tea with the neighbors, helping groom your best friends horse and clean the stable, cleaning your room, doing homework so you can go catch fireflies, etc.

I don't think it will endure. It might be fun for a one shot to play pretend as children do using the sophistication of ourselves as adults, but you don't really need a system for that and it becomes stale rather quickly. This is the reason that before RPGs most people moved on from make believe long before they reached adulthood. No matter how much they love Jane Austin, most adult participants will prefer to roleplay in the world of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies so that they can kick in the doors and slay the monsters.
 

Cottagecore has been a thing since the 2010's. I think it speaks to a romantic view of the self-sustained cottage lifestyle, tending your garden, making your own jam, etc. It also intersects with a lot of fantasy and children's literature like A Wind in the Willows, the Secret Garden... You could even argue that something like The Shire in the Hobbit is early cottagecore!
I'm waiting for the industry to discover goblincore.

Still surprisingly few solarpunk RPGs. Now that cozy fantasy and RPGs are becoming a thing, maybe we'll get more on the sci-fi side of things, too.
 

No matter how much they love Jane Austin, most adult participants will prefer to roleplay in the world of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies so that they can kick in the doors and slay the monsters.
The ENWorld community is self-selected door-kickers, so it'd be hard to know from the responses here. Someone is buying all the regency RPGs, though, so presumably there's an audience for it. (No, not identical, but a lot of overlap in the audiences.) There's also a lot of cozy boardgames.
 


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