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[size=+2]Integrating Romance into Roleplays
[/size]- [size=+1]Believable Actions For Your Character's Personality [/size]
You've gone through all the trouble to give your character a unique personality all their own - don't spoil it with out of character reactions to a love interest! Take your character's personality, the previous life experiences you think that they might have had, and their normal reactions into account for how they would react toward the person with whom you're hoping to pair them. It's all right to give your character and their character a crush or strong draw to the other without any reason - that happens to people in real life all the time! Just take care not to make your devil-may-care badass loner fawn all over a girl that would probably bother him endlessly at least at first. This will go a long way to making the romance seem more believable and less arbitrarily determined, which is useful especially for hinting at character romance in non-romance centric group roleplays.
- [size=+1]Be Mindful of Setting/Circumstances[/size]
Running through a post-apocalyptic wasteland with crazed bandits chasing you down and only your trusty shotgun between you and certain death at the hands of a pack of wild dogs? This is probably not the time to stop focusing on survival and start engaging in cutesy dates! If you're in a group roleplay, be mindful of the current state of affairs and how a person would react with to what's happening. Romance is important but probably not foremost on your minds if you're engaged in a fight for your life. You don't have to neglect it completely - if there was a spark there already, it might be the time for a tender goodbye or a sweet parting word, but remember what's going on around your character too.
Another important note is how the setting or circumstances would have affected the characters and their views toward others, which links into the first point! If one of the characters grew up alone in the forsaken desert, mistrusting everyone he meets because they're all out for their own personal gain, he might be a little slow to trust your love interest - no matter how fantastic they are!
- [size=+1]Timeframes! (Don't Move Too Fast)[/size]
So your characters had personalities that meshed well together, the circumstances were right for romance, it made sense that they would click almost at once... is it time to start ringing wedding bells? Have a mental idea of how long the two characters have known one another first! It might seem forever to the writers, who've been planning this, writing this, and discussing things for days or weeks but in game it might have only been a couple of hours. You can make your romance more of a subtle thread to your roleplay and less of a plot derailing show stealer if you treat it a little more in accordance with the timeline. Make it progress like a natural relationship - some admiring words for the first couple days, getting to know one another better, that type of thing! Remember that grand gestures and elaborate proposals the second day of a relationship might paint you as a crazy stalker if your character were wooing a real girl.
- [size=+1]Plot Priority[/size]
If you're in a roleplay, especially with others, that is reliant on a plot... the plot comes first! It will only serve to vex others if you try to take over their murder mystery psychothriller with post after post between you and your partner focused on how much they love each other. Be mindful of what the GM of the roleplay is trying to accomplish. Romance can be a fine addition to almost any roleplay but it should be a subtle background note in most of them and not mainstage. This is often something that turns others off on the idea of romance in a roleplay with no initial romantic intent but if handled correctly it can strengthen character development and add another element of enjoyment for the players. And if you found an amazing partner whose character you want to drop the roleplay for to focus on a story of romancing them with your character? You can definitely ask the other person if they'd like to start a non-canon super-romantic-mushy one on one roleplay thread instead of taking over this group roleplay!
