Dance Around Scandal, Drama and Romance in the Austen-Inspired Good Society

Today’s a bit more regal, as we speak with Australian TTRPG writers Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon, aka the married couple behind Good Society, a TTRPG adapting Jane Austen’s distinct approach to storytelling from the 19th century into a TTRPG about drama, scandal, and lots of fancy dresses. It’s a narrative game where you can meet your own Mr. Darcy and watch it all fail due to local drama.

The designers recently launched the second edition of GS, focusing on updating the rules. The campaign is one of the biggest original system TTRPGs coming out of Australia, according to the authors.

TTRPG Insider spoke with Hendro and Gordon about their inspirations, what makes the game stand out, and more.

1. What's the story behind Good Society? What inspired its first launch?

The spark of inspiration was a quiet little moment, just a midweek rewatch of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, where we found ourselves imagining what we would do if we were a protagonist in an Austen novel. That led to us thinking, “oh, this would make a fun roleplaying game.”

After that, it became our passion project, where we would obsessively playtest, tinker, and eventually decide to crowdfund and work towards it. In many ways, the story of Good Society is also the story of how we fell in love with roleplaying game design and how we pursued our dream of starting a studio full-time together.

2. And what inspired you to update the game after so long? Was it a focus on mechanical updates or something else altogether? 

The initial trigger was us selling out of the first edition worldwide. Instead of just reprinting, we felt like we could do something better. After more than 8 years since release, we’ve played, observed, or heard about thousands of games of Good Society, and have come to a deeper understanding of how people play and interact with the game. 

We’ve grown as designers alongside a lovely community of Good Society players who are generous, kind, and encouraging; and ultimately, we wanted to make a version of the game that really reflects how the community plays and what they love about it. During development, we launched a large community survey about the game, which received over 300 detailed responses! That direct feedback was invaluable, allowing us to make changes that will have a huge impact on the game's quality. 

3. What about Austen and the stories told in that time appealed to you? 

Austen’s writing, for us, aligned well with what we love about TTRPGs; witty banter, deep characters, interpersonal stories, overflowing emotions. 

And scientifically, it is 100% gay¹ to love stories of repression and yearning. I think Good Society fits well within the queer historical romance subgenre, which is often where we end up when playing ourselves, but it also comfortably supports many other themes and stories beyond that. 

4. Why do you think people are drawn to the distinct drama and tensions of the 19th-century fictional worlds that Good Society is based on?

Luckily, we actually have a little bit of data about this! Last year we surveyed around 300 people about Good Society, and as one of the questions, we asked them what drew them to playing in this setting. Players were drawn by exploring complex relationships, deeply embodying a character, and engaging in banter and ridiculousness. The surprise for me was how much it wasn’t about the setting itself, but rather what the setting enabled in their roleplaying!

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Managing Drama and Romance in a Austenian Setting

5. The centrality of romance and drama at the core of the game seems like an area where "bleed" might be a problem. How did you think about balancing that with ensuring there's lots of opportunities for drama and tension?

A little bit of bleed isn’t always a bad thing, but every roleplaying system needs rules in place to prevent it getting out of hand. Good Society has a plethora of built-in rules for collaboration and safety. Most notable is the collaboration stage at the beginning of the game, where you decide together what kind of story you would like to tell and have the opportunity to rule out certain types of content as well. 

Good Society also has a currency called resolve tokens, which are used to create changes in the story. If these changes significantly impact another character, then you have to enter into a quick negotiation with that character’s player before you can use your token.

None of this can overcome the atmosphere at the table, which is why we encourage people to express themselves and listen to others as they play so everyone can look out for each other.

6. The game centers on reputation, rumor, and scandal; all aspects that seem like they would be more oriented toward RP-driven drama rather than mechanics. How do you strive to capture those and keep it interesting for the players?

I think it’s a mistake to see “RP-driven drama” as something untouchable by “mechanics”. In fact, many of our mechanics drive this drama forward. Our design goal is to create a system that unifies RP-driven drama and mechanics so that each reinforces and supports the other. That’s always been our game design philosophy, ever since our first game. 

What this looks like in play is that following the rules of the game and playing your character will feel like it naturally leads to juicy character drama moments. For example, your reputation can stack up and trigger reputation consequences such as “broke” or “swallowed by rumor”, that are in turn all geared towards creating further drama for your character.

7. Why should players from Good Society 1e update to 2e?

There is an incredible amount of new things in the second edition. Some of the core rules of the game have changed, but in my opinion this isn’t the big draw. In 2e, we’re actually including what we call “play styles”, which are sets of rules variants you can use to customize your experience. These are going to give you so many new options for playing the game that players coming from 1e will really enjoy. 

On top of that we also have new setting content, extra inspirational material for use in the game, new facilitator advice, and a huge upgrade on the production values of the game across layout and form factor.

8. Is Good Society intended for veteran roleplayers or players who may not have as much history in the game?

Both! Good Society’s rules are quite easy to pick up—the key skills you need to play the game aren’t actually roleplaying specific, but rather it’s just the general ability to listen to other people and work together. If you are a seasoned hand at narrative games however, you will really be able to get deep into the storytelling very quickly.

With the 2nd edition, we have put extra effort into making it as approachable as possible to first-time roleplayers. Over the years, we’ve definitely heard that Good Society served as folks’ first indie TTRPG, and we want to make that a really wonderful experience for the future, too.

Thanks to Storybrewers for the interview! You can back Good Society 2e on Kickstarter today.

What are your thoughts? Send any scoops, tips or press releases to [email protected].

1  Both authors identify as queer.