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Neon Knight
2007-08-22, 05:53 PM
I was reviewing all my past characters, looking for new inspiration, when I noticed something odd.

I've made many characters. The majority have never seen play. I've made fantastic ones and a few ordinary ones (who actually stick out because of how ordinary they are.) I've made villainous characters and virtuous ones. These characters had wanted, worshiped, and exemplified many things. Power. Justice. Fortune. Glory. Fame. Respect. Glory. Honor. Valor. Enlightenment. Knowledge. Truth. Peace. The list goes on and on. I could name a dozen attributes, qualities, and modifiers that these characters wanted to be and in some cases, were.

I realized that I had yet to make a character who was concerned with love.

I'm not talking about physical love, or platonic love. I"m talking about romantic love. It's a recurring theme in many cultures. In our day and age people are constantly looking for it. And yet not one of the many fictional people I've made was even slightly concerned with it.

Then I considered the fact that none of the games I'd played in had even the slightest trace of romance to them. Not one of the players or the DMs seemed to acknowledge it in even the slightest manner.

What seemed to me to be a major concern for most of humanity and what some argue is our defining trait was completely absent from the role playing I have experienced thus far.

I'm wondering why this is. Is it some taboo? Am I violating some unwritten law by posting this?

For those who have had romance as a major theme or element of a game, how did it work out? Were the characters written right from the start searching for love, or did it just happen?

I've sort of developed an interest in this theme, so any other comments on it are also welcome.

Korias
2007-08-22, 05:59 PM
Well, the reason that many people dont play romantic DND games is that it just gets AWKWARD. And in some cases, it will escalate into mature ranges. In an RL campaign, you'd better be VERY careful on who you play with.
In online campaigns, its more of the fact that the majority of us want to simply kill stuff. Most Relationships come up in game, while others are tied to a specific NPC that is from the past. The book of erotic fantasy details this more, and I belive it has a chapter on romance itself.

Personally, These realtionships can be RP Rewarding. Stealing into the closet with the princess is a great way to get info on the king and the noble court, while it gives your character more deapth. But DND is first and foremost and adventuring game, and people dont have time to go on dates in dungeons (Unless your a Tantric Wizard or Cleric).

tainsouvra
2007-08-22, 06:11 PM
It works well in a gaming group that has romance in mind from the beginning. Otherwise, you run into a pretty basic problem--when your character woos some pretty little princess in the game, outside of the game one random D&D geek is hitting on another random D&D geek in the middle of a tabletop gaming session. There's nothing wrong with it, but that's just not what most gaming groups have in mind--players hitting on the DM and the DM pretending to be interested.

Proven_Paradox
2007-08-22, 06:16 PM
A major factor in this, for me at least, is that my in-person games are complete sausage-fests. I am the male DM, the players are male, and the characters are male. RPing a female NPC for the players on a platonic level can be awkward enough; players getting romantically involved with someone is just not gonna work. I doubt adding a female player or DM would help that, really--it's just going to be awkward most of the time, and since it's usually a one-on-one thing, it also takes time away from the group. In the end, no one likes that.

For on-line games, I could actually see it working out, but not very often. Everyone involved would need to actually be interested in it, and that cuts me out right there--I'm more interested in adventuring, and sometimes I just want to kill things and take their stuff.

tainsouvra
2007-08-22, 06:19 PM
I doubt adding a female player or DM would help that, really--it's just going to be awkward most of the time, and since it's usually a one-on-one thing, it also takes time away from the group. In the end, no one likes that. The groups I've fun have been predominantly female, actually, and it's the same deal. A little flirting once in a rare while is funny, but any more than that and the rest of the group is itching for real adventure rather than so-and-so's love story.

Fax Celestis
2007-08-22, 06:29 PM
Well, the reason that many people dont play romantic DND games is that it just gets AWKWARD. And in some cases, it will escalate into mature ranges. In an RL campaign, you'd better be VERY careful on who you play with.

You have to be careful who you play with in real life too. :smallbiggrin:

In all seriousness, this is the reason: it's awkward for everyone involved, DM and player alike.

