How to play Good Society

Firebreathing Kittens

How to play Good Society.

Hi everyone, this is a special episode of Firebreathing Kittens. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Good Society. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play Good Society yourselves.

I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.

• Theme

• Tokens:

  • Resolve tokens

  • Monologue tokens

• Five tone setting questions

• Building your major character

  • Desire cards

  • Relationship cards

  • Family background

  • Role sheet

    • Reputation conditions

    • Inner conflict

    • Connections

• Public information sheet

• Eight phase cycle of play

1. 1. Novel chapter

   2. Reputation

   3. Rumor and scandal

   4. Epistolary

   5. Novel chapter

   6. Reputation

   7. Epistolary

   8. Upkeep

The theme of Good Society is that you’re playing as a character who would have fit in comfortably in a Jane Austen novel. This game is a fictional portrayal of the genteel social class in England in the 1810’s. These people aren’t royalty, so they don’t have any royal obligations, but they also are so rich that they never have to work a day in their lives. How is that possible? Through the system of primogeniture, where only one child inherits all of the family’s money, concentrating everything on them so they can pass on the family name and social status. The other kids are out of luck. If you are born into the genteel social class as a boy then your job is to make sure that you’re the one who gets your family’s inheritance. If you’re born into this social class as a girl then your job is to marry a rich husband. Fail to marry well, and you might have to get a job, which means you have lost the game and are out of the genteel class. Maybe your old friends will hire you to sew them a dress for a party one day, but that’s the only time you would ever see them or your old lifestyle again. For the guys, if you fail to make yourself the one who inherits all of your family’s money, the military is an option for working a few years and retiring on a hefty officer’s pension. You just have to hope you don’t die while serving, and hope you’re not too old to find a wife by the time you get out. Your life path is up to you. Your imagination is your only limit in this fictional portrayal of the genteel social class in the 1810’s England. You lose if you have to get a day job. And also, in the words of Jane Austen herself, “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without Affection.” That was the theme, now let’s talk about Good Society’s mechanics.

Tokens. Spending tokens is the major mechanic of Good Society. You won’t be rolling dice or drawing cards. Instead, you have a limited resource action economy in how many tokens you still have left to spend. Each player starts with two resolve tokens on each character they control. The facilitator starts with three resolve tokens. You spend resolve tokens during the novel chapter phase, reputation phase, and epistolary phase. You get more resolve tokens from reputation tags and during the rumors and scandals phase and the upkeep phase.

Resolve tokens represent your character’s determination to pursue their goals. You don’t need to spend one for most actions you want to do. Simply speak as your character and act out the role play of your character talking to your fellow players, who will respond speaking as the characters you are talking to. But you will need to spend a resolve token sometimes. Specifically, when you want to compel someone else’s character to do something, add a twist that makes the game more interesting, make a momentous change that significantly alters the story, establish a past relationship with a character you up until now didn’t know, ruin the plan or harm the interests of another player’s character, or learn about a delicious piece of gossip you would have otherwise been unlikely to learn. Doing these types of actions will require spending a resolve token, and if you’re out of them, then you can’t.

I made this quick acronym for remembering when you need to use a resolve token: C for compelling someone else’s character to do something, I for making the game more interesting, M for momentous, big changes, E for establishing a prior relationship with a character where none existed before, R for ruining the plans or harming the interests of a major character or connection, U for unlikely or difficult actions succeeding. Compel, Interesting, Momentous, Establish, Ruin, Unlikely. Kimeru, use a resolve token.

Do you want to compel Emma’s player to have Emma accidentally trip the Duke’s wife at a ball, or fall in love with a person of ill-repute, or arrange a meeting between your character and Emma’s brother? Spend a resolve token to begin negotiations with Emma’s player. Do you see a point where you could punch up the plot and make the storyline of someone else’s character more interesting? Spend a resolve token, and make the suggestion. Does Fitzwilliam’s player want to make a momentous, significant change to the story such as making Charles’ carriage overturn on his way to the estate so he misses the ball? Spend a resolve token and enter negotiations. You can also use a resolve token to establish a relationship with a character where you two didn’t know one another before. Spend the resolve token and start a flashback, acting out a scene from the past, establishing that connection. Do you want your character Lady Thorn to overhear gossip learning that Agnes is illegitimate? That’s harmful to Agnes’s player’s interests and unlikely to happen just by chance, and definitely qualifies to have a resolve token spent. Enter negotiations with Agnes’s player. Compel, Interesting, Momentous, Establish, Ruin, Unlikely. Kimeru, use a resolve token.

