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The 1914-15 Research Survey of the Los Angeles County River Basin (hereafter referred to as River Basin) by Tim Hutchings sounds like a primary source of historical documentation rather than a game. I think that’s the reason I was initially attracted to it. I love digging through primary sources regardless of their subject matter, so I jumped on this game to take a look.

Here’s the short version of my thoughts. You will love this game if…

• you like storytelling
• you like improv
• you like taking a loose framework and making something cool with it
• you like minimal investments with high pay-offs

If you like all of those things, River Basin has something for you. If you like only half of those things, you’ll still want to take a look.

But first, a rant…

…generally speaking, I hate improv. I say this as someone who has been an improviser and continues to use improv as a tool for story development, sketch comedy, and all kinds of writing.

Let me be clear. It’s the commodification of improv that I hate the most, and I think that largely came from Whose Line Is It Anyway? That show’s success led to improv landing nearly everywhere – party games that go stale after five minutes, improv classes all over town, people coming up with cool names for their improv group, your employer spending $10K for an improvisor to come to teach your marketing team how to be more creative, $20 tickets to improv shows where the group is far from show-ready, and your aunt Cathy taking improv classes from an organization where the course catalog is structured like the classes of an insular celebrity cult.

Why am I rambling about improv? River Basin’s first summary rule is The game turns the generousity of yes and style play on its head, with the interviewer carefully ignoring the hooks and offerings of the interviewee.”

The first part of this sentence is the basic ground rule of improv. You say YES to whatever your scene partner offers, then you AND that offer by adding something to it. Whatever is offered, you accept it as real. You accept it as canon. The second part of the sentence is the first real no-no of improv – you never deny or ignore what has been offered.

General Premise

• Young engineers are interviewing the city’s oldest folks about various floods in or around Los Angeles by asking a series of questions in an attempt to uncover factual information about the floods.
• The city’s old timers provide answers to the engineer’s questions but also create noise with additional information that is of little use or value to the engineer or the research they’re conducting.
• The engineer is trying to stay on task by resisting the old timer’s tangential information.
• The old timer is trying to drag the engineer away from their task by adding fascinating detail.
• It’s a game of dares. The old timer is daring the engineer to ask followup questions about their amazing stories so that they can recount an epic story. The engineer will eventually dare the old timer by asking followups that test how far the old timer can take that epic story.  

There’s no real winning or losing of points, though some loose win conditions are provided.

And now, more improv ranting…

The game isn’t turning yes and play on its head as much as it is breaking the first fundamental rules of yes and play AND offering an improv format. Wait, I think that means it is turning yes and on its head. Nevermind, I changed my mind.

Bad improv can be identified when a group (most likely the weakest member of the group) always goes for a laugh, the easy laugh. As soon as there’s tension, a narrative thread, or the building block of something amazing, somebody goes for the joke. River Basin takes the pressure off that by allowing the engineer and the old timer to explore without having to land a joke and without having to use every building block. They get to explore, and they get to say “no” knowing that something will still sprout organically.

I see River Basin as something more than a game. I see it as an improv format in which four to six performers could create a solid 20-25 minute set for an audience, especially when combining the interviews with the subsequent committee presentation.

River Basin forms a triptych with two other games On the Remarkable Nomenclature of the Recently Recovered Survey Maps of the Lost 1999 Peabody Expedition to Greater Cydonia  and Us Humans Live Here. These other two titles are great games as well, and I actually envision all three games being played by an improv group in what could be a great bit of theatre.

I’ve used too many words.

Cheers.