PC -> NPC Romance, A world first! Options

[Jack Kain]

I haven't been doing SR enough for any romances though my Face Adept is kind of a flirt especially with the fixer Tabby. Meow. He thinks he's charming enough to actually use one of those mistletoe hats successfully, and he is. (:

In an old D&D campaign I had a High Elf who had a rather drawn out romantic relationship with an NPC drow woman. He met her, fell in love, got engaged, knocked up and married. Not necessarily in that order. She may have been pregnant before they got engaged. What was really funny was HOW they got engaged, he bought a engagement ring thinking it was pretty and she'd like it. Being an Elf and not human he did not understand the significance. Now most of what the drow knew of surface romance was from human books. Thankfully before he made a complete fool of himself a friend of the party caught him and claimed it was her own lost ring then took him aside and explained what it meant and what it probably mean to her. So he pocketed and decided to hold onto in in case a few decades down the line he decided to purpose. (elves think long term).

However a few days later the party rogue found it, and announced to the drow NPC that he had an engagement ring. Before I could throttle him, she yelled his name in that shrill scary kind of hell hath no fury voice. So he slowly walked up to her, and attempted to explain that when he bought the ring he didn't know about the human tradition, but he stumbled over his own words and didn't get anything coherent out. She then demanded that if he had something to ask her he'd better ask her now or forget about it forever. (basically saying propose now or its over). So he reluctantly got on one knee gave a heartfelt will you complete my life and make me whole kind of proposal and slipped the ring on her finger. He smiled, she smiled and gazed at the ring. Before she slammed her door in his face and said. "I'll think about it"

Eventually she did agree to marry him but said it be a VERY LONG engagement. Which actually lasted about three months when she came up to him screaming obscenities because she was pregnant.
They had some funny moments.
"Aren't you going to jump in help her fight those guys off?" one guy asks him
"No, she's doing and doesn't need me fighting all her battles for her"
"GET DOWN HERE AND KICK THEIR BUTTS RIGHT NOW!"
As apparently she didn't actually care about fighting her own battles, just winning.

In a recent and still currenet D&D campaign based in an oriental setting, my own character Lady Yuriko Kodomo decided with her parents imprisoned by the Ram Clan and eldest brother is fighting at the front, that she would attempt to arrange her own marriage to a prominent member of her clan(The Hawk), The Eternal Champion. The Eternal Champion is called the thrice born because he
This marriage she's seeking is almost entirely out of political and social status reasons.
In essence in the absence of her parents she is doing their job of securing the best possible spouse in a very traditional manner. Well except she's arranging it for herself.

Now on to the OP, you could play out her torn role between cop and lover. Say an associate of the PC is arrested by Lone Star rather suddenly. The associate who knows the PC is seeing a cop thinks he told his girl something. Which could cause problems especially if he actually did.

The PC could also find out about some Mobsters(from a mafia the PC's have worked with in the past) who are going to hit an armored car transporting[doesn't matter] later in the week. Now our dear PC heard from his beloved earlier in the week that she'd be guarding that armored car as the magical support.

Now she's career minded right? well what if a rival frames her for a crime, some serious infraction against Lone Star. So now she wants her loves help to clear her name, but the PC should be made aware that if her name isn't clear. She'd have to disappear into the shadows and become like him.

[Draco18s]

I had a character in a modified Blue Planet game (anyone here actually HEARD of Blue Planet? Basically the rules are set up in a very nice way to allow for any "furry" character, but only has dolphins and orca by RAW).

Anyway, I played an anthro komodo dragon for a while who picked up two human chicks (at the same time) by using his tongue to draw a cherry out of a tall, narrow glass (that had formerly contained his alcoholic beverage). Take that language barrier.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

I had a character in a modified Blue Planet game (anyone here actually HEARD of Blue Planet? Basically the rules are set up in a very nice way to allow for any "furry" character, but only has dolphins and orca by RAW).

Anyway, I played an anthro komodo dragon for a while who picked up two human chicks (at the same time) by using his tongue to draw a cherry out of a tall, narrow glass (that had formerly contained his alcoholic beverage). Take that language barrier.