Pironious
2007-08-22, 06:32 PM
My tabletop game recently had a subplot where one of the characters got married, so it's certainly possible. I'll admit it was a political marriage and it was arranged by the girl's family, but they fell in love anyways and there was a big happy ending, until her husband's father was assassinated at the post-wedding feast.

Our game does have a few romantic things here and there, but then again, we're not a rollplaying group, combat in our game is somewhat uncommon, maybe once every few sessions, which certainly leaves time for other things.

We also have a wide variety of characters and players, being a large group of 10 or so, we have about 5 female characters, not including cohorts (About 4 players have leadership for various reasons)

So sure, Romance in games is certainly possible, and no one feels particularly left out if two players or a player and an NPC are having their own little thing, because most characters are somehow caught up in their own little thing at any given time due to our widely mixed backrounds.

PaladinBoy
2007-08-22, 06:33 PM
The primary barrier to any type of romantic subplot in our games is that all of the gamers and the DM are male, and we don't feel comfortable with running it because of that. I would like to try a romantic plot with my character, but I think in order for me and the rest of the group to be comfortable with that, not only would we have to have a girl in the group, but she'd have to be my girlfriend in the real world as well as the fantasy world. Even so, we wouldn't want to steal the spotlight from the rest of the group.

It might work online, but everyone would need to know about it when starting and accept it.

TheOtherMC
2007-08-22, 06:35 PM
Love......love is......hmmmm.....

well love is that +2 circumstance bonus that lets you survive one more day :smallbiggrin:

Quietus
2007-08-22, 06:36 PM
The groups I've fun have been predominantly female, actually, and it's the same deal. A little flirting once in a rare while is funny, but any more than that and the rest of the group is itching for real adventure rather than so-and-so's love story.

Freudian slip?


I think it's because romance is a very much personal thing. Inside a game, when you've got romantic storylines, if more than cursory attention is paid to them (AKA "Okay Bob, while everyone else heads to the inn for ale and possibly a quick barfight, you take your lady out to a nice place, and enjoy a quiet evening), then the entire session focusses on either one or two people for a period of time, while the rest of the group is going "We get it, they're in love. Let's get moving!".

I do think that it CAN be included, however, it has to be something A) that everyone in the group agrees is appropriate for the game, and B) that's handled exceptionally well by the DM and player(s) in question. Also, C) It should be, for the most part, tended to as noted above. It should be mostly off-camera, so as not to hog the session.

Now, there ARE some games where I've seen this work well - but those were small games. I've got one game I'm in where it's myself, the DM, and a mutual female friend. Since the entire game focusses on just us two *anyway*, we can play out the romantic side of things without worrying about leaving anyone else out. I've also had 1 on 1 games happen where the character took interest in a female NPC, which again, since there's only that one player and the DM, no one's left waiting while things happen.

Outside of those, there's also the obvious "escalation of maturity" that threatens to happen. In the two-player game I mentioned earlier, it's been established than anything mature happens off-camera; We've basically come to the agreement that rather than being explicit, we simply say "We have an enjoyable evening" (*Coughs* Maybe not in those exact words, but still clean), which yes, is typically accompanied by giggling, or "And then we fade to black", which is the better way to handle it.

kamikasei
2007-08-22, 06:38 PM
The groups I've fun have been predominantly female, actually, and it's the same deal. A little flirting once in a rare while is funny, but any more than that and the rest of the group is itching for real adventure rather than so-and-so's love story.

Yeah, not only is it likely uncomfortable for those involved as well as those watching, it's also boring. Romance is kind of a one-on-one thing, so it would seriously hog the spotlight.

tainsouvra
2007-08-22, 06:53 PM
Freudian slip? ...no comment. I'd really like to, but nope, no comment. :smallamused:

Nice catch there.


Yeah, not only is it likely uncomfortable for those involved as well as those watching, it's also boring. Romance is kind of a one-on-one thing, so it would seriously hog the spotlight. Actually it just occurred to me that there's a very similar situation that occurs enough that most posters probably have seen it, and it emphasizes why romance is often off-camera if it happens at all:

Ever been out with your friends, and one of them invites his girlfriend? You know the guy I'm talking about, not the one who brings her along as one of the guys, but the one who is going to be so focused on her that the rest of you might as well not be there once she arrives? Isn't that annoying?

