[Rockopolis]

So imagine everyone in the Sixth World is Carcer?

[Blond Goth Girl]

If a PC gives me a background with their family and all, I NEVER use it as a checklist of who to kill because I appreciate the fact that said PC took the time to write a 3D background for my game.   They get extra points and if mom is an accountant they have some help running their finances (with limits of course)

[CanRay]

So imagine everyone in the Sixth World is Carcer?

I was thinking the overly traditional dwarves in Thud! actually.  See, they made it into his house...

Of course, that's when having a Battle Butler is handy.  Still, the emotional response is exactly what you're aiming at.

The really frightening part of that part of the story is...  How much of this thought process is Vimes, and how much is The Summoning Dark that lurks inside of him.

If you can get your players working up such a froth, you know you've nailed the situation right on the head.   

[Little D]

Gotta get that high Loyalty Rating from that contact somehow.  A loving relationship is the perfect way.

Also, an excellent way to get an Enemy:  Lover's Father or Enemy:  Crazy Ex.

If the last doesn't seem too frightening, well, you've never had a crazy Ex.  Or seen "The Blues Brothers".

You get a +1 for quoting the Blues Brothers, and sexy crazy Carrie Fisher with a flamethrower + rocket launcher + fully automoatic support machinegun.

[Little D]

Romance in a game can be tricky, tacky, gross (as in cheap 70's porn-style discription), or something absolutely unique and memorable.

In my Conan game, I had three players.  Two males, one female.  The female had a female PC, and I had several NPCs (including one specific male NPC).  When these two met, it was almost a blood-bath.  And, as games progressed, they grew attached to each other, found out just how similar they were, and it was something that was absolutely beautiful to both witness and participate in.  It was just the right quantity, and just the right time...  Between savage sword battles and all (it WAS a Conan RPG, you know).

But, for that one unique "relationship"...  There were dozens of other games (in which I was a player, not the DM) in which the romance was tacky, cheap, and forced.  Females wanted to be with males, and vice versa.  No real reason, no real long-term goal.  Print a picture online, use that to describe whatever NPC of the moment, "oh hey that's hot, I'd hit that", describe cheesy and slightly gross making out session, they're an item, and that's that.

Cheap, ineffective, and lazy DMing.

Between players, it needs to be either mature players that are willing to take a second to think about how their PC would react, or people that know each other well enough to play the "romance" game out, even if it turns out to be a disaster.

[The_Gun_Nut]

Oy.  I don't know what background you are using, but the really dark one I'm using for the forum makes dark blue text an impossible-to-read-migraine-inducing horror.  (Or maybe a Horror, it's that painful.)

[CanRay]

You get a +1 for quoting the Blues Brothers, and sexy crazy Carrie Fisher with a flamethrower + rocket launcher + fully automoatic support machinegun.

The Blues Brothers, the Ultimate Movie to demonstrate a Hooding Shadowrun using Rock 'n' Roll.  (Well, it's father, The Blues.).

[Little D]

Oy.  I don't know what background you are using, but the really dark one I'm using for the forum makes dark blue text an impossible-to-read-migraine-inducing horror.  (Or maybe a Horror, it's that painful.)

Mes excuses.

I will keep to the plain black font from now on, to keep from impossible-to-read-migraine-inducing horrors.

[Glyph]

It's come up, peripherally, in games I have been in.  I have had the same "bunch of guys who are squicked out at getting too into roleplaying that stuff with another guy" thing happen.  In face to face games, it has been there, but kind of glossed over for the most part.  Kind of "Okay, Ronald the knight takes the bar maid upstairs to his room where they have a fun time, get a good cardiovascular workout, and learn new things.  Meanwhile, Bruno the thief manages to find a fence who will buy the silver necklace and the two golden goblets."  Forum games can get a bit more involved without being awkward, since it is more purely the characters interacting.  They have still all been PG-13, though.

[Longshot23]

I had romance come up in the SR game I used to play in.  I think it helped that the GM was femme.  My experience with male GMs is that they prefer to leave it alone, have any romantic interplay happen 'offscreen' as much as possible.

The SR romance I had was PC-NPC going from dating to serial dating to three separate rescues to exclusive relationship to pregnancy to childbirth - which my (male) character got to feel thanks to a magical link - to parenthood with post-natal depression to kidnapping and recovery of kids to death of NPC significant other and kids.

Oh yeah - and SURGE happened in there as well.

[KarmaInferno]

Attachment to characters is important, but it's also important to remember that character is not you.

Stuff that happens in-game, even bad stuff, might be painful for the character, but makes for great roleplay fodder or the player.

Imagine you're writing a story. It'd be a pretty darn boring story if everything always went right for the protagonist, yah?



-k

[CanRay]

Imagine you're writing a story. It'd be a pretty darn boring story if everything always went right for the protagonist, yah?
-k

They're called "Mary Sue"s. 

I've had a few people accuse my current written character of being that, but then they've gotten into his history and medication condition, and, yeah...  I tend to abuse my characters.

A lot.

Hell, dropped a building on the first one I ever wrote about.  Literally.

[FastJack]

Hell, dropped a building on the first one I ever wrote about.  Literally.

Yeah, but that was so your next character could get her magical shoes...

[Canticle]

During the last session, the group temporarily suspended a paying gig to rescue one of their adopted orphans and were ready to do so in a suicide mission.

Orphans: burning them or saving them, you have to love them.

[CanRay]

Hell, dropped a building on the first one I ever wrote about.  Literally.

Yeah, but that was so your next character could get her magical shoes...

Actually it explained the extensive cybernetic systems.

"DocWagon, get it.  Get the Health Insurance that goes with it and check ALL of the electives.  All of them."