Romance

A romance follows the ebb and flow of your intimate relationships. 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. Once involved in a romance, you will need to track its progress on a separate romance sheet. You may choose to begin play with a relationship started (one successful tryst) with a single denizen you create, however the referee will control that denizen during play.

Tryst

Romances happen around a series of trysts. A tryst may include physical intimacy and sexual contact, but doesn't necessarily have to. Starting a tryst requires that you be in the same location as those invited. Commonly trysts are between two characters, but any number may be invited. For each invitation you must make a heart check (called a flirt), and track your success or failure margin. The invitation is extended whether you succeed or fail, but you suffer wits damage equal to any failure margin. Anyone at the same location may retort your invitations like a social attack, and if you lose the difference counts as failure margin causing wits damage. A tryst counts as a project if you happen to be in a crisis. Each invited individual may decide whether to join the tryst or ignore it. If joining, the participant also rolls a flirt and similarly tracks the success or failure margin, and suffers wits damage on a failure. The referee has final say on whether a personality will accept an invitation or not, but as a rule of thumb a bonus usually equates to participation, and anything else results in an ignored invitation.

Outcome

Compare the margins for all flirt checks for the tryst. If they are different, then a tragedy occurs (see below). Regardless of that result, if any involved party wishes to start a romance then you begin filling out the romance sheet. Whether a romance starts or not, engaging in a tryst is a goal so participants regain 1 wits and an achievement if this is the first tryst of the game. Any participant who does not wish to be in a romance adds that fact as an extra obstacle for the romance. If a participant is already in another romance, that romance is added as an extra obstacle too. The romance is given a name from components of each participant's name. So if it was Bob and Jenny in the tryst the bond might be called Benny (or Job). If Doug was included too the bond might be named Bugny, and so on. Then each member adds an obstacle to the bond that the others must overcome. Common obstacles include previous promises, powerful rivals, or family interference. An obstacle should be roughly the equivalent of a goal or a tier 2 asset. Finally, the referee will add one more obstacle to the romance. The difficulty of this goal should be relatively easy if the personal goals are difficult, or extremely difficult if the other obstacles are minor.

Tragedy

A tragedy is an unfortunate event that is a direct result of the tryst, either from a participant's action or a foe's reaction to it. A tragedy never benefits anyone within the tryst, and may have multiple consequences such as injuries or deaths, the loss of assets, or the addition of new obstacles to the romance. A tragedy may force checks, complications, or encounters to mitigate the results. When a tragedy occurs, you propose the exact circumstances and consequences, and then the referee will negotiate until something appropriate is decided. Consequences should directly affect at least one participant in the tryst. It's possible to have consequences that affect an ally instead, but those consequences become more extreme so the indirect impact is still felt by at least one participant. The optional table below may be used either directly or for inspiration:

Tragedy - Roll 1d6

1. Betrayal: Real or misunderstood betrayals causes reaction penalty from everyone on your romance sheet and forces at least one different tryst.
2. Violence: A participant is injured or kidnapped, or an ally commits suicide or is murdered by a foe.
3. Promise: A forgotten or new promise based on a loyalty (like an arranged marriage or difficult duty) must be resolved as a new obstacle.
4. Competition: A dangerous personality appears as a new foe, and automatically creates a romance with one of the participants. This competitor will actively work to undermine all participant's other romances.
5. Shamed: All participants of the tryst are publicly ostracized and gain a reaction penalty.
6. Ruined: A participant is strapped and loses an asset, or a foe causes an ally to lose everything.

Bond

You may attempt trysts as often as you like, but you must attempt one after each obstacle is resolved. On the tryst after the last obstacle is resolved (and any tragedy dealt with) the romance becomes a bond. Any other romance that you were a participant in is eliminated. You gain a bond asset with your partner(s) and a legacy asset. If the bond is lost (through death or betrayal) you may participate in trysts and romances again.

Version 2.5.1
©2014 Frameworks Games

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