In our last missive from the RiverBank, we offered up (hopefully) edifying insights into Animality & Poetry, and introduced both Haphazardry & Betweentimes cards to create complications and potential story hooks as your RiverBank session unfolds.

 

Like other fuzzy-footed country-living folk you might have read about, the Animals of RiverBank don’t crave adventure precisely, though many situations can become adventures depending on your Animal’s flair for disruption, pother, or a well-placed social barb. Each session of game play can revolve around a prewritten situation, though your players may find their own opportunities for drama and farce from their Betweentimes cards or character backgrounds.

 

Situations in RiverBank start small and seemingly easy - baking a fancy cake for a village competition; executing a stealthy Monday fishing trip; an ill-conceived tug-of-war competition with your unruly neighbors - these are the simple circumstances from which misadventure rises. The philosophy of every RiverBank situation is things will continue to go hilariously wrong, until the players untangle themselves and work to a resolution.

 

RiverBank is first and foremost a game of farce and misadventure. There are no adventure levels and no optimal character builds. For players in want of prewritten scenarios, situation notes provide a sturdy clothesline upon which to hang the well-tailored trousers of your session. 

 

Unlike traditional roleplaying adventures, situation notes provide a loose collection of themes, goals, plot twists, and other elements to complicate and deepen the situation. These notes, along with your Haphazardry and Betweentimes twists, random encounters outlined in the book, and the threat of an appearance by your Appalling Relatives, provide ample opportunities for a previously simple task to spiral perilously close to out of control.

 

RiverBank introduces a fully-developed setting and cast of characters for your Animals to interact and develop relationships (positive or otherwise!) with. A typical situation, like the digestive drama engendered by Uncle Tyrone’s attempt at a roast, is a self-contained calamity that rises and resolves within the span of a single session. But nothing in this cozier, smaller world takes place in isolation, and the effects of each situation will no doubt impact your Animals’ connection to their community and its humble residents. Players are encouraged to develop their own calendar of social events, natural phenomena, and seasonal changes to create new situations and story opportunities, and RiverBank will include rather useful advice on designing this calendar for long-term play and playing out longer narratives.

 

And there you have it, dear backers! RiverBank narratives are farces of escalating circumstances, unexpected twists, and pulling joyous victory from the stern, somewhat disapproving jaws of defeat.

You can find prewritten situations within the trusty pages of your copy of RiverBank, as well as indispensable advice on creating your own. As our humble campaign motors on, new stretch goal situations from Kij Johnson will be added, including the recently unlocked 100K milestone - Old Greenie’s Day!