RPG Review: Romance Trilogy: Breaking the Ice

Romance is in the air! It’s Valentine’s Day, so what better way to celebrate than to look at an indie collection of RPGs by the creator of Bubblegumshoe, Emily Care Boss.

Romance Trilogy is a collection of three roleplaying games, previously published in previous publications, but are revised and collected here. In particular, I’m going to look at one of the games, Breaking the Ice. To cover all the games would take up more time than you and I have, so I’ll talk briefly about the other two before I cover Breaking the Ice.

The book, after giving a quick rundown of each game, provides ground rules, helping players establish physical and emotional boundries in order to keep everyone comfortable. It suggests setting a rating for the session, in order to establish how far the story can go. If my wife and I were, for example, playing Breaking the Ice, we would be fully comfortable stepping into explicit territory, but two players just meeting at a con would likely want to keep it a bit more chaste. The game also discusses boundaries and veils, establishing lots of safety measures right off the bat, which is important for a roleplaying game centered around romance.

So, first off, the other two in the book. Shooting the Moon is a two to three person game where both players are Suitors, seeking the hand of the Beloved. The game is all about the struggle of a romantic triangle and the foibles that come with it.

Under My Skin is the third in the collection, and is meant to be played with a group of four to eight players. It is a live action game, and is about love, fidelity and betrayal. The facilitator will begin and end scenes, and call for players to give monologues as to their inner dialogue.

Now we’ll get into the core of the review, centered around Breaking the Ice.

Breaking the Ice is a game for two players with no GM. The game centers around a couple going on their first three dates. It is a cooperative game in which the players will trade back and forth which member of the couple they are playing.

All you need is a shared character sheet, some pencils, and a handful of 6-sided dice. The players will decide on a setting, and establishes the characters’ Conflict, which is the obstacle preventing them from attaining love. They also establish the characters’ Traits, which cover their interests and hobbies in order to help inspire what happens on their dates. The players will establish the genre of the game; Are we talking Big Fat Greek Wedding, or The Notebook?

You’ll then determine how each of you are different than one another. Here, we’re talking about the players, not the characters.. Perhaps you’re different genders, sexualities, political stances, or social groups. With this distinction, your characters will also be different in the same way. You will also determine the Conflict. What’s the problem with your character going on this date? Did they just get out of a rocky relationship? Do they have a kid at home? This will help ramp up any strife.

During the date, players will switch back and forth as to who’s the Active player and who is the Guide. The Active player plays one of the couple and sets the scene and establishes things, while the Guide awards them dice based on what they say. When things go well, they get bonus dice. If you fail, you will gain rerolls as recompense. After the player completes any actions on their turn, the next player becomes the Active player, playing their own character. Throughout, players will develop different Compatibilities, which are things they have in common or work well together on. At the end of the date, your characters will have a certain level of Attraction to one another. Between dates, the players will roll a Reality Check to see how many of those levels of Attraction actually stick as the characters think back on how the date went.

The players on subsequent events, will actually change which character they are playing, allowing the players to play from either side of the relationship. At the end of the three dates, the players will check their Attraction and their Compatibilities. One will determine how attracted the characters are to one another after those dates, and the other will determine how much the characters connected. Note, these can be wildly different numbers. Maybe they have no attraction whatsoever, but have a lot of compatability, so they decide to settle for one another.

The players will discuss the future of the two characters, whether they will end up together or not, and then the game ends. It’s a great exercise between the two players.

The book has a ton of further explanation, including a lot of variants, different settings such as children becoming friends for the first time, or playing as barechested werewolves, or choosing your favorite fictional “ships” and playing out how that would go.

I really like this game, more than any of the others. I really enjoy the other two, but this one really struck me as particularly interesting, unlike anything I had played before. It’s a great way to spend the evening.

You can check out the Romance Trilogy here at Black & Green Games’ website.