Second-edition "romance" rules for freeform larps

Writing Freeform Larps has only been out a year, and I already have changes I want to make. One of those changes is to the romance rules.

Following West End Lullaby (which I wrote about recently), I’ve made four changes.

• First, I’ve simplified it. I’ve removed the tracking of “negative behaviours” and changed it so that you simply decide if you want to fall out of love. (In my experience, people rarely do this – it’s fun having your characters fall in love, and why spoil the fun?)
• Second, I’ve explicitly made it more flexible should you fall in love with more than one person. It’s up to you how you resolve that – do what you think is appropriate.
• Third, I’ve made the heart colours more LGTB-friendly.
• Fourth, I’ve changed the emphasis from romance to falling in love, to allow for platonic and romantic relationships. (Thanks to Rei for nudging me in this direction.)

West End Lullaby’s mechanic was actually a relationship mechanic, and you could use it for rivalries and friendships as well as falling in love. I thought about that, but my experience of West End Lullaby is that it didn’t really work as anything other than for falling in love.

For friendships, I prefer the “Pardner” mechanic we created for Tombstone. And rivalries? I don’t know, I’m not sure if they need a mechanic.

So here’s my updated system for falling in love.

An example system for falling in love

This is an example system that could be added to almost any freeform. Feel free to use it in your own games.

Falling in love

These are the optional rules for falling in love, whether romantically or platonically.

Setup

First, decide whether you want your character to fall in love and how flexible you want to be. Get a pen/sticker from the GM desk and mark your name badge as follows:

• No heart: I don't want to fall in love.
• Black heart: I want to fall in love (heterosexual).
• Pink heart: I want to fall in love (queer).
• Gold heart: I want to fall in love (any).

If don't want to fall in love, read no further.

Second, your envelope contains a heart card with several behaviours you would like to see in your partner. Choose the six you like the look of and cross out the rest.

(It’s probably best if you choose these once you have read your character so you choose behaviours that suit how you want to play your character.)

Third, decide how easily you want your character to fall in love (your “Heart Target”). We recommend starting with a Heart Target of three, but if you want to make things easier or harder, that’s great too.

That’s it for setup.

During play

During play, as people play the game, they will (deliberately or accidentally) behave in a way that makes your character feel more attracted to them (heart behaviours). To help you keep track, we’ve formatted the tasks in a grid so you can check them off.

(We expect you will only have half a dozen or so people to track. To track more, you’ll need a separate sheet of paper.)

Add the heart behaviour checks for each character – that’s your heart score. If your heart score equals (or beats) your Heart Target, congratulations, you have fallen in love with that person.

Falling in love

Once you have fallen in love with them. Here’s what you do:

First, tell someone. That might be the person you have fallen for, but it could be anyone.

Second, you have a new goal.

Help the love of your life succeed: You have a new love in your life, and you want them to succeed. Depending on how hard you have fallen, this may involve putting their goals ahead of yours. (You decide – we suggest using your heart score as a guide.)

Falling in love together

If the person you have fallen for also falls for you, that’s fantastic. We look forward to hearing all about it.

Unrequited love

If you’ve fallen in love with someone, but they haven’t fallen for you, well, that’s just how life works sometimes. Deal with it (through roleplaying).

Falling out of love

If the love of your life does something you really don’t agree with (and you can decide what this is), then you are no longer in love with them. Roleplay it! (And again, tell someone.)

Falling in love with someone else

Keep tracking your scores. If another person beats your Heart Target, then you are in love with them as well! Does this mean you have changed your heart and fallen out of love with your original flame? Not necessarily – you decide! Tell people! Roleplay it!

A few guidelines

Respect other players’ boundaries: If a player doesn’t have a heart on their badge, please don’t track their heart behaviours.

Don’t talk about the mechanics: We prefer it if you don’t discuss the specific dos and don’ts needed to win your heart. It’s OK to talk about them generally, but not to be too specific. Try to keep the conversation natural.

“What does a guy need to do you get you to fall for him?”

“A sense of humour is a good start.”

Ignore all these rules if you want: If these rules aren’t giving you the results you want, please ignore them, particularly if it’s more dramatically appropriate.

Example heart tracker

I would tailor behaviours to the specific freeform – accompany me to the county fair, dance with me at the ball, and so on.

Edit: Updated to make it more inclusive.