Romance? Err... ok?

[the Jester]

In my campaign? We have a fair amount of romance, sex and/or relationship stuff goin' on.

We've had two in-game marriages or engagements in the last year real time....

I think in-game romance is great. It adds a lot of rp potential to the session.

 

[kenobi65]

In the various groups I've been in over the years, romance has always been one of the role-playing aspects of the game -- with both PC-PC, and PC-NPC relationships. We've had numerous cases of in-game marriages, even in-game offspring (heck, one of my PCs in our long-running campaign is the daughter of another one of my PCs...)

I think it's been common for us both because (a) our groups have been primarily, if not fully, made up of adults, and (b) most of the groups have had good mixes of both men and women, often ones that are involved with each other in RL.

 

[JoeBlank]

In two campaigns I have been a part of, side stories for characters have been posted on message boards on line. I think this would be an ideal place for romances. Especially establishing a romance between two characters. I mean that is really awkward in real life; it could be positively painful to watch it role played out

Similarly, my online group mostly uses WebRPG for games, with some action taking place over email. We rotate DMs, and I introduced the daughter of a cleric of a lawful god in one of my sessions. We all usually have our characters go off on side quests while we are DMing, as the group is opposed to DMPCs. So when we rotated DMs the next guy taking the chair emailed me that his PC wanted to start courting the cleric's daughter. Not an easy task, as his character is a worshipper of a god of chaos, and had recently even taken a level of cleric.

He did a fantastic job with the roleplay, and over the course of several weeks real time won her hand and the permission of her parents. This worked out well when the chaotic PC was the only survivor of a near TPK, as he retired and married the girl.

Even better, when we restarted the campaign in the same setting, moving the time line forward 6 months, the new PCs tracked down the now-married PC to come out of retirement and help their group on a quest.

 

[magnas_veritas]

Depends on the game.

In our Birthright game, about half of the characters were married off at one point or another. My character didn't see his wife for months after, on an adventure, he was infected with lycanthropy, and until he could get that cured, didn't want to freak her out or possibly infect her ("Hey, honey...what, fur and claws doesn't do it for you?").

In our Planescape game, there haven't been any LTRs at all. We've stopped at brothels (where the fey'ri druid amused herself with an incubus), but that was kind of glossed over (except for the part where my tiger-man vehemently refused, um, relations).

In our al Qadim game, we occasionally get people throwing themselves at us, and romance is the motivation behind some of the plots, but none of us are married (at least, that we know of).

Brad

 

[Empress]

Romance in role-playing games is natural to me. My characters fall for someone all the time. Sometimes it's unrequited, sometimes it's just a short fling, sometimes I can develop a relationship, and very often does the GM get to punish me for it

I can't tell how often I've fallen for a traitor, or a bad guy that I then wanted to repent, and rescue. But it makes great stories.

I still think fondly about my Nosferatu who followed this mortal woman everywhere, desperately longing for her smell, her touch, her presence, but at the same time not wanting to make her into a Nosferatu as well, cursing her appearance.

Of course, the GM had her become a Toreador later on, but until then, it was very intense.

 

[Rafael Ceurdepyr]

Besides the real life romance of two members of our gaming circle who met in one of my games and are now married, we've frequently had romance, both between PCs and between PC & NPC. (I know, Stormborn will say this plays into every stereotype about female gamers, but--) The two of us females in the group usually come up with some complicated backstory between our characters, and what better to complicate PCs lives than romance?

One of the funniest/weirdest was in a Call of Cthulhu campaign run by my husband. I was actually playing a female PC (for once), Nia, who had a crush on Kent, a university colleague. Following a particularly intense event (and what, in CoC, isn't?), the two sought solace in each other's arms. And since the GM is evil, Nia got pregant. When Danny (the other female player) found out (he tended to be protective of Nia), he hauled off and punched Kent right in the nose. Absolutely hysterical. Shocked the player it happened to, I think. One of our favorite gaming moments.

And there's Stormborn's homebrew Leviathan game with a complicated love triangle. Raef was in love with Ari who thought they were only friends. Then they meet Will (NPC), who was intended to be a minor plot device, and Ari falls in love with him. Needless to say, Will is still in the game and Raef's heart has been broken. He's a bard though, he'll get over it.

I say, what's roleplaying without romance?

 

[Arnwyn]

Ok, I NEED to know... how often does romance take place in D&D campaignes?

Not at all in mine.

 

[diaglo]

love is in the air.

when death is hanging over the heads of most animals... what do they do?

reproduce. as it will mean perhaps some of their offspring may survive.

so what do adventurers do?

ale and whores.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

It's only come up once in years and years.

A d20 Modern game. The party was in "the hottest club in town". The Tough Hero decides to hit on a club girl for comedy's sake. The character in question had a low charisma and no social skills other than intimidate. So we all grinned and I started remembering rejections I'd recieved thinking of rejections to put him down. I told the guy it would be a Bluff check opposing the club girl's sense motive.

He rolled a natural 20.
I rolled a natural 1.

Then we all started to scream.

 

[JimAde]

It's only come up once in years and years.

A d20 Modern game. The party was in "the hottest club in town". The Tough Hero decides to hit on a club girl for comedy's sake. The character in question had a low charisma and no social skills other than intimidate. So we all grinned and I started remembering rejections I'd recieved thinking of rejections to put him down. I told the guy it would be a Bluff check opposing the club girl's sense motive.

He rolled a natural 20.
I rolled a natural 1.

Then we all started to scream.

She's the type who only likes guys that are bad for her, I guess.