I keep mentioning negotiations as I talk about resolve tokens. What are negotiations? They are a way to formalize consent during this Good Society role playing game. If you’re spending a resolve token so your character can accomplish something unlikely or to make a momentous change to their story, the resolve token is simply spent and returns to the bank. But if you’re affecting another player’s character, consent is the name of the game. The negotiation process helps both parties reach an agreement they are satisfied with. If the negotiation is successful, the person whose character is affected gets your resolve token instead of the token going to the bank. That player can spend that resolve token later.

A small note for clarity: helping one player in a situation where two players’ interests are competing is not considered harming the other player. For example, if two people are both plotting to marry the same target, spending time with the target is not harmful to the other person’s interests even though wooing the target makes the other player less likely to win their affection. The token spent to gain significant alone time with the love interest doesn’t need to be negotiated with that player and would go to the bank.

Here are the steps for negotiating. Negotiation step one: Player one offers their resolve token to the player who controls the affected major character or connection. Player one clarifies exactly what they want to achieve with the token. Negotiation step two: The affected player can choose to accept the token, can accept the token with a condition, or can reject the token. If they accept the token, then exactly what player one specified, happens. Go ahead and role play that. The token goes to the pool of the character who was affected. If the player whose character is affects puts a condition on their acceptance of the token by saying “Yes, but only if…” and explains a condition required for them to accept the token, then the player offering their token can either agree or withdraw their token offer. Here is an example of a successful conditional negotiation from the rulebook. Tammy controls a connection named Geoff, a rich young bachelor. Edwin controls Charlotte. Edwin offers a resolve token to Tammy and says, “I want Geoff to invite Charlotte on a beautiful nature walk around his estate.” Tammy replies, “Yes, but only if Geoff also brings his sisters.” Edwin agrees, and hands his token to Tammy. Tammy puts it in Geoff's pool of resolve tokens. Edwin is already thinking about Charlotte's schemes for how to get rid of Geoff’s sisters during the walk. Lastly, if the player whose character is affected rejects the token, then the person who offered the token can’t spend it. They keep it, and the proposed event does not happen. You can try a different approach, or you can move on.

Monologue Tokens. Along with resolve tokens there is a second minor type of token, monologue tokens. Everyone starts each cycle with one monologue token, so that’s one per session. You can play your monologue token on another player at any time. Hand them a token and ask them a question, for example, “Who does Henry actually love?” Ohis example question asks about their plans: “Does Emma intend to go through with this marriage?” The monologue token is then consumed and discarded. That player must immediately do a monologue, truthfully revealing their major character’s inner thoughts, feelings, and plans. Depending on how much hidden information you’ve set your session of Good Society up to have, a monologue can be game changing. You only have one monologue token. Use it wisely, but like, do actually use it. If you don’t use your monologue token during play, you have to spend it during the upkeep phase at the very end of the cycle. They don’t accumulate. One last thing to think about for monologue tokens is that if there is a mechanical way in the game to force a character to tell the truth, that implies that you don’t have to be telling the truth the rest of the time. Good Society is a hidden motivations game, with a clear divide between public and private information. Lying is part of the game. Or I guess I should say, flattery.

Game setup begins by answering five tone setting questions. In Good Society, each group of people playing can choose the tone of their game. There are five questions on pages thirty three through thirty five that the group should have an answer for together before the start of the game. Question one: What tone should the story have: drama, romantic comedy, or farce? This can determine the playset you use, which character roles you can play and what motivations they can have. Question two: How important is historical accuracy: a little, somewhat, or very important? Question three: How will we treat the gender power balance: historical, off, or in reverse? The authors would like to note that Jane Austen’s work never grapples with racial prejudice, so in Good Society it does not exist and characters may be of whatever race they choose without incident. Question four: How much hidden information will be used in the game: none, or will each player’s desire card be hidden from other players? In that case, share the information from the public knowledge section of the desire card. Question five: Is there anything our game should avoid?

