Love and the DnD experience

[lukelightning]

No. I despise RPG romance. Romance is for stories, not for games. Sure, romantic relationships can be a plot device (as in "rescue so and so's fiance" or "the hobgoblin queen takes a fancy to the PC and tries to kidnap him") but actual rules of romance? Bleah.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll agree with Luke on one point, and disagree with him on another.

I have no use whatsoever for rules on romance. They're not needed by me, and I'm not even willing to give them the benefit of a doubt. I don't need game mechanics for human relationships, thanks.

But (PG-13) romance in my game? Sure! Right now there's a PC married to a NPC, and a PC who is in love with another PC, who in turn has just declared love for a third PC. None of it is forced, none of it is weird, and it's making the game more fun -- but none of it is treated as goofy sophmoric humor, either. Because each romance is tied into plot elements, I also find it's adding a whole lot to the quality of the game itself.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

In three separate instances throughout my gaming career, romance played an integral role in the development of storyline and character growth, twice with me as a DM and once with me as a player. These never caused any difficulties, but made for great roleplaying sessions (something my current group is sadly deficient in).

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'll agree with Luke on one point, and disagree with him on another.

I have no use whatsoever for rules on romance. They're not needed by me, and I'm not even willing to give them the benefit of a doubt. I don't need game mechanics for human relationships, thanks.

But (PG-13) romance in my game? Sure! Right now there's a PC married to a NPC, and a PC who is in love with another PC, who in turn has just declared love for a third PC. None of it is forced, none of it is weird, and it's making the game more fun -- but none of it is treated as goofy sophmoric humor, either. Because each romance is tied into plot elements, I also find it's adding a whole lot to the quality of the game itself.

Right on! Properly played romance can be highly entertaining for the whole party and really help drive the story elements home.

For example:

At one point in one of my games, the PC Knight was in love with an NPC lady and went on a quest to prove himself against a rival NPC Knight, but to make the love triangle more complicated, he was also mutually in love with his cohort who is also his herald and also secretly (neither of them know this) his sister separated at birth. Meanwhile, the lady's best friend (NPC, greater grimalkin that can do both humanoid and animal forms) is in love with the knight's best friend, a young roguish nobleman (PC), though she is somewhat shy about it and generally expresses her feelings by challenging him to duels or stealing English muffins (the nobleman created a masked alter ego for himself called 'The Muffin Avenger' after he figured out that he could buy English muffins for 1 copper each and amassed vast quantities of them). Finally, the party barbarian is in love with a fey demigoddess who appeared once to give a clue to the party, and he also wants to find his mother who was turned into a deer and trapped in a phasing invisible tower, leading him to become a Prestige Bard/Virtuoso. There is also a rivalry between the nobleman (who isn't aware of the grimalkin's attentions) and the party's ranger with 8 Charisma in which they both try to hit on random Charismatic NPCs, failing to comic effects (a duel is typically involved, and since the Ranger is Favoured Enemy Human, he always wins, but then his 8 Charisma doesn't back up his strength of arms). Meanwhile, the knight's new cohort is in love with a noblewoman who is actually a valkyrie running from her powerful father, so she pretends to be his sister, and the knight PC angered his lady due to philandering with his sister and wound up being bound and replaced in an elaborate ruse.

This campaign has atypically high levels of romance, but it drives the point home that romance can really help coalesce and reinforce the plot.

 

[Doug McCrae]

My head exploded while reading the post above.

 

[DonTadow]

Ive played both male and female characters that were romanticly interested in both PC's and NPC's. PC to PC is rare since it seems every damn male has their male PC hit on my female PC's. (I get so tired of that) When it does happen though, it works out O.K. most of the time. My rogue got involved with the party cleric once and he began neglecting the other characters with healing and buffs concentrating mainly on me.

On a somewhat similiar subject: Do you guys tend to roleplay more with/have characters who hit on females who are more attractive in real life?

My NPCs do tend to hit on th prettier players more, but thats more of a coniencodence. I realized that the prettier female players in my game tend to play prettier, higher charasmatic characters where others tend to play low to normal charisma characterss.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Also, I'm no thespian in the first place.

Of course not. You're a guy.

<whisper from off-screen>

It means what? Oh. Nevermind.

This is one of those things that can seriously screw up a game if everyone isn't on the same page. PC/NPC romantic interactions are fine, although most people I game with now aren't interested in that. PC/PC would just be crossing too many lines. I like these people, but I don't like them that much.

Age and longevity in the hobby probably has a real impact on how people perceive it. I know I had enough bad experiences gaming in junior high and high school to make me seriously avoid such things for a long, long time afterward.

 

[Kormydigar]

I share your disconfort. Roleplaying women is hard* enough for me without the added romance twist. Add in the fact that the PC was a woman playing a man, and it would have been pretty difficult to me to actually get into character.


* One of my great failings. I start overthinking, trying to avoid cliches and trying not to be "guy trying to play a girl and getting it all wrong". The end result being that I can't get into character at all. Also, I'm no thespian in the first place.

It really easy to do. Just think of the character's abilities, envision a man, and remove reason and accountability- ta da!!
(not at all serious)

 

[Lanefan]

Having been in games where both love and lust have at times featured prominently, all I can say is that if it happens, it happens. I don't mind at all if PC's in my game want to get it on; if nothing else, it gives them more reason to work together as a team while adventuring...along with providing the occasional bit of drama; never a bad thing. As a player, if it makes sense for my PC to chase another PC, I'll do it just for the fun...and if a romance develops, fine...and I've done this while playing both male and female PC's. The one exception I make is that if I happen to be running 2 PC's at once, they will not get involved with each other...too much conflict of interest.

I've already had to dream up tables for pregnancy and childbirth (boy? girl? twins? healthy? etc.) for my game, along with figuring out what can successfully breed with what...and, having done that, I have to confess to some disappointment with the Book of Erotic Fantasy; it didn't do much more than re-hash what I'd already done, and somewhat more conservatively at that!

Lane-"so *that's* why they make all those Charisma-enhancing devices"-fan

 

[DestroyYouAlot]

Just as a reference, there is a RPG book for this sort of thing. The Book of Erotic Fantasy by Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel and Duncan Scott. I remember coming across this in the book store and being amazed someone actually published such an item. One of the things I remember it had was the length of pregnancy of an ogre. I dread the day my character has to worry about how long an ogre is going to be pregnant . . .

Haha, yeah, the BoUCK gets pretty out of control in a few... er... "places," too. In fact, there are a few tables in there that hew dangerously close to F.A.T.A.L.. *shudder*