Just Around the Riverbend: A Surprising Fishing RPG
Craft a unique river basin filled with story potential and all the fish a cat could ever want with the tabletop RPG, Riverbend.
Time for a slight pivot over to the solo RPG realm for a very brief time! With my vacation over and tons of work to accomplish, I needed something that had very few demands. In the mood for some stories, I rummaged through a drawer and came upon Riverbend. Not much has been shared about this one, so off I went for some solo roleplaying!
Game Overview
Game Name: Riverbend
Publication Year: 2021
Designers: Gustavo Tertoleone & Victor Amorim
Artist: Victor Amorim
Publisher: Exalted Funeral
Solo Mode: None (Solo RPG Oracle Required)
This is all about completing fishing quests in the river basin, traveling around to catch fish and survive all of the encounters in the water. With an interesting river creation process and way to fish, there is a lot more to this little booklet than might first meet the eye! Or fishing line…
First Play
January 7, 2024
Complexity
2
Latest Play
February 3, 2024
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
20" x 18"
Low Score
N/A
That’s… A River Basin?
One of the neat concepts I’ve stumbled across in some RPGs over the years is the idea of dropping dice to create a map of some sort. Stick with me: It’s really quite clever!
To start off, I had a blank piece of paper and a selection of some of my favorite dice. Technically, I could have added initial numbers at the top and bottom, but this was fine.
According to various tables inside the book, I would then build a river and points of interest along it.
Do you see a river here? Probably not. Yet little by little, I watched this mess of dice morph into a masterpiece!
That’s… A Masterpiece?
Alright, I’ll admit I’m no artist. Ha ha! Yet the important piece here was to actually play, and I was so excited as I saw the Killingrane River take shape and be awesome.
What did I spot? Rival basket making villages. The greatest monster ever derived, known as Mazora the Accursed Killer Boat. You know, just a possessed, murderous boat.
The best part? Everything here came from those dice drops and tables. An entirely organic and surprising map!
Even the river speed would come into play, marking the difficulty level of traveling upstream or downstream.
Donaroo and Giribou
Welcome back to the Calico Critters! I had a couple of classically-trained toys stop by to really act out these scenes to the best of their award-worthy dramatics.
Donaroo and Giribou were the randomized names of these fishermen, destined for greatness along the river.
I didn’t come up with much in terms of their personalities, and felt like the character statistics were unnecessary.
Sometimes, I want to tell stories and not worry too much about dice rolls and values. Still, Donaroo the mouse had extra brawn, and Giribou knew how to concentrate.
A Little Cat Companion
Every fishing boat needs something special… And in this RPG, that’s a cat! There are a number of options to choose from, each with their own special ability. I chose Jazz!
Now, I noticed some typos here and was a little hesitant about the system. It felt like the only cool part was going to be the creation of the river, which was awesome.
Yet I didn’t really see how this was going to equate to a cool adventure. All the same, I went on a fishing quest.
This provided the pair with a trio of missions to complete for their village. Not too exciting yet, but still intriguing.
The Benefit of Just Allowing the Story to Flow
Like a river, I wanted this one to be a sort of slow and meandering journey. At the same time, I’ve gotten much better about managing my time. If something doesn’t work, I’ll move right along and appreciate the time I spent with it. So there were no real expectations here, which is a way I try to approach my board games and RPGs to simply find the fun.
At first, I didn’t think it would be worth it to chronicle anything. But I grabbed another sheet of paper just in case. First up, I recorded the active quests so I could check them off. Great! That meant I might be looking at a handful of play sessions, which wasn’t a big undertaking. The first day looked to be boring: Paint a sign near a waterfall upstream.
Yet I let the story start up. It wasn’t that remarkable, but I had a laugh when I remembered solo RPGs use an oracle. This wasn’t about doing whatever I wanted to! So I literally asked the question, “Is this painted sign good enough?” It was!
A few random jokes meant for myself made it into my writing, because I found myself recording the story. Donaroo and Giribou suddenly started to have personalities. Yet it was still very low-key with nothing that stood out. Until they were very excited about saving their hometown of Littlereach from a band of scorpion marauders. Caught them in a net!
Which was summarily destroyed. Donaroo was not about to tell Giribou about this, and I’m still exploring what sort of relationship they have. Due to the mole’s exceptionally terrible eyesight, he had no clue the net was destroyed. And so it continued on… Culminating in Donaroo coming to the conclusion, via dice rolls, that he had to sink the boat. Ha ha!
So it continued, as I found myself immersed in this little river basin. It had some magic to it, but I really wanted to dig into what was going on with this mouse and mole. What made them like this?! And what about poor Jazz, the cat?
Floating Downstream
You can really get a sense of their personalities here! Donaroo had his paws up in what looked like a friendly greeting, but this was shortly before he sunk the boat.
Giribou was convinced he was looking over and waving. A little to the right, sir… Close enough. Ha ha!
I was more concerned that I couldn’t locate a couple of tiny fish for effect. My own “close enough” moment came with fish-shaped bread and a tiny whale. Excellent.
It was fun to see the dice rolls at play here, too. I didn’t simply write a story: First, I had to see if it happened!
Dropping Dice to Fish
Another element I completely misjudged was how to fish. I don’t always enjoy dexterity elements, and dropping dice on these pages seemed like it might be a gimmick… Nope!
Fishing equipment affected the dice, and there were rolls to determine if Donaroo and Giribou actually hauled in their catch. My story continued to evolve with the dice.
I liked this part of the adventure, too! Technically, they fished with a net without the luxury of a boat… It was fine!
The important part was that they weren’t starving, and even landed themselves a special relic of a net. Awesome!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-6
Solo Mode: None (Solo RPG Oracle Required)
Outcome: Campaign Incomplete
So much writing! I wonder if I should record everything here to preserve it, because this has turned into a much more interesting story than I expected. The journey will take longer than I planned for, but with only about 20 minutes to devote to this each day, I’m not complaining! Funny how playing can erase incorrect assumptions. Even crafting a new river basin would lead to totally new experiences, and I’m so glad I finally gave this a chance!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
9
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Creating a river is a wonderfully creative process of building a map based on dice rolls and various tables.
- There are a lot of possible stories from the interesting points of interest that end up within a river basin.
- Although there are some stats and equipment to track, gameplay is mostly about narrating and telling stories.
- Dropping dice to fish is a fun activity that feels like it ties into the theme perfectly, and rolls add to the storyline.
- Not a lot of effort is needed to understand the mechanics, allowing a campaign to lazily move along in a fun way.
- Surprising moments can pop up with the dice rolls, especially around the fishing spots with random encounters.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Some elements of the rules are a bit unclear, particularly centered around the main element of catching fish.
- Although there are lots of tables to create the river basin, gameplay requires creativity to bring the story to life.
- There are noticeable typos in a few key spots that break the immersion and make the text feel a little incomplete.
- It isn’t obvious from the cover and description that this is a fantasy-themed world with some unexpected aspects.
Victory Conditions
Complete a Fishing Quest Campaign
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Complete a fishing quest campaign.
Visit every location in a river basin.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Riverbend? Are there any other tabletop RPGs that have pleasantly surprised you? I know my story took a slightly quirky turn, yet this is exactly what I needed! Donaroo and Giribou have given me all sorts of hilarious moments, and the Killingrane River looks like it has a lot more to discover. Can’t wait to complete this short campaign!
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