GURPS Riverworld - A Classic, But is it Any Good?

At last! I has it, my precious...

So I managed to track this classic down on eBay.

It's out of print, published 1990. Not even available in PDF.

Looks like it would have some interesting river adventure ideas, right?

Unfortunately not really...

See it's a *Riverworld* supplement.

Not a river (world) supplement as such.

So I'm a bit disappointed to be honest.

...

<gasp>

...

Yes I actually typed that.

Look it's actually really interesting and inspiring, even though I've only starting picking through selected sections of it looking for nuggets for the Indicara section of the AtG project that started all this...

That's not to say there aren't elements in this particular chapter that could be cannibalised for a generic river campaign, but I was hoping for some more procedurally generated elements for travel along the river that are related to the river itself. On reflection, there's actually not a lot of variation to the River or the actual Valley climate and geography except for near the Polar Sea and perhaps the occasional "narrows" sections. The picture low demonstrates a typical stretch of the River:

The Rivervalley (excerpt GURPS: Riverworld)

Most of the variety present along the river is actually cultural (created by the random mixture of predominant and then a secondary historical society sample), not topographical as such, and what I was really looking for was ideas for river travel eg hazards, encounters, varying conditions, unique locations etc. By it's nature, the whole river is navigable, which seems great for a riverborne campaign, but in many ways the river is quite, well... bland. There's vary little geographical variation to the cliff-flanked Valley itself and the River is broad and wide with a mostly gentle current.

The River, despite the capitalisation, doesn't really have a character of it's own.

And that's perhaps what I was looking for, hence my disappointment probably.

One of the characters in the first book, To Your Scattered Bodies Go, refers to the ability to be randomly teleported up and down the length of the River upon death as "the Suicide Express" and the train metaphor is perhaps apt - the River is indeed somewhat of a "railroad" in the way it geographically limits the riparine societies in a definitel linear fashion.

By contrast, the River Reik, from the Warhammer Fantasy setting, seems more alive with it's own character and distinct culture (including river gypsies, trade, canals and riverwardens). In the Riverworld setting however, despite the profusion of riparian societies and nations, there's really no distinct itinerant "riverborne" culture, which seems an oversight to me. 

Saving Grace?

Now Chapter 3: "Airships and Riverboats" does have a lot of great ideas and information to use for a riverine campaign or a steampunk styled campaign with airships, but many of the ideas are still locked into the "conceit" of the setting, that is by the overarching meta-plot and unique aspects of the Riverworld planet's geography.

Aspects of the canoe and riverboat descriptions are helpful, and I the airship rules are very detailed thankfully, which may be the unexpected saving grace for me given the effort I went to tracking down the print product in reasonable condition.

I admit I do love a good airship...