Romance in RPGs

[S'mon]

You don't need to have romance to have dynasties - say you're an up & coming hero/warlord with a small domain, traditional thing to do is find a king with an eligible daughter and arrange a dynastic marriage that benefits both parties...

 

[Bandersnatch777]

Romance is just another motivational plot hook.

<snip>
>It also means getting the players interested in role-playing romantic involvements with their characters. I don't mean full-on Book of Erotic Fantasy/GUCK stuff here. I just mean some acknowledgement of relationships. And therein lies the challenge.

I found the Book of Erotic Fantasy exceedingly well written. Many of the classes were appropo to, Witches, Annis/Hags, Sirenes, Succubi/Incubi, (divine) Houri and Mata Hariesque characters.

>So, my question is, how do you deal with this subject in your campaign? Do you use some form of award system (action points/XP) for role-playing these things? I was thinking about making a series of feats that you could take for free, so long as you met the prerequisite, such as In Love, and One True Love, that gave you some benefits for playing the romantic. Any thoughts on that?

Raven Crowking

*Nod* I don't give XP for killing things. I do give XP for Vanquishing enemies (as if slain), and that can be as little as foiling a plot or scaring beasties away. So instead, I give XP for (among a lot of other things, & all of which that follows must be to a purpose to the story, practicing doesn't count) use of class ability & racial traits (including foibles); skill ranks; spell levels learned or cast; feats used etc. etc.

What that does is allow the characters to just RP without worrying that they'll not get anywhere XP-wise because they're not killing something. It allows them to emphasize those quirks of personality that makes them different from the next guy.

My campaign is low magic and thus I give bonus feats based on age:
Sentient creatures receive bonus feats (provided that they’ve had the opportunity to learn them) when they reach the listed ages in the following table:
Age
25 150 350 600 1000 3000 5000 9000
50 200 400 700 1500 3500 6000 10000
75 250 450 800 2000 4000 7000
100 300 500 900 2500 4500 8000

ect., etc....

(E.g. A jinn in a bottle for 10,000 years don’t learn nothin’!)

And I give bonus feats = to the character's Cha mod at 1st level; Bonus feats = to the character's Int mod at 5th level; Bonus feats = to the character's Wis mod at 9th level.

They've been tailored to be balanced in my campaign, see the Database section of Yahoo! Group I use as a game aid.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/GauliaSweetGaulia/

Again, this allows the character to emphasize their uniqueness. As a storyteller, romance is just as easy to pursue as any other character motivation. Hopefully, all of your Players are mature & well adjusted. If so, it shouldn't be a problem.

I hope that you find this to be of some assistance.
-Bander

"There is only one thing on this earth more powerful than Evil, and that's us. Any questions?" - Buffy Summers in episode "Bring on the Night"

 

[dead]

I just finished Relics & Rituals: Excalibur. The Courtly Love section was just a couple of paragraphs.

No, you should check out Pendragon. That's actually got a system that a GM can use when a PC Knight is romancing an NPC. Sure, it's all based on courtly love but it's interesting.

 

[Ottergame]

I enjoy the romantic relationships two of my characters have in games right now. Both are in love with NPCs, one is open about it and the affection is returned, the other keeps his love a secret from the NPC.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Thanks for your replies. When I have devised my rules for dealing with this stuff, I'll post them. If you'll give them a quick read-through before they become "house rule official" I'd appreciate it.

 

[Raven Crowking]

bump

 

[Nine Hands]

I've found that if I present the opportunities for romance, most players are willing to work at it. Some players want a more indepth roleplaying (mostly taking their romantic interest out on a date or even a side adventure revolving around thier relationship.

As a player, I have dived right into romantic affairs. We play Robotech (which has a strong romantic slant to it) so I figured that playing a "Hopeless Romantic" would be a good idea. My character writes romance novels on the side (she is assigned as a Veritech pilot) and she has dated someone in the squadron (which ended badly as I expected it to). She has an upcoming adventure where she has planned a surprise party for her current boyfriend (who happens to be a secret agent, so there will probably be a bunch of ninjas showing up to kill him or something equally as crazy).

All in all the romantic angle is a blast. It ties the characters more to the game world, the may end up having children, broken hearts, losing thier true love. Its the stuff of epic tales.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I found the Book of Erotic Fantasy exceedingly well written. Many of the classes were appropo to, Witches, Annis/Hags, Sirenes, Succubi/Incubi, (divine) Houri and Mata Hariesque characters.

Actually, so have I.

I just meant that I didn't want the PCs to be making "Fort saves for performance" or things like that. There are some rules (including spells and monsters) in the BOEF that would work exceedingly well in a "standard" campaign.

In addition, I'm pretty happy with some of the material in Testament. I'll be laying hands on Hamunaptra on Wednesday, so that product may well contain additional ideas for me to play with.

RC

 

[maddman75]

As long as its here,

I run Buffy, so romance and teen angst are a big part of the game. The way its handled is there's a Love drawback. The character gets some extra points, but the Director then has someone they can threaten, kidnap, or make you hide your demon parentage/werewolfiness/being the Slayer from. Alternately, you can take tragic love, which is the same thing only the relationship is guaranteed to end in tears and agony.

That way the players who want to can, and those who don't don't have to. But if you do you get more spotlight time - I pretty much encourage everyone to take Tragic Love.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Working on the Evil part of my alignment.......