Romance

Romantic Knots Romances aren't desired by every player, so don't feel like you have to invest in a romance if it isn't something that interests you. On the other hand, romances offer unique role-playing opportunities like dilemmas do, and can be very memorable and rewarding. A romance doesn't have to be chaotic and tragic, but it's more interesting for everyone if it is. When you set a love for your character and become involved in romances, don't try to set at the beginning who your character will end up in a union with at the end. If that's the only resolution that will please you, then you should discuss it with the referee and start with the union as though the entire romance had played out without tragedy. If you are open other possibilities though, a romance can be very engaging. Your first love will probably be a personality that you create. You might even create multiple personalities with interlocking loves and foes to form a knot that must be untied before any romances can succeed without tragedy. Involving other players in the knot can make it truly difficult (and entertaining), and give more opportunities to mix up the know with tragedies between gaining loyalty. Inserting a dilemma into the proceedings can also prompt the loyalty change that will spark a new round of embraces. A good rule of thumb is to envision a perfect mate for your character, and then make absolutely certain that person isn't really perfect will never be the final union. Then seize opportunities with other individuals that spin out of that starting point. Most of the role-playing comes in initiating or reacting to the invitation to an embrace. The default assumption is that once an embrace succeeds a "fade to black..." occurs. Rare groups of players may find it desirable to go farther, but if you do it is strongly recommended you use John Stavropoulos' "X-Card" technique to make sure no one is uncomfortable. (In brief, put a card with an X on it on the table. If anyone taps or lifts it everyone agrees to drop what was happening and move on without having to explain why.) Not only does this technique help everyone remain in the game, it also makes it easier to push some envelopes.

A romance follows the ebb and flow of intimate relationships, and use your love and foe. Romances take place between encounters, and can extend out across many sessions of game play. There are rewards for being involved in a romance, but also risks.

Embrace

Encounters in a romance are a special type called an embrace. An embrace may include physical intimacy and sexual contact, but doesn't necessarily have to. If you are in a crisis you need to use a project to attempt an embrace, and anyone pulled into the embrace must drop any other projects started. You may initiate one embrace with your current loyalties, and may also participate in as many embraces as you are invited into. When you gain (or lose) loyalty you may initiate a new embrace.

When you initiate an embrace, you must specify who will be included along with yourself. Commonly an embrace will only include one other character, but you can invite as many additional characters into the embrace as you desire. To invite each participant you must make an Influence check. You suffer 1 scorn for each invitation that fails, and if any invitations fail the embrace ends with no further effect. You suffer a penalty (-2) on each invitation if you are sending more than one. You may also choose whether to make the invitation frivolous or intimate, which doesn't affect your influence check but will affect checks to reply and the effects of the embrace.

Once all invitations have been sent, each recipient may decide whether to join the embrace or not. Each recipient knows who else was invited, and whether the invitation was frivolous or intimate. Refusing to join is always an option, requires no check, and has no penalties. If you wish to accept the invitation you must make an Influence check of your own for each other participant, and you suffer 1 scorn for each check that fails. When replying you may make the reply frivolous to gain a bonus (+2) on your check, or reply as intimate with no bonus. If any invited participant fails a check to reply or refuses the embrace ends with no further effect. If all invited participants accept and succeed the embrace officially begins and you move to culmination.

Culmination

During the culmination of an embrace you look for the following conditions:

• Everyone inside the hook must have a love within the hook.
• No one inside the hook may have a foe inside the hook.
• No one outside the hook may has both a love and a foe inside the hook.

If all three conditions are true then the embrace is successful and no tragedy occurs. If any of the three conditions is not true then the embrace is still successful, but a tragedy also occurs. If all three conditions are false then the embrace is not successful, grants no benefits, and a tragedy occurs. A successful embrace might provide focus or bonds as rewards, depending on if the participants are frivolous or not.

Frivolous

When invited to the embrace, each participant had a choice to set their attitude as frivolous or intimate. If everyone within the embrace is frivolous then all participants gain 1 focus but no bond occurs. If everyone within the embrace is a mixture of frivolous and intimate then the embrace will start a bond (but not deepen it), and any frivolous participants gain 1 focus while any intimate participants lose 1 focus. If everyone within the embrace is intimate then all participants gain 1 focus and the embrace will start or deepen a bond.

Tragedy

A tragedy is an event that results directly from the embrace, either from a member within's action or someone outside reacting to it. A tragedy never benefits anyone within the embrace. The tragedy may have multiple consequences, such as injuries or deaths, loss of bonds or assets, or the addition of infamy. A tragedy may create checks, complications, or encounters that must be faced to mitigate the severity of the results. In general, the deeper the bond involved the more deadly a tragedy will become.

In addition to any other consequence at least one love within the embrace must be changed. Additional loves may be realigned as appropriate. Players have the first option to change love or refuse to change, and then if all players refuse the referee selects the most appropriate NPC's to switch. If you can, negotiate the circumstances of your tragedy with the referee until you reach a situation that everyone agrees is both entertaining and harsh enough. If you get stuck you may use the optional table below for help:

Tragedy - Roll 1d6

1. Betrayal: Real or misunderstood betrayals cause every member of the embrace switch to a love outside the embrace.
2. Violence: A member of the embrace is injured or kidnapped. In extreme circumstances this could be a successful suicide or a murder.
3. Interruption: A promise (like an arranged marriage) or duty pulls someone from the embrace. Pick an appropriate loyalty, and anyone in the embrace who has that loyalty also loses a bubble.
4. Complication: A dangerous new (or old) personality appears with a love and foe inside the embrace. The switched love is to this new participant.
5. Outcast: All members of the embrace are publicly ostracized and gain 2 infamy.
6. Ruined: One member of the embrace is strapped and loses an asset.

Bond

Once you culminate a successful embrace where at least one member is serious you form a bond. A bond gains a name, and the name takes components of each member within the embrace. So if it was Bob and Jenny in the embrace the bond might be called Benny. If Doug was included too the bond might be named Bugny, and so on. Regardless of the number of successful embraces with exactly those individuals, the bond doesn't deepen until a success where every member is serious. Once that happens add an asterisk after the bond name to note it is a deep bond. Regardless of the number of successful embraces with exactly those individuals a deep bond does not become a union until everyone is serious and the embrace succeeds without a tragedy. Once this occurs, place the bond name with the asterisk in your love slot to denote you are in a union. A union is permanent, and you may no longer participate in embraces or trigger tragedies. You gain a legacy for becoming part of a union. While all members of the union are together they may use each other's focus freely.

Once a member of the union is destroyed drop the asterisk from the bond name to note that the union has dissolved. It still fills your love slot, but is no longer permanent so tragedies or other effects that shift your love may cause it to be replaced. You may no longer use focus from remaining members of the bond, but the legacy remains intact. It is possible to dissolve a union where all the members are still alive, but such changes should be reserved for momentous circumstances.

Romance Tactics

It's easiest to complete a successful romance with two individuals, but it is possible with more. If you want to disrupt a romance in progress you can try to both love and foe one of the individuals, that way you will both be blocked from a final bond until something changes. If you are blocked in a similar way, pull the nuisance into a frivolous embrace to force a switch to who they love, which will clear you for a time (unless they switch love to your intended partner). Random frivolous embraces can be beneficial (generating sometimes hard to come by focus) but might also develop reoccurring characters that could become serious later (to positive or negative effect). Because you can only initiate an embrace when you gain loyalty there is an automatic pacing limitation. The more players actively engaged in romances the more opportunities you will have to become involved.

Version 2.5.0
©2014 Frameworks Games

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