My favorite new Austen adaptation is actually this game of D&D

move and Bridgerton. Goodbye, SanditonMy new favorite Regency-inspired show is Dimension 20’s faye and flower coatAs a scholar of both 18th century fiction and actual theater, I am telling everyone I know to see this creative new spin in both Austin and actual theater. In an era of over-done, it’s refreshing to see a show playing with the much broader palette that’s actually contained in Austen’s work.

For those unfamiliar with the English Regency (1811-20), let’s set the world stage first. It was a time of great change. Revolutions had just broken out in America, France and Haiti and were looming on the horizon across Europe. Powerful people became cottagecore, rejecting hair powder, heavy makeup, conical corsets, and wide panniers for a few years of relative freedom before the backlash of Victorian hoops and bustle came. Of course, the Regency aesthetic has its own stark origins.Filmi His Empire West His gown was made from cotton obtained from enslaved plantation labor and silk obtained by the conquest of the empire.The real-life tea table is a political battlefield as an abolitionist. was Avoided offering “blood sugar”. As Austen grew up, the sentimental epistolary craze waned as thrilling gothic novels, progressive political novels, and reactionary conservative novels all surged onto the bookshelves.

To be honest, there’s quite a lot that creators have to work on since this period, much of it being ignored. From Amma Assante’s 2013 biography of real-life multiracial heiress Dido Elizabeth Bell to Austin’s Caribbean heiress Miss Rambe, as more creators seek to reflect the true diversity of this era, That is changing. Sanditon. Journalist Bianca Hernandez Knight wrote: Majority white audiences, influenced by the tradition of Regency Romance started by Georgette Heyer in the mid-20th century, were repulsed, ignoring the long presence of black and brown people in Britain dating back to antiquity. , as writer Amanda Ray Prescott claims, Comprehensive Period Productions Stay Here.

Yet even the most excitable among us Bridgerton As scholar Patricia A. Matthew argues, there are complications involved in placing even positive fantasies in real historical settings. “I’m not quite sure what ‘correct’ looks like” In the Los Angeles Review of Books, she said:, “For black characters in England where the slave trade was abolished but slavery was not abolished in 1813.” Tabletop creators have been exploring that ambivalence for years.Vi Hendro and Hailey Gordon good societyAustin-style RPG faye and flower coat and worked on how to deal with history in the same year Bridgerton It was a green light. Hendro and Gordon’s solution is up to the player. In Session 0, participants must choose whether to play in a historically accurate patriarchy, a gender-reversed matrilineal system, or a more equal world. at the same time, good society It also informs players that Austin’s work is not about race and is functionally banned from playing.favorite Bridgerton and other comprehensive works, good society Try to make space for everyone at the table. But the designer also means, as Mark Diaz Truman observed in a conversation with the designer on his Storybrewers blog, that players have to disconnect from their real-world identities to enter the fiction of the game. A healthy discussion of how to adapt historical material After its release, it expanded into the tabletop design space and continues to this day.

Image: Dimension 20

Image: Dimension 20

faye and flower coat‘ Combine D&D to move good society We resolve that conflict by decoupling the mechanics of the Regency from its real-world history. The player is not a historical figure, but a fictional creature from an entirely different dimension. That doesn’t mean the campaign evades the realities of power — it’s still Dimension 20 and Aabria Iyengar, her two brands known for challenging and progressive storylines. A legal battle and hints are introduced early on that there are fairies left out of Bloom’s fun. Reputation is everything, and those with a higher reputation literally have a mechanical advantage over those with a “lower”, so you see their clout. Like your true reputation, it’s not something you can control, it’s something that is publicly seen or believed about you. We are acutely aware of this because we are paradoxically trying to embody chaotic values.

Several other players also cite “repression” as a key to character creation. Omar Najam’s “perpetually smoldering” furtive Andela is not only Austin, but later citing Emily Brontë, author of his 1840s novelist Emily Brontë, to “the ghost of metaphor.” comes from the charm of Wuthering HeightsCombining Batman-like brooding with “first day of school” energy, Najam has reverse-engineered Austin’s new reading of Darcy. Darcy was often thought of as one of his “brooding boys”, but in his novels, like Andera, the blame is pushed too far. young.

Image: Dimension 20

Image: Dimension 20

good societyof The Secrets and Rumors mechanism shines thanks to dimension 20preseason preparations. Players know the rumors created in session 0, but don’t know which ones are true until they become true through play or disappear. So far, Surena Marie’s her Gwyndolin Thistle-Hop has been a secret font, initially tagging her as her modern-day Jane Fairfax.Like Austin’s sub-character Emma, Gwynn builds on every trope of the perfect heroine hood. It’s rustic, ‘personified charm’, and central to the mystery. Her character Her art is even an 18th century inspired throwback, she wears wide panniers her hoops and lots of ruffles. In Austen’s novel, Jane’s secret is revealed near the end, but modern audiences and players are far more skeptical, so early on, it’s revealed that Gwynne is actually the sole survivor of Kraft Court, Binks Chopley. It looks like this is just the first of many revelations to come. Binks resembles the kind of Regency character not often seen in modern adaptations, an outspoken female revolutionary, and we hope she’s more triumphant than her brother in the 1790s.

Image: Dimension 20

Oscar Montoya’s Deloso de la Rue also stars Dandy, Belle, Macaroni, Molly, and Binary Flute celebrities like Anne “Gentleman Jack” Lister, Llangollen’s Female Celebrity Spinster , and former French diplomat Chevalier d’Eon, master of ceremonies and fashion arbiters like Beau Brummell.

So far we’ve been mostly pacifist for this campaign and not as focused on violence as regular D&D. Even serious duels end in applause instead of sustained physical damage. Iyengar and her cast explore soft power in what professor geeks like me call “marriage planning,” a genre that’s thriving as legal and social rules changed rapidly in the 18th century. Heroes and heroines sought to navigate a world divided between the old concept of marriage as an alliance and the new concept of love and friendship: fraternity. This is seen strongly in Lou Wilson and Emily Axford’s characters, cousins ​​trying to do both. and Bloom—they bet Lou can marry for love.

Wilson reports that she only googled “Austin’s most annoying character” in preparation for the character, but Austin scholar Emily Kugler said while we were watching the premiere together. “They’re Crawford!” she exclaimed – namely, Henry and Mary Crawford, Austin’s sexy and inappropriate love interests. Mansfield ParkEighteenth-century readers would have called them rakes, bad boys, and provoked controversy. Did the “reformed rake make the best husbands” or was it “crazy, bad and dangerous to know” like the real-life rake Lord Byron? was a secondary character who greeted the After flirting violently with the main character, both Crawford enter into a miserable mercenary marriage. In the hands of Master Players Wilson and Axford, it seems inevitable that this script will be reversed.

And that’s what I’m most looking forward to. It features characters from the Regency that are often overlooked in pop culture, with stories and endings that were unimaginable at the time.