Building your major character: You’re going to be role playing as more than one character when you play Good Society: one major character and a few connection characters. The major character you’ll spend most of your time roleplaying as is built by choosing a desire which comes with a relationship, choosing a family background, a role, an inner conflict, and some connections. Let’s count those things: desire one, which has a linked relationship two, family background three, role four, inner conflict five, and connections six and seven. Your major character is defined by these seven aspects in Good Society.

Desire cards are reddish pink colored. They have a front and a back. The desire card front has a Jane Austen quote. The back has specific details about how that desire motivates your major character. New players are probably going to want to read both the front and the back when choosing their major character’s desire. Once you’ve played Good Society a few times, you can use the front quote as a character creation randomizer to add replayability to the game. Because one front quote is shared by multiple desire card backs, even if you play Good Society a lot and eventually memorize all the quotes, you won’t know specifically which desire card back you’re picking. Experienced players can choose their major character’s theme by choosing their quote, and then look at the desire card’s back to see the specific details. Here is an example desire card front side quote. “Our scars make us know that our past was real.” End quote. That is shared by desires number four, thirteen, and fourteen.

There are twenty one different desires to choose from. Here is an example desire card: Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, because there is no hope of a cure. That is the card’s Jane Austen quote front. The back says four things. First: Best or humiliate your cousin in every matter and win your uncle’s inheritance. The second thing on this card is: Your uncle has recently turned his mind to settling his affairs. As he has no children of his own, his substantial inheritance can fall to only one of two parties. Yourself, or your infuriatingly perfect cousin. The third thing on the card says: This wealth will elevate you from among the poorest of your peers to among the richest. Your cousin may have bested you many times prior. But from this day forth they shall never best you hence. And lastly it says: Create your uncle as a mandatory connection. Because that is desire card number seventeen, you get a specific relationship card for that desire. Check the playset for which number relationship is linked with that number desire.

There are twenty one different desires to choose from. Here is a second example desire card. The front Jane Austen quote says: There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves. The back says four things. First: Save your family from financial ruin so you can break off your engagement. Second: The irresponsible actions of your spendthrift family have left you all in dire financial straits. And you are the one to suffer for it! Your father refused to sell the family estate; instead he arranged for your engagement to some insufferable rich person. Three: You must act before you find yourself married. Sort out your family’s financial problems- whether by selling the estate or marrying off a more willing sibling- then call of the engagement post-haste. Four: public knowledge: you are engaged. That’s right, all the other players know is that you are engaged, not how you feel about it or what you’re planning to do about it. Because that is desire card number fifteen, you consult your playset, and get the corresponding relationship card for that desire.

Relationship cards are automatically determined by the your desire card’s number. You can consult the playset to see which relationship card is linked with the number of the desire you chose. For example, desire card number sixteen gets you relationship card number thirty one. The playset sets the tone and might change the relationship card you receive. For example in a romantic comedy, desire card one gets relationship card twenty four. But in a drama toned playset, that same desire card one gets a different relationship card, number twenty nine. Before the game starts, each player needs to determine which relationship card is linked to your desire, and then give your relationship card to a fellow player. You should receive exactly one relationship card from someone, and it should be from someone other than the person you gave your card to. If you see the words giver and taker on the relationship card, ‘Giver’ refers to the person who picked up the relationship card originally with their desire card. ‘Taker’ refers to the person who will take the card from the giver. Here is an example relationship card. The public information side of the card says Acquaintances. The giver and taker of this card became friends during a season in London three years ago. The private side of the relationship card says Secret Fiances. The giver and taker of this card have been secretly engaged for years, despite the disapproval of one of their families. While the giver wishes to go ahead, the taker has become reluctant. The taker is higher in social status or wealthier than the giver. Before the game, you should have two discussions with the two players you gave your card to and received a card from, about what that means for the relationships between the characters you control. Remember, you control not only your main character, but also two connection characters.

Family background. Every player character has a family background sheet. It looks like a thin column that you can add on to the role sheet, the main character sheet. Your family background will determine your starting reputation tags, and will tell you what criteria to meet to raise your reputation, and what sorts of situations will lower your reputation.

