Romance in role playing games is a hot topic these days. Ask anyone that’s played Balder’s Gate 3 about their adventure and the first thing they will tell you is about their torrid romance(s) with their companions. Future Dungeons & Dragons video games would be wise to keep those romantic options open for story development in between the epic quests.
Tabletop games can have a trickier time with the idea. It’s one thing to sit around tables with friends talking about cool finishing moves in combat. It’s another to play out emotional relationship drama.
Blood-Stained Love, the latest release from Renegade Game Studios for World of Darkness Fifth Edition, takes the challenge of romance in role playing games head on. Vampires are the monster most connected with emotions, romance and sex. The book provides plenty of options for Storytellers to include in their games. The first section deals with the very real emotions that can stem from playing games where players immerse themselves in character.
Bleed And How To Control It
Game designer Emily Care Boss coined the term “bleed” to mean real emotional transfer between a character and a player. If someone’s character gets angry at something that happened in game, that player might feel anger after the game is over. If their character falls in love, they might feel those feelings as well.
The first section of the book discusses bleed and how it can be a powerful force for immersion. The trick is to adjusting the level of bleed for everyone at the table. Some people want to dive into their feelings in a game, some want to run away from them, and these levels can be different for everyone at the table.
This section has a lot of great advice on how to talk about this aspect of gaming for different types of games. Sure, it’s easy to know the limits of a long term gaming group stocked with friends, but setting boundaries at a convention for a one shot or an online game with strangers is also important. It’s also offers tools for players to make characters with abilities that help manage the level of bleed they want.
A Story As Old As Time
For the Storyteller, there’s a section that talks about classic romance tropes along with hooks and scenes that can be inserted into an upcoming game. There’s also discussion about characters in ongoing relationships. They can be a great source of ongoing drama but sometimes its okay to just let the vampires be in a good reltionship too.
Romance can also tie into the supernatural aspect of the Kindred. What happens when a vampire that’s part of a political marriage takes a lover in secret? How does a Kindred who wants to break up with their mortal boyfriend decide to end things and protect the Masquerade?
The book includes six love interests that can be courted by players. They don’t have to be romanced and can be dropped in anywhere as players in the local Kindred community. The book includes stories that can be told with these characters and domains that they can call their own.
Obviously, this book is going to be most useful for groups that want to add supernatural romance to their games. But I was surprised how must useful advice and story ideas there were for any Storyteller to drop into their games. Players might not want to get involved in romance but the fallout from non-player characters breakup up can create massive intrigue that every Vampire player loves.
Blood-Stained Love is available now. It can be purchased online or at Friendly Local Gaming Stores. A sample copy was provided for review.
