Before anyone freaks chill, no need for unneeded, and from what I understand not allowed details.

Just curious how you (as GMs or players) have ever dealt with that most strange of thing in the grimdark 41 ^st millennium, romance.

PC to PC or PC to NPC or NPC to NPC in the setting of a campaign. Just curious how you’ve seen/interacted with it and stories of such.

Simply my own experience was small, a scum character I played had to charm his way through a showgirl to get some information. Developed an attachment that the GM ended up severing by kill her.

If this isn’t the right kind of thing to ask in the forum then feel free to let me know, I’ve searched simply out of curiosity and found nothing of the sort and the way I am reading the rules there’s nothing saying I shouldn't be allowed to ask as long as we keep it clean.

I've had some really great scenes play in a few games - but it did take some remarkable players to make it work and feel significant. The best pc/npc romance that occurred resulted in an impromptu wedding prior to a certain-death mission. A former team mate returned as a villain during the ceremony, granted daemonhood, attempted to sanctify his ascension with the parties blood. The Inquisitor (a player, ascension) who conducted the matrimonial rites fought the character, felling him and banishing the daemon with his true name.

Oddly enough, players keep falling for the Adepts. Adepts get all the ladies, it seems. I have yet to run a normal Dark Heresy game that includes an Adept and not have one of the SoBs or other female players swoon over the guy at some point.

I have no idea why this keeps happening. I guess Adepts are just adorable. It's gotten to the point of being a meme among my players.

I had two PCs who fell in love after a long and turbulent courtship. They had both finally come to terms with their feelings when one of them failed a Silent Move check and was riddled with bullets. After slaughtering the cultists responsible, he held her in his arms as she bled out...

I had a player quit the Inquisition for a (npc) woman. Both caught up in the =I= they worked together and after 2 years (of crazy insane missions, She wanted out. She confessed her heretical thoughts to him and asked him to judge her or help her. He realised he was i love as she put her life in his hands. They fled, and are still running from the Inquisition and imperium in general, trying to reach the Kronus expanse. Great fun, as his character is beginnig to figure out she might have another motive and/or might be insane...but he loves her, and protects her.

Come to think of it, this is turning into Bonnie and Clyde 40k style... LOOOL

This time, Bonnie has a bolter!

I've never had any problem with it, like in most RPGs. Seems natural for people in such a grimdark setting to want a little romance. Hasn't really come up in most of my games.

I have one pair of PCs getting together in one of my games but they delibrately keep all 'romancing' for off-mission time as they recognise that it could be awkward in some of their missions. I plan to test it at some point, one has to choose between the other and another important person in danger for example.

Think it is all good as long as handled in a grown up manner and doesn't make anyone round the table uncomfortable.

I don't know what this says about me, but I have an overriding urge to destroy everything that my players character's love. Be it NPCs, pets, equipment, other PCs. I always act fairly and make sure it serves the story but by the end of a campaign, my PCs are irrevocably emotionally damaged.
So as long as it gives me leverage I'm all for romance in my games.

I don't know what this says about me, but I have an overriding urge to destroy everything that my players character's love. Be it NPCs, pets, equipment, other PCs. I always act fairly and make sure it serves the story but by the end of a campaign, my PCs are irrevocably emotionally damaged.

So as long as it gives me leverage I'm all for romance in my games.

Thank you for the gut-busting laugh this just gave me.

Romance in any game can be a great boon, and also a great adversary. All's fair in love and war, as they say. Anyhoot, I've also had two experiences where PC's became romantically involved with NPC's. One was between a Guardsmen and a peasant girl, the other was a RT and a female Eldar Ranger. The first experience was rather emotional, with in depth role playing and character development, while the other experience was allot of comic relief.

I had a player quit the Inquisition for a (npc) woman. Both caught up in the =I= they worked together and after 2 years (of crazy insane missions, She wanted out. She confessed her heretical thoughts to him and asked him to judge her or help her. He realised he was i love as she put her life in his hands.

You know, reading this, I can't help thinking that the appropriate response to his saying: "it's okay, I love you even though you're a heretic" is for her to grab her bolter and yell: "your faith has been tested and found wanting" as she puts a shell between his eyes, revealing it was a test for him assigned to her by their Inquisitor.

It just seems the sort of thing a good Acolyte should do before committing to a relationship.

