Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA starts by explaining the cultural differences between the United Kingdom and the USA in terms of magic. The most obvious is that there is no equivalent of the Folly in the USA, so no equivalent of ‘magic cops’, and no Federal oversight of magic. This does not mean that there is no Federally-connected organisation that deals with magic and magic-related crime. One is the Critical Incident Response Group of the FBI, to which Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds belongs, the other is Alderman Technical Solutions, previous incarnations of which were the de facto magical law enforcers for the US government, but which is now a private military contractor whose primary remit remains the investigation and suppression of hostile genii locorum. More common are lone practitioners or independent organised groups. One such is the ‘Librarians’ of the New York Library Association from False Value, which are fully detailed and statted here. Others include a variety of hedge wizards, monster hunters, and so on, including a coven of New Orleans witches; the luchador-inspired Las Serpientes vigilantes which hunt vampires and street gangs in Southern California; and the Cryptid Kickers, a team which makes an online paranormal reality show. Also described is Mr. Sunday, a magical fixer who can be used to bring disparate Investigators together, and last, and definitely worst, the ASU or ‘Against Spiritual Usurpation’, who most radical members hunt practitioners because they believe them to leeching magic from the natural world.
All of this is written as if a report put together by Special Agent Kimberley Reynolds, including—as she wryly notes—her own Critical Incident Response Group. She notes that the origins of Newtonian practice in the USA were in the craft that Benjamen Franklin and Thomas Jefferson learned in and brought back from Europe. Their different philosophies, culturally divided along the Mason-Dixon line, saw the founding of two societies, Franklin’s ‘Virtuous Men’ and Jefferson’s ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’, which would clash in the American Civil War and refuse to serve alongside each other in the Second World War. The ‘Virtuous Men’ were disbanded following revelations made to the House Un-American Activities Committee, whilst the ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’ was re-founded as Alderman Technical Solutions.
The consequences of all of this is that magic and its practice in the USA—and the demi-monde to some extent due to the suppression programmes conducted by the ‘Virginia Gentleman’s Company’—is steadfastly disorganised and disparate in feel and nature. In comparison to Player Characters in Great Britain, those in the USA will have no official police (or federal) law enforcement authority and little to no official magical training. There will also be no ‘official’ telephone call in the night instructing the Player Characters to investigate a strange incident, though there may unofficial ones from a journalist or law enforcement officer aware of the Player Characters’ interest in such matters. Player Characters will often have no back-up and have to work alone, often avoiding entanglement with the authorities, and perhaps going as far as using forged identification to pass themselves as members of law enforcement. If they are magic practitioners, they are likely to be hedge wizards or strongly allied with the Librarians. One option discussed as a possibility is an Indigenous practitioner, but this is not developed and left very much in the hands of the player to develop with the help of the Game Master.
The disadvantage of this is that it is more difficult to set-up a game in the USA because there is less of a readymade structure and the Player Characters will be less capable. The advantage is that there is less of a stricture as to who the Player Characters might be and how they might go about conducting an investigation. The Game Master also has more options in terms of the type of campaign she wants to run and where she wants to set it, and lastly, the players are going to know less about the setting and its American demi-monde than they might in a Rivers of London campaign set in the United Kingdom.
Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is rounded out with five appendices. The first details the six members of the Cryptid Kickers, an online paranormal reality
Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA does include a decent explanation of American law enforcement from local to federal, plenty of case seeds for the Game Master to develop, and details about the demi-monde in the USA. The most amusing of which is where nazareths, or goblin markets, are held. This is at gun shows, which brings its own challenges, of course, and at Science Fiction & Fantasy Conventions, which lends itself to members of the demi-monde openly being themselves as cos-players! Either way, the Player Characters are going to have approach either type of event with such care lest they stick out from the crowd to both the mundane and the outré attendees.
