(This is a long one but please stick with me if you have the time)
Hiya everyone,
This ones a bit of a hard one to put out here, so please try to be sensitive to that fact as I guess I feel a little awkward doing so. Anyway,
One of my PC and an NPC have slowly been growing what I would call “a romance” and as a DM this is the first time I’ve really encountered this kind of situation. We are all adults and I don’t want to handle this kind of thing like a teenager “19 + 4 that means I score!” so yer, I’ve tried to make something which I think will work. We are both guys, I’m in a relationship, and he is my life long best friend so this is definitely not some kind of RL transference thing (just in case you’re wondering).
Anyway, I’ll give you a very brief rundown of the world and the characters.
Basically the setting is a bit like the movie waterworld, except there are small island nations which break things up and sailing vessels are the norm. The known world is surrounded by an entity simply called “the shadow” which is basically a rolling smog of pure chaos which destroys anything that enters it.
Vidar (the PC) came from the shadow itself (via a long still unfolding story I won’t explain here) and has basically been playing the “I must do good to combat the evil from which I was born” archetype.
Kaori (the NPC) is the last of a people known as the Delquee, who are essentially a type of humanoid whose ancient ancestors hail from the element of earth. She’s the daughter of the “Shadow watcher” who was basically the guy in charge of keeping the shadow at bay.
As you can imagine their interactions started on a pretty rocky (no pun intended) footing, but in the 10+ sessions since that time they have bonded to be pretty close. Hence I have reached this point.
My idea is that she will ask to speak with him and then in a private aside (we have a room we keep away from the other players) I read out the following:
“My people don’t believe in the afterlife... your gods serve men, dwarfs, elves and those born of the soul.
My people… My people grew from the world itself and to it we shall return as an echo which chimes forever in the dark still of stone, soil and sand.
You can’t hear them Vidar… but I do.
They are a million lives flowing within the earth,
drifting as glass and salt upon the oceans waves.
So many lives lost… but so many lives lived!
Their echoes crash as silent thunder upon the open rock.”
She leans back into the arch of the window and pauses for a moment.
“I know my father loved me…
for I was his daughter and he loved me as any father should.
But he was never proud. I never gave him reason to be…
I was always too quiet in way
and too silent in action.
I was so fearful of risk that I would never wager…
It was not until I heard of his death that I broke from myself
and it was not until my people faded into extinction that I became the leader I was always meant to be.”
She grips you by the arm and draws you close.
“So many lives lost Vidar… So many… and yet still I was too afraid to live!
I’m the last of my kind, there will be no other…
Tell me now what songs will the stone sing when I die?
What words will I give to the darkness when I slip from the light?”
Heavy tears well within her eyes and she draws in a sharp quivering breath in a vain hope to hold them back.
Still with me? awesome!
Ok so once, I’ve read that out, he will obviously have to talk her into some kind of positive frame of light. Which he no doubt will, and that’s simple role play which we can both handle. Now at that point if he has done things right I will give him the following to read:
She moves as though to embrace you, but pauses at the last… like an arrow notched and drawn, waiting for its mark. A nervous, thrilling silence passes between you both.
Her unspoken words talk of devotion,
of love
of whatever life she would wish into this world
if it were only hers to command.
Her silent yearnings hang as heavy as heart upon the silence that smoulders between you.
If you choose to embrace her take the sheet the DM has laid out for you otherwise return this sheet to the DM.
If he takes the note he will then read this:
She holds you for a long moment, allowing her sorrow to dissipate and dissolve into the air as a gentle calm washes over you both. She turns, slowly within your arms, and touches her lips to yours with a soft and peaceful warmth.
As she rises up within your embrace her hair falls free from its bonds. Its soft texture flows as silk upon your skin - framing you both as one and warding away the world and its troubles.
An echo sounds within your soul with each kiss and a rhythmic song sings within your heart with every moment you are together.
There is no order,
there is no chaos,
there is no time eternal
or shadow forever…
For now at least
there is simply “more”
and you know that from this day forth
there always will be!
If he does not take the note I will read out the following:
“I know it may not seem as much, but I stand with you Vidar… all my people do, for they sing for us all.”
She holds your arm for a long moment and then draws away to exit the room, turning once only to glace, smile and dream. Sometime that is all that any can do.
Anyway.. I’m sorry for an epic post and I'm not the worlds best writer as you can see, but I guess my question is simple. Is this a good way to handle things? Would you as a player like this kind of thing if a romance between you and a NPC were to initiate?
