Hi there

I wanna make a narrative game about vicious love. I want it to revolve around the premise "when do courting cross the line from sweet to horrible?". It includes several persons courting the same person, and the courting should be very competitive (and at one point become vicious). "Something about Mary" is a source of inspiration in which theres several people courting Mary using deceit, lies, obstruction and sabotage of each other.
I have an endgame-trigger in mind but apart from that I don't know where to go with the system. I imagine the endgame-trigger to be when the player of the character being courted decides that an attempt to score has crossed the line from sweet (fx sabotaging a rivals bike before a date) to horrible (fx lying to the police about another rivals history of pedophilia, fabricated of course...). Note that I want the players personal opinion on the matter and not the player-characters opinion.
Setting-wise I'm currently thinking something along the lines of highschool kids in the 50´s in the states, but its not paramount.

Resume:
Players: 1 being courted, x being courtiers (with a cap on x)
GM: ? (could either be a player or distributed)
Premise: "how far can you go in the name of love?"
Endgame-trigger: Player of the character being courted decides that the line has been transgressed

What I want from you guys is any suggestions on how to handle conflict resolution and get some sort of escalation from the courtiers towards the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. I would also be glad to receive any recommendations to fiction that could be relevant.

Jonas

Hi Jonas,

Oohhh, this is right along my lines. I think the best way to help is for me to get all Socratic and ask you questions ...

Have any role-playing experiences of yours addressed these issues in the past? Which games? Playing with whom? What happened?

I realize that's kind of an Actual Play type question, but yes, let's do it here, this forum is just right for that. The reason I'm asking is to see what sort of dynamics and techniques did or didn't work for you in the past, for this precise topic.

Then I betcha coming up with conflict resolution techniques, reward systems, and other thiings like the general scope of play will be much easier.

Best, Ron

P.S. If you haven't already, make sure to check out Breaking the Ice, which bills itself as being about romance and love, but mechanically/statistically, is more about hope and heartbreak. Also, keep an eye out for my upcoming publication It Was a Mutual Decision, which is strongly influenced by Breaking the Ice.

A couple questions more:
- Are you thinking of light comedy or oppressing thriller here? My first impression of your chosen premise was Sliver, but of course it can be done as comedy, too. This isn't necessarily relevant for the system, note.
- How long do you imagine the game to run? It's pretty easy to whip up mechanics for a two-hour game, say, but the pacing will require some tricky layers if you're thinking of a longer endeavour.

Ron:
I played an impro-sim session once with my girlfriend, one of our close mutual friends and a friend of hers. Her friend was the GM. We played in 50´s setting previously mentioned. My girlfriend played the girl being courted by the school quarter back (played by our mutual friend) and the rebel without a cause from the wrong side of the tracks (played by me). The GM set scenes playing the family and friends of the girl. All rolls were task resolution based on what seemed reasonable to the GMs perception of what was probable. And that was exactly what I didn't like about it since it was him by fiat deciding what was going on. I at no point got the feeling that anything I contributed made any difference other than coloring the SIS, since the GM in order to keep suspense I guess, kept balancing things out so that it seemed that it could go either way. Fx letting the parents be hard on the guy who did best in the previous scene. I got the feeling that anything I did didn't matter but since I dig the concept I began pondering how to make it work, and here I am.
BTW I have ordered Breaking the ice and I´m looking forward to reading it.

Eero:
With regards to genre I´m currently inclined to keep it open so to speak. I hope that the game will become able to handle both comedy and a more "serious" approach, but I'm aware that I might have to narrow the scope to get a better/functional game.
Regarding length I´m thinking 2-3 hours.

Jonas

You can also start "Comedy" and once they cross the line move it into Suspense-Horror.

I'm really liking this concept, and really think that you should develop it. I was just recommended reading My Life With Master again (I'm working on a similar project about people engaged in abusive relationships), and looking at your concept I can see how it could be applied here as well. My Life With Master has a resource system whereby the players (poor and self-loathing Minions to a psychotic and evil Master) make overtures to NPC connections in an attempt to gain Love. Perhaps a perversion of this system, where players make overtures towards each other, employing increasingly dangerous means in crazed attempt to court their intended victim...er, I mean, lover. Emotional and sexual desperation would play a major part in the resolution system and in providing conflict, while genuine love could possibly provide hope and healing to these damaged characters.

Hope that helps. I've got more ideas, if you want to hear them.

Luck,
Kirk

Thundergod:
I will try to keep the system neutral (or at least able to handle more than one) genre, but if it won´t work out I´ll keep your suggestion in mind.

Kirk:
Thanks.
I have both read and played "My life with master" and I can see that it is way to handle escalation, but I´m looking for something a bit more "free". In overtures there´s only two outcomes and that seems a bit bound. I suppose one could increase the number of outcomes for a different (more "free") feel. I will tinker a bit and return...
I don´t think that desperation and sincerity is a distinction I wanna use. Desperate love can be genuine but is desperate because it´s not returned. The game will in this respect contain a tragic element.
And I certainly wanna hear about any ideas you have that could apply to the concept.

Jonas