The positive starting reputation tags are listed after the triangle shape. For example, the old money family background has the possible starting positive reputation tags of sensible, well-connected, dependable, generous, and caring. Choose one of these positive starting reputation tags at the beginning of the game. Negative starting reputation tags are listed after the upside down triangle shape. For example, the Old Money family background has the possible negative starting reputation tags of old-fashioned, miserly, overbearing, self-obsessed, and tasteless. Also choose one negative starting reputation tag at the beginning of the game.

The family background sheet also explains the criteria for how to raise and lower your reputation. There are three ways to gain a positive tag, and three ways to gain a negative reputation tag. For example, if someone from the old money family background acted in obedience to society’s conventions despite considerable hardship in doing so, they would gain a positive reputation tag. If someone from the old money family background shamed or embarrassed the family name, they would gain a negative reputation tag. Another example is that if someone from the military publicly displayed strong emotions, they would gain a negative reputation tag. If someone from the clergy background rejected a heartfelt request for help, they would gain a negative reputation tag.

During the game, you can exchange reputation tags for resolve tokens. Invoke that word in the thing you are roleplaying to receive a resolve token that you can offer to another character. If they accept the resolve token, erase the reputation tag from your sheet. Here is an example: William does something purehearted for his uncle, and exchanges his reputation tag of purehearted for a resolve token that he offers to his uncle’s player in exchange for being forgiven enough for his past gambling to be invited to his uncle’s dinner. That’s a way to use your reputation tags. Trading negative tags for resolve tokens is one way to get them off your sheet so they won’t count towards reputation conditions.

Once you’ve chosen your family background, you can add that to your role sheet. The family background is like an extra column of paper that fits on the side of the layout.

Role sheet. Each player character has a role sheet, which is a bit like a character sheet or a playbook in other games. A role can only be played by one person in each group of players. The sheet has a picture of a person in the outfit fitting their role, and a big name, like The Dowager, or The Tutor, or The Hedonist, or The New Arrival.

Chapter 9 in the rulebook on characters starting on page 213 discusses strategies for how to play the role you picked. For example as the heir, the strategy guide section talks about how the heir is plagued with financially motivated suitors, how to see through the gold diggers, ways to roleplay being weighed down by family pressure and obligation, how to take advantage of the benefits of nepotism, and suggestions for who to make as your connections.

Fill out the description of your character. Write the starting positive and negative reputation tags you chose, one of each, from the family background sheet.

Each role sheet has four reputation conditions on it. These are inactive to start the game. You can activate one of your two negative or positive reputation conditions by getting three reputation tags of that type. Reputation tags are adjectives describing how society sees you. The triangles are next to positive words everyone thinks about you, and the downward pointing triangles are next to negative tags everyone thinks about you. You gain reputation tags during the reputation phase if you met the reputation criteria listed on your family background sheet when you were roleplaying during the novel chapter phase.

Inner conflict. Write something your character needs in the left inner conflict blank and a contrasting need in the right inner conflict blank on your role sheet. An example of inner conflict is being torn between your desire for revenge and need for acceptance. Another example is love and duty. Another example is being torn between family and independence. Your character could be juggling their anxiety and maintaining their mental health, versus their need for control, power, and order. At the end of the cycle of play, so at the end of a session, look at the checklist and reflect on your character’s behavior. Mark where the character has acted on one side of the conflict or the other, or both. Gain one resolve token for each box you marked, to a maximum of two tokens per cycle. Update the public information sheet to reflect how many boxes you have filled in, too. Boxes stay filled in until the inner conflict is settled. When it is, at the end of the session you can create a new inner conflict, and you get to take an expanded backstory action. The expanded backstory actions are: create a new connection, play an extra connection, change a connection’s fortune, establish a relationship, or create a new major character.

Connections are people who know a major character and are important to them. For example a grandparent, sibling, school friend, potential suitor. The role sheet might have a mandatory connection, you have to create that person first. The remaining connection spots should be filled with people who have strong feelings towards your character and will put pressure on you. To create a connection, pick a connection card, and note that the two sides, a, and b, are two options. They’re similar but slightly different people. Pick one of them. Fill out a connection sheet with the connection’s name, relationship with the major character, who the major character is they’re connected to, the connection’s opinion of the major character, and the connection’s age and card number.

