023: Goblin Quest - Rules Hack 7 - Regency Ladies - The Roleplaying Game - Claim to Game

Episode Transcript
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>> Clint Scheirer (00:00):
Are you a fan of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice? Have
you always dreamed of living out a troubled relationship during
the georgian era? Of history? I can honestly say
from the bottom of my Heart, no. No, I have
not. A thousand times no. But hey, who am I
to put down a gaming setting before I've even given it a
chance? As they said back in the 19th century,

(00:20):
let us, stop this claptrap and fudge.
Translation absurd nonsensical talk or ideas
lies nonsense. So cut the clap
trap and put on your fancy pants. Cause today we are
finishing up the Goblin Quest RPG saga with the
rules hack Regency ladies welcome to
claim to Game, the podcast helping busy people Master tabletop
role playing Games one Game at a Time.

(00:43):
I'm Clint Scheirer. I've been an educator for over twelve years
and have helped gamers of all levels quickly grasp
Tabletop RPG's so they can enjoy playing
them to the fullest.
Stay tuned so you can make your claim to Game

(01:22):
hello and welcome back to episode 23, season
one of Claim to Game, a predominantly educational,
fun Podcast in which I am daring to coin the word
fun ducational. Its like tripping into a swimming
Pool, but finding it full of coins. You dive right in
like Scrooge McDuck. The Game for this
season is Goblin Quest, the RPG brought to you

(01:43):
by Game designer Grant Howitt, whose works include but are
not limited to, Honey Heist, Die, the RPG
Spire Unbound, one last Job, Heart Eat
the Reich, and right now, at the Time of this episode release,
the new tabletop RPG hollows fully
funded on backer kit. Our running definition of
a rules hack for Goblin Quest is a series of

(02:03):
tweaks and twists to the main Game, which allow you
to use it to tell different stories.
The 7th and final hack to appear in Goblin,
the rpg's book on page 114
earned through the Kickstarter stretch goals in 2014,
is Regency Ladies, the Role Playing
Game. I will be the first to admit this setting or

(02:24):
hack would not be my first go to. There have been a
couple times prior to being married where I was asked by not
one but a few girls I liked to read
Pride and Prejudice in high school or college. I may
have read the book, not understanding most of it, and probably read over
the spark notes. Do they still have those? Before I went
to go discuss the book to sound like I knew what I was talking about

(02:44):
and have a meaningful conversation. I know
not my best form, old chap. Looking back, I might
just not have been mature enough to appreciate the classic novel for
the impact it truly had on tv shows, movies,
and literature that we enjoy today. The Jane
Austen Society of North America.
Jasna Jas in a did you know
there was such a thing? Featured an article that was published

(03:06):
by Barbara Sherrod of Fort Collins, Colorado,
and in it, she stated the following. Pride and
Prejudice is a classic love story because
it set the pattern for a modern, popular love
story, the story in which an independent minded and
fascinating woman is loved by a remote and

powerful man. The attraction between the 2 (03:24):
Is
exhibited as hostility at first and then
evolves into romantic love, but not necessarily
sexual in nature. In this way, I can
appreciate this work, even if it wasn't my favorite book of all Time.
It sets a pattern for storytelling, an
interesting love story. In that case,
you could actually hack this hack if you wanted to,

(03:47):
putting it in a different setting. On page 114,
Grant Howitt suggests this RPG could be placed in the
setting of love, actually the movie, or
immortal vampire in love, high school dramas, a
shakespearean romance, or pretty much any
movie you can think of where the female character
eventually falls for a guy. The two don't like each other
at first, but then love prevails.

(04:09):
So you can decide the actual setting. But think of
this as the framework to tell a love story in
RPG form. Love story RPG
activate.
To keep things simple, let's keep with pride and Prejudice for the
setting and theme of our Game. Before I mentioned, this
happens in the georgian era in Great Britain.
These are the years between 1714 and

(04:29):
1837. And why the name Georgian?
Well, it's because during that Time, England was ruled
by a couple of Georges, George the
first, George the second, George III,
and you guessed it, George the fourth. Think
industrial revolution. The early stages of
the steam engine, gas lights, coal powered iron
furnaces, and workshops for spinning, weaving,

(04:52):
printing, and other textiles. In this story, your
characters are to find another unmarried
Yunk adult who is a good match to get hitched to
marriage is, "The ultimate goal here. You want to find a good
match for each of your characters, and ideally, you want
somebody with good looks, money, and class. You're gonna
be shallow here, but remember, like the Rolling Stones

