Rivers & Lakes

Welcome to the lands beyond the law

Out on the kingdom’s frontiers reside those who don’t belong in imperial palaces and scholarly courts. Outlaws and vagabonds, travelers and performers, merchants and thieves.

Whether they were disgraced from society or they sought out the life of the road on their own, they make their home now among the rivers and lakes.

You will find no peace here. Only your destiny

Rivers & Lakes is a role-playing game about the exciting lives of wandering martial artists. It takes inspiration from classic wuxia novels and films and combines them with action-packed tactical combat gaming. 

This game is best for extended campaigns, with 3-6 players and a game master. In addition to the downloads included here, you'll want a standard set of roleplaying dice for each participant and something to visualize combat scenarios — a physical setup or a virtual setup can both work just fine.

What's included?

• Laws of the Wulin - the core rulebook, which currently covers the basic rules, combat procedure, character creation, and advancement.
• Lost Manual of Wushu - which collects the many Kung Fu arts that characters can learn.
• Catalogue of Friends and Foes - which provides an ample supply of combat stats for many types of fighter. I'll upload this soon. It's taking a while.
• Character sheet - two-sided, one for combat and other for non-combat gameplay.
• Cheat sheet - used for referencing combat rules at a glance during the session.

Follow along

This game is currently in development. Expect to see plenty of revisions to the existing rules as we playtest further. Here's what else we're planning to add in the future:

• Lots more in the core rulebook. An entire chapter just for non-combat rules. Wealth and commerce, a social mechanic called "face," cooking meals, overland travel, and downtime. Plus some appendices material.
  
• Artwork, and lots of it.
• More stat blocks in the bestiary, especially adding in animals and some magical creatures.
• A fancy "example of play" booklet.
• A proper GM's guide.
• A proper setting guide.
• A sample scenario to get started.

You can also read some designer commentary over on my blog, if you're into that sort of thing.

Credits

This project is the work of brothers Sam and Alex Dzuricky, known for their writings at A Knight at the Opera. Many others helped shape its design, including...

• Alex's friends who've provided ample playtesting. Alexander Goldberg, Jesse Gowland, Cathode Corpse, Jared McDonough, Jacob McFadden, Tyler Teachey.
• An extra special thanks to Chris Glock, for not only playing the game, but going above and beyond in tinkering, providing feedback, and even running a separate playtest.
• Ava Islam and Josh McCrowell, for both their feedback and their passionate encouragement of our work.
• Our many other friends in the RPG world, who've provided endless support.