Through Monday, March 16 Wednesday, March 18 we revive the January 2024 Good Society Bundle featuring Good Society, the Jane Austen-inspired roleplaying game from Storybrewers Roleplaying. (For technical reasons we reshuffled the Bundle schedule such that it made sense to extend this Good Society revival’s run by two days.)
Good Society is a collaborative Regency RPG that captures the heart, and the countenance, of Jane Austen’s novels, as well as shows like Bridgerton, Downton Abbey, and Upstairs, Downstairs. Create your own Regency character, from a wealthy heir who falls in love with the aloof new arrival, to a charming socialite bent on ruining a rival’s reputation.
This revival is timely, because Storybrewers is Kickstarting a new edition of Good Society with revised rules, additional sumptuous art, and a carriage-load of new modes for play. The publisher will provide a free compatibility guide to ensure the supplements in this offer work with the new edition. Sign up to get notified when the Good Society Second Edition campaign launches.
On the surface Good Society is about balls, estates, sly glances, and turns about the garden. Yet players must navigate powerful currents of social ambition, family obligation, and breathtaking, heart-stopping longing. Good Society gives you the power to change the story in your favor: taking control of influential connections; creating rumors and scandal; and orchestrating balls, carriage accidents, and even marriages. Exploit your advantages, connections, and family influence to achieve your secret desire, while jealously guarding your good name.
In Good Society you and your fellow players work together to create your own Jane Austen novel. By default Good Society is set in the fictional town of Habershire, a well-situated country locale three days’ ride from London, in the years 1811-1818. (In both location and character, it resembles the Bennet family’s area of residence in Pride and Prejudice.) However, historical and geographic details are only as important as your group decides. You determine during setup how important accuracy is to your game.
Each new game of Good Society begins with Collaboration and Backstory steps, where you decide what kind of story you wish to tell and create the major characters you’ll play. The game proceeds in three to eight “cycles of play”: Novel Chapter (in-character roleplaying), Reputation (adjust your status based on events), Rumour and Scandal, Epistolary (players dictate aloud letters written by their characters, to capture inner feelings or to further their machinations), and Upkeep. Each cycle should fill one play session. Gameplay uses print-and-cut Desire, Relationship, and Connections Cards to define character goals and circumstances. You can spend Resolve tokens to shape the story, and Monologue tokens to have another player reveal their character’s inmost thoughts and plans.
Like Austen, Good Society is focused on the genteel class, and the rising class of professionals, merchants, and industrialists that emerged alongside it. The game is not concerned with the upper echelons of nobility, such as dukes, princes, and kings, nor with the fate of middle- or working-class characters. Good Society follows the emotional struggles of characters through everyday events, from a quiet carriage ride to the excitement of a ball. In a world of restraint, constraints, and formalized standards of behavior, small moments of interaction have a big impact on characters’ lives. Though the events that Good Society depicts are commonplace (well, for the Regency), they form the background for the characters’ subtle jostling for status, wealth, and affection.
This revived January 2024 Good Society Bundle once again presents the entire roleplaying line (excluding the LARP version) for an uncommonly civil bargain price. Pay just US$17.95 to get all three titles in our Society Collection (retail value $68) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- The Good Society rulebook and the Deck of Connections, plus the free holiday playset A Christmas Prince of Darkness
- Expanded Acquaintance, with fantasy-themed playsets like Pride, Prejudice and Practical Magics (inspired by stories like Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell) and the Scarlet Pimpernel-inspired Sense, Sensibility, and Swordsmanship
- The Love & Longing Deck
[Note: We must straightaway confess these Good Society titles are not available on DriveThruRPG. Obtain your purchased files on your Wizard’s Cabinet download page on the Bundle of Holding site.]
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Jane Austen fan in possession of a modest sum must be in want of this revived January 2024 Good Society. Hasten to attain it before the offer departs again Wednesday, March 18.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2026GoodSociety
And don’t forget: The Kickstarter for a new edition of Good Society launches soon!
