DM here, looking for advice. How do you do romance well in your games?

DM here, looking for advice. How do you do romance well in your games?

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I'm interested too. I'm shit at romance irl and even shittier as a DM.

depends what you're going for
>if it's a nice, romantic subplot for one of the PCs, let the player initiate, have the NPC open up to them slowly as they get to know each other better
>If you want drama, pick an important NPC, figure out who the worst person for them to be in love with would be, and go from there
most importantly leave it open to change, love is a fickle thing, it can and should change over the course of the game

Have a party aware of the difference between oc and IC.

Lemme hijack your thread

How do other DMs here write and roleplay their NPCs? I'm intereseted in trying to roleplay as them more, give them more quirks and make them unique through my impressions. But I can't say I'm particularly good at acting.

I'm mostly looking for tips to avoid cheesiness (what if I want the BBEG to be menacing?) and overwriting (My BBEG needs to do a lot of exposition, but it will be set as a dialogue and I want to be able to react to my player's interjections AND not forget all the important shit I'm supposed to say, what notes do I even take?).

I'm not much of a writer myself but I know what I like to read, keeping some things about your BBEG open to speculation isn't always a bad idea and showing their motives and personality through actions should avoid causing overwriting.
As for making your BBEG menacing it really depends on your audience.
You could combine the 2 a bit and in the time of the party's leveling to fight him, have him interact with them by coming to them in dreams or whatever. This can be good for BBEG-Player interaction and establishing some personality groundwork for the BBEG.

dont describe the sex

NPC's really only need three things. Goals & motivations. Attitude. Appearance.

Once you know who they are (or who they were), what they want, and what they're willing to do to get there, you've know everything important about this person.

As for presenting them and roleplaying them to your players there are a few things you can use

Firstly, Voice.
On the one hand, don't focus on making funny voices or accents (some people do this too much or poorly). On the other hand, don't say everything in the same exact monotone as everything else (also happens too often). It should always be clear whether you're saying something as a character or as the GM.

Secondly, Mannerism of Speech.
How you say something, and the words you choose should clearly dictate how the npc is perceived. Pacing, intonation, pitch, tone, emotion, and vocabulary all matter in shaping a good and distinct character far more than a silly accent.

Thirdly, Behavior.
Perhaps they're fidgety, or like to whistle, or they play with their hair, or they have a constant cough, or they like to stare into the distance. Whatever it is, it can add a little bit of distinction and flavor to your npc.

Fourthly, Appearance.
Even a simple one line description of clothing can tell you a lot about a person.
The girl is barefoot and wearing a pastel yellow sundress.
The young man is covered in older, worn out peasant clothes that seem to be one size too large.
The old man is wearing faded finery that was in fashion twenty years ago, with stitches and patches that seem oddly out of place.

If all else fails, just steal characterizations from sources you like, such as film, tv shows, books, whatever. I've played Captain Sisko and Elim Garak in a fantasy setting without even trying just because I knew those characters and their mannerisms to an nth degree.

Rule #1 about rpg romance plotlines. The player needs to be open to it. If they're not, then it will fail.

present opportunities but don't force it. the rest will happen naturally

Exactly. In fiction these are different categories. One leads to the other, but the former closes to the latter.

It's easy. Just don't overdo it. You don't have to be all "the theat-ah" about it. If you just put yourself in the NPC's shoes and react naturally, you're already halfway there. One of my best GM's was like that, and it was very immersive.

The most frightening villain in all science fiction movies wasn't menacing at all.

How to be BBEG menacing.

The cheesy way: Extend your long black cape and bellow, "MWA-HA-HA-HA-HURR!!!"

The menacing way: Fear of the unknown. PCs don't know what's going on. Someone is sending X to do Y from the shadows and it scares the fuck out of everyone, "If this guy is after us, then WTF is his boss like?"

Sometimes the best way to do it is to reveal nothing.

>The cheesy way: Extend your long black cape and bellow, "MWA-HA-HA-HA-HURR!!!"
youtube.com/watch?v=dy2zB8bLSpk

This fellow already gave a good answer regarding NPCs in general, so I'll try and help out with your other problems (cheesiness and overwriting).

