Romance in games

>ywn boop the snoot of a cosmic horror

Man whose warlock gave up ultimate power over life and death and escaped from the grasp of an evil sapient artefact because he refused to let it kill his waifu/turn her into a death-eating kaiju made of zombies here. It's working out for my group so far.

Hey, I said, "can be," not "is." I think the first step is making sure you have a group that's receptive to that sort of story, or else it'll go off like a squib. Sort of like doing horror in tabletop.

is there a story behind this

Anne Tea Arr->NTR->Netorare, which is cuckold hentai.

No, what I mean is that when online roleplaying advice-givers need to use weasel-phrases like "it could done right" or "It might be possible", that indicates they have never actually seen it demonstrated to happen.

I've seen this a lot. Forum-respondents here and elsewhere will encourage terrible ideas because despite their ignorance on the matter, they assume that somehow any absurdity is possible with a hitherto-unseen technique, and then they dress it up like OP could totally pull it off.

So is this a half-assed refutation or are you only aiming to be distantly condescending, or what?

i know, but there has to be a reason they mention it

Trying to be polite about encouraging you not to talk about things you don't actually know, and I'm also trying to insinuate that romance in roleplaying games is not going to work out well.

I have been in campaigns with romance, both PC/PC and PC/NPC, and they were great fun. It can be enjoyable both for the players involved in the romance, and for the others watching the adorable soap opera. Romance is an extremely normal part of fiction, so leaving it out of RPGs is a strange choice. It only causes problems if the players are immature,

Alright, this thread looks like the right place to ask for advice.
>PbP game where I play a warrior cleric who's basically an idealized self-insert of myself
>One of the NPCs is a pretty convincingly played female mage who clearly wants the divine D
>I made the mistake of making the warrior cleric not celibate
Two problems: first of all, I'm not good at roleplaying romance. Second of all, I'm not really fond of women IRL either. After trying to delay romance with a "no way fag, we're trying to save the world here. Maybe later." the female mage gave me the silent treatment and when I pressed her on it she went full "Oh, nothing's wrong (ps: everything's wrong)" mode. Kind of pisses me off because this is exactly the reason why I don't want to deal with real women.

How do I solve this? Or should I just crash this relationship with no survivors?

Girls love romance games

Have you tried completing her loyalty mission?

Is there any way you could let her down gently? I'd avoid doing something your not comfortable with, both for your own sake and to not let her down if you try but fail. Now I'm no expert on relationships but I'd hope she'll hold no grudge if you give her the whole, "Let's just be friends" accompanied by the gift of some magical item to tied her over. Elsewise one could try promising her after the adventure is over and your characters retire, having an implied romance rather than a played out one.

>encouraging you not to talk about things you don't actually know
Which is a bit ironic given the inherent presumption.

>and I'm also trying to insinuate that romance in roleplaying games is not going to work out well
Hey, great, finally an actual stance instead of veiled insults.
Why do you say romance can't work in an RPG? And do you as a focal point story or in *any* measure whatsoever?

It is one of those things that, for most, is initially uncomfortable due to romance being a very intimate subject. I would advise people to (if fitting with their character) attempt to pursue romances in-game to at least a minor level like mentioning that their PC is spending a romantic day with a character said PC fancies. All too often people shut-down such a scenario from occurring when most PCs would indeed pursue some kind of romantic relationship and to neglect such a basic part of one's character is bad as it prevents what could otherwise be some solid character development.

If you're in a group who are all okay with it and interested in exploring it, go for it. Otherwise, don't. It's basically that simple.

I'm in games where we use and enjoy romance storylines a decent amount, with PC's or NPC's, and they work pretty well, adding to the game in lots of cool ways. But I'm also in groups where we don't, and that's also fine.

That's a tough situation. I say talk to her frankly about it. "Sorry for coming off as too brusque earlier, but I'm not totally comfortable actively RPing out romance," and such, like you've told us.
From there you can either put it to rest, or, maybe, workshop out relationship details if it makes sense to do so and it's clear that these'll be totally passive details.

This is completely wrong. My first actual TTRPG online had a cute girl (and yes she was a girl) decide her character had a crush on mine. My character happened to be the most innocent bag of shit on the planet, who thought a sex doll was a lifeguard training tool. Their interactions were ridiculously cute and when the campaign got more serious later the budding romance became a source of tension from a good few angles. Plus it netted me a GF

Romance in RPGs isn't even hard, you just have to play with people who aren't braindead or opposed to the idea for vague reasons like you, because they'll try to sabotage it for no reason.