The players around the table during a long romantic plot probably feel the same, and for the same reason. For that matter, the characters probably would feel the same, and for the same reason.

Viscount Einstrauss
2007-08-22, 06:56 PM
Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Ahem. I include a lot of romantic subplots in character creation, but they're always with NPC's. It just seems weird to me to flirt with another PC.

JellyPooga
2007-08-22, 06:56 PM
Baby don't hurt me...
Don't hurt me...
No more...

[dammit; ninja'd!]

Sorry, I couldn;t help but think of Night at the Roxbury :smallbiggrin:

Anyway, on topic...yeah, love/romance in RPG's either works really well, or doesn't at all.

Much fiction has some kind of love interest (if anything, a higher percentage of fantasy fiction has some kind of love interest than any other type of fiction), so why not RPG's...after all, most RPG's have a grounding in popular fiction, right?

However, as has been pointed out, many RPG groups are male only or have limited female appeal/input/involvement, within which groups, a love-type scenario could well be either be crude and/or awkward.

On the other hand, in a more mature/gender-flexible gaming group, it can be a viable plot device or personality quirk/RP-feature of a game/character.

It all depends on who you play with, really, and how much your gaming group role-plays as opposed to roll-plays...the heavier role-playing the more viable a love-interest becomes.

Orzel
2007-08-22, 07:05 PM
When someone brings their girlfriend and their PCs get involved, a TPK occurs from buff and heal hogging. Or worse. PC created subplots. "You don't have to go to eat each time we enter a town. Especially with you two being a wanted criminals with flashing his ID. Oh look the town guard."

It's always either off camera and barely matter or on camera and hog the light in my experiences.

horseboy
2007-08-22, 07:08 PM
Baby don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! No more!

(Sorry, I had to do that, it's in my contract)

I was thinking of that the other day. Basically a t'skrang warrior who was a questor of Astedar. He wouldn't just be out there to score, but to "help a brother out". All too often "adventurers" are some of the most powerful beings around, yet have the social graces of rutting vermin. (Gee, I wonder why) It would be his job to help them be socially acceptable and to see that they get their "happily ever after".

jjpickar
2007-08-22, 07:22 PM
Well love is...(three days later) and that's the secret to true love.

Seriously though, I play mostly with guys and it feels awkward but I could see it working with a mature group. Personally, I like to play D&D to escape the romance laden fantasy books so as to get more orc thrashing.

Dr. Weasel
2007-08-22, 09:07 PM
It really doesn't come up because any attempt is quickly shut down through blatant refusal, arbitrary Succubi or a BBEG's interruption. Anything to avoid this. (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=951)

Machete
2007-08-22, 09:31 PM
Awkward unless its the two Frenzied Berserkers flirting.

Then its all blood smearing, grappling, screaming, and gifting each other body parts of dead enemies.

The_Werebear
2007-08-22, 09:36 PM
Definition: Love is making a shot to the knees of a target 120 kilometers away using an Aratech sniper rifle with a tri-light scope...Love is knowing your target, putting them in your targeting reticle, and together, achieving a singular purpose against statistically long odds."

I think that is a noble, if scary, definition. My personal eloquence isn't up to the task.

Love should not really be the main focus of a DND group unless everyone is cool with it. Or involved with it. It takes a very mature group to be able to handle it, and even then it should be kept off camera. However, I will mention that love between two NPC's driving the plot forward can be effective, rewarding, and not give everyone the icky feeling they may get from having to watch two male player's female character's make out.

LotharBot
2007-08-22, 09:44 PM
Many D&D groups are made up primarily of teenage males. In a group like that, nobody wants to pretend to be a girl, flirt with another teenage male, etc. There's a lot of social stigma to overcome.

In mixed-gender teenage groups, I suspect the girls already get too much attention from the guys, so they're not likely to be interested in role-playing anything romantic.

In adult groups, for the most part, people have their own romantic lives to live. They're just not interested in fake romance.

It can be done, but it's not going to make sense for the majority of groups.

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-22, 09:47 PM
It's come up with some of my characters. And it's always very awkward.

But, that's part of the point I think.

