Courtesans: Sex & Society (Print)

BEAUTY FADES. SCANDAL IS IMMORTAL.

Respectable women may have possessed titles, husbands and invitations to all the proper parties.

Courtesans possessed wit, independence, secrets—and the undivided attention of the men who actually ran the country.

Courtesans: Sex & Society is a roleplaying game of seduction, ambition, intrigue and social warfare among the ladies of the demi-monde. Create a woman living beyond the supposed respectability of conventional society, then use charm, intelligence, talent and calculated impropriety to secure wealth, influence and lasting fame.

You will cultivate Admirers, exploit rivalries, acquire protectors and attend the right parties with entirely the wrong people. Every success may raise your standing, but every indiscretion feeds the ravenous appetite of scandal.

Your fellow players are companions, confidantes and rivals. You may help one another climb—but there is only so much attention, money and social influence to go around.

Inside you’ll find:

• Complete rules for creating and playing a Courtesan.

• Origins including Actresses, Professionals, Fallen Ladies, Goldenhearts and Upstarts.

• Admirers to charm, manipulate, fleece, love or ruin.

• Systems for seduction, conversation, performance, spying, blackmail and social intrigue.

• Five measures of success: Legend, Reputation, Wealth, Influence and Scandal.

• Rules for maintaining a household and navigating the demi-monde.

• Extensive character options for Courtesans and their Admirers.

• Advice for competitive, cooperative and semi-adversarial campaigns.

• Particular support for forum games and play-by-post roleplaying.

This is not a game about waiting to be rescued by a handsome prince.

It is about becoming sufficiently wealthy, notorious and politically connected that the prince waits outside your dressing room.

There are no dungeons to loot and no dragons to slay. The battlefields are salons, theatres, bedrooms, ballrooms and society columns. Your weapons are beauty, audacity, intellect, gossip and a carefully judged willingness to behave appallingly.

Rise from obscurity. Accumulate lovers, enemies and expensive jewellery. Destroy a rival with one exquisitely timed revelation.

Then smile sweetly and insist that you have no idea what everyone is talking about.

PRINT EDITION

• Complete standalone roleplaying game

• 276 pages

• A5 paperback

• Black-and-white interior

• Perfect-bound

• Uses the Beer & Crisps system

• Designed for group, forum and play-by-post gaming

ADULT CONTENT

Courtesans: Sex & Society deals openly with sex work, sexuality, pregnancy, contraception, exploitation and historical inequality. Its approach is bawdy, irreverent and frequently farcical, but the game’s central characters are active participants in their own stories rather than decorative prizes to be won.

For mature players who are comfortable mixing adult subject matter with ruthless social comedy.