I think it's a matter of fact that since the first moment a player realizes that he or she can interact with someone of the opposite sex romantically within the game, things get hairy. I had my fair amount of dealing with sex and sexuality brought up by PCs in my games, including coming up with rules for flirting and mating, fertility and pregnancy, etc. These are often specifically initiated by the players, who want to bring those topics into the game.
My question is:
- How do you deal with in-game PC-instigated sexuality, and what are the benefits and pitfalls you've seen of your approach? Please note that I am not referring to useless sexually-oriented discussion "just for laughs". I am referring to romance and sexual encounters that change and develop the character, eventually providing him a family, marriage, frustration, or personal strategic gain. How do you incorporate this effectively into a game, without offending people, but benefiting from the drama that romantic relationships bring to the story in the game?
There is a book, non official from WoTC as far as I understand, the Book of Erotic Fantasy specifically made to deal with sex and sexuality, but I never had the chance to take a look at it.
P.S. "Don't do that" is not an answer to this question – some groups prefer to play games without it, but we prefer game content more on the "Game of Thrones" end of the scale.
Best Answer
I think handling it like they do in James Bond movies is the best thing. The romance leads to the beginning of the event and then fade to black...
I would definitely follow up within the story. Obviously, these two characters now have strong feelings for each other. They will now have emotional entanglements and all that. Jealousy, protective instincts, fear for the other character's safety, etc. There were two characters in one of my campaigns that were intimate (offscreen) and they roleplayed these issues as you might expect.