You are creating connections related to your main character and then handing those people to the other players and facilitator to role play. The rulebook suggests each person roleplays as one major character and one connection, and the facilitator roleplays as the remaining connections. When you are role playing as a connection, try to be a tool in the major character’s plots and schemes. Make it your goal to complicate the lives of the major characters. Connections start with two resolve tokens each, which the person controlling them can spend to impact the story. Here are some example things you can do when roleplaying a connection. If you play their parent, express disapproval over the person they want to marry. If you play their old flame, tell someone about your past together. Connections should be open to participating in schemes. If a major character tries to trick you, believe them for a moment.

Great! Your characters are built. Let’s talk about the phases of gameplay.

Public information sheet. When playing Good Society, everyone should be able to see this document. The public information sheet tracks collaboration decisions, rumors and scandals, major character information such as their reputation tags, connections, and monologue and resolve tokens. This can be a printout that you write on if you’re playing in person, or a doc file visible to all if playing online.

The cycle of play is a series of eight phases. First is novel chapter, second is reputation, third rumor and scandal, fourth epistolary. Repeat those without the rumor and scandal phase, and do upkeep. Do that once and it’s one cycle. The rule book says you can expect each cycle to take two to three and a half hours, and suggests that one cycle is perfect for a single session. A full game of Good Society lasts between three and eight cycles.

Novel chapter is the in-character role playing phase. This is when you speak as your character to pursue your secret desire. It’s called novel chapter because if someone wrote down the words you speak during this phase, it’d read like a portion of one of Jane Austen’s stories. This phase is what you will be doing the majority of the time you’re playing Good Society. There are three types of novel chapters: events that star the whole cast at a party or gathering, visitations that are opportunities for more intimate conversations with fewer than the whole cast often featuring a few different visits between two or three people, and split chapters, which portray simultaneous but related events in different places, happening in parallel.

Reputation is the phase where everyone pauses roleplay to track the rise or fall of each character's reputation. Step 1: assess character behavior against reputation criteria. Step 2: create reputation tags. Step 3: Trigger reputation conditions. Step 4: Remove reputation conditions if tags have fallen below three.

Reputation criteria are actions your major character has to do to raise or lower their reputation. If your major character did something to meet a positive or negative reputation criteria during the novel chapter phase, create a reputation tag for them. Reputation tags are adjectives that are either positive, upward pointing triangle, or negative, downward pointing triangle. Writing a third reputation tag of a type triggers a reputation condition, which is listed on your role sheet. Choose one of the two reputation criteria of that type, either positive or negative. The reputation condition remains active as long as you have three tags of that type.

Here is an example. Beatrice already has the positive reputation tag brave and ladylike. During the past novel chapter, she fulfilled the positive reputation criteria that said “act in the service of duty or morality in a way that compromises their desires.” She went and played lawn croquet on a team with her father, who doesn’t want her to get fond of or marry Henry, when he called, even though she was talking to Henry at the time. During the game she helped her father talk to Judge Eustice and his daughter Penelope. Everyone had a great time and the judge invited them to attend his large party next month. The player adds the reputation tag Pleasant Sporting Partner to Beatrice’s role sheet next to an upward pointing triangle. This is Beatrice’s third positive reputation tag. She now activates one of the two positive reputation conditions on her character sheet. She chooses to activate “Stay With Us. You are a welcome guest in any household, and may stay wherever you choose while this boon remains active.” The reputation condition stays active unless she drops below three positive reputation tags.

Rumor and scandal is the only phase of Good Society that happens once per cycle. Everyone pretends to be society as a whole instead of their individual characters, and collaboratively creates rumors. This phase determines which rumors were merely whispers, and which become full blown scandals discussed in every drawing room in town.

Step 1: Players go around in a circle and either create or spread a rumor. Create a rumor by writing it on the public information sheet. Put a checkmark or an X in the circle next to the rumor to show it has been spread. When you reach the end of the circle, reverse it and go back, each player getting a second turn. The person who goes first will also go last. A rumor can only be spread once ever. Rumors that were not spread start to fade, and rumors that were spread have now been heard by all the characters. A player can spend a resolve token during the novel chapter phase to have a widely spread rumor affect the story. Cross off the rumor after spending the resolve token.

