Obsidian Entertainment - MCA Blogs on Romances

Chris Avellone writes on their ideas for developing romances on his blog at Obsidian. Here is the intro:

So, I generally despise writing companion romances (I think unrequited and/or doomed ones are ultimately more dramatic), but there are some techniques I've accumulated over the years that I try to incorporate into writing and designing romances in RPGs.

A lot of these things came out while writing Gannayev-of-Dreams in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, and I suppose it could hold true for other inter-party romances in games. What follows is a summary of some points we kicked around for how to foster romances with the PC.

More information.

I'm not a tremendous fan of romance in games, but there are some really good points in this summary.

Fleshing out an NPC to the point where one is having an intense fantasy relationship with that basically scripted creation has got to be extremely difficult to do at a higher creative level. Much as I wisecrack about the irritation factor of certain mouthy female NPC's, I can also see that the alternative of just "a drone who nods all the time" would possibly irritate me even more.

Prognosis for MotB looking better.

Anything by MCA is always first class IMHO!!

A nice article/discussion, a favorite topic of mine.

Originally Posted by magerette
I'm not a tremendous fan of romance in games

I AM! The more options, the better, though in my book anything (yes, even that gimboid Anomen in BG) is better than nothing. Sadly, if there are romance options in a game, then there usually are too few options for female player characters.

Heck, I'd happily romanced HK in KotOR (or a Pinky in Doom, for that matter) if given the chance.