>Cheesiness
This is hard to really give advice for since obviously, level of acceptable cheesiness varies between settings and games, and may not even be a bad thing. What I think you're asking more about is believability, how do you make a character that doesn't come off as two-dimensional. For that, I would give the basic advice: NPCs have lives outside the players. Just adding a few details to your NPC that has no direct bearing on your players makes them so much more believable.

In your specific case of a villain being menacing, I would say make it clear that the villain doesn't exist solely for the players to defeat. Take Strahd from Curse of Strahd for example. It would be easy to make him a stereotypical vampire that stalks the party and goes "blergh" when they're trying to sleep. But that makes him seem very two-dimensional since he becomes just another obstacle for the party to overcome. Instead, DMs are encouraged to emphasize that Strahd does other shit than stalk players. Sometimes he fucks around with the townsfolk, sometimes he visits his minions, other times he just broods in his castle. These things make Strahd come to life and embody an actual character. That's what makes your players see him as a living breathing person and that's what makes him dangerous.

cont.

>Overwriting
This one is a bit easier to advise on since there is definitely a point in which you can overwrite. My advice is simply: don't have that long of a monologue. There will always be one player in your party that will try and attack mid-monologue, and they're not even wrong, that is a strategically sound move to make. Instead, focus on showing and not telling. This provides two advantages; its more evocative and you can break it down into chunks.

Example: Let's go back to Strahd. You do not at the very end of the campaign have Strahd explain his whole love triangle between himself, Ireena and his brother. The book instructs DMs to feed the information slowly. Players find well kept portraits of Ireena in Strahd's castle, NPCs who knew Strahd before he turned evil throw scraps of info to the party, the temple where Strahd gained his powers can be explored etc.

Basically, chunk your monologue down into pieces and spread the information out. Discovering a fleshed out villain's motivation should be a joy for the players, not a cutscene they can't skip.

Shared vulnerability and experiences make it easy to connect deeply with someone. For romance in many games I find it's easiest to do it with a mix of narration and time advancing.


For example..

"After being helped by the young hunter in the forest and in return saving them from attackers you find yourself often in their company over the next month. A chance to learn about the local area and keep busy as the other members of your coterie pursue their own goals has become a new friendship. That may have changed however, as despite the wide gulf between your status and background the hunter has confessed deep and ardent affection for you and a desire to become more then friends. They said they would wait for your reply."

I'm not a DM, but a PC. My DM always does this big, elaborate romance subplots that are completely optional, but he usually puts people through the emotional wringer.

For a start, you're not guaranteed to win the girl.

For evil? I always try to remember that for RPGs you are going to face their minions much more then you are them. You've got to deliver the master's personality via his servants and things they can find.

Letters on the dead minions are a great way to give players information they need to advance the plot and let them hear the BBEG "speak" in a way they can't interrupt. Reading someone else's mail also defiantly feels like you are winning a point on them.

Other ways to show personality via minions is by orders they have about the players. "Don't kill the tall one! The master wants him alive!" changes combat a bit and adds a creepy suggestion that the master not only is paying attention to the PC's, he's giving exact orders for what he wants done with them.

This nigga's got it. By the time your players face the BBEG, there really should be nothing left but to fight.

Think of it this way, if you haven't shared your villain's motivations the whole campaign, then by what means have the players made an emotional connecition with them? What seperates the villain in the players' minds from some force of nature like a tornado?

I frankly would rather slash ogres. I certainly wouldn't like seducing my neckbeard DM NPC.

Come up with a short one paragraph description of what you need the scene to cover, 3-4 points tops. Flesh out the speakers to have a set of mannerisms/beliefs and a few interesting triggers that can spark particularly heated conversation will sometimes help (for example mentioning their parents or questioning their devotion or something).

Once you've got the goals for the scene and populated the scene with your NPCs simply start the conversation and react naturally as you slowly move through the things you need to communicate whilst simulatenously reacting to the players.

Monologues are generally a terrible idea unless you play it as a joke or mannerism. Characters can make grandiose statements whilst also engaging with others in conversation.