Anyways, as I see it there are a lot of good reasons why it doesn't come up in games often. Which have all been pointed out.

And I get the impression that there's an awful lot of us who haven't got a clue about this stuff. Closest thing to experience I have is from some of the women I was roleplaying with. The soap opera it turned into was actually pretty damn funny.

Neon Knight
2007-08-22, 10:10 PM
Huh. That makes sense.

Since the majority of my RP has been online, the awkward factor completely flew over my head.

I guess there are a lot of reasons for the lack of romance most of them pretty darn good ones. Guess I'll get back to the drawing board and come up with a less creepy idea.


However, I will mention that love between two NPC's driving the plot forward can be effective, rewarding, and not give everyone the icky feeling they may get from having to watch two male player's female character's make out.

So, if the players hit on each other, or if a player hits on the DM, its awkward and wrong, but if the DM hits on himself, it is okay?

Yes, I realize that is not what you meant.

Xuincherguixe
2007-08-22, 10:18 PM
If it's awkward and wrong that's all the more reason to do it :P

Korias
2007-08-22, 10:24 PM
So, if the players hit on each other, or if a player hits on the DM, its awkward and wrong, but if the DM hits on himself, it is okay?

Yes, I realize that is not what you meant.

Yes, thats perfectly ok, As the DM is simply conveying the reaction of the players action into the world. In Online RP, people will play female characters ( I happen to) and will often get into online relationships. In RL, Married couples might have characters enter into relationships. Truth be told, I've seen people get MARRIED cause their characters did. Well, not JUST because their characters did, but they did it as a precursor saying that they were getting married in RL. At first we thought "Yeah. Your Characters are getting Hitched." And then we realized "Congrats!"

Ravyn
2007-08-22, 10:55 PM
I've actually seen romance sideplots in a good half of the games I've been in--PC-NPC, PC-PC, NPC-NPC--heck, one of my personal favorites was an NPC-PC-PC love triangle which was finally resolved by the second PC deciding she was far more interested in keeping her reputation spotless and in the potential alliances the match between the other two could work for. It's all in how the group functions--the more RP-minded people tend to do it more justice, I think, and particularly in an electronic format where it can really be a side thing and not just take over the table's attention, it can be just as interesting a sideplot as anything.

Stephen_E
2007-08-22, 11:31 PM
The one way you might be able to base a PC around the concept of romantic love is to play a character who is always trying to put others together romantically.

The sort of person who's a sucker for the soppy story and crys at weddings and when watching romantic movies.

You'll need a GM who'll work with you, but basically your PC will always leap in to help the starcrossed lovers, battle the Orc tribe to rescue someone fiancee, try and bring peace to the warring families so the couple can marry, ecetre.

There are heaps of adventures you can get into playing the "love doctor".
Just think, as you reach high levels your renown may grow and you'll find outsiders turning up asking you to find them a perfect mate (when it's a Balor asking, you really don't want to say "No" or screw it up).

Stephen

brian c
2007-08-23, 12:36 AM
Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.

Ahem. I include a lot of romantic subplots in character creation, but they're always with NPC's. It just seems weird to me to flirt with another PC.

If I had posted without reading the thread, I would have to edit in that I was double ninja'd.


Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh

Dhavaer
2007-08-23, 12:52 AM
Yeah, not only is it likely uncomfortable for those involved as well as those watching, it's also boring. Romance is kind of a one-on-one thing, so it would seriously hog the spotlight.

It's something to do in a PbP when all the other players are offline, though.

Tor the Fallen
2007-08-23, 01:01 AM
If I had posted without reading the thread, I would have to edit in that I was double ninja'd.


Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh

Oh, I don't know, what can I do
What else can I say, it's up to you
I know we're one, just me and you
I can't go on

FoE
2007-08-23, 01:19 AM
You know, you could use love as a motivation for a character without actually ever having your love interest ever even appear.

I assume you've seen Princess Bride? What I'm referring to is a Wesley-type character who's adventuring in order to score enough cash or perform enough heroic deeds to score the love of his/her life.

