Has anyone tried adapting “Rivers of London” as a RPG setting?

[b11c]

I am a big fan of the series of books and graphic novels by Ben Aaronovitch, collectively named after the first book in series, Rivers of London (sometimes also called the Peter Grant series after the main protagonist). For those not familiar, here is a brief extract from the main novel's description on Wikipedia:

The novel centres around the adventures of Peter Grant, a young officer in the Metropolitan Police; who, following an unexpected encounter with a ghost, is recruited into the small branch of the Met that deals with magic and the supernatural.

Not unlike the Dresden Files (although quite different in the tone), the series is set in present day, but it reveals that magic, fantastical creatures, parallel universes etc are in fact real. I have been playing with the idea of adapting this series into a RPG setting, but wanted to first check if anyone has tried that before, so we can compare notes.

[Michael Cule]

The way the stories are set up is with Peter Grant as the first of a wave of new apprentices who are the future of the Folly.

Which is awkward if you're going to set the stories in the present and have a bunch of player characters as magicians and other helpers. The near future would be fine but that risks going against the canon.

You could go with a setting in the 1930s in the days when the Isaacs had a country wide establishment. Fighting fascists, homegrown and foreign. Pulp adventure. Fine stuff.

But for me I'd do a 'file-the-serial-numbers-off' job and do a Folly-like setting so that I could set up the magic in a way that was convenient to me (1) and likewise the structure of the department of the Met that supervised this stuff.

See also Paul Cornell's FALLEN LONDON and sequels for another example of modern magical-police procedural.


(1) Lot of good stuff in GURPS THAUMATOLOGY or I might just port the Order of Hermes to the present day and use ARS MAGICA.

[Tacoronte]

Originally Posted by b11c

I have been playing with the idea of adapting this series into a RPG setting, but wanted to first check if anyone has tried that before, so we can compare notes.

I wanted to run or participate on a game based on Rivers of London, but couldn't decide on the best game system to use: Amber diceless, FATE, D20 Modern, or Victoriana.

As the prior poster said, I was going for a Pre-WWII setting, to avoid clashing with canon from the books but still have some reference to the events referred as "past" in the books.

Would love to exchange notes!