Romance and Seduction
Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 2:54 pm
Following a (quite good) discussion on the Discord server about this topic, I am posing the following options:
Romance and Social Skills (in Progress)
Romance - (New Skill replacing Seduction). This skill is meant to be an option for players and GMs who wish to incorporate romantic storylines but don’t feel comfortable role playing a romance for whatever reason. This skill is unusual in that it is cooperative between both parties. A romance has 4 stages, each requiring at least 10 minutes. Both parties roll against each other’s SD and their successes are added together. Either party can decide that their interest has faded and is opting out at any stage. Continuing to pursue a disinterested party may result in a steadily worsening Attitude.
For each extra success a party earns on a Romance test, the party can add +1 to the next stage’s Romance test. Also, if the other person has a Loyal Attitude towards the romancer, he or she gets +1. For an Awestruck Attitude, +2.
- First Move: The first stage is to let the other partner know there is an interest. The parties must be at least Neutral to each other. Only one party needs to roll and only one success is needed, but both parties can roll.
- Connection: The parties engage in personal conversation, trying to connect to each other. The parties must be at least Friendly to each other. This stage requires a total of 3 successes.
- Intimacy: The parties try to move to a deeper, more personal level, trying to become more than just friends. They must be at least Friendly to each other. This stage requires a total of 3 successes.
- The Question: At this point the parties are trying to define their relationship, be it a one-night stand or serious romance. Both parties must be at least Friendly to each other. This Stage requires a total of 4 successes. If they do not score at least 4 successes, they cannot try again until at least one of the characters has improved their Romance skill rank. Intercourse of any kind is not automatically assumed as a result of success on The Question.
On a satisfactory resolution of The Question, both parties’ Attitudes towards each other is improved by 2 degrees for a full day, and is permanently increased by 1 degree. Of course, future actions can increase or decrease either party’s Attitude at a later time.
Seduction, meaning trying to extract sexual favors by manipulating someone, may be handled through other social skills and Interaction tests, but is problematic and should be discussed OOC with the whole table first.
Using sexual attraction to distract or manipulate someone (such as flirting with a guard) can be handled easily with the other social skills in the book and does not need to be problematic.
Flirting - the Flirting skill doesn’t seem to add much and is not used.
Romance and Social Skills (in Progress)
Romance - (New Skill replacing Seduction). This skill is meant to be an option for players and GMs who wish to incorporate romantic storylines but don’t feel comfortable role playing a romance for whatever reason. This skill is unusual in that it is cooperative between both parties. A romance has 4 stages, each requiring at least 10 minutes. Both parties roll against each other’s SD and their successes are added together. Either party can decide that their interest has faded and is opting out at any stage. Continuing to pursue a disinterested party may result in a steadily worsening Attitude.
For each extra success a party earns on a Romance test, the party can add +1 to the next stage’s Romance test. Also, if the other person has a Loyal Attitude towards the romancer, he or she gets +1. For an Awestruck Attitude, +2.
- First Move: The first stage is to let the other partner know there is an interest. The parties must be at least Neutral to each other. Only one party needs to roll and only one success is needed, but both parties can roll.
- Connection: The parties engage in personal conversation, trying to connect to each other. The parties must be at least Friendly to each other. This stage requires a total of 3 successes.
- Intimacy: The parties try to move to a deeper, more personal level, trying to become more than just friends. They must be at least Friendly to each other. This stage requires a total of 3 successes.
- The Question: At this point the parties are trying to define their relationship, be it a one-night stand or serious romance. Both parties must be at least Friendly to each other. This Stage requires a total of 4 successes. If they do not score at least 4 successes, they cannot try again until at least one of the characters has improved their Romance skill rank. Intercourse of any kind is not automatically assumed as a result of success on The Question.
On a satisfactory resolution of The Question, both parties’ Attitudes towards each other is improved by 2 degrees for a full day, and is permanently increased by 1 degree. Of course, future actions can increase or decrease either party’s Attitude at a later time.
Seduction, meaning trying to extract sexual favors by manipulating someone, may be handled through other social skills and Interaction tests, but is problematic and should be discussed OOC with the whole table first.
Using sexual attraction to distract or manipulate someone (such as flirting with a guard) can be handled easily with the other social skills in the book and does not need to be problematic.
Flirting - the Flirting skill doesn’t seem to add much and is not used.