Step 2: Add a fading symbol like the stock market going down next to any rumor that was not spread this phase. Cross off any rumor that already had a fading symbol from a previous rumor phase. People can no longer spend resolve tokens to have that crossed off rumor affect the story.

Epistolary is a phase for writing letters. You can correspond with someone you trust, confessing your inner thoughts and feelings, or perhaps send a missive to set up a machination, preparing to enact a scheme in the future. Each player should write up to two letters from either your major character or a connection you control. State who the letter is from and who it’s to, and then dictate its contents. You can also use a resolve token to initiate a letter written to you by literally anyone. For example, Frances’s player can spend a resolve token to receive a letter saying that his aunt is sending him a horse. Or someone can offer a resolve token to George’s player and negotiate George receiving a letter saying that his student loan debt payment is two weeks past due.

Repeat the novel chapter, reputation, and epistolary phases again to role play, track the changes in reputation, and then write about what happened. The final epistolary is your chance to write your character’s epilogue and future plans.

Lastly, the cycle ends by performing upkeep. Spend your monologue token if you haven’t yet. Adjust your desires and inner conflicts so that next time you meet, your character can continue on a path to their goal. We are going to play Good Society in just a single session, but the authors recommend playing Good Society for three to eight cycles. They estimate you can probably fit in one cycle each session.

Here are some specific instructions for players in my game. The rule book has some setup guidelines for us because we will have three to four players and a facilitator and will be meeting for fewer than four cycles. Page 50 says each player should create two connections. Page 28 suggests not using the inner conflict on the role sheet or the expanded backstory rules for short campaigns, but we’re still going to because we won’t have another chance to see all the mechanics. Page 28 also says rumors don’t fade out during the rumor and scandal phase, we can do that. Also, don’t change your desires during the upkeep phase, and every player gains one resolve token during the upkeep phase. Those are the set up guidelines the rule book recommends for us.

The very last part of this how to play guide is where I talk about my instructions for my players as your facilitator for this upcoming game session. Given that we’re using Good Society in our existing setting with characters we’ve played lots of times, I want you to feel comfortable with your character’s Good Society portrayal, and I want you to embrace the changes to your character’s reputation and possibly marital status after this oneshot. Accurately portraying who they are is important. So consider this my ‘custom playset’ for oneshots for characters we have grown fond of playing in other ttrpgs. The following is my way to help these mechanics adapt better to your beloved characters and encourage a fun Good Society experience. Okay, here goes. First, desires. Normally in Good Society you look at a playset, such as the drama playset, farce playset, rivalry and revenge playset, et cetera. These playsets offer one more desire option than the number of players. For example, the romantic comedy playset limits you to choosing between desires number one, three, five, or nine for three players. For my custom playset, because you’re trying to fit your existing character in to Good Society, I think you can choose which desire card you pick from the entire desire deck, rather than picking from a limited list. More options should help you find one that make you comfortable adapting your character to this world. Next, relationships. Please consult all the prewritten playsets on pages 185 through 199 to see which relationship card is linked with the desire card you picked. Most of the desire cards seem to be linked with just one relationship card. If you find two relationship cards linked with your desire card because it appears in two different playsets, you can pick which one you use. Any relationship card you can find linked to your desire card in one of those playsets is completely valid. If none of them fit and you find an alternative relationship you like more, talk to me, I’m flexible. Third, choose a family background and choose one starting positive reputation tag, and one starting negative reputation tag. Fourth, role sheets. Please select your choice of role sheet from the entire list of options. The one that most suits your existing character works for me. The Good Society rules do say that you shouldn’t use a role sheet another player in your game is using, so if you can avoid that it would be great. If not, then accurately portraying your existing character is the priority. For this three player one session game, everyone should have two connections. Pick one side to play from the listed double sided connection card. Make each of your connections a sheet that says the player character's name, your relationship, and the connection's opinion of the player character. Each connection starts the game with two resolve tokens.

Hopefully this little rules chat helps my players build their characters and understand combat, which is a bit more like social combat for this game, and skills. For everyone listening, we encourage you to find the Good Society rule book yourself, and play a game with friends. And if you’d like to hear an example adventure, I’m looking forward to playing Good Society in an upcoming session.