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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The further one gets away from D&D's gravity well, the more genres pop up.


The dominant thrust of the industry is still 99% about kicking down doors and sticking pointy pieces of metal into folks the PCs disagree with. But hopefully it won't be that way forever.
I’m very aware. That’s my point. D&D is the super-massive blackhole at the center of our galaxy. With 95+% of the industry being D&D 5E, that doesn’t leave much for anything else. Especially now with every other publisher doing their own take on 5E, it just squeezes out everyone and everything that much more.

To that day.

Thanks for a few new games.
 

I think this is a really good idea. Unfortunately I don't think that the core 5E chassis is especially good for this use, but I will be happy to look at what they do with it. I think that WotC wants to move in this direction with D&D itself from the core dungeon bashing experience, so I think they may be ahead of the curve in this area. I'm interested, even though this is likely not what my group will want to play with. I frankly think this is a good direction to go in the hobby.
Good news! It's not built on 5E. This will be a whole new system.
 




I get why RPGs started as predominantly action-adventure games regardless of the setting-genre. That action-adventure has utterly dominated the RPG industry until today is something of a mystery. There are more kinds of stories. Why is it either action-adventure fantasy/sci-fi or mystery-horror? There are more genres than that.

Yep, a lot of discussion goes on about D&D's wargaming roots but it also has strong pulp fantasy/SF roots. While I still love that stuff, it's good genre fiction moved to go beyond just swords & sorcery and eldritch horrors. I might even get this even though it's worlds away from my usual gaming.
 



I'm forcing myself to hold off on buying a cozy fantasy RPG until Shires Out gets closer to market, but otherwise, yeah.

Google (Ugh, how do I get it to let me use asterisks?)

Ooh, cozy mysteries in Hobbiton/Toad Hall? Powered by GUMSHOE? Color me intrigued.

 

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