POTW: Utilizing Romance in Roleplay!

[Diana]

It's the Romance Festival and my first poll of the month is all about utilizing romance in your roleplay!

And I mean romance, not sex, you buttfaces! D:<


Romance is a great way to add another plot bunny dimension to your stories.

Usually when people here romance, they are expecting the entire roleplay to be nothing but "Person meets person, flirting flirting flirting, insert drama, flirting flirting, booty call. Rinse and repeat." An over saturation of predictable stuff and gratuitous mush.

BUT ANY SETTING can have a romance and it doesn't need to be a big production or focus of the roleplay. Even your grimdark space scifi marines. >:] Man got a sweetie back home he's fighting for? That guy has an extra reason to fight! You wanna talk post-apocalypse disaster? You can see a romance bloom despite adversity. Zombies eating everybody you know? What a tragic romance to have your love turned, and then have to struggle with the act of killing them. Giant epic war plot with knights and stuff? Totally could have a knight in love with a partner.


And don't even get me started with tragic romances, creeper romances, unrequited romances, and more! 8D


Do you tie in romance to your roleplays? Be it the focus or just a small hint? How do you do it!

 

[Laggy Lagiacrus]

I'd do Grumpy Cat.
But I'm just miserable, not grumpy.​

 

[RedWinter]

I lack the compassion and emotional capacity to love, so I write about it.

 

[GeekOut]

I have a love/hate relationship with romance in roleplays. Either I end up being bored and possible lonely, or it has the most powerful emotional impact of any element. I think I just need to be better at writing romance. Then the /hate part might go away. Of course, then something tragic happens and starstruck characters do something to tear at my heart, like get stuck in separate timestreams...

 

[Juneberry]

I do tend to prefer my roleplays to have at least a subtle hint of romance in them. It sort of just makes it more enticing to me- but I don't want it to be the plot itself, most of the time. Just a side-plot, basically.

 

[Ridralee]

Honesty, no matter the what the main genre I sneak in a romance factor with my characters. ^^; I can't help it. Some my characters are just flirty to make myself happy with the possiblity of romance. Ever since childhood, I wasn't very girly minus the love of romance I have.

 

[Fluffy]

I have a hard time expressing my feelings in real life, which includes romantic ones. Even so, I have a romantic soul. I love being able to put such a beautiful emotion into my writing. :] I love having at least a little romance in my roleplays. It makes them more fun and it shows how much of a strong bond the two characters have developed. If you do it right, anyway.

Having roleplays that are purely romance, I've found, are boring. I need violence, bloodshed, drama and other sorts of goodies to make it a good story. I can remember my first roleplay with Harpy...

Harpy: "I want to do a romantic roleplay about a blind man and a college girl."

Me: "...Okay, sure. But, um... Could the blind man secretly be a wizard? >__>;"

 

[Diana]

Harpy: "I want to do a romantic roleplay about a blind man and a college girl."

Me: "...Okay, sure. But, um... Could the blind man secretly be a wizard? >__>;"

I HAVE DECIDED THIS IS THE BEST QUOTE IN THE UNIVERSE!

 

[Summer Rain]

I love romance -- if my roleplays don't have it in some way, I tend to get bored. I am easily a hopeless romantic!

 

[Jovian]

I feel it necessary to point out that I would rather click any of those boxes to get keep from clicking the last, were it not for the blessing of truth that is the first box. I can't even convince myself to type that word out to even specify the box, even. :P

For me, I have to have some sort of romance. It doesn't have to be a full on relationship sort of thing, maybe a quick fling even. Perhaps just two people who pass each other on the street and have coffee together but never see each other again. I could avoid romance if I have to, but... I just find myself trying to pair my character up with someone in the roleplays that I'm in.

 

[October Knight]

I like little to no romance in my rps and when I do it is usually dark and tragic.

 

[Minibit]

If it happens, it happens. I don't care either way.

I don't like to have a romantic relationship be the whole plot, though; to me that's just boring. I enjoyed it when I was a teen and even when I was 20-ish and single, cause then it was mostly fantasizing about what it would be like, but now, yeah. Let's have them be hunting a dragon and if they fall in love along the way, great, if they don't, we still get a kickass story about finding a dragon, and that's more interesting to me to begin with.

 

[Diana]

In answering my own poll, cause I am usually too lazy too

I AM A ROMANCE GIRL! Most of my roleplays have a theme of romance involved. Sometimes it's really obvious and the entire point of the roleplay is hookups, love stories, or booty. And sometimes it's something really small and just story flavor, where it doesn't even come in to play beyond little hint drops here or there.

But if I don't have SOME kind of a romance or love story, I am missing out on my number one roleplay candy. D: I need story, I need fun, I need romance!

 

[CosmicWeinerDog]

 

[BoredAsUsual]

I try to not make it my main focus but...I'm a teenager in high school with no boy friend....Yeah, romance is my thing. xD So is smut though.

 

[Mid]

If it's needed, I'll do it. But I'd rather have a romance that makes sense in the story over just random romance.

 

[Clear]

As a lone female who can RP as males...I am destined to forever act like a Prince-Charming for all to abuse because my brain knows how to woo the ladies (being one is my advantage here as I am not actually of the slow-witted male species).

Oh God, why?

-IS SLIGHTLY, SECRETLY PROUD-

 

[Yaoi Master Gavin]

It's rare that I take part in a pure romance RP. That being said, when it does come up, it's usually over time and often as a chance happening. Sometimes I go in for a bit of yaoi right away but often it simply isn't in the cards. I always ask before I start trying to romance a character though and I admit that I've had others wanting to romane mine. I don't much care for pure romance RPs - even though I'm gay, I still like the combat aspect and a pure romance rarely has that there.

 

[Villamvihar]

I usually prefer a solid plotline to my RPs and I do not focus on the romantic aspect of the things, however, if romance happens, I have nothing against it. I have nothing against roleplays with a large romantic emphasis, however, I prefer that romance takes a second place to characters and plot. I like knowing the characters before they all get mushy-mushy and everything, not to mention that they have to have at least some sort of chemistry. Otherwise, it just sounds forced for me.