A feature of many regency, Victorian and Edwardian novels such as those by Jane Austen, Emily Eden, Catherine Helen Spence, and uncountable others are the restrictions placed on characters in their conversations – through the seating arrangement at a dinner table, for example. Or the opportunity for certain private conversations to take place thanks to a fortuitous promenade around a room or a walk to examine a horse in stable. This game plays with that feature by having a narrative game, in which characters strive to achieve a goal, occur purely through conversation between characters, with restrictions in each scene on which characters can converse. This game takes place over a number of rounds, with each round consisting of a seated scene and a number of promenade scenes equal to half the number of players. In a seated scene, characters are all together and are considered to be able to hear all the conversations, but they may only talk to the two characters seated on either side of them.
In a promenade scene, pairs of characters promenade and may talk freely to each other, but not to any other pair. A system of points spend and bidding enables players to manipulate the seating and pairing arrangements, to try to ensure they get to talk with the characters they want to before the game ends.
/pic4407175.jpg)
/pic4407175.jpg)