Romance in any game can be a great boon, and also a great adversary. All's fair in love and war, as they say. Anyhoot, I've also had two experiences where PC's became romantically involved with NPC's. One was between a Guardsmen and a peasant girl, the other was a RT and a female Eldar Ranger. The first experience was rather emotional, with in depth role playing and character development, while the other experience was allot of comic relief.

An eldar being romanced by a filthy mon keigh ? She must have felt like we do when a dog grabs our leg.

Romance in any game can be a great boon, and also a great adversary. All's fair in love and war, as they say. Anyhoot, I've also had two experiences where PC's became romantically involved with NPC's. One was between a Guardsmen and a peasant girl, the other was a RT and a female Eldar Ranger. The first experience was rather emotional, with in depth role playing and character development, while the other experience was allot of comic relief.

An eldar being romanced by a filthy mon keigh ? She must have felt like we do when a dog grabs our leg.

Maybe she felt like the Prothean in Mass Effect 3, "At least humans are good at something."

Romance in any game can be a great boon, and also a great adversary. All's fair in love and war, as they say. Anyhoot, I've also had two experiences where PC's became romantically involved with NPC's. One was between a Guardsmen and a peasant girl, the other was a RT and a female Eldar Ranger. The first experience was rather emotional, with in depth role playing and character development, while the other experience was allot of comic relief.

The part of this " All's fair in love and war" only made me remember one of my current PCs...who was relaxing at a casino ship for a bit of reprieve when he noticed a certain female that simply "caught his eye" ( she was the only one that didnt try to make conversation with him at the bar ) So he invited her to the table and all but banished the other sycophantic females away so they could talk...Long story short..he fell for her and thought that her talent for security ( hacking ) could prove beneficial so he contacted the Inquisitor about it and asked for directions. he was told to investigate her and her background...only to find that the reason her skills were so good was that she was a throne agent for another inquisitor ( one that his was familiar with but didnt really like ) My PCs checks to get the info were a critical success so he decided to "doctor" the info he gave to his Inquisitor...making it look like the other one was involved in heretical dealings. his Inquisitor ordered that the woman be brought in so he could question her ( as the PC made it look like she didnt know what was going on yet ) ..and show her the info. He then offered her a choice..work for him as a throne agent and clear her name by setting up the other Inquisitor or die...After reading the info given..she decided to work for my Inquisitor and did as requested..after her old inquisitor and rest of the agents who didnt swear allegiance to him were dead; my inquisitor assigned her to the PCs team to assist him ( and to keep an eye on him as well ). She knows nothing of the PCs tampering with things that caused the death of an inquisitor and several cell teams worth of acolytes..JUST so he could keep her near him...Im using the Chaotic Growth fan supplement from Dark Reign with him now..since that little stunt he pulled has brought him to the attention of the fell powers ( so hes regularly gaining corruption points now )..All in the name of love...lol..

That's brilliant. He deserves everything he gets for that little stunt!

http://darkreign.org/download/love-time-heresy-inquisitor-article-dealing-hithero-unexplored-emotion-ben-dell

this might be useful

I don't know what this says about me, but I have an overriding urge to destroy everything that my players character's love. Be it NPCs, pets, equipment, other PCs. I always act fairly and make sure it serves the story but by the end of a campaign, my PCs are irrevocably emotionally damaged.

So as long as it gives me leverage I'm all for romance in my games.

Thank you for the gut-busting laugh this just gave me.

The very essence of GrimDark. Love it.

I've tried to get my players to create detailed back stories so that I could bring in old flames from the past to add some conflict. My players are all really paranoid and rather shooty though so I find it hard to have deep levels of intrigue.

I think if I did succeed in bringing in that element to my games though, like khimaera, I'd just destroy them.

So far my players have not engaged in any romance but they do have engaged in carnal pleasure across the Calixis Sector.

I almost feel in a setting like this it'd be easier to show the player characters romance than get them to participate.

It's been my experience that Players hesitate entering PC/NPC romance because they think it will limit what their characters can do. In other words, they act like a partner/spouse would be a ball and chain. And that's a pity; so much more depth of character RP value could be achieved.

I think if players feel that way you just have to make the npc more awesome than them. Example being The Doctor's relationship with River Song. No matter what cool thing he does she's about 5 pegs higher than him on the cool stuff doing scale.