(05:13):
saying, you can't always get what
you want. to begin creating your character, you'll make
both a man and a woman character.
As mentioned before, both are Yunk and unmarried. The
official character sheet for Regency ladies is on page
120 of the Goblin Quest rulebook. There are
a total of three main stats, and
you really should think of them almost as point pools

(05:35):
that you get to spend throughout the Game. The first
is charm. Charm is a raw force of
personality, likability and physical
attractiveness. The higher a, character's charm,
they can make connections to others more easily. A
charm of six is very attractive. The talk of
society, not necessarily in looks. Charm
one, however, is a character who's unable to

(05:57):
navigate social situations and probably has a lot of
difficulty. They go unnoticed and ignored.
The second stat is standing. And this
is your social standing, your class and society and
connections. The higher your standing, the easier you'll be able
to maintain your composure. A, standing of six is
a Lord or lady. A standing of one is as low

(06:18):
as you can go while still owning some type of property in
this messed up, shallow society. And
the third means is your money. It's your
raw influence of financial
power. Means lets you break the rules of
the Game through social situations. Six.
A, six means is you're loaded with an
estate one. A, one means you're

(06:40):
barely scraping by without losing everything.
To roll stats for both your female and male character,
you will roll a six sided dice only three times.
Ladies first. As chivalry will say, roll the
dice. Assign the results of the roll as the charm
score for your female character first. Then
youre going to take the inverse of that number and

(07:01):
assign it to your males charm score.
Example, you roll a six sided dice and you get a one for
your womans charm score. That is her charm
score. The inverse of that on the other side of the
dice would be a six or the opposite. So
your males charm score will be six.
He's quite the charmer. You'll then do this
two more times, rolling once for standing and

(07:23):
once for means. I've gone ahead and rolled for both
my woman and my man. And to keep things clear, my
woman's name is Kate Haverton, and my man's
name is Jasper Blackwell. That's Mister
Blackwell to you. Awwww you very much. Kate has a
charm of two, standing of five, and a means
of six. So what does this mean in the Game? In the
story, she's not a very attractive person, or maybe just

(07:46):
really unlikable. She's, of fairly high standing in
society with a ton of money. Mister
Blackwell, on the other hand, with the inverse of those
numbers, he has a charm of five, a, standing of two,
and a means of one. What does this mean? In the story,
he's a very attractive man with low standing and is
possibly about to lose everything to his name. After rolling
the stats and interpreting them, you can choose a character archetype to

(08:09):
reference during play. We've done most of the work here, but
let's put pen to paper in this pen and paper Tabletop RPG,
shall we? Mister Blackwell will be a penniless
aristocrat. His house, with modest farm has one to
two servants who are more like family than hired
workers. Kate Haverton, on the other hand, is a
beautiful yet cold heiress to a large
textile workshop empire. If any man

(08:31):
could woo her, they would be set for life,
but trapped in a loveless future. The way she
acts.
Next, we'll dip into the flaws. Adding character
flaws is something I have loved as follows, "A part of my Game since
I first played D & D five e flaws can
create some amazing storytelling opportunities,
sometimes more powerful than a character. Using their assets or

(08:52):
attributes, female character flaws
focus on their internal conflict. I rolled a
six sided dice and got a five and used the table on
page 116, which tells me that Kate
Haverton is too rash. She acts and
speaks without considering the consequences, and this may
account for her failure to find love in marriage at the beginning of our
Game. Male character flaws, on the other hand,

(09:14):
focus on a troubled past. I rolled a six
sided dice and got a one, and the table on page
115 tells me the following about Mister
Blackwell during the war, I
shamefully. And then I get to fill in the blank.
I'm gonna say that he shamefully deserted his
entire militia to be slaughtered during the War of
1812 over in the colonies before returning

(09:36):
home to England.
Next up on your character sheet, there is a spot near the
bottom for bonds. You'll want to write down everyone else's
character names at the bottom of the sheet as you will be bonding with
them during the gameplay. At the start of the Game,
you will randomly, through rolling a dice, maybe
choose another player's character at the table. You will
automatically have a rank one bond with that players

(09:58):
character and add one point in your bond's
Pool next to their name. An example would be I'm playing
with six other players at the table. I roll a
after assigning in my head a number to each player,
I rolled a two, and this means that I'm going to have a bond
with one of Annette's characters. Feel free
to roll again or just choose. Let's say
Annette has a female by the name of