In the Princess Bride, Wesley has a grand adventure entirely off-screen where he's captured by pirates, joins their crew and eventually takes on the identity of the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. That in and of itself could have been a movie — the farmboy who eventually becomes the greatest pirate in the world! Had the movie run with that storyline and the conventional storyline we all know and love became a sequel of sorts (Wesley returns, Buttercup is missing, he tracks her down, hilarity ensues), we would never have seen Buttercup except at the beginning, and possibly at the end.

Another example is Odysseus, who spends years (I forget how many) trying to get back home to his wife and kingdom. We only meet his wife at the end of the story, when he has to clean house and murder all her suitors.

MMad
2007-08-23, 01:35 AM
There's been lots of romantic relationships in the campaigns I've been playing lately, tbh, but I suspect this is due mostly to our groups

1) being generally mature, no giggling teenage nerds
2) being about 50/50 male/female
3) having really good DMs not embarassed to roleplay emotional moments with people of the same sex.

At one point we had a group of 3 players travelling with no less than 4 NPCs for several months of real-life time, and 2 of those NPCs - one male, one female - got very much involved with a PC. It worked great, so yes, it can be done - it's just not very easy.

Nogard
2007-08-23, 02:29 AM
I can't help but be reminded of the end of "Dungeons & Dragons part 2" the comedy sketch by the dead alewives.

paraphrased
DM: Don't you want to get your girlfriend to play Titania?
Player: No. *you* play Titania.
DM: Titania gives you a jewel and says , "if you ever need me, you can call me with this"
Player in other room: umm... are you two being funny?

DrummingDM
2007-08-23, 12:26 PM
Yeah, I see a common thread appearing where most (if not all) of a player/DM's game experience has been in all-male groups. I have to (almost) echo that.

Up until now, everyone I had ever gamed with was a guy. We were friends, brothers, brothers-of-friends, and friends-of-brothers. That makes it REAL hard to toss romance into your game when you *just know* your buddy is going to make a joke about it. Especially in a high-school (or younger) game.

Now, I game with one childhood friend, two guys we met at the local comic shop, and my wife. And I'll tell ya...if romance got introduced to this game, my wife would probably love it, but the beer-drinking, Monty Python-quoting males of the group (myself included) would just rather get on with the story, and kill stuff.

Also, as DM, rocks will fall on (and subsequently kill) anyone who tries to "romance" it up with my wife's character.

Manave_E_Sulanul
2007-08-23, 12:43 PM
I've had the chance to roleplay some romantic scenes, via the internet, and it (for the most part) has been a positive experience as far as making characters seem a bit more on the lively side, but I've never had the opportunity to experience it in any of my tabletop gaming groups, for which I am usually the DM.

I'll echo what has been said before: In most of my tabletop sessions, which consist of all males, with the oldest player involved at any point being a 22 year old (which, interestingly, on a tangential note, has me at 19-in-a-few-days the youngest member of our group by several months...) and all of them college being high school and college students, it just gets awkward to try to roleplay anything like it for its awkwardness.

I have found that romantic love can still play an interesting role in the game, however. Several of my major NPCs (whom, I saw to it the PCs could not seem to get rid of) have been motivated by love and occasionally subjecting PCs to the romantic behavior of NPCs together at least get them feeling like the characters in the story, at least, a more than cardboard cutouts.

I have also found (less fun) that with a bunch of teen aged and college aged boys (myself including, though, much less though than certain people...) a more mechanical *cough* love has influenced the plot. I was had a PC who, whenever the party would return to civilization after a long bout killing small scaly creatures that resemble dogs and exploring the wilderness, insist on beer and women at the first possible opportunity. Usually, we didn't go into much detail about his carousing, and made some jokes about the morning after effects but once I saw to it said warrior was deprived of his precious women, right before things started to go off stage.

In the end, it turned into a very interesting, albeit short one day adventure with the PC, alone, running around the city and looking for the kidnapped 'pleasure woman.'

Heh.

kamikasei
2007-08-23, 01:29 PM
To counterbalance the "because it's a bunch of guys" argument... my group consists of three other guys and two girls, and I would be no more comfortable playing out a romantic interaction with the fems than the mels. Nor do I think any of the others would be happy with it in any permutation.

Now, we are all, girls and guys, young and nerdy... but the point remains that it's not strictly a gender thing.

