Romance in RPGs

[mmadsen]

This sounds fantastic:

As far as the 'romance' side, no game has ever done it better than Lace & Steel, where you could fall in love with an enemy on first site...and vice versa! This created a great feeling of swashbuckling, high romance which has never been replicated.
[...]
Oh, geez...it's been years. So realize that I'm just remembering this off the top of my head.

To begin with, all PCs had what were called Ties and Antipathies. These fed into something called Self Image, which was all-important, as it applied to everything the PC did...including experience rules! So if the PC was in a funk, it was actually harder for them to do just about anything...the most realistic depiction of depression in a game, ever! In order to get your Self Image back, you had to do things which fed into your Ties and Antipathies: go after your father's killer, buy your lover a necklace after a big spat, &c. Cool beans.

Falling in love. Y'know, I think it was completely random, and up to the players and GM to determine when this was rolled. But I do remember that major 'villains' could swoon at the site of a particular PC, and try to maim and kill all the other members of the party...but if said PC got on their case, they'd just curse and grumble. Mind you, this is the same game which had rules for social combat that were nearly the same as duelling, where if you ended up being reduced to zero, you couldn't appear in society until your reputation had 'healed'.

What a game!

 

[interwyrm]

It would feel awkward to me to seriously rp certain aspects of romantic scenes. That said, I do enjoy a sort of hand-waved romantic subtext that generates adventures. For example, the character has a lover, and he/she gets into some sort of trouble with the local authorities. What do you do?

That sort of thing, I think adds a new dimensions to the game without any possibility of discomfort.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't think I would implement any kind of system which would actually reward players from pursuing romantic interests for their characters.

I'm 90% sure that at least one of my players will end up pursuing Lavinia Vanderboren in my Savage Tide campaign. His character has a younger brother who fancies himself charming, also a PC, so that will be hilarious - I'm about 80% sure that his player will pursue any woman the other PC is interested in to amp up the rivalry.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Before you involve yourself in a romantic plot, be careful that you have the right players. For a disaster, see this thread:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3697871#post3697871

 

[Lanefan]

As a DM, I have no problem whatsoever with PC romance, PC sex, whatever; in fact, I'd be highly disappointed if such things failed to occur during a long campaign. As a player, my characters' tastes and desire for such things are always part of their background...though usually unwritten unless blatantly obvious...and I'll have them act on such if it makes in-game sense.

I must confess I found the Book of Erotic Fantasy something of a disappointment, as I'd already covered most of the same ground during my DMing career. I have pregnancy charts, birth charts (boy or girl? twins? healthy or not?, etc., by race), what-can-breed-with-what charts, etc., etc.; I was hoping the BoEF might have improved on such, but no luck.

I've had characters leave parties due to failed romance; I've had characters marry; I've had one otherwise-goodly character slay in her sleep the party member responsible for stealing his virtue against his will (*very* long story); I've had characters go to ridiculous lengths to bring back a dead lover...and those are just the ones I've played under other DMs. What others have done in my games puts the above list to shame!

One way to force romance is to lob in the occasional unknown potion and indicate it might be beneficial. It's a Love Potion, of course (does 3e still have love potions? If not, it should!), making the drinker fall madly in love with the next appropriate (to own taste) being he-she lays eyes on. This only works on low-level parties, before their alchemy skills go through the roof and-or they've encountered every potion in the book...but it can plant the idea in peoples' minds that romance *can* be a fun part of the game, if there's hesitation.

One more thing: to save yourself possible severe headaches later, ban in-game rape at Rule 0 level by "divine decree".

Lanefan