Weird Campaign Request (Victorian Romance)

[Colarmel]

So I've been doing a fantasy game with my wife, and it's nearing the end of the first major arc, at which point we'll go on hiatus with that world.

I asked her what she'd like to do next, and she suggested Victorian Romance. The thought had never occurred to me, and it's intriguing as a short-run game, to put something like that together. It also sounds rather challenging.

Any advice on this? I probably need to read some Austen novels, any other good resources to get grounded in the genre? What's the typical cast of NPCs for something like this?

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Colarmel

So I've been doing a fantasy game with my wife, and it's nearing the end of the first major arc, at which point we'll go on hiatus with that world.

I asked her what she'd like to do next, and she suggested Victorian Romance. The thought had never occurred to me, and it's intriguing as a short-run game, to put something like that together. It also sounds rather challenging.

Any advice on this? I probably need to read some Austen novels, any other good resources to get grounded in the genre? What's the typical cast of NPCs for something like this?

You may want to check with your wife for clarification. She may mean modern Historical Romance set in the Victorian period rather than romances from the actual Victorian period. In that event, you may want to check authors such as Barbara Cartland (although most of her romances tend to be set earlier [Regency period]).

[Colarmel]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

You may want to check with your wife for clarification. She may mean modern Historical Romance set in the Victorian period rather than romances from the actual Victorian period. In that event, you may want to check authors such as Barbara Cartland (although most of her romances tend to be set earlier [Regency period]).

Yeah, she had things from several periods in mind, Austen, Downton Abbey, and a script called Mr. Malcolm's List. Basically she wants to play a young woman of the gentry trying to find a match.

[sir_pudding]

You probably want GURPS Social Engineering. You might also find Pyramid #3/54: Social Engineering useful.

[whswhs]

"Romance" has more than one meaning. Austen wrote witty stories about moral conflict. Gaskell's North and South is similar, but less witty. On the other hand, the Bronte sisters (Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are best known) wrote much steamier novels filled with emotional conflict.

I actually discussed Pride and Prejudice at some length in GURPS Adaptations, taking it as one of my six stories to adapt. GURPS Social Engineering pays less attention to romantic matters, but it does have a couple of pages about courtship and marriage.

I ran a campaign, Manse, which was not Victorian—it was anime-inspired fantasy—but had a lot of attention to romantic relationships. I have the campaign logs for that, if you'd like to see them; just private message me with an e-mail address.

[Colarmel]

Thank you Sir Pudding and Bill, those are both useful suggestions.

I know she dislikes Jane Eyre, though, I should figure out why.

I would love to see those campaign logs, although I suspect most romance focused games lack much of the propriety that draws her to this particular genre. Still, it's a useful jumping-off point.

PM incoming.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Colarmel

I know she dislikes Jane Eyre, though, I should figure out why.

I don't like Jane Eyre myself, but a lot of readers adore it, so I thought it was worth asking.

Has she ever read any of Louisa May Alcott? While her books are thought of as "children's books," some of them are about courtship and marriage; in particular, Rose in Bloom, the sequel to Eight Cousins, has the heroine trying to decide which of several of her male first cousins she wants to marry.

I've read and enjoyed all of Jane Austen's completed novels, but I think it's no accident that Pride and Prejudice is the best known; I find it most accessible of the six, though Emma is also quite entertaining.

I've run a number of campaigns with romantic subplots; roughly half of my players have been women, which tends to shift the focus of a campaign a bit.

[Colarmel]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I've read and enjoyed all of Jane Austen's completed novels, but I think it's no accident that Pride and Prejudice is the best known; I find it most accessible of the six, though Emma is also quite entertaining.

I've been watching the 2009 BBC Miniseries of Emma since I posted the original question. It's persuaded me to set the campaign in the regency period, though I find the resources for regency are less prevalent.

Although the only real question that needs answering in game-able terms is what the actual status range of my characters will be. And how to run a game with absolutely no real combat. Everything else seems to be simply historical/genre research.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Colarmel

Although the only real question that needs answering in game-able terms is what the actual status range of my characters will be. And how to run a game with absolutely no real combat. Everything else seems to be simply historical/genre research.

I discussed the first briefly in GURPS Adaptations, and I also wrote an article on Victorian social hierarchies for Pyramid 3:39, titled "Order of Precedence," which should transfer fairly well to Regency, though not perfectly.

As for running a game with no combat, I haven't found that to be much of a problem. The essential thing in story and drama is not *combat* but *conflict*. You can have that in a love story: The lover who is in internal conflict between love and unwillingness to love (as in Mr. Darcy's horrible first proposal to Elizabeth Bennet), the lover and the unwilling beloved, the rivals for the affections of a desirable person, the person in love and the family member who is an obstacle, the person in love who has a secret and fears to reveal it, the respectable person and the family member who does something unwise and brings discredit on the whole family (as in Lydia Bennet running away with Mr. Wickham), the parent who has chosen a match the daughter or son doesn't want, the person who is trapped in an undesired engagement and desperately wants to get out of it (take a look at the Jeeves/Wooster stories for some hilarious examples of this). . . . The trick with all of this is to ask, "What would make this worst for the central character?", put them in that situation, and then ask, "What do you do?"

[whswhs]

Another source I'd suggest is Vanity Fair, by Thackeray. It actually was written a couple of decades after the Regency, so it's a story about courtship and marriage set in the Regency as a historical period. But not a "Regency romance," because its theme is deeply anti-romantic. If you're going for this, though, do not watch the recent movie, which softens the harshness of the storyline and characterization; the book is different in tone and much funnier, in a grim way.