Sydney-based indie studio Storybrewers Roleplaying has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the second edition of Good Society, securing over £109,000 against a modest £10,479 target within its final days of funding. Designed by Hayley Gordon and Vee Hendro, the collaborative roleplaying game revisits Regency romance, drawing room gossip, and social etiquette through an overhauled ruleset and a brand-new physical box set.
The project marks the Australian design duo’s tenth crowdfunding venture, and their system previously powered Dimension 20’s acclaimed Regency-fae series A Court of Fey and Flowers. With more than 1,300 backers already supporting the campaign ahead of its closing deadline on Friday, 9 October 2026, the updated release demonstrates the sustained appetite for period drama across the tabletop hobby.
Good Society eschews traditional dice pools and adversarial combat encounters, structuring its narrative around a regimented cycle of play divided into distinct social phases. Play alternates between Novel Chapters, split into formal public event gatherings such as balls and town fairs, or intimate visitation scenes, and procedural phases covering reputation changes, drawing room rumours, and letter-writing. During the epistolary phase, participants draft letters to voice hidden desires or advance private schemes, with the final epistolary round serving as the campaign’s epilogue.
Reputation, Rumour, and Token Economies
The second edition refines the core social systems that dictate character standing within the fictional county of Habershire. Players manage character reputation through descriptive positive and negative tags, utilising either the streamlined “Reputation by Fashion” method or the deeper “Reputation by Vigilance” assessment. When a character accumulates tags, players can trigger formal reputation consequences, including familial interventions, public snubs, or unwanted suitors, dramatised at the table through concise narrative vignettes.
Gossip runs through a dedicated Rumour Board, where casual whispers escalate into town-wide scandals through player actions like altering stories, fanning the flames, or eavesdropping on conversations. In addition, players deploy resolve tokens to introduce narrative complications or negotiate difficult choices with peers, whilst monologue tokens allow characters to freeze the collective scene and vocalise unvarnished internal truths.
Box Set Production and Expanded Acquaintance
The primary physical offering centres on a gold-foiled box set featuring cover artwork by Marlowe Lune. Inside, backers receive a 200-page 6×9-inch hardcover rulebook, over 65 tarot-sized cards for desires, relationships, and connections, a physical rumour tracking board, a solo tutorial booklet, and punchboard tokens, including a dedicated teapot token to mark the current talk of the town.
For groups seeking alternative genres, the campaign also offers the 320-page Expanded Acquaintance hardcover volume. This compilation bundles six thematic settings, adapting the system for sorcery in Pride, Prejudice and Practical Magics, swashbuckling espionage in Sense, Sensibility and Swordsmanship, domestic service politics in Downstairs at the Abbey, multi-generational drama in Emma, Forget Me Not, the unearthly courts of faerie, and a standalone country-house murder mystery titled Lady Susan P.I.
Reward Tiers and Campaign Fulfilment
Storybrewers has structured the campaign around digital access, standard boxed editions, and expansive collector bundles. Backers can enter at the digital tier with the Curious Flirtation pledge at AU$ 30 (approximately £16) for core PDF files, while previous first-edition owners can secure a digital upgrade for AU$ 14 (around £8). The core physical release, Ardent Affection, is priced at AU$ 96 (approximately £51) for the box set and digital assets, rising to AU$ 196 (around £103) for the deluxe version complete with an embroidered token pouch, facilitator fan, and regional map zines. Premium tiers such as You Pierce My Soul at AU$ 231 (roughly £122) and the Ultimate Literature Lovers collection at AU$ 466 (about £245) bundle the complete physical expansion library, card decks, and companion epistolary roleplaying games.
The campaign operates under Kickstarter’s standard all-or-nothing funding model and will close on Friday, 9 October 2026 at 4:00 AM BST. Digital rewards are scheduled for distribution in August 2027, with physical box sets and international freight delivery estimated to arrive with backers in September 2027.
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