One-shot Good Society: Changes

Having recently run Good Society as a one-shot at Furnace (see here), I have some thoughts.

From what I could tell, the players enjoyed themselves getting up to Jane Austen-y hijinks. It was definitely a success, but I think a few things would have made it easier for me to run it.

My changes

Five main characters at most

Maybe Good Society is happy with more main characters (which is what Good Society calls its PCs), but not in a time-limited one-shot. Having fewer main characters gives everyone more time to play.

Don’t play and facilitate

I tried to both facilitate and play a character. That was a mistake. Perhaps with an experienced group it would be fine, but with players new to the game (and, honestly, a relatively inexperienced Facilitator), I should have stuck to facilitating.

Simplify character documentation

The Good Society character sheets are pretty, but didn’t find them particularly practical for a one-shot. They consist of an A4 sheet with three columns, one of which is taken up with a character portrait, plus another third of an A4 sheet (for family background), plus a desire card and a relationship card…

They also include things that aren’t necessary for a one-shot (eg inner conflict), and the text is tiny because of the huge character image. 

So I have redesigned the character sheet to be simpler:

• Removed the image and put that on a separate card as an identifier/standee.
• Removed the unnecessary information (inner conflicts)
• Added the desire to the character sheet – that means I can eliminate the desire cards.
• Added their side of the relationship card. (The relationship card itself will still be given away during the backstory.)
• Added summary details for their connection. (But connections are otherwise unchanged.)

It's not as pretty, but it is more readable.

Have a starting scene in mind

This wasn’t an issue, but it’s worth having a starting scene in mind to get the game moving. Our first novel chapter was set at a ball for the New Arrival, and the starting scene I had in mind was the host (or hostess) welcoming the New Arrival.

Create a relationship map

Which I didn’t do, and I lost track of how everyone knew each other. And that was just the main characters – let alone all the minor characters… I’ll know better next time!

Ignore reputation conditions

A one-shot has only one reputation phase, so they are unlikely to trigger. So instead, use the reputation tags for roleplaying (and resolve tokens).

Redesign the public information sheet

Everything is too small. Move the reputation tags to table name tents (see below) and make everything bigger. There are unlikely to be more than seven or eight rumours (there is only one rumour phase in a one-shot), so use the extra space so you can write larger and more legibly.

(And I’ll add a blank relationship map to it as well.)

Use table name tents

(You should do this in every game – not just Good Society.) Include your character, their role and family, their reputation tags – and the name of the player playing them.

In fact, I’ve gone one better and created some bespoke table name tents for the characters. (Click here to download the table name tent files.)

Is play different?

Play is basically unchanged. During backstory, the players will still exchange relationship cards and create connections. And then we’ll play.

Trying it out

And all I need now is an opportunity to try this!

But before I do, I have ideas about making a one-shot game of Good Society more like a freeform. More on that soon.