(10:20):
Delphinium Rosebud. I am going
to have her share a bond with my woman
character, Kate Haverton. And so, next to
Delphinium's name on my character sheet, I
am going to put one bond point next to the name
Delphinium, I put a one bond rating that's what that
means. Annette would likewise put a
one next to Kate Haverton's name on the sheet. We both

(10:42):
share the bond, so we each get a point for the bond that's being
shared now. Story wise, we can make up a Reason why they're
bonded. Maybe they're relatives, school friends,
bosom buddies? Whatev. Quick pause on the
episode. Have you felt like life is too crazy busy that the
tabletop role playing games you've always wanted to learn and
play are passing you by? The
Claim to Game Podcast has one mission, helping busy

(11:05):
people Master tabletop role playing Games one Game at a
Time. If you are enjoying what you are hearing,
please share the Claim to Game Podcast with others. Share
it with at least one other person you know who
listens to podcasts and who could benefit from this show.
And what it has to offer. This helps grow the show,
spreads the message, and helps others learn new
Tabletop RPG's remember to share the

(11:27):
show once you finish listening today.
Thanks. And now back to the episode. Let's start some
gameplay. This Game takes place over the course of
two years, with four scenes per year.
Now, this isn't actual years, this is Game years. The steps
are fairly clear. How to play. First, you will
determine if you are playing your male or
female character before the scene is created.

(11:49):
On page 117, there is a table
which you will roll a determine what
type of scene youll be playing out. If the current year has
not yet had a scene with a ball, you get to
add one to your dice roll. Balls
are super important, as in
dances, of course. Next youll be rolling to
control the scene and swap characters.

(12:12):
All players roll 1 d 6, and whoever
rolls the highest takes control of the scene. Their
character, the one they pick to play the scene, is in
charge of the event happening in the scene. You can spend
your standing to increase your roll if you wish.
So for Mister Blackwell, he has a standing of
two. Hardly anything at all. But we'll say that

(12:32):
he spends one standing point reducing his
standing from two to one in order
to go first in the scene. Here's how it works.
Mister Blackwell is, "The character I chose. I rolled
first year, first scene, the number four on my dice.
But a Ball hasn't happened or taken place yet. That's
four plus one equals five. I end

(12:53):
up having the highest number, so I get to have control of the scene.
The table on page 117 advises me the scene
is all about a, dinner. Let's say that Mister
Blackwell was out managing the fields
in their soon to be lost estate, his
ailing, sickly Mother decided to take the fate of the
family into her own hands. She is, "The
forbidden love of Kate Haverton's very wealthy

(13:16):
father, Sebastian Haverton, and they still see
each other in secret. For years they've been doing
this for shame and scandal. She
sends a secret sealed letter to Sebastian Haverton by
maidservant in the Middle of the night, threatening to
blackmail him if she doesn't provide her son a
wife as compensation for the life he robbed her of, so
many years ago by marrying another woman for

(13:37):
propriety instead of love. Not
telling her son the true Reason, she makes up some
poppycock about their falling into good fortune. And
he's been invited to a dinner to woo the hand
of Kate Haverton's sister, Penelope
Haverton, this very night when the character is in
control of the scene. Besides getting to frame the scene and
describe what's going on like I did above, they also

(14:00):
can do two things. They can choose another player who
they will force to swap out the character that
they chose to play that scene, and now that
player has to play their alternative character. So
if somebody had done this to me, they would say, oh, sorry clint.scheirer@claimtogamepodcast.com,
you actually have to play Kate Haverton and not
Mister Blackwell. And my Heart of course, would be

(14:20):
torn asunder. The final thing a
character in charge can do is to determine
when everybody has to stop spending their means
points and their bonds points. And we'll
get to all that. In just a moment. Once the scene has been
described by the person in charge, your group will go around the table,
giving each player a chance to describe what their character
is doing. Each person can also declare if

(14:43):
they have intentions to propose to anyone else's character
at this event. Not necessary for the first scene,
but we'll leave that up to each player. Now, declaring a
proposal is all fine and good, but there are rules to
this, you know. You can't just go getting hitched to anyone.
Male characters can propose to female characters once
the bond between them is ranked two or

