Jane Austen/Regency flavor to throw into an adventure?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This weekend, I'll be running An Unexpected Wedding Invitation for a group of coworkers. It's a pretty straightforward Tier 1 5E adventure with a Jane Austen/Regency vibe. (There's a combat encounter on the road to the adventure, either a picnic or hunting expedition, then darting around a mansion trying to figure out who the murderer is, all centered around a bride with a whole lot of suitors.)

I'd like to turn the Austen dial up a bit and was hoping folks here might have some suggestions.

For starters, the adventure begins in a tavern, which is fine with me, generally speaking, but I was thinking of potentially moving it to a tea house (no idea if that's anachronistic or not, but it feels like it fits the vibe better). Since it's probably a little off, tonally, to have a barroom brawl in an Austen-inspired tea house, I've been trying to think of an alternate way to start things off with a bang.

I know this is a fairly unusual flavor to mix into D&D and RPGs generally, but I was hoping someone here might have some suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm not familiar with the tropes enough to say, but TVTropes might help you out. There was also a recent regency Cthulhu game that might cover the setting/genre well enough to help you.

 

[Tonguez]

The Tea Shop didnt become a thing until 1864, afternoon tea is a Victorian tradition.
However the Vauxhall Tea Garden in London was established around 1733, followed by many others in garden settings which allowed both men and women to enjoy tea, coffee, and chocolate and various entertainments. (Previous to the 18th century, there had been coffee houses but these were male only dens of iniquity from which women were barred)

The tea gardens provided flowered walks, shaded arbors, a “great room” with music for dancing, skittle grounds, bowling greens, concerts; and some gambling and racing. Their season extended from April to September. There might be a small charge for admission, and visitors (never customers) would also purchase cheese, cakes, syllabubs, tea, coffee and ale. Vauxhall charged sixpenny and often took 50 pounds per night. It featured promenades, a temple, a lily pond, firework displays, concerts, Indian jugglers, equestrian entertainments, balloon ascents, elaborate illuminations, and pavilions with supper boxes for six to eight people.

According to one source if a gentleman wished to make the acquaintance of a particular lady, it was the accepted practice to tread on her skirt, as if by accident, apologize profusely for such clumsy behavior and then offer an adjournment to an arbor for tea in order to make amends. (You may want to include that for flavour)

good luck sir

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

A tea garden is perfect. That's completely the right vibe. Now I just need a strong start, in Lazy DM 8 Step terms, and I'm off and running.

Thanks, @Tonguez!

 

[dbm]

We love some Austen in our house. A very strong feature of her work is society, its rigours and constraints. The savage cut and thrust of popular opinion and the realities of wealth and the obligations / privileges that creates. Patronage is a big thing.

To have a strong Austen feel I would have prominent cliques based on wealth and the possibilities of patronage. If the PCs are outsiders then they would become a curiosity to the local society and be inspected to see if they were important, entertaining, exploitable and so on. Objectionable behaviour would result in ostracisation by more gentle groups (traditionally, ladies or clergy) or perhaps a duel if they annoy more militant types (though any kind of violence is very rare in Austin to my recollection).

D&D wouldn’t be my first system in mind for this sort of thing, it doesn’t have an extensive range of relevant skills out-of-the-box. But you could certainly do some light adaption with skills for dancing, playing the piano-forte, singing, needlework, painting, estate management and so on. Social status should definitely be prominent; wealth alone is not a guarantee of status in this stratified society. Appearance is also extremely important, with well made and fashionable clothes being one indicator of prestige. If the PCs are new to the local area then they may need to visit the outfitters to get suitable attire.

 

[deganawida]

My wife would say that you have to have Colin Firth coming out of a pond at some point…

 

[dbm]

My wife would say that you have to have Colin Firth coming out of a pond at some point…

That was filmed quite close to where I live

 

[deganawida]

That was filmed quite close to where I live

She squeeed

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My wife would say that you have to have Colin Firth coming out of a pond at some point…

Whether they choose the picnic or hunting expedition, one of the suitors is for sure ending up in a pond, no worries. I know my audience.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I love the internet.

Austen Writer

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