This is an episode from Flabbergasted! A Comedy Roleplaying Game inspired by Jeeves and Wooster, Fawlty Towers, and even Downton Abbey, in which the Player Characters—or Protagonists—are members of the same social club and get involved in all manner of scrapes and spots of bother, all in pursuit of keeping both themselves and their club in good standing, all whilst pulling the noses of those confounded arses at the rival club. Published by The Wanderer’s Tome following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Flabbergasted! is a narrative-driven, rules-light and light-hearted storytelling game set in and inspired by the nineteen twenties without being too historically accurate—and certainly not too socially historically accurate. It is designed to be played in episodes, like a television series, with each episode having an opening scene, the episode itself, and the closing credits, though of course there is more to it than that, and that a complete Season is made up of several episodes. Both the players and the Director—as the Game Master is known—are expected and encouraged to improvise during play as much as they use the roleplaying game’s rules.
A Protagonist is one of four Archetypes. The four are Aristocrat, Bohemian, Well-To-Do, or Staff. The Aristocrat comes from a titled family which will give him wealth and comfort; the Bohemian has eschewed materialism in favour of art and performance and a free-spirited life; the Well-To-Do has acquired social standing due to her wealth, whether she inherited it or earned it; and the Staff is a self-reliant and dependable member of the service industry, perhaps in service to an Aristocrat or Well-To-Do. A Protagonist will have a Memento, a Flaw, and a Dilemma. The Memento is an important item that the player can have his Protagonist bring into play, but which will not provide any mechanical benefits; a Flaw is a personality feature or a vice that will get the Protagonist into trouble, such as ‘Persnickety’ or ‘Tippler’; and the Dilemma is an ongoing problem that constantly causes problems, but will probably be resolved over the course of a season.
A Protagonist begins play with four ‘Scene Cues’ which enable a Protagonist to automatically affect a scene without the need to roll dice. However, they can only be used a limited number of times per session. For example, the Aristocrat has ‘Throw A Tantrum’ meaning that he will whinge and wine and kick up a fuss, drawing attention to himself, but eventually getting his way or ‘Virtuous Beyond Reproach’, his moral rectitude being famously strong enough for him to withstand almost any desire or temptation. All four Archetypes have multiple ‘Scene Cues’, allowing a variety of different Protagonist types to be created, and every ‘Scene Cue’ comes with a lovely piece of dialogue to show the reader how it works.
A Protagonist has four Character Traits—bravado & persuasion, culture & etiquette, wit & sharp, and creativity & passion—the nearest that a Protagonist has to attributes in other roleplaying games. Character Traits range in value between one and eight and a Protagonist begins with a point in three of them and two points in the other one, his Archetype’s defining Character Trait, representing his upbringing. The defining Character Trait for the Aristocrat is Culture & Etiquette, Creativity & Passion for the Bohemian, Bravado & Persuasion for the Well-To-Do and Wit & Sharp for the Staff. A Protagonist has access to Readies—the currency in Flabbergasted!—which can be spent to bribe someone, donate to a charity, patronise the arts, and upgrade the Social Club.
Most importantly, a Protagonist has Social Standing. This has its own tracker, which determines if the Protagonist has a Scandalous or a Dignified reputation. Being caught making a bribe—such as paying a policeman to look the other way, will lower a Protagonist’s Social Standing towards a Scandalous reputation, whilst donating to charity or patronising the arts will raised towards a Dignified reputation. Using ‘Scene Cues’ will also affect a Protagonist’s Social Standing. Social Standing starts at zero, neither Scandalous nor Dignified. The benefit to having either a Scandalous or a Dignified reputation is social rather than mechanical. For example, too high a Scandalous reputation and the target of the Protagonist’s ardour might not want to be seen consorting with him, whereas her racy younger sister might! And if a Protagonist’s Scandal or Dignity on his Social Standing Tracker ever reaches ten, he will be invited to join a secret society. Eight of these are detailed in Flabbergasted! and being a member has some interesting, but secret, benefits.
Protagonist creation is really matter of making choices—picking Archetype, Memento, Flaw, and Dilemma, as well as the ‘Scene Cues’ from the Archetype. A player divides five points between the four Character Traits.
Name: Hortense Wiggins
Archetype: Staff
Occupation: Lady’s companion
Memento: My Albert’s war medal
Flaw: Ghastly Gossip
Dilemma: Has fallen in love with the lady’s brother
Social Standing: 0
Readies: 40
CHARACTER TRAITS
Culture & Etiquette 3 Creativity & Passion 2
Bravado & Persuasion 2 Wit & Sharp 3
SCENE CUES
Unflappable, This Way Please, A Stitch in Time, Speciality (Codes & Puzzles)
The Social Club is where the Protagonists get together. There are multiple Social Clubs in the city and each has a theme, name, description, slogan, and an emblem. Each Social Club also has a Rival Club. The players are free choose all of these and create one for their Protagonists or the Director can create one, but several example Social Clubs and Rival Clubs are included, such as the ‘Good Socie-Tea’ and its rival, ‘Java Jivers’, ‘The After Party’ and its rival, ‘The Cap And Gown Club’. Every Social Club begins play with a ‘Public Challenge’, often issued by a Rival Club, and will together with its members face more during the course of play. It might be to get the name of the Social Club into the newspaper before that of the Rival Club or last longer in a haunted house than the members of the Rival Club. Successfully overcoming a Public Challenge garners a Social Club Renown, which is initially set at zero and can rise as high as fifteen. Higher Renown enables a Social Club to spend its Readies to improve its facilities. It will out as a single room, can go on to add a Trophy Room, Cabaret Hall, and even a Printing Press. Renown and membership numbers can go down as well as up, especially if a Social Club fails to deal with whatever Big Trouble is besetting it, but unless the Social Club suffers a series scandal, the primary consequences are more social in nature.