(15:03):
higher. How will you do this? Well, you're going to
roll 1 d 6 before the scene in which you wish to
propose. If you roll a number that
is equal to or under the bond rating you have with
that character, you can propose. If not,
it. Just doesnt work. You either get too scared or its not the right
time, blah blah blah. Your dice results however,

(15:23):
are kept secret by you during the scene so
that you can spring the proposal at the appropriate Time within the
story. And heres the kicker. Female
characters can always refuse marriage. Now thats
what Im talking about. Womin power.
Remember, the goal here to win the Game is
to get married. But maybe you have your eyes set on another

(15:44):
character to tie the knot. You'll want to try to marry
another character before the end of the 8th scene.
On the second year when the Game ends next,
characters will be rolling for first impressions at the event. In
this case, the event is a dinner that has been
concocted through spurned lovers. Every
character will roll dice, let the Good times roll,
and have each person roll the number of dice

(16:06):
equal to their charm, stat. If I'm
using Mister Blackwell, he's charming as hell
and I get to roll five whole dice. Five big ones.
Charm represents their presence in the situation. At the end
of the scene, players will compare each of their dice in the dice
lineup, with the dice of other characters. For each dice
that matches another player's dice, players will

(16:27):
have a bond with one another and they will add bond
points next to the corresponding character's name in their
bond section on their character sheet. Now this
concept confused me at first, but the bottom line is
that you will be using your character's means stat
points and bond stat points to change
the rolled dice numbers of the other players dice lineup.

(16:47):
This allows you to spend your stats like points to either
bump up or down the initial dice
rolled results from the other characters when they rolled their
first impression. All of this is done to
achieve the ultimate goal of being able to declare a
proposal and have the best chances of getting your character
married off by the end of the 8th scene in the
second year of the Game, which is when the Game ends.

(17:10):
If any of the dice you rolled in your first impression have
numbers that match, you have to add a tally representing
a point on the floss section of your character sheet for each matching
dice. I previously rolled my five dice and got
a three, four, five and two sixes.
This means I have to put two tally marks representing
two flaw points on my character sheet.
Next, its time to throw around your means and money.

(17:32):
Start with the character who has the lowest means
first and then take turns progressing up
to the characters with the highest means. If there is a tie
for who gets to go first, have a roll off with your dice. The lowest
result wins. This means haha,
you're really really poor. Spending means or money
and resources should be role played. So if a player wants to try
to change Mister Blackwell's 3456

(17:55):
and six, they could say, I'm a
very wealthy banker named Charles Thurston who's
been invited to the Haverton dinner. I see Blackwell sitting there
in his shabby finery, trying to look like he belongs, but I
take pity on him. I slip him a bag of small
silver coins, give him a wink, and walk to my seat
discreetly. I'm sure he'll invest in me in the future, once

(18:16):
he's been able to make it big mechanically, the
player could say, I want to spend two
of my three means to change Blackwell's
three to a, five. This gets him closer to
having a dice match. And this is, "The goal here, right?
Having a dice match, getting closer to matching other players so that you
can get Bond points to then change their dice in the

(18:36):
future. Other players, however, can spend their standing
points to resist the change in the dice. Each
point is a one for one. Unfortunately,
Mister Blackwell, my character, already spent one of his
two standing points. In order for Mister Blackwell
to resist, you have to have equal to
or more points than what the player is spending on

(18:57):
you to block them. And I don't have
that. So Mister Blackwell's standing of one does not outdo
Charles Thurston's means of two. So
Blackwell has no choice but to take the money
and I, as follows, "A player, have to change my three dice
to a five. Everyone has to spend their
means at least once and the process can continue
until the player is in charge says its time

(19:19):
to stop.
Next you get to exploit your bonds. The
character with the lowest charm spends any bonds theyve
made to adjust dice the same way the previous round
allowed everybody to use their means to adjust dice.
Each bond spent allows a player to choose
another players dice to be changed one number
increment for each bond youre spending. The catch

(19:40):
here is that you can only spend your bond points on the
character that youre bound to remember what bonds you
to the character. Well, you got the freebie bond at the very beginning of the
Game with one point, and other bond points are
accumulated as you play the Game and move through the scenes.
At the end of the scenes, when your dice match up with other
characters, that's when you are adding more bond points
in your bond Pool to the characters that you're making

(20:03):
bonds with. So you'll evidently have more
bond points towards the end of the Game than you do in the beginning.
The catch here is that characters cannot use their standing
status points here to deflect the bond
adjustments. Passion wins over manners, of
course. Manners be damned, good sir. sorry,
I got passionate there. The flow of this part of the scene

