Romance & Relationships
Review by Ryan "Rangerwickett" Nock (not by Morrus, as the evidence appears to imply).
4 stars
As many of my friends and co-writers know, my girlfriend recently broke up with me, so it was especially poignant when FFG sent me a review copy of Romance & Relationships, their d20 System product of dating and affection. After reading over it a couple times, mulling over it, brooding about the fact that I’m single, then trying it out in my game and crying for a little while when I was by myself, I can confidently say this is the best d20 product on romance that I’ve seen so far.
For the technicalists out there, Romance & Relationships is written by Greg Benage and Wil Upchurch, and clocks in at 176 tastefully-illustrated pages. I should know how tastefully they’re illustrated, because some of the interiors are done by my very own ex-girlfriend, Jessica Jones. She mostly did illos of guys looking charming and dazzling, and I know it wasn’t me she was using as a model.
Well, anyway, on to the contents.
Contents
The introduction is a noble, beautiful piece of writing about the importance of romance and love in enhancing classic fantasy stories, and it gives an examples from the authors’ own history, when their characters professed to each other their undying love (before performing a love-suicide pact because they’d been captured by the evil villain). Sure, they died, and the villain was able to complete his plan, but the real winner was Love. I admit that I cried while reading it.
Chapter One: Allure
This chapter is primarily player-focused, though it can definitely help out GMs who are new and haven’t tried introducing romantic threads to their games. Sadly, a lot of the opinions presented are overly-idealized, claiming that love is eternal, and other things I have recently learned not to be true. But this isn’t a d20 reality game; this is high fantasy, and at least in high fantasy I might be able to find happiness.
There’s some nice stuff here. A few references to classical love stories (Caesar & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Hester Prynne & Reverend Dimmesdale) to set the tone, then reasons why your character might become interested in a possible companion (e.g., when you’re about to die, you have something to still be thankful for; so you can possibly have children to continue your legacy after you die), and finally a description of the challenges of roleplaying out romantic situations, and why the rules in this book are useful.
Also, throughout the chapter are scattered sidebars of various things people find attractive; game masters are suggested to let PCs have one of these traits for every point of Charisma above 6. So even someone with a low Charisma can still have some redeeming qualities. They also note that most couples tend to have relatively similar Charisma, though there are notable exceptions. Some of the sample traits include: Sexy foreign accent, rugged manliness, dashing smile, exotic strands of hair over the eyes, witty conversationalist, great rack, nice package, innocent eyes, smooth skin, great sense of humor, cool scar, persuasive speaker, revealing clothing, playa’, and the bling bling. Following their suggestion, I think I have a 10 Charisma, versus my ex’s Charisma of 9. I realized the system was a little flawed when I determined Gorbachev has a 27 Charisma; who knew that moles and birthmarks would fall under the same category?
Chapter Two: Dating
This chapter details the procedures and rules for determining how well a character’s romantic attempts fare. It basically boils down to four different scenarios, each of which has slightly different rules.
First, you have the date, in which a character meets a person he or she likes, asks that person out, and tries to be charming in hopes of getting a future date. Since dates in the modern sense didn’t happen much in medieval society, these rules also cover things like courtly love (trying to impress maidens with acts of valor or proper social behavior at court). Interestingly, I find they also work nicely for hiring NPC aids, with just a little adjustment. If you treat the NPC badly, they don’t come back, or they might string you along and just not live up to their end of the bargain, just taking the gifts (money) you give them until you realize it’s not worth the trouble to keep them.
Next, you have the hook-up, which covers situations like victory celebrations, brothels, and frat parties, where both partners are simply looking for one night of fun without a long-standing relationship. I think these rules were excerpted and used in WotC’s D20 College Life (link), but they’ll probably most be used in the “I waste my money on ale and whores” behavior common to many first-time roleplayers.
Third, you have the more dark and disturbing rules for stalking. I’m a little weirded out by the detail of this section. Trying to tell us something, FFG?
Finally, you have relationships, long-lasting maintenance of two or more people’s romance. Yes, I said “or more.” There are rules for all kinds of relationship structures that will get you lynched in most published D20 fantasy settings, except for the Forgotten Realms. Most of this is just roleplaying suggestions and advice to GMs for ways to make romance pertinent to the game other than “your girlfriend’s been kidnapped.” Two examples that stand out are “I’d kill you if I wasn’t madly in love with you,” and “Proving the value of humanity.” In the former, GMs have an excuse for powerful villains to leave the PCs living after a thrashing, and challenges players to play along with their captor’s affections until they have a chance to escape. In the latter, a detailed list of possible ways PCs can try to prove their love for another are presented, mainly to be used in cases when powerful gods attempt to destroy the world because life has been a failure, or when you want to soften the hearts of invading demons who have never known love.