Yes sir I have. I'm convincing Garou to GM a campaign of it someday, or at least let me borrow the book so i can read it.

[Bira]

To the OP: I don't think you should go out of your way to screw the player over, but you should definitely make them earn their happy ending. As has been said above, Mr. Drake's criminal associates will start getting nervous around him, and the more paranoid among them will think he's turning into an informant. On the girl's side, Internal Affairs will certainly want a word with her if they find out who she's been associating with. If they manage to get through all that, the culmination of the story could have her being assigned a case that would ultimately lead to his arrest, or him being hired to "kill a nosy cop" and finding out it's her. It comes down to a choice between their love and their reputations - only one can make it through intact.

[The Jake]

To the OP: I don't think you should go out of your way to screw the player over, but you should definitely make them earn their happy ending. As has been said above, Mr. Drake's criminal associates will start getting nervous around him, and the more paranoid among them will think he's turning into an informant. On the girl's side, Internal Affairs will certainly want a word with her if they find out who she's been associating with. If they manage to get through all that, the culmination of the story could have her being assigned a case that would ultimately lead to his arrest, or him being hired to "kill a nosy cop" and finding out it's her. It comes down to a choice between their love and their reputations - only one can make it through intact.

Well it all went pear shaped in the end anyway.

The VERY next session, the PCs had a carpark battle with a bunch of Yakuza (see Ghost Cartels thread). The hacker forgot to wipe surveillance footage from the carpark, resulting in their faces being plastered all over the news and wanted by a joint FBI/Lone Star task force. She basically called him up and told him to skip town and she never wanted to hear from him again -- basically calling an end to their relationship.

- J.

[pbangarth]

Surveillance footage?? D'oh!

[LivingOxymoron]

Sorry, but all I could think of was:

He is a drake covert ops specialist mystic adept, involved in shadowrunning, arms dealing, drug trafficking with ties to Tamanous. Despite this, has a twinge of conscience and his own code to how he conducts his work.
She is an ork Lone Star Detective DPI investigator who is also a Hermetic Mage with a reputation as being hard as nails and career minded.

THEY FIGHT CRIME!

[Bushw4cker]

While doing some Legwork in Denver, My Trickster Shaman recently slept with his therapist (Got 10 successes on social test.) after discussing how his mom wished he would get a real job, and now is starting a relationship with her.

[cndblank]

Sounds Great.

Have you ever heard of Blue Booking?

RPG Times says:
" For those of you unfamiliar with the term, blue booking is a method by which sub plots and things that a player wants his character to do but gets done outside regular game sessions, and the term originates from the blue workbooks sold at universities for students to use to take notes and tests. For example, Chris' character Vector is going to go out on a date with a cute woman he met at a bar during the last gaming session. Rather than take up valuable time during the session and have everyone else sitting around, twiddling their thumbs and getting bored, Chris and the GM do some one on one role playing by writing it all down in a notebook (or, by emails, using the electronic version of this method). Blue booking is also an excellent way for the GM to get information to a player, such as the results of some research his character has been doing."

[Ayeohx]

Sorry, but all I could think of was:



THEY FIGHT CRIME!

Brilliant. I forgot that app is out there somewhere. Should link it.

[The Jake]

Sounds Great.

Have you ever heard of Blue Booking?

RPG Times says:
" For those of you unfamiliar with the term, blue booking is a method by which sub plots and things that a player wants his character to do but gets done outside regular game sessions, and the term originates from the blue workbooks sold at universities for students to use to take notes and tests. For example, Chris' character Vector is going to go out on a date with a cute woman he met at a bar during the last gaming session. Rather than take up valuable time during the session and have everyone else sitting around, twiddling their thumbs and getting bored, Chris and the GM do some one on one role playing by writing it all down in a notebook (or, by emails, using the electronic version of this method). Blue booking is also an excellent way for the GM to get information to a player, such as the results of some research his character has been doing."

I do.

Some players simply don't care what happens between sessions. Others take a passing interest. One or two are very keen. However, I do have one player in particular who will monopolise all my time out of game with the bluebooking then try and cram as much of it into the next game session, irrespective of its relevance to the other PCs. He needs to be ... controlled.

- J.