Rivers of London, RuneQuest Gods, Regency Cthulhu Coming Soon From Chaosium

Chaosium has been posting preview graphics of some of its upcoming games, all marked 'Coming Soon'.

Magic has returned to our world. The London Metropolitan Police Service’s special magic branch take to the streets to come to grips with the “demi-monde”—those who have been irreversibly changed by magic. Welcome to Rivers of London.

The Prosopaedia: An Encyclopedia of the Gods of RuneQuest! An essential reference for all Glorantha fans. Discover the deities of RuneQuest and inspire your adventures and characters for years to come.

A time of social niceties, grand balls, romantic intrigues and disappointments. Twisted horrors Have lain dormant for centuries now seek to burst forth into England. Welcome to Regency Cthulhu.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

Judging from the table of contents, it looks much more like an adventure or adventure compilation rather than a setting sourcebook?

It's a setting sourcebook with two scenarios.

 

[MGibster]

Huh. Weird. I don't see any particular die type as inherently superior or innovative than any other. I mean, I quite like a d12, but I wouldn't call a d20 a relic.

A d20 isn't as clumsy and is more random than a d6; an elegant die for a more civilized age.

 

[MGibster]

I don't fine it fun (anymore) to be faced with a challenge and to have a one-roll, binary outcome of whether or not I succeed at it. "I'll study the markings and see if they look familiar." (roll)
"I'll try to climb the wall." (roll)
"Is the Duke somebody I know anything about?" (roll)

In Call of Cthulhu, at least these days, you have the option of pushing the roll should you fail. The Investigator is allowed to roll again so long as they tell the Keeper how they're approaching the problem in a different manner. So let's say your character failed to force a door open and you tell the Keeper that you're going to force the roll. Great, what are you doing differently? This time your character is going to put the full force of his weight into it and drive his shoulder into the door in order to open it. (Admittedly I'm not sure how you could push a roll to see what you know about the Duke.) But it's late and I've been cleaning my dinosaur.

Edit: I should say that if the Investigator fails their pushed roll then they face some sort of negative consequences. Perhaps when driving your shoulder into the door you fail again and cause yourself some injury.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

They just guaranteed I don't buy the RoL RPG, despite being a big RoL fan and being a big fan of TT RPGs, and thus the likely target audience.

Rivers of London has a very specific vibe. It is not at all, not even slightly the vibe, Chaosium's d100-based rules provide (I say that having played an awful lot of games using them).

On the other hand Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series, is a TTRPGer from way back, loves Call of Cthulhu, and wanted the Rivers of London RPG to be built off the same d100 model to meet his vision of the game. Ben has been part of the development process from the outset.

 

[Blue Orange]

Huh. Weird. I don't see any particular die type as inherently superior or innovative than any other. I mean, I quite like a d12, but I wouldn't call a d20 a relic.

This one is!

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551072

OK, seriously, I do think some dice do have associations with certain systems--the d20 with D&D most famously and gaming in general, but percentile dice with Call of Cthulhu and possibly even White Wolf for some people. And, of course, the d6 with non-geek gaming.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

On the other hand Ben Aaronovitch, author of the Rivers of London series, is a TTRPGer from way back, loves Call of Cthulhu, and wanted the Rivers of London RPG to be built off the same d100 model to meet his vision of the game. Ben has been part of the development process from the outset.

That's good to hear but Ben not an RPG designer nor, I suspect, familiar with the implications of mechanics for gameplay (that's actually evident in one of the books - possibly False Value). I've played an awful lot of d100 games over the last 30 years, they're great for a certain kind of hard-edged "whoops you died!" experience, but that is very much not the one that Peter Grant and other major characters in RoL have. It's obviously too late to change anything now but it's a bit disappointing to see Chaosium sticking to the d100 system come hell or high water when something more narrative and less binary pass/fail would obviously have suited the tone of the books.

Are there any modifications to the normal d100 resolution system to account for the fact that very little in the RoL oeuvre is a simple matter of success or failure? Indeed margins of success/failure basically drive the story in a lot of the books. I guess another question is are the PCs even intended to be "Peter Grant-types" or are they in more of an ancillary role?

 

[humble minion]

I haven't kept up to date with recent d100 mechanics, but i wouldn't have thought there's anything inherent about percentile dice systems that completely forces binary pass-fail outcomes. Degrees of success are easy. You passed by 10, you failed by 20, etc etc.

Though what it doesn't do well (any more than most systems), is more ambiguous and complicated outcomes. I would like to have seen is some sort of 'you succeed but...' or 'you fail but...' system a bit like the one FFG used in their Star Wars games. The sort of complication and side-effect and improvisation-riddled games that supports seems like a good fit for this sort of thing.

 

[Fenris-77]

Mmmm ... Rivers of London.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

I've played an awful lot of d100 games over the last 30 years, they're great for a certain kind of hard-edged "whoops you died!" experience, but that is very much not the one that Peter Grant and other major characters in RoL have. It's obviously too late to change anything now but it's a bit disappointing to see Chaosium sticking to the d100 system come hell or high water when something more narrative and less binary pass/fail would obviously have suited the tone of the books.

Fortunately, we've had Ben Aaronovitch himself on board from the start to ensure Rivers of London the RPG suits the tone of the books.

Are there any modifications to the normal d100 resolution system to account for the fact that very little in the RoL oeuvre is a simple matter of success or failure?

d100 ≠ binary, as commenters have already pointed out in this thread.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

d100 ≠ binary, as commenters have already pointed out in this thread.

Fair enough, I'm going on the Chaosium d100 systems I have played, which didn't generally use a margin of success system or the like, just a binary pass/fail approach. If it's using a margin of success approach, and the baseline values for skills are high enough that could work better. I just hope unspecialized characters like Peter (who is reasonably good at magic, but not really an expert in anything else) work well.

I would like to have seen is some sort of 'you succeed but...' or 'you fail but...' system a bit like the one FFG used in their Star Wars games. The sort of complication and side-effect and improvisation-riddled games that supports seems like a good fit for this sort of thing.

Yeah this is what I mean though. The RoL books are wall-to-wall "you succeed but..." or "you fail but...". PtbA/FitD-based games and the Resistance system (used in Spire/Heart) also have this kind of approach.