8 tabletop RPGs for Bridgerton and Our Flag Means Death fans

Period fiction is enjoying a pop culture moment, whether fans are hanging on the intrigue among the queen’s le bon ton in BridgertonSocial media clamoring to be a part of the second season Our Flag Means Death. The desire for stories that are set in Regency England and the Golden Age of Piracy or other dominant cultural points is just as old as writing fiction. These stories can now be approached on both the page and at the table.

The portrayal of tabletop RPGs is often tied to sorcery and swords, which ignores a wealth of titles that span the entire history of humanity. These games take alternative rule sets, such as Vincent and Meguey Baker’s Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands and Alex Robert’s For Queen, and channel through them passionate explorations of the more buttoned-up cultures of times past — largely so players can subvert those norms in interesting and “scandalous” ways.

Period-themed tabletop roleplaying games allow for players to deliberately reframe the history, much like popular TV programs. They don’t ignore the ugly bigotry shot through our past, but instead create a space to tell stories with more racially inclusive and queer casts, using a period’s aesthetics and stylistic markers. It can be both liberating and enjoyable. Below are several tabletop RPGs that were designed for this occasion.

Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG

Image: Raven Warner/Storybrewers roleplaying

Storybrewers’ game of romance, rivals, and social intrigue has been the gold standard of Regency role-play since its release in 2018. As the name implies, it draws heavily on Austen’s novels. Like Austen protagonists, players must navigate English gentry’s thorny gardens while searching — or staunchly avoiding — love.

In the game, there are several characters that can be played by players Good Society trade both rumors with their social betters and wistful glances with their heart’s desires. Powerful resolve and monologue tokens allow players to take control of the narrative in pivotal moments, skewering a rival’s reputation or creating the perfect hidden rendezvous. This collaborative RPG animates Austen’s plot with enough confidence and verve to last several sessions.

Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG is available on Storybrewers’ website.

Virtues & Scandals

For those who wish to spend just a few hours amongst the others, there are several options. Virtues & Scandals, which condenses all the machinations of the queen’s social court into a single page of rules. This is a hack of John Harper’s (Blades in Dark) Lasers & FeelingsThis means that characters have only two stats: scandal and virtue. The former is based on their upbringing and poise, and the latter can be used to seduce and deceive. The only requirement for the person in charge is to tell a story and provide juicy gossip via The Rag. Then, the group can be set free to roam the streets of high and low society.

Virtues & ScandalsAvailable on Itch.io

Ocean Tides

Image: Annie Johnston-Glick

High seas can be a problem for courts and royals, but they still offer plenty of drama potential. Ocean TidesLet three people explore the complicated connections between pirates and naval officers using the role play minigame structure. Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands. These minigames are not a narrative. Instead, they provide windows to important and intimate moments. When grouped together, the games create an emotional arc. The game’s short but intense nature makes it a great choice for groups that want to get to the bottom of things.

Ocean TidesIt is romantically explicit, but it ends in tragedy. The three main characters are far away from any social authority who might help them to control their desires, making them susceptible to the same types of fantasies they don’t even want to acknowledge.

Two Fops of Vindamere

You spent all of the runtime BridgertonI wish someone could pull out a duelsaber to challenge some upstart. Two Fops of VindamereThis might just be the best game. It is a tongue-in cheek take on social season and provides fencing instructors with a platform to meet their loved ones and plan for the end of-year tournament. Vindamere’s city is where you can find love at the touch of a knife.

Two Fops of Vindamere Available on DriveThruRPG and Itch.io

Bro, It’s Gay to Dock!

Image: Willem van der Velde II/Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes, pirate RPGs need to be loudly and openly gay. Bro, Are You Gay to Dock? This is what they do. A group of young swabs who are obsessed with the famous buccaneer that saved their lives from certain doom is another way to describe them. It’s that episode of Our Flag Means DeathYour weekly group is able to lust after Blackbeard, while the rest of The Revenge are willing to help him.

It’s the perfect example of how tabletop games can excel simply by offering a framework and rules to live out very specific fantasies. The fan response to David Jenkins’ nautical romcom — including a bevy of fan art of Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby’s characters — revealed an audience clamoring for more salty, smoldering romance.

Bro, It’s Gay to Dock!Available on Itch.io

All Hands on Deck

One subgenre in tabletop RPGs forges ahead of the 200-page text and instead uses prompt-based games, which allow players to reveal an emerging setting through collaboratively answering questions. All Hands on DeckThis principle is followed by using cards as a tool to create a story about ships, crews, and the bonds that unite them.

All Hands on Deck The sessions are open to all directions, and can be steered in the direction of any player’s choice. At the end of each session, sailors will form a network of relationships. They also learn the history and intent of the vessels they are crewing. These results might become the basis for a whole campaign in another setting or remain as a series of cans and mays.

All Hands on DeckAvailable on Itch.io

Lady Blackbird

Image: Annie Johnston-Glick

John Harper’s steampunk-themed adventure game is an exception to this list. The rest of the list are more limited and less structured, while others rely on role-playing and different settings. Lady Blackbird deserves to be included if only to be an on-ramp for the curious-but-hesitant.

It wouldn’t be a list of indie tabletop RPGs without a call to step outside the systems that dominate this hobby, and the story of Lady Blackbird’s flight from an arranged marriage towards her lover, the pirate king Uriah Flint, deserves a chance to woo your table with swashbuckling and style.

Lady Blackbird It is available on their official website for no cost.

Collectively, We Create Private Cathedrals

This is the strongest thread Our Flag Means Death’s ardent fan community is the celebration of the gay romance that blossomed between Edward Teach and Stede Bonnett over the course of the first season. The exact topic of this documentary is the queering and historical portrayal of Edward Teach. Collectively, we write private cathedralsA game of epistolary, in which two people play the roles of lovers and write letters to each other.

The roll of the die can determine whether a letter’s contents are hidden, censored or destroyed. The game reminds us that history is written by the hegemonic. It also serves to remind us of our love stories, which are often buried under their pens.

Collectively, we write private cathedrals It is Itch.io available