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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Novem5er" data-source="post: 5117288" data-attributes="member: 57859">Mr. Mouse,I read your review and a few of your other articles just the other day, but I'm just getting around to posting back here.I really liked your review, and I've enjoyed your varied work for about a year now since coming to EnWorld and playing 4e. I'm not sure about being a game designer, but I am an aspiring novelist, so I was very interested in your related article about the link between RPGs and fantasy writing.Dragon Age RPG would be a good game for someone to jump into roleplaying. From what I've seen of it, DA has some simple but interesting mechanics. I could definitely see some teenager out there (or anyone else thinking of making that first RPG purchase!) picking up the boxed set because they liked the video game, and then reading the two books front-to-back, and then stealing some d6's from the family Monopoly box.Now, my wife took a look at the DA RPG and had a major complaint: there was no romance mechanic! Seriously <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> We've both played the DA video game, and a large part of that game is how you can create relationships between yourself and several other characters by choosing various dialogue options, giving particular gifts, and even having those other characters present during certain plot events in the game.I explained to her that these were things that would be done in the "RP" part of any tabletop game, but she wasn't having any of it. So here's a tip out there for you game designers AND fantasy writers:Women like creating personal relationships. Create interesting characters, have them fight, fall in love, and sometimes kill each other...and then make some rules for that in an RPG.My wife wants seduction, drama, and intrigue to be more than just a series of Bluff and Diplomacy checks. "I have to beat a 15? Okay, now what? A 17? Okay... zzzz". She also doesn't want it all to be "in character", which means her husband of a GM just gives in, or the other guys at the table get a little too into it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />Why does combat in any system take up dozens or hundreds of pages to detail, but something that many female gamers enjoy (personal relationships) is relegated to a simple skill check or in-character roleplaying than can often be creepy or inappropriate?I'll related this back to Dragon Age because my wife, and therefore also myself, would have been sold on the system if it had ANY mechanic to match what she loved about the video game... getting people to like you, hate you, and to sleep with you either way <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" /></blockquote>

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