Love is in Design
February 14th, 2011
Welcome, one and all, to Romance Week. This theme week is devoted to romance, both in the traditional sense, as a plot device or other event (as in, two people falling in love, dating, that sort of thing), and in the sense of “romance” as a genre, with special attention to romantic fantasies. Before you get too uncomfortable (or too excited, as the case may be), let me just make it clear that I’m not talking about that kind of romantic fantasy: I’ll keep my romantic fantasies to myself, thank you very much. No, I’m talking about the genre of romantic fantasy (which, according to a brief look at Wikipedia, apparently is a separate thing from fantasy romance). In fact, it’s this genre aspect of romance that I intend to focus on today. For those of you who want advice on how to implement romance into your game, be sure to tune in tomorrow for Grave Plots, which, I’m told, is devoted exactly to that sort of thing.
So, what, exactly, is the romantic fantasy genre? Well, I wasn’t exactly sure of that myself, when I first turned my attention to this week’s articles. It’s true that I pick the theme weeks, so I was responsible for choosing this theme, but to be honest, romantic fantasy was really just a term that I’d heard bandied around once or twice, rather than something I was all that intimately familiar with. Everywhere I’ve looked, the crux of the genre seems to be one major thing: it’s more about the characters’ personalities, and their interpersonal relationships than it is about anything else. In the case of romantic fantasy, these personal relationships are the real meat of what the game (or book, or movie) is really about, with the fantastic elements serving as a setting or backdrop. These fantasy elements aren’t unimportant, mind you, they simply just don’t take the kind of front seat that they do in a more “sword and sorcery” style game (or book, or movie).
This may, especially when being used to describe a genre with the word “romantic” in the name, sound like the sort of thing that one could write off as a “chick flick” (or whatever the equivalent is for books and games), but I really think that it would be a mistake to be so dismissive. For one thing, there are lots of things one might classify as romantic fantasy (or, in some cases, romantic medical, or what have you), which are by no means “chick flick” material. A number of television shows come to mind: House, NCIS, Ally McBeal (okay, that one might not really be helping my argument). Personally, I was always a great fan of the anime Fushigi Yuugi, which is more or less textbook romantic fantasy. In more traditional (and perhaps widespread) examples, I would argue that both the Wheel of Time and Dragonlance book series are examples of romantic fantasy.
Besides, at its core, I think that the “romantic” aspect of romantic fantasy dovetails very nicely with traditional games of Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons, as a game, is largely focused on character advancement: as the game goes on, your character grows in experience, gets stronger, gains more powers, is able to take on more and more powerful monsters, and gets better and better loot. In a “romantic” game, this may (or, at the DM’s discretion, may not) still be the case, but at the same time, the character grows in another way. Instead of focusing on how mightily a barbarian can swing his sword, or on the highest-level spell a wizard can cast, a romantic game instead focuses on the character’s growth as an individual: their views and ideals might be challenged, they may forge new relationships, fall in love, or lose their existing loved ones (through death, betrayal, falling out of love, or other ways), they may confront evils or traumas in their past, or any number of other personal events. In the same way, their relationships with others grow and foster, and typically they tend to find their influence growing as well over the course of the game.
There are a number of different ways to approach a romantic fantasy game. Perhaps the most iconic (and one not always recognized as having anything to do with romance) is the game focused on political intrigue, especially if the politics in question are high politics, with the players playing as lords, ladies, dukes, barons, princesses, and the like. The sorts of scheming, backroom deals, tenuous alliances, and similar staples are almost archetypical of the romantic fantasy genre, and again tend to revolve around interpersonal relationships and a character’s personal growth (here in political power, primarily, though other kinds of personal growth may occur as well).
Similarly, many romantic fantasy games involve the characters building an organization from the ground up. The most common of these is probably a rebellion, or other nation-building exercise, where the players must gather an army and overturn the evil overlord (or what have you), all the while building up loyalty amongst their followers and, for that matter, develop a following to begin with. It’s up to the DM exactly how much such a game revolves around actual fighting, or perhaps running the army (whether commanding forces in the field, overseeing training, or even dealing with logistics), and how much revolves around these interpersonal relationships.
Finally, a romantic fantasy game might revolve around a group of PCs who are all already in some kind of organization. The most popular is usually a group of bodyguards or royal knights who are sworn to protect a princess, or something similar. If that’s a little too stereotypically romantic for you (or if you’re concerned about the difficulties of keeping the “princess” character from becoming too much of a “main character”), there are other sorts of organizations you could take a look at. For example, the players might be inquisitors (or roving knights), who go from place to place looking for wrongs to right (and being forced to confront their views and ideals about things as they do so, and, of course, developing strong bonds of companionship). They might even be students in an arcane academy, or something of the sort.
The point, I suppose, is that there are a great number of options for romantic fantasy games. It’s a genre that, unfortunately, seems to be much overlooked. As a final note, before I go, for those of you who are interested in running a romantic fantasy game, you might consider taking a look at the 3.5 sourcebook Blue Rose, which is specifically designed to be for romantic fantasy games. The setting is somewhat…unique…but the system (where it differs from 3.5) is fairly interesting.
Next week, we’ll be gone for a short break, but be sure to come back the following week, when the theme will be Leadership. In the meantime, keep your PCs close, and your BBEGs closer.