However, there are rules for long-term relationships, which vaguely resemble combat on battle mats. You and your partner are close (in adjacent squares on the grid), but rivals can come in and try to take your place (bull rushing you out of the way), or try to harm your reputation and impress your partner (making ‘attack rolls’ against you), or even mess with your head (use ‘magic’ to make you act irrationally, as is so common in love). The fact that you can make an ‘attack of opportunity’ at a rival suitor who tries to flirt when within 5-ft. of you is kinda funny, since it apparently represents you upstaging an opponent. The examples feature two charming scoundrels, both of whom are vying for a lady’s favor. I’m not quite sure how well the system works, and the definition of ‘rounds’ are a bit vague, but it’s a nice idea.
Chapter Three: Love Gurus
This chapter covers all the rules for the benefits and drawbacks of love, including the necessary spells, skills, and feats. I was a bit disappointed in this chapter, primarily with the creation of the new skills Wine & Dine and Small Talk, which could’ve better been handled by providing new uses of existing skills. Intuit Mr./Ms. Right might be a fair skill to add, though it probably could’ve been covered with Scry. Still, the DCs are fair and believable, and they neglect little, even providing a few examples of Small Talk (roll a 1 – “Dang, after that last fight, I don’t think the cleric healed that gaping stomach wound I had; I’ve got major gas.” vs. roll a 20 when talking with an evoker – “Oh, you’re researching the historical spells of Scarros the Fire-Reaver? I actually met his lich two years ago! He had us chained up for a little while in his dungeon, ranting at us. I know he mentioned something about how his peers had neglected his theory of unified elements? Does that sound right?”)
I was also disappointed by most of the prestige classes, which as far too often happens are simply specialized archetypes (like the Ex, the Playa’ Hata’, and the Teenage Dirtbag), rather than being unique organizations or uniquely-trained orders. Two standouts, though, are Knight of the Virgin Rose, a fighter or paladin trained fully in the arts of courtly love, who gains bonuses while championing their beloved; or the Redlight Dominatrix, priestesses of the god of fire who can control the emotions of others. The illustration even looks a little like Jessie. *sigh*
Well, at least the feats and spells are all quite nice. Things like Respect Diversity help explain half-Orc children who come from stable families (it also negates the penalty when you cast Tasha’s hideous laughter on something with a foreign sense of humor), while Improved Snoop can be useful both to gossips and stalkers. For the anime fans out there, the Bishounen and Kawaii feats are useful for creating the feel of light-hearted adventure: the more people who think you’re beautiful or cute, the greater bonuses you gain for certain checks. Bishies almost never fail balance checks (they’re too cool), and cutesy girls grant bonuses to their companions whenever they’re in trouble. Dispelling Kiss is particularly appropriate for characters who are dashing princes, and it fits in perfectly with the new curse of eternal sleep spell.
On the topic of spells, there’s heartsbond, which lets you enchant a pair of matching weapons, and their bearers can sense when the other is in danger. Detect infidelity might’ve been useful to me, but sadly it ruins a few potential plots GMs could spring. However, there’s always Lesley’s aura of love, kinda like Nystul’s magic aura, which makes the subject of the spell seem convincingly in love, which can be useful for dopplegangers trying to impersonate a loved on.
Chapter Four: Lovey-Dovey Stuff
This chapter covers the hard stuff: convincing GMs (who are mostly guys) to play the NPC love interests of their players (who are also mostly guys), without getting embarrassed or laughing. It’s very tastefully done, and covers stuff like body language and poetry (great picture of a guy and a woman each expressing four different emotions; you’re supposed to figure out which is which). However, like love itself, it’s best if you don’t know exactly what’s coming, so I’ll leave you to experience the joys yourself.
Conclusion
Really nice book. It’s a tough topic to cover, but FFG handles it nearly perfectly. They’re even offering a R&R LARP at GenCon this year, which I made sure to sign up for. Maybe I can find a girlfriend there. So yeah, pick up this book. Just remember it’s for relationships in the game, and read the disclaimer on the back cover: “FFG is not liable for any heartbreak that may result from improper use of this book. Love at your own risk.”
