How many of you have wondered, perhaps while watching some of the most acclaimed films or TV series, how good it would have been living in the early 1900s? Between the'elegance of that era, the carefreeness, the bizarre artistic currents, and the sumptuous noble parties between jazz and glasses of champagne? The atmosphere of that period is full of elegance and excess, which makes the 1920s a rather perfect scenario for a stunning comedy! We present you FlabbergastedAn RPG that aims to create crazy situationsincredibly funny with the right one atmosphere and the right narrative stylein short, a real one role-playing comedy.
Flabbergasted is published in Italy by NeedGamesand it presents itself as an RPG with a narrative style inspired by the British series of the 90s Jeeves and Wooster.
The laughing city
The setting perfectly reflects the air that was breathed in the world in those years. The city we will play in is called Peccadillocharacterized by well 9 different areas, ranging from the port area to the metropolitan area of the paradise district, where you can encounter skyscrapers, luxury restaurants, and perhaps bump into some famous film or theater actor. It doesn't end here, there are also boundless and verdant countryside with cliffs overlooking the sea that fill poets with inspiration, and residential and popular neighborhoods full of museums, crowded streets and shops where you can go shopping. Every area is like this well described and structured which will literally make us lose ourselves in the atmosphere of roaring 20s.
The manual also leaves room for customization of individual areas, with particular shops, streets, residences, and even the possibility of inserting new areas not described in the manual: nothing stops you from giving space to your imagination. You can also decide to do not use Peccadillo as a background, and maybe let the characters play in the your cityobviously imagining what it was like in the 1920s (while still having the freedom not to focus too much on historical accuracy). But if you really want to recreate maximum accuracy, the manual offers many interesting cultural hints, hairstyles, clothes, ideas for typical places and even films, TV series and books where you can learn more the setting and the type of comedy of this RPG.
An exclusive Club
The game revolves around the creation of a Clubwhich can obviously grow and develop with the progress of the adventure. The system also adapts to sessions one-shotbut to best enjoy all the mechanics and game progression we recommend you create a story, which bring your characters forward and your club in more sessions.
The manual itself offers approx 70 episodes to playbut everything also revolves around the skill of Director (The master) to stimulate the players and prevent the context from being repetitive. In fact, however, the boys of NeedGames they also thought about this, inserting a special section of the manual called “Putting the pieces together“, which guides the Game Master in preparing a multi-episode narrative structure.
Peccadillo is full of clubs of all kinds, open to the most disparate social classes and city personalities. The manual will guide the group in the collective creation of their own ideal cluba place to gather in the name of a objective or one passion common. There are many customization possibilities, you can choose social class, headquarters, the motto and even it coat of arms.
Obviously your peace of mind will be continually undermined by “problems” that you will have to solve to ensure the survival of your Club. The resolution of these problems will be the main objective around which the whole narrative will revolve. A club is not a real club if it doesn't boast numerous memberstherefore a further task will be to convince the citizens of Peccadillo to sign up in yours rather than to a rival. As? By acquiring prestigeadding improvements to the structure and throwing challenges to other clubs to demonstrate to everyone that yours is definitely the best of all.
A perfect structure!
The narrative of the campaign is divided into episodes and each session can be a stand-alone episode or part of a larger one made up of several sessions (obviously always at the director's discretion). A countryside it can last as many episodes as you want, the important thing is that you always aim for the resolution of personal dilemmas of the characters and others club troubleso as to always reach a ending to the story.
Flabbergasted doesn't complicate the narrative with rules, classes and roles that are too complex. the system is based on d6 system, very quick to learn and remember. Once your character sheet has been created, the director will put together the pieces of the narrative and improvise every event.
Then they just exist 4 archetypes to choose from when creating the character: The nobleThe bohemianThe wealthy and finally theassistantall based primarily on the social class to which you belong and the type of profession. With this subdivision it is possible to create any type of character you want to interpret, without running into excessive possibilities that would only serve to complicate preparation of the game.
Each character will have their own personal dilemma, moneyand a level of dignity or scandal which will change during the game based on the actions we take. The interesting thing is that reaching the maximum score in either one, you will receive one special invitation to join a Secret clubbut here, we won't spoil anything for you.
First “role”, then think
The manual also offers a wide variety of ideas and ideas to create your own gaming sessions with various tableswhich you can use for customize Everything is fine I wait of adventure. You will even find a table with gods jargonsthat is, “common saying” typical of that era, to try to replace modern words and enter even more into the atmosphere of the 1920s and try to obtain the lucky coins. These can be used to obtain gods advantages in the tests that your character will face, or simply to mock your companions for their poorly developed vocabulary.
The graphics department It's amazing, nothing we couldn't expect NeedGames: the manual is detailed and well edited, the artwork fully reflect the style of play, and the hardcover of the manual that contains it is one of the best ever seen, awarded in fact also to Grammy awards of 2023.
Flabbergasted has a mix of narrative, lightness and fun truly noteworthy, with simple and quick rules, and is able to transport players fluidly within the game setting. A mix that makes it particularly suited to players who want to experience a role-playing game for the first time narrativebut also to more players experts who want to treat themselves to an adventure dedicated to carefree he was born in fun.
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