Tabletop Spotlight: Good Society – The Jane Austen RPG
Today on Tabletop Spotlight: Good Society – A Roleplaying Game Of Romance, Scandal, And Manners.
Good Society is a game of manners and romance, fortune and propriety, social climbing and ambition–all wrapped up in the trappings of Regency-era Britain and high society. And on today’s Tabletop Spotlight, we’ll take you through this game that seeks to emulate the works and worlds of Jane Austen. So get ready to acknowledge some universal truths, get fixed up with someone of social standing far below (or above) your own all in the name of love, because this is Good Society.
Jane Austen’s works are brilliant satires that lampooned the strict social mores of the day, pointing out how they can espouse one thing on the surface, while actually promoting the antithesis among the people. In Pride and Prejudice for instance, Austen satirizes the rigid ideas on worth and virtue–but you don’t need me to tell you all of this. If you’re reading this you probably know well how plots like “these two people can’t be together because society doesn’t expect them to be but once they get over themselves and look at each other they’re actually happy, and Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle” or “a family is financially ruined and undertakes unusual measures to maintain their position and status” feature in works like this.
And the game itself is set up to help you tell your own Austen style stories. With an eye towards the pressures of the world, it is a collaborative storytelling game that puts you right into that world:
Good Society is a collaborative tabletop roleplaying game, where you and your friends take on the role of regency characters, AND the forces that complicate their lives, to create a truly Austen story. One person takes on the role of the Facilitator, who helps the players to create the game’s fiction, and plays supporting characters as needed.
To create a game that plays like an Austen novel, we’ve created a completely original system, with game mechanics that mirror the actual mechanics of Austen’s world.
Reputation, family background, rumour and scandal, and of course, the writing of letters, are all important rules of the game. These mechanics are all geared towards narrative and collaborative play, allowing players to work together to shape the story they want to tell.
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You can read more about Good Society right here, but though it’s a little off the beaten path as far as RPGs go, it’s got some amazing ground covered. And if you’re looking for a system to help you practice social encounters, this can be a great one to check out. It helps identify things like class structures and societal pressures–all the things that can drive characters to social intrigues in other systems.
So if you’re looking for an RPG that’s more heavily storytelling based, check out Good Society.
And in the meantime, happy adventuring!
