My first thought when I considered this was a cringe and “eww”. But why? I think that telling a story like that requires a high level of intimacy, trust, self confidence/acceptance, consent and willingness from all participants. That combination of things may be the hard part. I think it would also take a lot of skill to not make it awkward.
For a lot of us, I’d guess that our sexuality may be an area that we’re not 100% confident about and accessing the level of vulnerability required to take a game like this seriously would be challenging. And it most likely wouldn’t be just you and your partner. You’d probably need a GM and maybe another couple to round things out, so maybe it creates a subset of himan relationships that’s pretty small?
Then I think about conflict in the context of the story. What would it be in this case? Something like Bridgerton comes to mind, but really you could do a lot with characters overcoming external forces to protect each other.
For me, I don’t think I’d enjoy it at all. My girlfriend isn’t into rpgs and she already laughs at me enough when I’m naked…(joke). But it’s good territory for someone to design a game for couples or something.
Edit: I typed all of this out and THEN realized there was an article linked and it wasn’t just OP asking a question, so I’m going to read that now. It’s early…
I think that telling a story like that requires a high level of intimacy, trust, self confidence/acceptance, consent and willingness from all participants.
I feel like a game like this could soooo quickly veer into rpghorrorstories territory.
so maybe it creates a subset of [human] relationships that’s pretty small?
I think it’s this exactly. Meaningful friendships and found family are common elements in TTRPG inter-player character stories. You could do the same thing with romantic and sexual relationships, but it would take a very specific group to have fun and be comfortable roleplaying that. I’m sure they’re out there, but they’re not most people.
Yeah I keep thinking it could work as a 2 player deck game for couples, like Til The Last Gasp or something. A heroic love story like Princess Bride style would be fun to tell if you could develop the right mechanics.
That’s an interesting question.
My first thought when I considered this was a cringe and “eww”. But why? I think that telling a story like that requires a high level of intimacy, trust, self confidence/acceptance, consent and willingness from all participants. That combination of things may be the hard part. I think it would also take a lot of skill to not make it awkward.
For a lot of us, I’d guess that our sexuality may be an area that we’re not 100% confident about and accessing the level of vulnerability required to take a game like this seriously would be challenging. And it most likely wouldn’t be just you and your partner. You’d probably need a GM and maybe another couple to round things out, so maybe it creates a subset of himan relationships that’s pretty small?
Then I think about conflict in the context of the story. What would it be in this case? Something like Bridgerton comes to mind, but really you could do a lot with characters overcoming external forces to protect each other.
For me, I don’t think I’d enjoy it at all. My girlfriend isn’t into rpgs and she already laughs at me enough when I’m naked…(joke). But it’s good territory for someone to design a game for couples or something.
Edit: I typed all of this out and THEN realized there was an article linked and it wasn’t just OP asking a question, so I’m going to read that now. It’s early…
I feel like a game like this could soooo quickly veer into rpghorrorstories territory.
I think it’s this exactly. Meaningful friendships and found family are common elements in TTRPG inter-player character stories. You could do the same thing with romantic and sexual relationships, but it would take a very specific group to have fun and be comfortable roleplaying that. I’m sure they’re out there, but they’re not most people.
Yeah I keep thinking it could work as a 2 player deck game for couples, like Til The Last Gasp or something. A heroic love story like Princess Bride style would be fun to tell if you could develop the right mechanics.