Post originally by Roy Morgan at 2005-04-11 12:07:04
Converted from Phorums BB System

While you can have rules for such things in theory, the idea tends to get messy in practice. The closest I've seen to an actual rule set for romance was the confidence rules in /Lace and Steel/, which tended to define the idea of putting part of your character at risk for some kind of gain (bonuses on rolls related to that matter). It could work here, actually, without any trouble, and almost without rewriting. But it's not really a rule system for romance so much as a scale for judging what happens when your character tries to form emotional ties, and what happens when it does and doesn't work. And, of course, what happens when such a tie comes into conflict.

"The Riddle of Steel, a game that focuses on realisitc, gritty bloody combat, has rules for relationships and love (Spritual Attributes)."

Which is actually more of a rule for having a character get his blood up and mow through anything in his path. It defines what happens when that love is threatened, not the relationship itself.

"Thing is, in all those Romantic Fantasy games (using the above definition) there is always actual, real romantic plotlines between the characters. Seems kind of a disservice to the genre not to include at least a core rule (for everyone) about romance. It'd by like a Bollywood game that doesn't talk about Romance or Dancing. Or a horror game with no rules for Fear, Craziness, etc..."

While there's nothing inherently wrong with rules for romance, or relations between characters, the trouble is when they become exactly that: just one more set of rules. "Okay, I sweet-talk the princess. I lay it on thick. Any bonuses on my Diplomacy roll?" Then it's just one more weapon in a player's, or DM's, arsenal, and the point of the genre is lost. While I don't applaud Green Ronin's lack of a ruleset for this, I can understand why they simply sidestepped the issue. After all, they could probably see that sort of thing coming. They usually write D&D books, after all.

Still, it's a d20 game, so it does seem a little incomplete without some kind of rules on the subject, whether they work in practice or not. Maybe something will appear in future sourcebooks. For now, I'm borrowing the confidence mechanics from /Lace and Steel/. They work well enough.