>Why do you say romance can't work in an RPG?

Attempts at it typically cause awkwardness, monopolize session-time, and can come off as creepy.

The person you're replying to is just impossibly cynical. They're assuming that, because they can't comprehend healthy relationships or write them in a fictional setting, nobody else can, either. They'll also dismiss your post out of hand as lies, or an exception that proves the rule.

The person you're replying to spun you a story and you fell for it.

Nope. Because I've seen romance in RP's done well, too.

I'm sure you aren't lying to save face, user.

I mean, I'm not, but all you're really doing is proving my point about being impossibly cynical. Romance has been a part of human storytelling since the dawn of time. If you truly believe it's impossible to do it right in a roleplaying setting, that's just sad.

>cause awkwardness, monopolize session-time, and can come off as creepy
What sort of love story are you trying to tell where *literally everybody* is bothered by it?
Why would it cause awkwardness? What are you doing with it where it monopolizes session time? Where is the creepiness coming in?

Human storytelling, user, implies one person doing it. What you're doing is making the fallacy that RPing works the same way.

It doesn't.

...Except communal storytelling has also been a thing with a pretty long history? And even then... No? You can have multiple people telling a story together which involves romance. It just requires you to be a group of reasonable adults who don't freak out over it for no good reason.

>What you're doing is making the fallacy that RPing works the same way.

>It doesn't

Take your reddit spacing and get the fuck out.

It's pretty much trash tier tastes.

Nah, I'll keep typing the way I have on Veeky Forums since before reddit was a thing, you newfag cunt.

This is a conclusion sans an actual argument.
You're saying that the functional differences in the narrative of RPGs means that romance cannot function at all, but you're not actually describing the why and how.

Also there are several actual-play series that have observably well accomplished romance subplots.

"Reddit spacing" is nonsense. Check the oldest stickies on the site and there's "reddit spacing." Check the oldest threads on the suptg archive and there's reddit spacing all over the place (same with people using BBEG, by the by). It's always been here, you just didn't see the spacing the same way because you were looking at the site at lower resolutions.

Are you the same newfag who calls it "reddit spacing" every time they see it?

...

Anyone got any advice for getting over that initial awkwardness when having ones characters pursue a romantic relationship?

Talk to the group about it. Open up an OOC discussion about if people are comfortable with it, what limits to set and what kind of things people are interested in seeing.

Have your character tell her that he's gay.

None of the shitheads who spend all their time on magical realm crap actually play with others, so no. It's just regular masturbation at that point.

Forcing your fetishes into games against the wishes of the rest of the group tends to lead to people not having a group anymore, yeah.

To be fair, though, it isn't exactly homophobic to say that you don't want to sit at a table with a bunch of other guys while two of them act out going on a date. Or probably worse, be the one having to act that out.

By default no. It's just acting without a script given to the lead actors and pretty sure that playing a woman doesn't make you gay as much as a woman voicing a child in a cartoon doesn't make them a lesbian or a pedophile.

I've never understood the whole 'Two guys roleplaying a romance is gay' thing. Is reading erotic fiction written by a man gay? Is watching an erotic film directed or shot by men, or involving men, gay?

You aren't your character. What you're doing is working together with another player to create an interesting bit of storytelling. Your sexuality has nothing to do with it.

Or because absolute statements are often not really helpful.

Yes, and directed or shot by no, involving, yes.

Either ignore them until they get over it, or fuck them in and probably out of character which seems to be what they want.

So watching straight porn, involving a guy and a girl, is gay?

Mhm.

Basically what suggests. Don't be afraid to take it out of first person if you need to, and feel more free to talk about as a player.

If you fap to gay porn, that's 2 guys, and that's 100% gay. If you fap to 'straight' porn, then that has a woman, sure, but you're also fapping to a guy, which makes it 50% gay. But a trap is like half male, half female, and thus a trap with a girl would add up to 75% girl, and thus only 25% gay. 2 women would be ideal, but that would be a lesbian relationship, which brings it around to gay again. Hence why fapping to trap porn is the least gay thing there is.

>problems start when a character who claims to be gay to avoid shagging someone he's not into is thrust into all kinds of lewd situations in which he has to restrain himself or blow his cover, while avoiding falling into gayness with a trap that latches onto him after this: original girl wins in the end
Just like in my animes.

