Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gorgon Zee" data-source="post: 9827542" data-attributes="member: 75787">I see a number of posts talking about how people are uncomfortable with intimate details in romance. I think it's helpful to understand that romance does not necessarily mean sex, and might not even overlap that heavily with flirting.I don't RP sex scenes ever. I occasionally, with the right group, will describe characters using sexy language, but as soon as things get physical, the most I'm going to do is ask for a roll or two and say something like "you enjoy a very pleasant night together, but get the impression that he wasn't particularly moved by your skill in bed". Absolutely no judgement if you do like details (I own a copy of S/LAY WITH ME), but it's not part of the story our group wants to detail.There are also a lot of social situations where flirting or some form of romance-adjacent skill seems suitable for a situation. D&D doesn't really have such a skill and "persuasion" always felt a poor choice, but there are many social situations where flirting is a suitable skill for hosting a party, getting a security guard to relax, impressing a peer at a dance -- situations where both parties know it's probably not going anywhere, but it's enjoyable!Romance in RPGs, to me, is about building a relationship between people. It's a process and may involve many different challenges and skill checks, almost none involving physicality. In Pendragon a knight might be required to orate, compose, slay dragons, or (one of my favorites) be seen many times on the battlements sighing and looking in the vague direction of their love's home (an Energetic test). I played a character in a Three Musketeers game and my character was focused more on Romance than Politics, so I spent my time bargaining and finding exotic gifts, buttering up tailors and an extremely excessive amount of time looking after dogs.As a suggestion for a simple way to add romance to game with a low squickiness factor: Choose a number to represent the "impediment" level of the romance -- make it roughly equal to the number of sessions that you'd like this to play out in. Each session run a short (like 5 minute) scene where the player(s) have a chance to overcome a simple challenge and so deepen their relationship. When enough impediments have been removed, the characters are in a relationship.So, if you were a young male Fighter/Bard playing in an Renaissance-style world, I might let you know that there was a cute woman at a party you attended and if the player was interested, we might have some impediment to overcome like:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">She is a member of a rival family and it's very hard to find time to be alone with her</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The guy you just killed in a sword fight? That was her brother.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Her family plan for her to marry a noble.</li> </ul>(In Shakespeare's version the player critically fails their skill check to understand the plan for the third one and the GM is really aggressive with the outcome)I know the book genre of Romance tends to be more detail-heavy and physical, but I think we can use the more traditional version of Romance for our roleplaying.</blockquote>

Verification