The situation did not feel awkward to me, but I can’t speak for anyone else. We had 2 adults specifically ask that they not be sent the adult journal entries. Basically, what got left out were the details of the PC’s intimate interactions, all of the details pertaining to the storyline were left in. Essentially, you had the characters kiss and fade out in the edited journals.

As for the teenagers, my youngest daughter (now 21) did read one of the entries and got weirded out that her mother could write like that. I loved doing that to our kids when they were teenagers. Still have fun shocking them now that most of them are older.

This sounds very awkward to me, particularly the split between the adult and PG versions of the journals — on either side of that equation, that seems like it would generate some friction.

Did the whole group but into this split (apart from the kids wanting the adult version, of course )?

The situation with my Champions character did indeed make some of our players uncomfortable. The journal entries were VERY adult and so were not sent out to our teenage children who were playing. Also, some of our friends could not deal with the situation and were excluded from the mailings. And then we had everyone else wanting us to write more. Communication helped to keep everyone comfortable.

As I said in a previous entry, the romantic elements were not, in general, played out in the gaming sessions especially when our children were present. We did indeed tailor our interactions to those present.

Since our journal entries also conveyed some plot elements, I believe the Evil Overlord may have edited them and then sent them to the people who did not wish to receive the adult version and to the teenagers who may have wanted to see them but weren’t allowed to at that time. He will have to either confirm or deny this.

Both seem like excellent social contract fodder, too, as they wouldn’t work well without some group discussion.

- unrequited love
- showing off to compete for a specific someone
- full blown romantic encounters

Ardent unrequited love seems hard to sustain in a gaming situation because it is one way, a monologue if you will.

Full blown romantic encounters take talent (i.e. more work) to write without making at least some other game members uncomfortable.

And sometimes when there is an unattached member of the group among avowed bachelors or married couples, sometimes the romantic interactions can almost seem predatory in nature, especially if initiated by certain females. Uneasiness/jealousy/turf warfare can then come out among the players (vs. characters).

There has to be a certain measure of trust among the members of the group to play through delicately and yet with enough umph for it to be believable (managing to tango through a ballroom without falling over) and not laughable, although sometimes laughable interludes (flirting naively with an NPC soldier who had been at a far outpost too long, never thinking that the GM would call your bluff, thankfully a dice throw saved the character’s honor on that one.) have an upside… but it takes confidence or at least a sense of humor to come through unscathed.

Also there needs to be a sense among all players of what “rating” is appropriate for the game. Keep in mind who is participating or listening into your game and adjust the rating accordingly, especially if playing in a multi-generational gaming group. (Think G & PG when kids are present) Limit circulation of journals with racier stuff to the players of appropriate maturity.

I thought that I would answer this since I am the Esteemed Consort of the Evil Overlord.

I can tell you that all of the characters in “Shards of the Heart” were written up by our gaming group. Of course, Lightning has yet to actually appear in any of our games, but maybe he will some day. (yes, Lightning the horse is my fault )

Let’s just say that all of our games tend to have some form of flirting in them so writing “Shards of the Heart” was sort of natural for us.

We are not sure if the amount of sexual banter in our games is due to the fact that we have 2-4 females per gaming session or if we have the females playing because of the bantering.

Esteemed Consort of the Evil Overlord
Convention Minion for Tabletop Adventures

This sounds like a perfect way to combine pulling the camera back without ignoring the romantic angle — I like it.

Hammerlily: Do you think that crushes and flirting come up more often because they’re easier to handle without making anyone — players and/or GM — feel uncomfortable?

EO: Hearing that you met your wife through PC flirting makes me smile. Did that play a role in TTA’s decision to produce Shards of the Heart?

Actually, come to think of it, I met my wife through PC flirting in a game I was in. In a Star Trek RPG game where I was the Captain. The vessel was appropriately named: The USS Ardent…

“Capt’n Sean Stuart Cleburn of the Federation Stirship Irdent…”(Think Irish Accent)

Although some of that falls in the normal operating sphere of our younger, more headstrong characters.

And how many cases of unrequited love have taken place?

Crushes and flirting and most of what I’ve seen done.

The most interesting situation we had was in a Champions game we played several years ago. We had tried several times to get a workable scenario going and this was our last attempt. The romance came into play when my character made an off the wall comment during a fight scene to another player character. Personally, I didn’t really expect him to pick up on it.

It was known by the group that the two characters became involved, but all of the relationship stuff was handled in after game journal entries. They were both comical, one involved a life boat while the group was on a cruise, and adult. The group loved the entries, we had some fun writing them and it stretched me as a roleplayer since I then had to incorporate my character’s feelings into how she would react in a combat situation.

Our group does have above average female participation though.