Reveal slowly that you took a vow of secret chastity: you can't break it by being unchaste or purposefully revealing that you have a vow of chastity. You have to act like you don't but you do. If you already did a fade to black with the GM reveal that that bit involved you escaping at the last moment and acting like you did it afterwards

>Plus it netted me a GF
ding ding, you unintentionally figured out the actual problem with romantic relationships in ttrpg.
you are not your character, sure. but if you're actually roleplaying well, you are somewhat emotionally invested in your character. when two people are emotionally invested and interacting with each other, such as through roleplaying, they will likely become emotionally invested in each other. hence how you got your girlfriend.
this is why two men roleplaying a romance with each other is ultra fucking gay. they are emotionally investing in each other through romance.
of course most of the defenders of romance in ttrpgs only ever play online, where they don't actually see the other person and thus their brain doesn't truly process the fact that the person it's interacting with is a fat sweaty dude. or they've gone prison gay like most of the lonely people on this site. either way.

...Or, alternatively, we're functional roleplayers able to keep the IC/OOC disconnect intact?

ah yes, you're able to keep IC/OOC disconnect intact
thats why almost all these stories where a guy and a girl have an ingame romance with each other end up with the two dating
because there is absolutely zero overlap or emotional investment at all

Correlation is not causation. People tell those stories because they're notable because it netted them a relationship. But I've roleplayed romances with both guys and girls- Hell, some even with their SO's present- that did not result in anything happening OOC. Those stories just get told less because they're less notable.

I really hope you die
The concept of persona is lost on most. They're dominated by their egos and can't possibly imagine being someone else.

>Correlation is not causation.
it's not correlation. it's causation.
>But I've roleplayed romances with both guys and girls- Hell, some even with their SO's present- that did not result in anything happening OOC.
i'm very sure you have, in your fantasies. they have no bearing on reality though.

And once again you're falling back on assertions that it's impossible for people to disagree with you while still being sincere. You're just trotting out circular logic as if it's all you need.

I feel I've earned a place on that list, even if only the pleb level.

i'm sorry, but simple logic asserts i'm correct, as do heaps of evidence including some in this very thread. all you have is your (likely fake) experience. but hey, maybe it's true and you could be a sociopath, that's also an option.

I recognize this pasta!

...also I need to point out that the actual ideal is probably watching one girl masturbate.

Circular logic that amounts to an assertion, evidence that you claim is causation when all it can possibly prove is correlation, and assumptions that the opponent is lying. Yeah, you've got literally nothing and are either absolutely stupid or straight up trolling at this point. If the latter, kudos, you kept people going for ages.

This all raises strange questions. How realistic would a sex toy need to get before it becomes gay to watch a woman pleasure herself with it?

>GMing a 5E game on Discord & Roll20 for voice
>Female Elf Ranger (with a female player) falls for the NPC Female Human Cleric
>Ranger's player PMs me about doing some off-camera ERP
>I ask my GF if it's okay, she gives me a thumbs-up
>I tell the player "Sure, why not"
>PM back and forth, Ranger turns out to be a futa
>Cleric turns out to be MtF trans
>By some miracle those are both our fetishes
>Much ERP is had
>We agree to keep it all out of the main story for now
>Several sessions later we decide "Eh, fuck it." and the Ranger causally mentions she's in a casual relationship with the Cleric
>Aside from occasional lewd comments and the Ranger and Cleric sharing a private room nothing about the campaign changes
>None of the other players know the actual gender of the Ranger or Cleric
>The Ranger's player and I aren't remotely interested in each other in real life and it hasn't gotten awkward at all
>I asked the Ranger's player if I could share the ERP with my GF and she thinks it's pretty hot

Things turned out much better than expected.

I think it's fine as long as it's not a natural human color.

You might also want to make sure it isn't shaped like any other real animal's penis, since that would be bestiality. Of course, to make sure you know what you're talking about and make informed decisions, you'd have to spend a lot of time studying animal pensis. At best this probably makes you a gay furry.

Depends on if the woman wants to pleasure herself with something man-like or something else. Maybe something trap-like? A realistic proximity mine.

That entire story is absolutely degenerate.

i already fully laid out my argument in my first post. all you responded with was smug tumblr-tier nonsense and a single anecdote drowned out by thousands of others. the logic is not circular and the slightest, and your fixation on correlation and causation shows you don't understand what either mean. protip: correlation does not necessarily mean causation, but it can and does. plants grow when the sun is out. by your logic, that's correlation, which means there's no way the sun could cause plants to grow.

Link back to it so I can laugh at it?

We walk dangerous lands to prevent the gay.

if you're too stupid to follow a short post chain you really aren't smart enough to be laughing off any argument whatsoever.

