With my campaign about to kick off, I was wondering how other GMs have handled the possibilty of romantic relationships between the players and NPCs. Granted, conditions are rough and not exactly "romantic," but that kind of adversity can also bind people together really fast. Aerys and Gelik could be a bit problematic in this area, but I could see Jask or Sasha being open to a relationship. Maybe not a deep spiritual one since the castaways lack good alignments, but something that works for each of them.
Any good roleplaying stories out there? These "island romances" might also have serious consequences when sorting out the factions in "Racing to Ruin!"
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Ah yes, like sand through the hourglass these are the days of our lives.
I doubt anyone will get that reference.
Anyway so here's how my little soap opera turned out. My character Jade hooked up with Sasha early on and that was ok for awhile. But Jade knew that she'd have to leave her, for various reasons, eventually after they got off the island. She felt that Sasha was getting kinda clingy so they had a argument one night on watch together and pretty much broke up after that. Things where icy between them from that point on. Seeing an opportunity and kinda bored Gelik started fooling around with Jade. Jade of course obliged since it pissed Sasha off even more. Things all around eventually cooled off as fatalities piled up and the miserable days dragged on.
Although Vijali another PC did eventually make a pass at Sasha. Actually several, but eventually his persistence paid off because she was bored and wanted to piss Jade off. It didn't work.
Luckily everyone was rescued soon after, before everyone started turning on each other like 'Lord of the Flies' or something. After the surviving group got off the island, minus Ishi and Ayerys, everyone kinda went their separate ways. Although it did have consequences as Jade went out of her way to save Gelik's life later. She did btw, healed him back up before he would have died in 2 rounds. Not that she had any deep feelings for him or anything.
Oh and Jade did sort of permanently hook up with someone on the island and no it wasn't a castaway. Some things where tweaked from the published AP.
See things are just like high school all over. }; ) Does that count?
I'm kinda curious how others might handle this myself. I just started my group on the Serpent's Skull campaign yesterday, and the party ranger has decided to make a play for Sasha's affections. He started with flirting and paying attention to her needs (getting her water, gathering extra food with his Survival skill and making sure she was served first, finding room under the shelter for her out of the rain, etc.) Later after he offered a shoulder massage and was rebuffed, he attempted to put an arm around her shoulders... I decided this was too much too soon, so she reacted physically. A critical hit unarmed attack was described as a knee to the groin and poor Aldin went down hard. While he was thus gasping for breath and Sasha looked on coolly, the party rogue snuck up to get a good look at that tattoo she'd been concealing. Her tattered tunic and absent chain shirt afforded him a good look at the crossed mantis arms, and he made a high Knowledge skill check to identify the markings. The players eyes went wide and he started muttering, "Back away, Aldin, for the gods' sake, avoid eye contact!" He quickly brought the rest of the party discretely up to speed on his findings and now the party lives in fear of Sasha, believing her to be a high level assassin stranded in their campsite! Who has a strange childlike fascination for brightly colored flying dinosaurs, for some unknown reason...
Anyway, with this development and the ranger player's known persistence for such things, I'd be curious to know what other DMs might do or have done with players pushing for the "Romance" angle on the island.
In our campaign, both Sasha and Aerys were hit upon. Sasha by the party's elven Ranger, of course, and Aerys by the party cleric. Both male NPCs followed Desna. Didn't really culminate in much in the campaign itself, but was mildly amusing at points. In contrast, my rogue got a lot of unwanted attention from the male NPCs, particularly Ishirou who made her feel extremely uncomfortable. This caused her to cleave pretty close to the party paladin, a charismatic Tian, who basically put the dampers on any other sort of advances. Other than his own, of course. Ishirou ended up getting devoured by cannibals, and then the rescue ship showed up, and... yeah, some more madness ensued, but it was all in good fun.
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In contrast, my rogue got a lot of unwanted attention from the male NPCs, particularly Ishirou who made her feel extremely uncomfortable. This caused her to cleave pretty close to the party paladin, a charismatic Tian, who basically put the dampers on any other sort of advances. Other than his own, of course. Ishirou ended up getting devoured by cannibals, and then the rescue ship showed up, and... yeah, some more madness ensued, but it was all in good fun.
Ishirou's kinda creepy isn't he? Apparently he gets "voted" off the island quite a bit.
we have not had any problems in are game.Maybe because most of the party's dwaven, we've got a human male and a female elf. My dwaven cleric is to buzzy healing to find love,but she is betrothed to the dwaven mage pc.
We lost jask:(
We lost jask:(
Sigh. Poor Jask. Stew for cannibals, he became. :-)
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No romance persay with my game but some strong frendships were forged. sasha latched on to my pc after i solo climed a cliff face to get a vantage point and ended up geting her the pet dino she had been wanting. Jask was a good freind to but kinda a kiss up as i was the one who picked the locks on his cuffs. thuogh that was more the way my gm portrayed him im sure.