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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Barastrondo" data-source="post: 5296156" data-attributes="member: 3820">Or funny hats, or silly accents, or wearing clothes of a certain color. Yet if people describe their characters as wearing funny hats and their elves as wearing green, or speak in a silly accent when in character, they are still playing D&D. By that token, those who roleplay romantic subplots are either playing D&D, or there is a double standard at work that's unsupported by anything in print. Perhaps by a given table rule, of course — if romance makes a player uncomfortable, he can say "We're here to play D&D, not to roleplay romances!" Sure. Enforcing his comfort zone's very reasonable. But that statement doesn't mean his personal definition of D&D must apply even at his table, much less beyond it.Or you are roleplaying. It's the same process that can be used to introduce any element to the game. A wounded messenger stumbles across the street. There are no rules for NPCs appearing with fewer than ordinary hit points, or for offering rewards if they are helped. A player orders a meal in a bar. There are no rules to determine what is on the menu. Improv RP is older than Black Dougal.I mean, it's cool if romantic subplots are totally uninteresting to any player or if they'd rather not see them in a D&D game. But subject matter that's written right into every D&D setting ever — the Tanis love triangle, Strahd's obsession, Palace of the Silver Princess — it doesn't transform D&D into a separate game. It's just a different play style than the "keep romance away from the table" play style.I guess that depends on how you define D&D. I can see it as "the formative experience and collection of feelings I associate with how I learned to play D&D." Sure, we all carry our own personal D&Ds within us. As a greater whole... man, couldn't disagree more. One of the most beloved Story Hours on this very board spun out of the potential romantic subplot between a paladin and a succubus, and I never saw anyone say "that's not D&D." For what it's worth, I find the "romantic subplots change the game" line of argument similarly reminiscent. Many D&D games do feature romantic subplots — ones I've been in, ones I've heard about, ones I've read about. To say they become different games once a PC decides he's interested in kissin' — that seems textbook "well, no True D&D games feature romantic subplots."</blockquote>

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