Mechanically, to have his Protagonist undertake an action in Flabbergasted!, a player rolls a number of six-sided dice equal to the Character Trait he wants his Protagonist to use. If the player can persuade the Director that the Character Trait and the way his Protagonist wants to use it is appropriate, there is nothing to stop from doing so. Every result on the dice that is a five or six counts as a Success. A Moderate Challenge requires one Success, Hard Challenge requires two Successes, and a Daunting Challenge requires two Successes. If the roll is a failure or the Protagonist requires more Successes and the Protagonist has earned one or more Lucky Coins—awarded by the Director for creative or helpful play, good roleplaying, and so on—he can flip these, call heads or tails, and hope to generate the needed Successes.
In terms of setting, Flabbergasted! not only details serval Social Clubs and Rival Clubs, but provides a good description of the city of Peccadillo, complete with notable landmarks like the world famous Pender’s Cricket Pitch or the city’s biggest dance hall, Revelry Hall, and a discussion of the things that the Protagonists can up to in the city and outside it. For the Director, Flabbergasted! includes seventy story hooks, two complete Seasons and a sandbox setting. Both Seasons come with a premade Social Club and a set of Protagonists, as well as the outline of nine Episodes. ‘The Sleuth Society’ focuses on solving crime better than its rival Gumshoe Society, whilst ‘The Best Buds’ is about growing and showing the best plants over its rival, ‘The Garden Grandmas’. In both cases, the Director will want to develop the outlines a bit more, whilst the sandbox setting, ‘Welcome to Brabble Manor’ presents the means to do location-focused, either as one-off mini-campaign or an addition to an existing campaign. Lastly, the appendices to Flabbergasted! provide a guide to the phrases and words common to the period, what to wear, what to eat and drink, and tables to generate names, and more, to extra detail and flavour to a campaign.
If the support for the Director is good, the advice for player is very good, and the advice for the Director is excellent. For the player this covers tone and failing forward as well as how to improve his improvisational skill, whilst the Director there is advice on the structure of the roleplaying game and her role in it, and how to adjudicate ‘Scene Cues’, Social Standing, Club Renown, and so on. In particular, the structure of play breaks down the individual episode into its three acts and what each should or could entail. For example, Act One or ‘The Opening’ should ideally include a recap of the last episode, some downtime scenes where each Protagonist is given solo time in the spotlight, and then the conflict for the episode is introduced. Whilst Act Two is the meat of the episode, Act Three, or the ‘Closing Credits’ is more a wrap up for the game just played rather part of the actual story of the episode. Here Renown is awarded to the Social Club, Readies are paid out, both Social Club and the Protagonists can be improved, so on. It is during this act that Nicknames can be awarded—as much as the Director as the players—depending on the actions of the Protagonists during play. A Nickname may change later, but if a Protagonist has one, it can be used as ‘Scene Cue’ once per session, although unlike a ‘Scene Cue’, the consequences of using a Nickname may not have the desired outcome. Overall, the advice is really very good and will help both player and Director get into the swing of Flabbergasted!’s play, whilst the combination example Seasons, the sandbox setting, and numerous examples, combined with refereeing advice really make learning to ‘direct’ Flabbergasted! such an easy task. There are some suggestions too, that Flabbergasted! can encompass other genres, like the murder mysteries of Agatha Christie or the occult, but neither are explored in Flabbergasted! That said, Flabbergasted! need not strictly adhere to the Jazz Age either as it could easily work in the nineteen thirties or nineteen fifties as much as the nineteen twenties, though again, that is outside the scope of the core rulebook.
If there is an issue with Flabbergasted!, it is that as presented as a large hardback, it looks like a bigger and more complex game than it actually is. Really though, Flabbergasted! is a simple storytelling game, actually easy to pick up and grasp once you get past its glad rags. In fact, mechanically, it is so easy to pick up, it is really easy to teach and that, combined with the familiarity of the setting and the comedic tone, means Flabbergasted! can be used as an introductory roleplaying game for new players. In that, it helps that it looks so good and that the Director has a lot of support.
Physically, Flabbergasted! A Comedy Roleplaying Game looks amazing. The artwork is joyously diverse whilst capturing the fun and frolics that lie at the heart of the game. The writing is excellent and a pleasure to read and supported with innumerable examples that capture and reinforce the tone and style of the roleplaying game.
Flabbergasted! A Comedy Roleplaying Game is an ever so hotsy-totsy duck soup. This is a ritzy, swanky roleplaying game that sets everything up for hijinks and hokum and then supports it with all of the accoutrements you should ever want. Flabbergasted! A Comedy Roleplaying Game is the bees knees and it should be everyone’s cup of tea.
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