Jerthanis
2007-08-23, 09:45 PM
I've had females in our group, and honestly, I think RPing an IC romance between a guy and a girl who aren't already dating is way weirder to me than a male player RPing a romance with an NPC when the DM is also male.

Perhaps this grows out of personal experience. Twice have I seen people expressing their real feelings toward another member by crafting an in character romance between them. Once it was even myself doing it (though I only realized that I had attempted to romance her character because I liked the player herself WAY after the fact)

Also, in terms of romancing an opposite sex person who has relationship ties to another person besides you in the gaming group... it's just too easy to become awkward, so it really doesn't happen. One of the girls in my current group is dating one of the guys, but she's still paranoid about getting hit on in game, so always always always makes male characters, even though it's pretty obvious to me that such a thing would never happen. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic...

In any case, we all can suspend disbelief that the DM is a succubi, a dragon, a balor, a gnome, an angel, a demon, or any zany monster to be thought of when plot exposition is going on, and we can identify with these strange beings, and react to them as our characters would, even if they spend a lot of time in action. Yet it's difficult to pretend they're a human female for enough time to say three romantic words strung together?

Perhaps I've just had enormously successful IC romance subplots... maybe those were boring and awkward for people who weren't me and I just never noticed.

Deme
2007-08-23, 10:08 PM
For our first campaign, my group started off small and got bigger, but we started it off with a romance, more or less. 2 sessions in, one of my friends (a female playing a male character) can come, so her paladin comes riding up with his long black hair and 18 charisma, and the party's fighter's (also played by a girl, but a female character) first line from when he appeared was: "shut up, elf! let the beautiful man speak."

In that campaign, it only went downhill from there in terms of poor Tessa's dignity. But the paladin later met a female cleric (played by a female), and though we aborted due to some problems, the epilogue revealed that, as we wanted it to have been, the cleric and paladin founded a temple and had lots of little monochromatic (the cleric was freaky-pale, so I suspect the kids were all white-white skinned and black, black haired...) children running around.

and from there? every campaign has had a romantic subplot between PCs, sometimes 2 or even 3. Most of the time the couples have been both roleplayed by girls, though one of our male group members likes doing romantic scenes, sometimes even as a female character.

We've always really enjoyed it...

Balkash
2007-08-23, 10:19 PM
well i have made many characters, though my favourite pair were a male grey elf lich and a female wild elf lich. they were in love. and it was kind of a dangerous duo, seeming to be the BBEG but really being the good guys. but i never really got to play them. overall i agree with the awkward reasons. and being a giggling teenage nerd, i obviously cannot ever see people being able to play a romantic interest in D&D.

brian c
2007-08-23, 11:59 PM
Oh, I don't know, what can I do
What else can I say, it's up to you
I know we're one, just me and you
I can't go on


What is love?
Baby don't hurt me...
Don't hurt me...
No more...


/duet

skywalker
2007-08-24, 12:07 AM
The first time I ever played any RPG, my ladies-man character wound up in a romantic situation with a female NPC run by the first-time DM. He was(and is) pretty pale and gross, but my other friend(we were all 14-16 at the time) told me "just think of him as this certain someone." It was wonderful advice, let me tell ya. Since then, I've been in several situations where groups dip into romance of some sort, and I have to say that it hasn't been that awkward, on the whole. We're just completely role-play averse in general.

horseboy
2007-08-24, 12:27 AM
"If there's any hot girls there I wanna do 'em!" Oh man, that line gets thrown around so much when you start the subplots. :smallamused:

Lemur
2007-08-24, 01:02 AM
I think the only character I ever created with romance as part of his personality was a dirgesinger (I never got to actually play this guy- yet, anyway) obsessed with his dead lover. Who eventually would rejoin him as a ghost via the Undead Cohort feat. Hooray for necrophilia! I take a strange delight out of having conversations with myself, so even romantic characters just end up in bizarre antics in my case (maybe even more so than the unromantic characters).

I've seen one instance of an actual in-game romance (and not just "I spend my loot on ale and whores"). It was done by a male player and a female player, both of whom were in relationships, but not with each other. Everyone in question was pretty mature, so there weren't any problems. It was also pretty obvious that the romance was lighthearted, and mainly for laughs (as much activity around the D&D table is for). Especially since the female player determined how she responded to her suitor entirely through rolling dice.

