Dear Game Master,
I have been running D&D and other TTRPGs for more than ten years.
It usually starts small. A player keeps going back to the same blacksmith with no quest reason. Then someone asks, a little too casually, whether she is married. The table goes quiet, somebody makes a joke, and I have to decide on the spot what to do with it.
Most of us learn to run combat through clear rules and repeated practice. Romance we are left to figure out through trial and cringe. Done well, it gives players stakes beyond the next fight. Done poorly, it becomes the session people remember with a grimace. The difference isn't luck, it's technique.
This book is a practical manual, not theory. It is system-neutral and works at any content rating, from fading to black at hand-holding to mature content for tables that want it.
- One ten-minute Session Zero conversation and three safety tools that make everything else possible
- Six signs that a player wants romance, and five questions that turn a love interest into a person
- Scenes, montages, obstacles and breakups, with a d20 table of complications to drop in
- PC-to-PC romance, six archetypes, 20 scenario seeds, and a chapter on mature content you can skip
I hope it spares you a few of those grimaces. See you when the blacksmith smiles back.
P.S. The Session Zero romance script, ready to read aloud at your table, is in Appendix B. Start there.
