takyris said:
Me too. I've only read a wee bit of Mercedes Lackey, but I didn't see any of that there.
Never even picked up one of her books, so I can't say a thing.
So... Goodkind, then?
If he's the guy with the main character with a harem, I'll happily note that the race has 4.5 males to every female, and as a result the females tend to get around, while the males tend to.. uh.. yeah. As such, they both tend to mess around outside their race (the females because its easier to have a monogamous relationship with another race and just consider mating inside the species a duty). So, reverse Goodkind, maybe.
Yeah, it sounds like you're looking for a slightly different flavor. One which can actually be done with ordinary D&D, I would think.
Eh. That's true for pretty much any -style-. It has a mechanical method of getting you to focus on RP, is all. I tend to do that on my own anyways. A setting designed for it just makes it easier to find like-minds.
Although if you could stretch the political intrigue/romance definition to include Robin Hobb, you've got people using Wit to bond with all kinds of animals. Kristen Britain's more-intelligent-than-normal horse-companions that stay with her Green Riders might fit into this field as well, and they kick bad guys to death on a fairly regular basis. I don't know that I'd consider that "cuddly", per se.
Oddly enough, my own fantasy world I'm working on has the relationship of the races to animals being one of the cornerstones of how they define themselves as cultures. Just that the most animal-friendly race are a bunch of four-eyed insect-ish creatures, and that same race I mentioned has moved their ancient animal-tending ways to tending to the races. Just that the animals are rather rarely other than animals, though there's a very strange -emotional- and -spiritual- bond between some that basically relates in the rare spontanious 'crossbreed' (no physical acts involved).
And Pern would fit, possibly, with people bonding with dragons and whatever-the-little-mini-dragons-were-called. The women are by no means chaste and docile in that world, either.
True enough, though Pern is technically sci-fi. Though that felt a bit too drab to me most of the time. Closer though.
I believe that's the worst misspelling of "scarlet-tressed" I've seen all day.
Heh. I was focusing on the Arthurian perfect beauty. Scarlet-tressed, gap-toothed gals are a bit more interesting.
Seriously, I don't believe that anyone said that it was going to be the way you're worried about it being.
Never said it was. Thus why I expressed a hope. Romance is great, but I like romance that you don't need to add the 'fuzzy screen' to every five seconds.
I mean, I hope that it ain't that way, too, but I've read enough of the authors they're describing that I don't see that as a real problem. I'm sure that anyone who wants to run a "chaste, pretty girl is called ugly and stupid by evil female peers until handsome male authority figure recognizes her secret magical gift for using crystals to create rainbows that make the unicorns sing"-style campaign will be able to do so, but I'm much more interested in the political intrigue and the possibility of having a book that addresses the game mechanics-versus-roleplaying question for social encounters.
Same here.
I'm interested in something more complex than "Okay, Sense Motive... yeah, this guy is evil -- roll initiative" or "Diplomacy of 22 -- yeah, she's totally into you". I've been able to get that with D&D sometimes (and I'm obviously exaggerating the degree of simplicity, just as you've slightly exaggerated the possible simplicity of Blue Rose), but it hasn't always been easy or supported happily by the rules.
Same. Mind you, this can be done with D&D as is, but a deeper insight is always good.
Those both sound good to me.
I'd happily play in both of those.
Roguish romance is always a blast. And paladin stuff can be fun, too, just so long as the guy forgets to shave once in awhile. Thankfully, since this is still a d20-based game, there should be just enough grit to bring the romance in to a deeper feel. Happy Fluffy Unicorn Romance=Egh, Happy Villain-Gutting Unicorn Romance=Hmmnn.
