Ro-Serpens

Chris Dahlen on romance in RPG's.

From the page: "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me
by Chris Dahlen
2006 may 2, baldurs gate ii, bioware, feature, issue_43, kotor, npcs, planescape, rated m for mature, romance in games, sex and games

I remember playing Planescape: Torment, the cult classic roleplaying game from Black Isle, a few years back. The game matches you with a handful of companions, including a woman with crazy hair, a Scottish accent and a gigantic flesh-toned tail. Partway through the game, she started flirting with me in an edgy, uncommitted way: She would start a conversation and then confront and light into me, and I knew if I responded poorly, she'd laugh in my face. I got sucked into roleplaying against her, and it wasn't my imagination or the one-and-a-half-inch tall image of the character on the screen that drew me in so much as the knowledge that I had to make the right decision to see where this could go, and the wrong decision would derail whatever was happening between us. It was fascinating to have a game put me back on my heels, not with a blow-out combat scene, but just with a conversation."