Review by Ryan "Rangerwickett" Nock (not by Morrus, as the evidence appears to imply).
4 stars
As many of my friends and co-writers know, my girlfriend recently broke up with me, so it was especially poignant when FFG sent me a review copy of Romance & Relationships, their d20 System product of dating and affection. After reading over it a couple times, mulling over it, brooding about the fact that I’m single, then trying it out in my game and crying for a little while when I was by myself, I can confidently say this is the best d20 product on romance that I’ve seen so far.
For the technicalists out there, Romance & Relationships is written by Greg Benage and Wil Upchurch, and clocks in at 176 tastefully-illustrated pages. I should know how tastefully they’re illustrated, because some of the interiors are done by my very own ex-girlfriend, Jessica Jones. She mostly did illos of guys looking charming and dazzling, and I know it wasn’t me she was using as a model.
Well, anyway, on to the contents.
Contents
The introduction is a noble, beautiful piece of writing about the importance of romance and love in enhancing classic fantasy stories, and it gives an examples from the authors’ own history, when their characters professed to each other their undying love (before performing a love-suicide pact because they’d been captured by the evil villain). Sure, they died, and the villain was able to complete his plan, but the real winner was Love. I admit that I cried while reading it.
Chapter One: Allure
This chapter is primarily player-focused, though it can definitely help out GMs who are new and haven’t tried introducing romantic threads to their games. Sadly, a lot of the opinions presented are overly-idealized, claiming that love is eternal, and other things I have recently learned not to be true. But this isn’t a d20 reality game; this is high fantasy, and at least in high fantasy I might be able to find happiness.
There’s some nice stuff here. A few references to classical love stories (Caesar & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Hester Prynne & Reverend Dimmesdale) to set the tone, then reasons why your character might become interested in a possible companion (e.g., when you’re about to die, you have something to still be thankful for; so you can possibly have children to continue your legacy after you die), and finally a description of the challenges of roleplaying out romantic situations, and why the rules in this book are useful.
Also, throughout the chapter are scattered sidebars of various things people find attractive; game masters are suggested to let PCs have one of these traits for every point of Charisma above 6. So even someone with a low Charisma can still have some redeeming qualities. They also note that most couples tend to have relatively similar Charisma, though there are notable exceptions. Some of the sample traits include: Sexy foreign accent, rugged manliness, dashing smile, exotic strands of hair over the eyes, witty conversationalist, great rack, nice package, innocent eyes, smooth skin, great sense of humor, cool scar, persuasive speaker, revealing clothing, playa’, and the bling bling. Following their suggestion, I think I have a 10 Charisma, versus my ex’s Charisma of 9. I realized the system was a little flawed when I determined Gorbachev has a 27 Charisma; who knew that moles and birthmarks would fall under the same category?
Chapter Two: Dating
This chapter details the procedures and rules for determining how well a character’s romantic attempts fare. It basically boils down to four different scenarios, each of which has slightly different rules.
First, you have the date, in which a character meets a person he or she likes, asks that person out, and tries to be charming in hopes of getting a future date. Since dates in the modern sense didn’t happen much in medieval society, these rules also cover things like courtly love (trying to impress maidens with acts of valor or proper social behavior at court). Interestingly, I find they also work nicely for hiring NPC aids, with just a little adjustment. If you treat the NPC badly, they don’t come back, or they might string you along and just not live up to their end of the bargain, just taking the gifts (money) you give them until you realize it’s not worth the trouble to keep them.
Next, you have the hook-up, which covers situations like victory celebrations, brothels, and frat parties, where both partners are simply looking for one night of fun without a long-standing relationship. I think these rules were excerpted and used in WotC’s D20 College Life (link), but they’ll probably most be used in the “I waste my money on ale and whores” behavior common to many first-time roleplayers.
Third, you have the more dark and disturbing rules for stalking. I’m a little weirded out by the detail of this section. Trying to tell us something, FFG?
Finally, you have relationships, long-lasting maintenance of two or more people’s romance. Yes, I said “or more.” There are rules for all kinds of relationship structures that will get you lynched in most published D20 fantasy settings, except for the Forgotten Realms. Most of this is just roleplaying suggestions and advice to GMs for ways to make romance pertinent to the game other than “your girlfriend’s been kidnapped.” Two examples that stand out are “I’d kill you if I wasn’t madly in love with you,” and “Proving the value of humanity.” In the former, GMs have an excuse for powerful villains to leave the PCs living after a thrashing, and challenges players to play along with their captor’s affections until they have a chance to escape. In the latter, a detailed list of possible ways PCs can try to prove their love for another are presented, mainly to be used in cases when powerful gods attempt to destroy the world because life has been a failure, or when you want to soften the hearts of invading demons who have never known love.