Hiya everyone,
This ones a bit of a hard one to put out here, so please try to be sensitive to that fact as I guess I feel a little awkward doing so. Anyway,
One of my PC and an NPC have slowly been growing what I would call “a romance” and as a DM this is the first time I’ve really encountered this kind of situation. We are all adults and I don’t want to handle this kind of thing like a teenager “19 + 4 that means I score!” so yer, I’ve tried to make something which I think will work. We are both guys, I’m in a relationship, and he is my life long best friend so this is definitely not some kind of RL transference thing (just in case you’re wondering).
Anyway, I’ll give you a very brief rundown of the world and the characters.
Basically the setting is a bit like the movie waterworld, except there are small island nations which break things up and sailing vessels are the norm. The known world is surrounded by an entity simply called “the shadow” which is basically a rolling smog of pure chaos which destroys anything that enters it.
Vidar (the PC) came from the shadow itself (via a long still unfolding story I won’t explain here) and has basically been playing the “I must do good to combat the evil from which I was born” archetype.
Kaori (the NPC) is the last of a people known as the Delquee, who are essentially a type of humanoid whose ancient ancestors hail from the element of earth. She’s the daughter of the “Shadow watcher” who was basically the guy in charge of keeping the shadow at bay.
As you can imagine their interactions started on a pretty rocky (no pun intended) footing, but in the 10+ sessions since that time they have bonded to be pretty close. Hence I have reached this point.
My idea is that she will ask to speak with him and then in a private aside (we have a room we keep away from the other players) I read out the following:
“My people don’t believe in the afterlife... your gods serve men, dwarfs, elves and those born of the soul.
My people… My people grew from the world itself and to it we shall return as an echo which chimes forever in the dark still of stone, soil and sand.
You can’t hear them Vidar… but I do.
They are a million lives flowing within the earth,
drifting as glass and salt upon the oceans waves.
So many lives lost… but so many lives lived!
Their echoes crash as silent thunder upon the open rock.”
She leans back into the arch of the window and pauses for a moment.
“I know my father loved me…
for I was his daughter and he loved me as any father should.
But he was never proud. I never gave him reason to be…
I was always too quiet in way
and too silent in action.
I was so fearful of risk that I would never wager…
It was not until I heard of his death that I broke from myself
and it was not until my people faded into extinction that I became the leader I was always meant to be.”
She grips you by the arm and draws you close.
“So many lives lost Vidar… So many… and yet still I was too afraid to live!
I’m the last of my kind, there will be no other…
Tell me now what songs will the stone sing when I die?
What words will I give to the darkness when I slip from the light?”
Heavy tears well within her eyes and she draws in a sharp quivering breath in a vain hope to hold them back.
Still with me? awesome!
Ok so once, I’ve read that out, he will obviously have to talk her into some kind of positive frame of light. Which he no doubt will, and that’s simple role play which we can both handle. Now at that point if he has done things right I will give him the following to read:
She moves as though to embrace you, but pauses at the last… like an arrow notched and drawn, waiting for its mark. A nervous, thrilling silence passes between you both.
Her unspoken words talk of devotion,
of love
of whatever life she would wish into this world
if it were only hers to command.
Her silent yearnings hang as heavy as heart upon the silence that smoulders between you.
If you choose to embrace her take the sheet the DM has laid out for you otherwise return this sheet to the DM.
If he takes the note he will then read this:
She holds you for a long moment, allowing her sorrow to dissipate and dissolve into the air as a gentle calm washes over you both. She turns, slowly within your arms, and touches her lips to yours with a soft and peaceful warmth.
As she rises up within your embrace her hair falls free from its bonds. Its soft texture flows as silk upon your skin - framing you both as one and warding away the world and its troubles.
An echo sounds within your soul with each kiss and a rhythmic song sings within your heart with every moment you are together.
There is no order,
there is no chaos,
there is no time eternal
or shadow forever…
For now at least
there is simply “more”
and you know that from this day forth
there always will be!
If he does not take the note I will read out the following:
“I know it may not seem as much, but I stand with you Vidar… all my people do, for they sing for us all.”
She holds your arm for a long moment and then draws away to exit the room, turning once only to glace, smile and dream. Sometime that is all that any can do.
Anyway.. I’m sorry for an epic post and I'm not the worlds best writer as you can see, but I guess my question is simple. Is this a good way to handle things? Would you as a player like this kind of thing if a romance between you and a NPC were to initiate?
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. And, as we all know, no plan survives contact with the PCs.