...Wait, what? How the... Correlation is not causation is a pretty common thing pointed out as a logical fallacy. It doesn't mean correlation is never causation, but points out that just because two things correlate is not enough evidence to cite a causal relationship. You talk about other people not knowing basic shit, but you're really not aware of that?

Yes, you start with bromance, then go for some kind of "happly ever after" stuff, then light romance in games, then full romance campaigns.

There's a lot of really stupid posts in this thread, it'd help to know which one you were referring to.

so you really are too stupid to follow a short post chain. i'm sorry for your loss.

>Correlation is not causation is a pretty common thing pointed out as a logical fallacy.
yes. and it's been warped and overused by idiots like you to mean "correlation is never causation". i already made my argument for why it is causation rather than correlation rooted in basic human psychology, but as expected you haven't actually read anything and are too busy making smug posts when you're completely and wholly wrong.

Ah, that's where I'm going to go wrong. Started a magical girl campaign as a GM and none of us four has a lot of roleplay experience, but the genre expertise makes at least 1 player get out the yuri and I have no idea how I want to handle it.

I'm fairly sure he's talking about , even if he's not being nice about it.

But that post doesn't have any argument in it at all, just more flawed assertions.

Except that's not what I used it to mean? You're just asserting it as a strawman because it lets you avoid acknowledging that you haven't proved causation at all.

Is really the post you're referring to? Because... Man, it's busted at base principles. Do you really believe that the only way two people can become emotionally invested in one another is heading towards a romantic relationship? Is your view of interpersonal relationships really that broken?

I'll stick with short dates and implied romance. But the moment someone tries to ERP I'm tossing them straight outta the window.

Keep in mind, magical girl stuff usually keeps the yuri to subtext. Just call your player out on genre conventions and tell them to keep it subtle and low key.

>Except that's not what I used it to mean?
huh, that's funny, because you did, and you still are.
>Do you really believe that the only way two people can become emotionally invested in one another is heading towards a romantic relationship? Is your view of interpersonal relationships really that broken?
do you really believe two people can be emotionally invested in each other through a "fake" romance and somehow not develop even an inkling of romantic feelings whatsoever? are you really that broken as a person?

No? I'm a functional human being who has literally done that. It's something I've found satisfying, and It's been a way of having fun with my friends, but... It's roleplaying. I'm playing a role. It deepens our friendship and helps us learn about each other, sure, but maintaining emotional distance is a vital skill to any roleplayer. You are not your character. Your character falling in love in no way obliges you to fall in love, just like two characters arguing or hating each other IC shouldn't cause OOC problems. It does, in some cases, but that's because people are bad at IC/OOC disconnect, and/or there were already OOC tensions there already.

Although, again, you're now just asserting that you have control over what my words mean. You've completely abandoned argument at that point.

You have evidence of some correlation. I provided a logical example of why the correlation would be overstated in anecdotal evidence, and my own example of the causation you are arguing for not occuring. And I don't think you have anything left other than trying to dismiss me out of hand again.

You're welcome user. Would you like to hear more?

Of course.

Yah, I don't really want in on the discussion, I just mind-read and think that's what he means.

Thank you, I feel like I needed that reminder more than my player(s). As long as no bad blood builds up because nothing shows, I have a good feeling.

If they want some payoff, just give them some handholding. Be sparing with it, mind you. You don't want to show the good stuff too early.

>Page 12, sexual fetishes table.
>#20, floor tiles.

Listen to me user, I know this is going to sound insane, but trust me.
Make the Yuri players love interest
a trap.

It will give them rollplaying chops reacting to the sudden revaluation. They'll hopefully have a nice enough road block to keep the subplot a subplot. And if you play it right then it will be nice and comedic for the rest of the party.
It's a good way to let your players test their teeth.

>It does, in some cases, but that's because people are bad at IC/OOC disconnect
The majority of humanity is bad at IC/OOC disconnect. It's basic psychology. You're the anomaly, not the other way around.

>I provided a logical example of why the correlation would be overstated in anecdotal evidence
You dismiss the accounts of IRL romances stemming from ttrpgs as disproportionate, but there's no evidence to suggest that. just because it makes for an interesting story in the storyteller's mind does not mean it's necessarily unique. there are no statistics stating otherwise, either.

>And I don't think you have anything left other than trying to dismiss me out of hand again.
Oh, please. You began this argument by dismissing everything I stated out of hand. Don't try to take the moral high ground here.