However, there are rules for long-term relationships, which vaguely resemble combat on battle mats. You and your partner are close (in adjacent squares on the grid), but rivals can come in and try to take your place (bull rushing you out of the way), or try to harm your reputation and impress your partner (making ‘attack rolls’ against you), or even mess with your head (use ‘magic’ to make you act irrationally, as is so common in love). The fact that you can make an ‘attack of opportunity’ at a rival suitor who tries to flirt when within 5-ft. of you is kinda funny, since it apparently represents you upstaging an opponent. The examples feature two charming scoundrels, both of whom are vying for a lady’s favor. I’m not quite sure how well the system works, and the definition of ‘rounds’ are a bit vague, but it’s a nice idea.
Chapter Three: Love Gurus
This chapter covers all the rules for the benefits and drawbacks of love, including the necessary spells, skills, and feats. I was a bit disappointed in this chapter, primarily with the creation of the new skills Wine & Dine and Small Talk, which could’ve better been handled by providing new uses of existing skills. Intuit Mr./Ms. Right might be a fair skill to add, though it probably could’ve been covered with Scry. Still, the DCs are fair and believable, and they neglect little, even providing a few examples of Small Talk (roll a 1 – “Dang, after that last fight, I don’t think the cleric healed that gaping stomach wound I had; I’ve got major gas.” vs. roll a 20 when talking with an evoker – “Oh, you’re researching the historical spells of Scarros the Fire-Reaver? I actually met his lich two years ago! He had us chained up for a little while in his dungeon, ranting at us. I know he mentioned something about how his peers had neglected his theory of unified elements? Does that sound right?”)
I was also disappointed by most of the prestige classes, which as far too often happens are simply specialized archetypes (like the Ex, the Playa’ Hata’, and the Teenage Dirtbag), rather than being unique organizations or uniquely-trained orders. Two standouts, though, are Knight of the Virgin Rose, a fighter or paladin trained fully in the arts of courtly love, who gains bonuses while championing their beloved; or the Redlight Dominatrix, priestesses of the god of fire who can control the emotions of others. The illustration even looks a little like Jessie. *sigh*
Well, at least the feats and spells are all quite nice. Things like Respect Diversity help explain half-Orc children who come from stable families (it also negates the penalty when you cast Tasha’s hideous laughter on something with a foreign sense of humor), while Improved Snoop can be useful both to gossips and stalkers. For the anime fans out there, the Bishounen and Kawaii feats are useful for creating the feel of light-hearted adventure: the more people who think you’re beautiful or cute, the greater bonuses you gain for certain checks. Bishies almost never fail balance checks (they’re too cool), and cutesy girls grant bonuses to their companions whenever they’re in trouble. Dispelling Kiss is particularly appropriate for characters who are dashing princes, and it fits in perfectly with the new curse of eternal sleep spell.
On the topic of spells, there’s heartsbond, which lets you enchant a pair of matching weapons, and their bearers can sense when the other is in danger. Detect infidelity might’ve been useful to me, but sadly it ruins a few potential plots GMs could spring. However, there’s always Lesley’s aura of love, kinda like Nystul’s magic aura, which makes the subject of the spell seem convincingly in love, which can be useful for dopplegangers trying to impersonate a loved on.
Chapter Four: Lovey-Dovey Stuff
This chapter covers the hard stuff: convincing GMs (who are mostly guys) to play the NPC love interests of their players (who are also mostly guys), without getting embarrassed or laughing. It’s very tastefully done, and covers stuff like body language and poetry (great picture of a guy and a woman each expressing four different emotions; you’re supposed to figure out which is which). However, like love itself, it’s best if you don’t know exactly what’s coming, so I’ll leave you to experience the joys yourself.
Conclusion
Really nice book. It’s a tough topic to cover, but FFG handles it nearly perfectly. They’re even offering a R&R LARP at GenCon this year, which I made sure to sign up for. Maybe I can find a girlfriend there. So yeah, pick up this book. Just remember it’s for relationships in the game, and read the disclaimer on the back cover: “FFG is not liable for any heartbreak that may result from improper use of this book. Love at your own risk.”
