If you’ve seen Netflix’s spicy Regency romp Bridgerton over the holidays thinking, “Well, I would love to be a young lady / gentleman who seeks a successful game by navigating polite but reckless society.” You’re in luck: there is now a game for that.
Available on itch.io, The social season is a single-leaf TTRPG designed to recreate the intrigues of the Regency Social Season, where you play as members of the family and try to save their reputations by finding beneficial matches.
Social season Creator Scott Sexton tells Polygon that he was inspired by game designer Lysa Penrose’s stream The haunted society, a ghostly version of the popular role-playing game Jane Austen Good company. Sexton wanted something quick and easy, and when he saw it Justice Arman Convertibots, inspired by Grant Howitt’s popular single-sheet TTRPG Honey heist, he opened up this genre.
In the game, players aren’t limited to roles as potential debutants – in fact, you don’t even have to play as someone seeking marriage. Sexton added variety during play testing; In his first draft of the game, all players took on debutant roles, but this was limiting.
“I haven’t played it with any of the players who tried to get married, but that was also some feedback I got. So I added a bit to achieve a unified goal,” Sexton told Polygon over Twitter DM. “You’re all part of the same extended family, trying to find a beneficial match for at least one of you that will save your family from ruin. How that looks exactly in each game is up to the players. “
The game uses two stats, Serenity and Scandal, which Sexton says adjust the straightforward Honey heist Mechanic, but for Regency-era England.
“This game basically replaces the honey with a desirable marriage, the criminal bears with a scandalous Regency family, and the traps and guards with jealous rivals and opportunistic suitors,” he said.
Social season asks GMs to generate a scenario by rolling on a random table showing the setting (perhaps a masquerade ball or an opera or symphony performance), the host (“an eccentric widow”, “the general’s wife”, ” the Queen ”states) and a number of rumors and complications. Then the players try to control the situation while their composure and scandal change due to the circumstances. The risk of their characters becoming unplayable if either stats get too high: serenity overload and you get “sick with a fall of fumes and recovery for the rest of the season at home” while too much scandal is you will ruin socially.
The social season is a Name-Your-Own-Price download on itch.io.
