PCs in love -- gender and the NPC connection

[Driddle]

Have you had the opportunity to play out a romantic interest for your character with an NPC? And if so, was a opposite-sex relationship the standard default assumption, or did you have to ask the DM specifically to broaden his perspective and non-player cast options?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Hmm... My PC has been involved in a romantic relationship in two different campaigns, but in both cases it was with another PC, not an NPC.

They were both heterosexual relationships, but I didn't check any replies since I wasn't sure if there was a reason you were asking purely about NPC relationships.

 

[lukelightning]

I've never bothered with PC romance, other than "off screen carousing." I'm not a big fan of RPG romance, straight or gay. I don't think my DM would object to same-sex PC romance, but I don't think any of us in the group care about romance in gaming.

Besides, D&D is my chance to get away from my boyfriend...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

No to either.

Fantasy fiction has a very bad habit of going into enormous details about very bad romances. I swear there are only five types of romances allowed - it is extremely rare that a couple is actually happily married (or engaged, or attached), and if such a character exists, some other character is going to have a stressed relationship.

My group is mostly male; we have only one female member who never GMs. She's pretty; it's basically impossible for a male GM to seriously separate her from her character if they're playing an NPC she's romancing. As for a male GM's NPC attempting to romance a male character's PC, that's not going to happen unless both the GM and player are gay, and right now nobody in our group is gay. (Group composition may change in the future.)

 

[el-remmen]

To me romance is part and parcel of the fantasy genre.

In my campaigns we have had straight, gay and bi and polyamorous relations.

The actual sex is "off-screen" - and usually there is just enough RP of the wooing to let everyone knows it is happening and then it moves off-screen as well.

However, the complications of romance make for great seeds of adventure.

 

[B9anders]

No to either.

Fantasy fiction has a very bad habit of going into enormous details about very bad romances. I swear there are only five types of romances allowed - it is extremely rare that a couple is actually happily married (or engaged, or attached), and if such a character exists, some other character is going to have a stressed relationship.

My group is mostly male; we have only one female member who never GMs. She's pretty; it's basically impossible for a male GM to seriously separate her from her character if they're playing an NPC she's romancing. As for a male GM's NPC attempting to romance a male character's PC, that's not going to happen unless both the GM and player are gay, and right now nobody in our group is gay. (Group composition may change in the future.)

you expect us to believe there is such a thing as a pretty female roleplayer?


HAHAHA<COUGH> [has minor ashmatic seizure, adjusts glasses].

 

[sckeener]

I've RPed homo and hetro relations with NPCs. I just consider it part of having a real character. I've only played a non-sexual character once (a mongrelman who eventually became a woman with an 18 CHA because of the deck of many things)....so eventually if the game goes on long enough love (and sex) happens...npc, pc, construct....whatever.

on a related note...I've done unwed relations, single marriages, and group marriages to only PC-NPCs...never PC-PC.

I can't say I was ever a single parent in a game....I guess I don't want that reality

 

[Lanefan]

If these characters are facing life-and-death situations together on a regular basis, it only makes sense that there's going to occasionally be intense attractions between some of them. But why limit the poll to gender? In the usual D+D setting, there's also race to consider...Elf-Human relationships are common enough; I once DM'ed a game where a Human PC and a Hobbit PC fell in love, and so on.

Also, there's a false underlying assumption that your characters are the same gender (and sexual orientation) you are. As a guy, trying to play a female character in love can be, erm, challenging at times. (though, now I think of it, I've never played a lesbian PC...hmmm...must do something about that...)

Lanefan

 

[lukelightning]

you expect us to believe there is such a thing as a pretty female roleplayer?

They are rare. And of course, I must say that the same seems to go for the male of the species. Present company excluded, of course!

Also, I think most gamers are wise to us DMs' tricks, and know that romance is just another way for us to torture their poor characters with tragedy. Guess what? A dragon eats your boyfriend. Guess what? Your girlfriend is a lich! Guess what? Your husband is pregnant with Asmodeus's child!

 

[Glyfair]

They are rare in my experience except in very "character" oriented games (even then they haven't been common).

The last time I had a romantic subplot was when I was running Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The PC cleric of Istus started flirting with the nearly fallen paladin in the module. If the campaign had lasted longer I definitely could see a storyline developing where she managed to keep him from falling from his paladinhood.

Never had any same-sex romantic bits in any game I've played in, and never suggestions of any. Of course, only a few players I've dealt with were openly homosexual (a few more might have homosexual, but we didn't know).