Good Society: Peaks and Peccadillos

This is a two-month run of Good Society, a storygame of Regency romance and social manoeuvring in the vein of Jane Austen by Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon of Storybrewers. Sessions will be three hours in length. David S has a reserved slot for the duration of this game. Due to the focus of this game on character relationships and the way in which Main and Secondary characters are handled, it is recommended you only sign up for this game if you can make a good faith effort to attend for all sessions, or at least for a number of consecutive sessions. The first session will be almost exclusively focused on character and setting creation and signing up for this session alone is not recommended. Where absences arise during the run I will endeavour to draw from the waitlist where possible. General sign-ups will be available in 72 hours time (April 13th). We will be using Zoom for our sessions. This session will be recorded, and may be released on Youtube with the consent of all participants.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a love for Austen’s novels must be in want of the means to create such stories for themselves. Good Society is a game of balls, estates, sly glances, and turns about the garden—at least on the surface. Underneath this, just as in Austen’s own novels, it is a game about social ambition, family obligation, and breathtaking, heart- stopping longing.

Good Society is a collaborative storytelling game, and while I will be facilitating this run of it, it does not have a traditional GM role as part of the ruleset. We will all work together to portray the characters that populate our version of Regency England. Some familiarity with the history and novels of the period may be useful, but is by no means necessary. Our game will be set in a fictionalised version of the Derbyshire Peak District, home to dramatic landscape, genteel resort towns, solid farmhouses and sprawling estates. It is my initial intent to run using the basic ruleset for Good Society, though I will have some discussion prior to our first session if we want to bring one of the expansions Downstairs at the Abbey or Emma, Forget Me Not into play which bring in the Upstairs/Downstairs divide of life in a manor house, or a look at longer family saga stories respectively.

Content Warnings: In keeping with the tone of the source material, violence is something that will very rarely intrude upon the story, and even then mostly off-screen, and any scandalous sexual encounters will be handled with discretion. It is, however, a game that focuses strongly on romance, interpersonal relationships, and familial obligation. It can and likely will feature fraught relationships and competition between characters, and has a mechanical system that focuses on negotiated outcomes rather than arbitrary or neutral intercession. Pressures around conformity and social acceptance form a core part of the game, and this is likely to include some period-typical assumptions around gender. (Though we will discuss this as part of our game setup). And while it is not the focus of the game itself, the setting is inextricably linked into issues of class and imperialism in early modern history. All this said, it is important to note the game should be welcoming to all and we will make any necessary adjustments to allow everyone to enjoy the game. We will have a discussion on tone and content before the game begins, as well as establishing Lines & Veils to provide a comfortable play experience. This game will take place under the Gauntlet Community Code of Conduct and the safety tools Script Change and X-Card will be in use. I will aim to get in touch with participants through either the Gauntlet Slack or email a week in advance of the game to confirm attendance and provide play materials.

Session Zero Friday, June 4, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, June 4, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 1 Friday, June 11, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, June 11, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 2 Friday, June 18, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, June 18, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 3 Friday, June 25, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, June 25, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 4 Friday, July 2, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, July 2, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 5 Friday, July 9, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, July 9, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 6 Friday, July 16, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, July 16, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 7 Friday, July 23, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, July 23, 2021 10:30 PM
Session 8 Friday, July 30, 2021 7:30 PMFriday, July 30, 2021 10:30 PM

1 Like