Players - if you would consider your PC having a romance with an NPC, what sort?

[JustKim]

Okay!

The sort of NPC I like my characters to be involved with are NPCs who have a strong interplay with my own character. An NPC who whether through plot device or personality brings out the strengths, the weaknesses or the quirks in my character.

So it depends entirely on what I'm playing.

 

[athos]

You play with teenage boys who are scared of girls in real life too much. The dynamic when you play with adults in stable relationships is entirely different.

When you play online, you don't really know who you are playing with, I can only hope they are teen agers and going through a phase and are not emotionally retarded adults. And no, I am not implying the people you play with are emotionally retarded, I am saying that the players I have that wanted to cyber sex the game, must have either been teenagers or some kind of skeezy type.

I just don't think sex belongs in RPGs...

 

[Barastrondo]

When you play online, you don't really know who you are playing with, I can only hope they are teen agers and going through a phase and are not emotionally retarded adults. And no, I am not implying the people you play with are emotionally retarded, I am saying that the players I have that wanted to cyber sex the game, must have either been teenagers or some kind of skeezy type.

Granted, there is a significant difference between online and tabletop RP. From what I've seen online, I'd only add that sometimes the more heavily interested in romance and/or cybersex player are female -- I'm not going to say "often," but certainly sometimes. There's a certain safety in cybersex that makes it more appealing: anonymity and no risk of pregnancy or disease are some strong allures, particularly if it's cloaked in romantic trappings like roleplay. It's not for me, but I understand the appeal to more than teenage boys.

I just don't think sex belongs in RPGs...

I'm not fond of graphic sexual content when I play, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it doesn't belong in RPGs -- certainly Ed Greenwood seems to have liked pushing the boundaries of what you could depict in his home game, and he kept his players happy and managed to contribute a lot to D&D in the process. So it really depends on the table.

 

[Odhanan]

Interesting, thanks. Seeking the strong-headed counterpart like Kagan seems fairly common. The Amalruth case seems rarer, but I remember in I think it was a PBEM set in the Bubblegum Crisis universe, playing an escaped convict John Derrick, who fell for a sweet innocent secretary, and there was definitely a redemptive aspect. Being an Anime setting perhaps made that kind of thing seem more natural.

It works with Fantasy as well, in the sense that aspects that would be psychological and subtle in the characters' psyche in a story set in real life can be made concrete and visible through a Fantasy medium. A character with a dark side of his psyche could be an Hannibal Lecter type of psycho in a thriller for instance, while in Fantasy his madness and deviance could be visible on his very skin, via chaotic mutations, or gradual change into a dragon-man, or whatever the heck you want to come up with. Fantasy is great that way as you can mix and match the psychological dimension of the game with its aesthetics.

 

[coyote6]

When I play, any romantic partners for my PC largely depend on the PC in question, and the campaign. E.g., if it's a Special Ops campaign, romance probably doesn't come up a lot (at least until it turns into a WWIII/post-apocalpyse/secret conspiracies/time travel game).

 

[Sunseeker]

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[S'mon]

When you play online, you don't really know who you are playing with, I can only hope they are teen agers and going through a phase and are not emotionally retarded adults. And no, I am not implying the people you play with are emotionally retarded, I am saying that the players I have that wanted to cyber sex the game, must have either been teenagers or some kind of skeezy type.

I just don't think sex belongs in RPGs...

Please stop posting this discussion in my thread, thanks, like I specifically asked you not to in the OP.

 

[Umbran]

Hey, folks!

In the OP, S'mon asked for folks to keep this focused - if you are open to romance with an NPC, what would you need?

If you aren't open to romance with an NPC, and wish to discuss why, please go start another thread on that subject, and leave this one focused on its topic.

Thanks all.

 

[S'mon]

Thanks Umbran.

 

[S'mon]

The sort of NPC I like my characters to be involved with are NPCs who have a strong interplay with my own character. An NPC who whether through plot device or personality brings out the strengths, the weaknesses or the quirks in my character.

I think this is an interesting point - if the romance is going to be at least somewhat roleplayed out rather than abstracted, a major benefit is if it brings out/develops the personality of the PC, who is after all the more important of the two characters involved (in the game, not necessarily in the game-world, of course). So an NPC with a personality that "brings out the strengths, the weaknesses or the quirks" of the PC's character is very useful.

This maybe argues for more 'odd couple' type liaisons, as opposed to say hammer-wielding bearded dwarf + identical hammer-wielding bearded dwarfess. Eg in my 3e Lost City of Barakus campaign, the flamboyant dwarven rogue (and actor-director-playwright) PC Brassik courted the shy, horse-loving human daughter of a rural country knight, pretty much the opposite of him in every way. As I recall it was rather sweet, and hinted at possible hidden depths to his character.

Again this was one of those romances entirely unexpected by me as GM.