As a born tree hugger I'm not at all disappointed that we got a pair of Druids here heheh, but I do wish there was a shorty option as well, so I'll chime in too.
Trying to nail every romance preference when you've only got a dozen potential companions is really challenging, and some of those companions are gated by plot choices/player character morality, so that's not really the full spread at a dozen, it's probably more like half a dozen for any given player character.
I don't have any telemetry or heuristics to back it up, but I imagine that when selecting a romance option players tend to go one of several ways depending on what they find attractive or interesting IRL, things like where they (the players) fall on the kinsey scale, whether they are choosing their avatar as a kind of mirror for their own inner anima/animus playing out those sorts of desires, or something more outside their normal wheelhouse, like as an entirely RP/character driven choice and detached from those sorts of preferences (maybe harder to settle into for many since that requires adopting a new POV or frame of ref. I think it would appeal a lot to peeps who enjoy creative writing, or the playwrights at heart though.)
In TT RPG I also think there is probably a lot of pressure to conform to certain social norms around a given table, and to avoid stepping on any toes accidentally or being overtly appropriative when exploring certain character types/tropes. Character Romances in TT RPG don't seem to be a thing that players are terribly pre-occupied with. I think this is because in TT RPG (even with dress up in full costume/makeup) it's much harder to shed your own skin or your own voice. It also might come across as odd or creepy or again too appropriative, whereas in a cRPG some of those restraints are magically removed, since we can create an avatar.
This opens a whole different sort of floodgate on the subject, because we can slip on a persona with ease in this situation (persona means "mask" in Latin) and we don't have to pick it up or drop it when breaking character like you would around an actual table.
I think this contributes to some players just not understanding at all why anyone cares so much about which player characters in their party can be romanced, or which bases are being covered by the standard options there, since this almost never comes up in TT RPG (unless you're playing with couples maybe?) Whereas for others this might be a very important part of the game's lasting appeal, as a mostly SP driven cRPG experience. Probably the important thing to achieve is some degree of parity.
Meaning don't give us just one shorty - give us 2!
Or maybe 3?!!! I mean Right? I think that's the real trick to it.
We do have 3 fantasy races to choose from after all. But yeah, I mean at least 1 to cover the shorty phenotype more broadly. That would be a nice start hehe
Last edited by Black_Elk; 14/11/23 12:38 AM.
