Character Creation: Good Society

THE SEVENTH GAME OF XMAS, TWENTY-TWENTY-TWO,
IS GOOD SOCIETY,
THEN MOONPUNK,
VISIGOTHS VS. MALL GOTHS,
PIRATES OF PUGMIRE,
THE TROUBLESHOOTERS,
THEN STAR-CROSSED,
AND THE FIRST GAME WAS THE ONE RING 2ND ED!

Pinkies up, motherfuckers.

The Game: Good Society
The Publisher: Storybrewers Roleplaying
Degree of Familiarity: Never played it, and my experience with Austen is limited
Books Required: Just the one

I haven't read a lot of Austen, honestly, and I find some of the social mores of the Regency pretty...stifling (as I'm sure did the people living during the period). That said, there are certainly authors of the period that I really love, including Byron, Blake, Shelley. Maybe I just haven't read the right novel yet. 

In any case, Good Society seeks to emulate Austen's style, and it winds up structurally somewhat similar to A Tragedy in Five Acts, at least as far as it focuses on the narrative role that certain characters play. There's a lot of attention paid to reputation, and there's a whole section of play called "epistolary" where players narrate the letters their characters are writing. Nary a ghost nor an orc to be found.

Suffice to say, not an RPG that would be a good fit for all tables, but with that said, I've had tables composed entirely of over-educated folks who love (or at least have strong opinions about) Austen, and I think they'd really get into it. Would the game be as interesting to someone without that background, someone who just read (or pretended to read) Pride & Prejudice in high school or in freshman comp in college? Probably not, but who cares? They've got lots of other games available. 

Oh, I picked this game for the "seven swans a-swimming" slot in the song because swans swimmin' around in your pond would be a status symbol, particularly given as a gift, and it felt very Austen-y to me. No idea if that's period, and I don't much care. 

Character creation is, perhaps unsurprisingly, meant to be a group activity, but I'm pretty sure I can fudge things where necessary. 

Set up the playset doesn't actually involve a lot of setup; it's just picking one of the playsets in the book. Playsets are collections of desires and relationships and roles around a given theme or tone. Using them "in full" means using all of it, while using one "in part" means just taking the desire/relationship combos and letting players pick their own roles and backgrounds, which is what I'm gonna do so that I actually have a few choices to make. I think I'll pick the farce playset,

Choose desires. Looking through the desires, I think this one is the one that sounds the most fun:
 

The other ones are either about parent/child relationships or money, and I'm not feelin' it. The corresponding relationship card is...

And my next step is form relationships. Possible, then, that I'd want to make myself the newlywed, but I wouldn't actually decide that until the end of the first novel section. But either way, someone else would take this relationship card and I would take someone else's. Since it's just me, I'll keep this nebulous unless I need to define it more.

Now, since I'm using this playset in part, the next step (choose roles and backgrounds) isn't determined by the playset. Looking at the roles, what would be an interesting mixture of "wants to see people married," "has an old flame," and farce?

I think I'll go with the Heir; I want someone who's kind of above a lot of the issues, but still vulnerable to getting cut off if things go sideways. For Background, I'll take New Money. One of the Regency-set properties I love very much is Blackadder The Third, and I'm getting Amy Hardwood vibes here.

And finally, we flesh out the major character. There's actually some steps to this, of course. 

Complete the character role sheet. Well, I would, except you didn't make it fillable and my printer's being stupid. 

Choose starting reputation tags. That would be these:

I think I want clever and outsider as mine. 

Consider the character's personality, past, and position. I think my character is the middle son of an industrialist family, someone who's made a lot of money with their Raveling Nancy or whatever. Meaning he grew up with money, but without a lot of the snoot that comes with growing up rich and titled. His older brother has gone full snoot, while dad still hews to a more working-class mindset, which is probably good because it means my guy is more likely to inherit. My character, Arthur, is not exactly a clothes horse (what a weird expression) and isn't as fashionable as big bro, but that means he gets overlooked more easily, which makes for good eavesdropping. Plus he's better educated than a lot of people think.

Determine the meaning of your relationship. Again, no other players, but my relationship was old flames. Let's say that Arthur spent a season in London with his big brother and moved amongst the upper crust a little, and wound up growing very fond of a young woman there. They're not likely to ever really get together, given their positions, but Arthur still carries a torch. I picture them having a sparring-match kind of relationship. 

Share public knowledge, doesn't apply, perform any additional instructions on the desire card, doesn't apply, confirm character's pronouns, he/him. 

Arthur Northfield is plain - plain of dress, plain of face, plain of voice - until you see him in action. He's a skilled sportsman, and he really comes alive while doing something. He also finds it amusing that the rich plan and arrange and are so meticulous about everything. Can't be that hard to arrange a marriage. Watch!

I think Henry Cavill might play Arthur in the movie, but that may be because I just rewatched The Man from UNCLE the other day. 

I'll put a sheet up later if I can get my damn printer working.