But I suppose that has to be tailored to individual groups.

I don't know what this says about me, but I have an overriding urge to destroy everything that my players character's love. Be it NPCs, pets, equipment, other PCs. I always act fairly and make sure it serves the story but by the end of a campaign, my PCs are irrevocably emotionally damaged.

So as long as it gives me leverage I'm all for romance in my games.

Heh, that's how I do things too. In the grimdark future there's only crushed dreams and lost limbs.

Having a set of tables to roll on might be useful at character creation, but once the game starts I'd advice against having rules of any sort. I'd say don't worry about it and just let it happen if it happens.

Getting into the physical details of it is, at least to me, a horribly bad idea. If you're playing DH you're probably not there to co-author erotic stories. "next morning/45 seconds & a lho stick later" is a good way skip past stuff that very likely would end up in extreme awkward-ville.

As a GM who makes a habit out of gleefully stomping on whatever little sandcastles my players manage to create, I can definitely vouch for love of all kinds being great material for engaging the players and bathing in their hot, salty tears of grief and impotent rage... OK, don't take it that far, but killing loved ones tends to work well.

What also works, though, especially in games heavy on the drama and intrigue, are love triangles. If you've never tried using one before, I'd strongly suggest only letting one PC get involved in a given triangle, because PCs competing for the same love interest in an intrigue game, is kind of like a party of chaotic evil murderhobos comnpeting for the same magic trinket in D&D: they'll end up splitting the party and quite possibly killing each other. And that's probably not what you want.

Anyway, triangles are great because they let the PCs create their own rivals and outright enemies, and gives then almost complete control over which way and how badly things escalate.

Most players love recurring NPCs, especially ones aimed at a particular PC, and most find it hard to try to introduce such NPCs once the game has begun. This is a really good tool for that sort of thing.

And obviously there's all the stuff about getting players genuinely invested in the setting, getting them to create their own space in it, and so on.

Oh and.. Since this is DH, always remember that Slaanesh just loves the smell of roasted infant in the morning. Really, if your PCs have offspring, they're begging for the horrible mutilation and slow death of a loved one. Revolting detail is the way to go.

I don't know what this says about me, but I have an overriding urge to destroy everything that my players character's love. Be it NPCs, pets, equipment, other PCs. I always act fairly and make sure it serves the story but by the end of a campaign, my PCs are irrevocably emotionally damaged.So as long as it gives me leverage I'm all for romance in my games.

Heh, that's how I do things too. In the grimdark future there's only crushed dreams and lost limbs.Having a set of tables to roll on might be useful at character creation, but once the game starts I'd advice against having rules of any sort. I'd say don't worry about it and just let it happen if it happens.Getting into the physical details of it is, at least to me, a horribly bad idea. If you're playing DH you're probably not there to co-author erotic stories. "next morning/45 seconds & a lho stick later" is a good way skip past stuff that very likely would end up in extreme awkward-ville.As a GM who makes a habit out of gleefully stomping on whatever little sandcastles my players manage to create, I can definitely vouch for love of all kinds being great material for engaging the players and bathing in their hot, salty tears of grief and impotent rage... OK, don't take it that far, but killing loved ones tends to work well.What also works, though, especially in games heavy on the drama and intrigue, are love triangles. If you've never tried using one before, I'd strongly suggest only letting one PC get involved in a given triangle, because PCs competing for the same love interest in an intrigue game, is kind of like a party of chaotic evil murderhobos comnpeting for the same magic trinket in D&D: they'll end up splitting the party and quite possibly killing each other. And that's probably not what you want.Anyway, triangles are great because they let the PCs create their own rivals and outright enemies, and gives then almost complete control over which way and how badly things escalate.Most players love recurring NPCs, especially ones aimed at a particular PC, and most find it hard to try to introduce such NPCs once the game has begun. This is a really good tool for that sort of thing.And obviously there's all the stuff about getting players genuinely invested in the setting, getting them to create their own space in it, and so on.Oh and.. Since this is DH, always remember that Slaanesh just loves the smell of roasted infant in the morning. Really, if your PCs have offspring, they're begging for the horrible mutilation and slow death of a loved one. Revolting detail is the way to go.

Dam you guys are messed up, thanks for the ideas. :-)