(20:23):
continues, each person getting to spend one bond at a
Time to adjust one dice at a Time until the person
in charge says it's time to stop.
Remember to roleplay these bonds being used earlier.
I said that make believe, made up, not real player.
Annette had a female character named Delphinium
Rosebud. That character shares a bond

(20:43):
with my female character, Kate Haverton. We'll
say they are old, snobby boarding school friends
turned bosom buddies. I'm going to say that Kate
uses the bond between her and Delphinium to gossip
about Mister Blackwell, having said something uncouth
and rude about Delphinium. Of course, Mister
Blackwell would never. But Kate

(21:04):
secretly has started to develop feelings for our dear Mister
Blackwell. And if she can't have him, she wants her sister
Penelope to have him instead. Not delphinium.
Oh, the drama. Mechanically, we will say
I have player Annette change one of her dice, currently at a
three to a four, and this makes her further away from
matching Mister Blackwell. The scene is almost

(21:24):
over, I promise. And at this point, once the bond round is over,
if any of your dice match the dice of another character,
you received bond points that you put in the
to the bond point Pool for that character. Put it
right next to their name on your character sheet, and vice
versa. The other character gets a point as well to their
bond pool in the same way next to your character's name.

(21:44):
Also, at this point, if any of your dice match each other, go
ahead and put a tally mark next to your
flaw section on your character sheet to mark a point towards your
flaw. Now, for male characters, here's how
flaws work. Once you hit three flaw marks,
or three tallies next to your flaw, it comes to the
surface somehow during role play. For Mister Blackwell,
his internal conflict was deserting his

(22:07):
entire company during the war, and they were all
killed. Maybe he starts feeling commitment
issues and stands up the character who he was supposed to
meet for a leisurely stroll in the Meadows that
afternoon, negatively affecting their opinion of
him. For Kate Haverton, her flaw is an internal
conflict with being too rash. Maybe she
publicly and verbally humiliates another character by

(22:29):
shouting all of their worst attributes at the top of her voice. At
the most recent. Once an internal conflict is
triggered by gaining three flaw marks, that flaw
must appear in the next scene. The character is
in. For male characters, once you've gained
six flaw marks, remember, through having dice that match
a number, then you get to undo that
flaw, having a good Reason for doing whatever you did

(22:51):
all along. An example might be that Mister Blackwell,
who's a deserter, he got a letter that his
Mother was on her deathbed. And if he didn't leave now without the
permission of his commanding officer, would never have got to say
goodbye to his poor mom before she left for the next
world. For female characters, once again, you
gain six flaw marks. You get to overcome the internal

(23:11):
flaw. Having a change of Heart to become a different
person. Now for Kate, she realizes there's more to
life than being in control, and her loneliness and isolation from
these rash behaviors was just her creating
her own barriers to distance herself from true
love. Deep, Mandy. That's real
deep. Once the bonds and the flaws have been
resolved, you do this all over again.

(23:34):
Four scenes per year, two years per Game.
By the end, maybe you will convince another player character
to marry you through the declaration of proposal
mechanic. And maybe you'll marry well.
Okay, final thought. I'll admit that this Game
might be more fun than I originally thought. Next Time I want to
put on a sense of propriety and hard to get snootiness.

(23:54):
I'll pull out Regency ladies for a night of emotional,
dramatic highs and lows. Join us next
time as we end our Quest claiming Goblin
Quest. That's correct. You hear me right? We've made our way
through this entire game, as well as all seven rules
hacks that come along with it. The next episode will be
a debriefing of the key takeaways that this Game has provided

(24:15):
me, and we'll talk about a new direction that
claim to Game is taking in Season 2.
Let's get jiggy with it. Have you been listening
to this first season of the CTG? And do not
yet have your very own copy of Goblin Quest, the
RPG? Picture yourself pretending to be gross,
grotty little buggers on your next Game night with your
closest friends. Laughs, goofs and

(24:36):
goblins don't wait. Click on the link in the show notes.
Don't like goblins? Enjoy seven different Goblin
Quest setting hacks in the back of the core rulebook. It's
almost like getting eight Games for the price of one. Enjoy
your own copy of Goblin Quest, the RPG
today. And until the next time we make our claim to
Game one Game at a Time.

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023: Goblin Quest - Rules Hack 7 - Regency Ladies - The Roleplaying Game

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