Almost half of Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is dedicated to a pair of highly detailed case files. The first, ‘Woolly Bully’ takes places in the depths of Red Cedar Forest in Montana where the body of a local meth dealer has been found dead after a bear attack, although there is speculation that it as a bigfoot attack! The scenario involves some investigation in the nearby town of Merriweather, but is primarily focused on what lies in the woods and what secrets are hidden out there. The Player Characters will need to conduct at least one excursion into the woods, which the local sheriff will discourage. Once the Player Characters do go into the woods, the scenario is fairly linear, the Game Master having the option to add further encounters. There is advice too, on how to get the Player Characters involved, depending on who they work for or if they are independents, and lots of advice on how to stage various scenes to the extent that the ‘Woolly Bully’ is good introductory case for a Game Master to run. However, the scenario does have the potential to turn violent and end up with the Player Characters facing a tough opponent, so does not quite feel like a traditional Rivers of London case file in that way. Otherwise, a straightforward, but well done case file.
The second case file is just as detailed, but switches the mystery to the West Coast of Los Angeles as well as keeping it in Montana. ‘A Regular Picture Palace Drama’ is a more complex affair than ‘Woolly Bully’, but it can be run as a sequel. It is a MacGuffin hunt, one which concerns a very magical piece of Hollywood and which some desperate people and organisations are desperate to get hold of, and will literally chase people down to do so. The investigation begins with news of a magical artefact, a revolver known as a buntline special, has surfaced and set the demi-monde gossiping. Attempting to track it down in Bozeman, Montana, where it was seen at a gun show, reveals the efforts to which some people will go to obtain it, including robbery and murder and car chases, but by the end of the first act, the Investigators will have learned that the artefact has been taken to Los Angeles. This being Hollywood, this is where the scenario gets weirder and where the authors being to have their fun, as the Player Characters begin experiencing oddly spectral recreations of old Hollywood films leading to a showdown with whichever one of their chasers has survived so far. Despite the increased complexity, the case file comes with plenty of staging advice and could be used to set up a campaign in Los Angeles, perhaps a new West Coast Critical Incident Response Group office after the outbreak of even weirder weirdness or one involving the Arrowsmith organisation which deals in the preservation of rare Hollywood films and relics. The scenario closes with eight case file seeds, some of which do include Arrowsmith, others some of the factions detailed elsewhere in the book.
‘A Regular Picture Palace Drama’ is definitely the more interesting and more entertaining of the two scenarios. If there is anything missing, it is an opportunity for the Player Characters to actually go to a gun show as described earlier in the book as an American nazareth.
Rounding out Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is a set of five appendices. The first details the members of the Cryptid Kickers paranormal online series investigators as Player Characters, potentially ready to play the two scenarios in the supplement. There are four members of the Cryptid Kickers, plus a couple of friends who help out. Two of the Cryptid Kickers are practitioners, though in secret. The second appendix details several new spells. For example, Treaclefoot is used to stick two things together temporarily, people’s shoes to the floor most obviously; Casus Levis, softens a person’s landing after a fall; and Winter’s Breath is cast to radically drop the temperature in a small sphere, including causing a violent bronchospasm if cast on a victim’s head. The ‘New Creatures’ appendix introduces malignancies and despairs, types of hostile spirits; ‘Talking Racoons’ as the American equivalent to Foxes; and ‘Old Soldiers’, lower fae with an affinity for conflict having been reborn on a battlefield after extended fighting. They are available as a Player Character option. The fourth chapter lists and describes the most notable cryptid in most of the states. It is only marginally useful since it leaves the Game Master to create the stats for them and the lack of those is really the only shortcoming to Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA. The last appendix consists of an extensive list of inspiration from books, graphic novels, films and television series, podcasts, and more.
There are some limitations to Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA. The lack of further cryptid stats and the limited options if a Game Master wants a more organised set-up for her campaign. They are understandable, since not everything has been detailed in the Rivers of London series of novels and books. Plus, they do leave a lot of room for the Game Master to create her own content for her campaign.
Physically, Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is very well presented. The book is an engaging read, full of interesting details, and there is a Ben Aaronovitch vignette at the start—sadly too short. The artwork is also good, although one has to wonder what it is that Bob Ross was going to paint.
There is very likely much more to explore in the USA in the world of Rivers of London as Rivers of London: In Liberty’s Shadow: A Guide to Case Files in the USA is a not a complete guide to the setting. It is, however, a solid introduction that presents the Game Master with both plenty to use in her campaign and room to develop her own, backed up with two entertaining scenarios.
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