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Join us on Saturday May 3rd, 2025
“There is no place where finding one’s position in society is quite so difficult as one’s home. When we were young our futures seemed so clear and crisp, like a fresh autumn morning. But now it turns out that in family, duty, and the heart, little proceeds as expected.”
The year is 1810. The place, the country town of Habershire, but three days ride from London. The sun blossoms as the last of spring ends, and those who seasoned in London return. As old friends and rivals gather again in the same place, a new tension pervades our town. The balance of this town is changing, and duty, position, and family will change with it. Now is the time to act upon your dreams, obligations and desires before you find the town has shifted without you.
What
Good Society is a Regency larp by the creators of the award-winning Good Society RPG. This game inspired by Jane Austen’s literary works is set in a country town full of family tension, unspoken romantic longing, and possible impropriety. It features characters of all ages, and revolves around familial pressure, scandal, and class.
You might enjoy this game if you are a fan of Jane Austen, literary romance, or period dramas. The setting is within a historical and literature tradition, but no prior knowledge of Austen’s works is necessary to play.
Run Time: 4-5 hours
Players: 8 to 12
Facilitators: 1
Designed by Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon
Organized by Jon Cole
Admin support from Emry Sottile
When
Saturday May 3rd, 2025, from noon–5 PM
Tickets
Get a ticket by filling out the Good Society registration form. You’ll provide some additional information about your play preferences, so we can cast you as one of the characters in Habershire. We’ll email your character and ask you to confirm it, or let us know if you need to drop out. Other than that, you don’t need to do anything else besides show up to play!
On the day of the event, we request a pay-what-you-want good will donation ($10–$25 suggested) to support low-cost larps in Minnesota. No one will be turned away if they do not make a donation.
Where
Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St N, Saint Paul, MN 55103
Transit: Green line, 65, 67C
Parking: There is a free underground parking structure within the library, accessible from eastbound University Ave. Otherwise, there is free street parking on Aurora and Fuller avenues.
Details on the Game
Play Style
The larp is structured in three chapters of synchronous play, where the characters gather at a different social occasion such as a ball or a garden party. Between each of these acts are two epistolary phases, where the characters correspond with each other over the month between the large social engagements.
Based on preferences established in the registration form, you will receive a pre-written character sheet for the game, amounting to a little over a page long. You will be able to discuss your relationships in pre-game workshops with other players as well. We intend to pre-cast players for this game, though know that there may be last minute shuffling if people drop out.
We’ll hew to Regency formality with regards to touch: players may at most hold hands. Sorry Bridgerton fans! For this event propriety reigns, at least during embodied play.
Content Advisory
Period-specific gender norms and expectation of heterosexuality. Some characters will have romantic drama which might include yearning, spurned advances, or consensual heterosexual relationships. Most of the characters are indirect beneficiaries of colonialism, though that is not a focus of the story.
Calibration Tools
The check-in, cut, and slow techniques will be discussed and practiced before play begins.
Following play, we will debrief to discuss our experiences and shed the roles we assumed for the game. The debrief is encouraged, but not required, should you choose to leave following play.
Costuming
Please bring an accessory to indicate your character’s assigned gender, regardless of your real-world gender. For lady characters this might be a skirt, bonnet, feminine hat, long gloves, parasol, fan, or clutch. For gentlemen characters this might be a jacket, cane, masculine hat, cravat, tie, short gloves, or military medals. If you’ve got multiple such accessories at home, please bring a few to share with others.
Other than an accessory to signal gender no costuming is needed. However, if you want to wear other stuff that makes you feel like a member of the country gentry, go for it! To abide by our venue’s rules do not bring any weapon props (or for that matter any real weapons).
Other Information
COVID-19 Policy
N95 respirators or better are required for everyone at this event, and we will have a few to share.
Attendees need to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and boosted to the extent recommended by the CDC for their demographic group. Our policy means you will need to have had the 2024 covid vaccine at least two weeks before this event or we will turn you away at the door. Bring proof you were vaccinated in September 2024 or later. That could be your card, a picture of it, a document on your phone. We know pharmacies aren’t providing proof as reliably as they once did, your personal attestation will suffice in lieu of documentation.
If you have any symptoms of COVID-19, stay home. If you are able to, take a rapid test before arrival. Please reach out if you have any questions about our policy.
Accessibility
By default, gameplay assumes players are able to enter or leave conversations easily, can hear and be heard in a room where multiple conversations are happening at the same time, and write legibly enough for others to read it. Game materials are in English and the print can be small at times. Please let us know in the registration form if you have any accommodation questions, or reach out.
Our venue is climate controlled. Our play space has plenty of seating, and is located on the main level. The main entrance has double doors that can be opened by button-push, there are accessible restrooms though you may have to wait in a line of other patrons to use them.
Water will be available, and we recommend bringing a water bottle for your ease of access. No food will be provided.
Social
After the event some folks will get a pre-dinner treat together at Conny’s Creamy Cone or another Saint Paul location with outdoor seating. Hanging out afterwards is totally optional, and we think it’s fun to get to know your fellow players as people, not just as their characters. Folks who didn’t attend the event are welcome to attend this part.
Minors
This larp might be appropriate for a minor, depending on what their prior roleplaying experience is and their interest in the subject matter. Since Larp House is an all-volunteer group without a legal entity, we require a parent or guardian to attend alongside any minor who’d like to participate. By all means reach out if you are unsure if this larp is a good fit for your child.
Contact
Contact us with any questions or concerns!
Image Credits
Images by Storybrewers Roleplaying, The Letter by Vittorio Reggianini, Lady in a Garden by Frederic Leighton