I also like Stephen E's idea of someone who thinks he's a love doctor.

Matthew
2007-08-25, 03:51 PM
Actually... as I recall, we were quite into the *romance* side of things as teenagers. Mainly it involved frequenting brothels in Middenheim, but later on, we had Characters setting up dynasties and that required some level of interaction. Since females were generally objectified in our young minds, there was no need to roleplay the romance except in fairly general terms and in the third person (nobody had to put on a feminine voice). "Breanna seems impressed with your stories of far off lands... blah, blah."

Women are never really far away and often a presence in our games, which creates the opportunity for romance and betrayal. I have never really felt uncomfortable doing it (except on the couple of occasions I have tried to project a feminine voice). However, this is not an aspect of the game we dwell on, this is Fantasy Adventure, not Fantasy Romance.

Amphimir Míriel
2007-08-25, 06:22 PM
...but I suspect this is due mostly to our groups

1) being generally mature, no giggling teenage nerds
2) being about 50/50 male/female
3) having really good DMs not embarassed to roleplay emotional moments with people of the same sex.

...so yes, it can be done - it's just not very easy.

Yeah, same in my case.

We usually play in a mixed group, about 50/50 percent and once one of the players (a female) decided her character was "falling in love" with a certain NPC... And started working towards "getting inside his pants" (the DM decided the NPC would be oblivious to her obvious interest for a while)

The interaction was so entertaining, that other players started doing the same thing, with other NPC's or even with other players...

By the time the campaign ended (for out of game reasons unrelated to the aforementioned), the party was involved in a love-polyhedron of anime-like proportions... (think Ranma 1/2 or Love Hina with more males)

It was all good fun, and no one got offended and none of the regular, off-game relationships between the players became strained.

However, I am aware this was a one-in-a-million campaign and no other efforts on duplicating it were succesful.

Talya
2007-08-25, 06:43 PM
I'm currently playing a Heartwarder (FRCS PrC from faiths and pantheons, essentially a high priestess of Sune, the goddess of love, beauty and passion.) It seems most of my interaction in that regard is with NPCs, however. The rest of the party currently consists of a dwarven cleric, dwarven paladin, human ranger, and goblin daggerspell mage. To them, I'm just the eccentric sorceress with the massive charisma that makes my spells pretty much sure things due to insane DCs.

Jannex
2007-08-25, 06:48 PM
Since I tend to consider romance to be a part of the life and thought process of a vivid and complex character, it often has a place in the minds of the characters I play, depending on whether the gaming group in question is comfortable with the topic. All it really takes is a group of mature people who are comfortable enough with one another to roleplay a romantic entanglement between people who don't actually have those feelings for each other (regardless of the players' gender). As a player, I've had romantic subplots under GMs of both genders, and as a GM, I've provided romantic subplots for PCs of both genders. More than one female PC has told me that I play a good male NPC love interest, which is kind of amusing. I haven't seen a lot of PC-on-PC romance, except when the players were already involved in a relationship, but it's happened from time to time in groups I've been in.

Usually the way I've run romantic subplots, and had them run for me, is that most of the interaction takes place in one-on-one scenes between gaming sessions. That way, the rest of the PC group isn't bored, and the PC with the love interest doesn't have an audience/peanut-gallery. I've done it this way in both real-life tabletop games and chat-based online games. I find that this can create some really solid, vivid storytelling, as well as offer an opportunity to explore a character's emotional state in some depth (both of which, as a writer, I find very interesting).

So, in summary, it can be done--you just have to have a group of people that's suited to it.

bosssmiley
2007-08-25, 08:05 PM
Awkward unless its the two Frenzied Berserkers flirting.

Then its all blood smearing, grappling, screaming, and gifting each other body parts of dead enemies.

HAWT! :smallbiggrin:

You want romance in role-play? "Pendragon" has guidelines for medieval style courtly love, grand amors and the like. Heck, a big chunk of the Arthurian mythos revolves around an adulterous love triangle. :smallwink: