I was on the frontlines of the war…
“Uh… which war, Zyri?”
Black Friday. 
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I hate it. I don’t mind if RO, that I didn’t choose, finds a partner later in the story, but I don’t want to be that third one when two of them already have a crush or are in a relationship.
Even if I liked one of ROs, I couldn’t go that route.
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I know the feeling. There’s a pair of ROs in a story I read recently who are very plainly already a packaged deal, and the narrative makes good and sure that you know that, and yet both those ROs are available for you to romance, which strongly implies that you’d be stepping right in the middle of their relationship for your own wants. It just feels icky.
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If you have the Outside scar (what is Aave’s scar) and high telepathy stats, Step can possibly open a gate thanks to the crowds of Los Diablos.
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Yep, Aave has the Outside scar and high telepathy. I can’t remember right now, but I think she did open one gate at one point, but then it closed. It’s been too long since I played. I need to do a rerun soon!
This sm! I hate hate HATE when ppl judge you for not wanting your chosen RO to get with another character…
The way I see it is; if the RO really wanted ur MC then they would still want to be with them in every single scenario. If they truly wanted the other character…why wouldn’t they be with them already?? Why would it make a rejection off ur MC make them be with the other character?
Like have a side character get a cute romance. I barely see npc romances and it’s fun to watch.
But I just feel like my MC is getting in the way of the romance that the author truly wanted to begin with.
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I agree, I generally believe in not letting the player control the world of the game too much. Ifs aren’t video games entirely, it’s kind of a grey area, and the ideal is for the reader to immerse themselves. At least that’s my ideal.
If two RO’s have good chemistry, that should be a source of conflict and not just fanservice. There’s a lot more that can be squeezed out of setup like this than “if you get with RO1 and not in poly with both of them or choose otherwise, RO2 will be sad for a bit and then move on”. If something doesn’t happen or happens because of the book’s meta-awareness of the players that’s sometimes a right move but it can also be a great shame.
For example one of the more disputed issues is whether to allow RO’s to initiate flirting if that would be in their character or if it would be better to either hide that or write romance in a different way.
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This is another of those things I want to scream to the rooftops–ffs, let ROs be the ones to initiate flirting if it fits their character. If people don’t like it, give them the option to shut them down when it happens, after which it will never happen again and, possibly, may lock them out of the romance (if that fits their character).
Well, I guess now I have to buy that game…
Well, that sounds even more fun than romances, given my present mood. 
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Social Services of the Doomed did that, where you could start an enemies to lovers romance with your coworker if they liked you enough, and if you hadn’t told them so yourself before a certain cutoff point, they’d come to your office later and try to kickstart the romance themselves.
Worth it. You’re a supernatural bureaucrat who wields red tape like a cudgel, or just beats people over the skull with a tire iron if that doesn’t work.
Also the trolls drink motor oil for coffee.
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Me:
Isn’t that like super into the world revolves around the main character trope? Like nevermind most of the time the mc is just meeting characters or just thrust into the setting.
Also now I’m thinking of a ro not dating the player because they didn’t choose their route every time, which reminds me of a VN.
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Some VNs I’ve played either ignore the other ROs during the chosen RO route, while others just relegate those ROs to supporting characters. The important thing is to keep the fellowship tightknit during those routes.
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I don’t think so? I mean, I’ve had multiple cases in real life where I’ve declined romance and the person I didn’t pursue/turned down/broke up with ended up dating/marrying a friend from our shared social group. That doesn’t mean the world revolves around me. 
There’s a whole thread about this already, btw:
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I mean, you don’t know that.
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I’ve thought about this quite a bit 
I think the simplest reason why I don’t want to add it is because few people seem to actively like it, and many despise it.
I think one thing I think people might miss about it, those who are pro RO-NPC endings/relationships or anti those who are not pro, is that while the intended effect is happiness for the RO, or depth and independence to the actions of the RO, or simply tying up loose ends—the unintended feeling for many players is feeling jealous, and jealousy is simply not fun (except for a vocal minority that actively search for this: see reddit 1 2 3 4) 
But, anyway, all I wanted to say was that whenever we add a feature to a game we have to be mindful of what the unintended consequences are, even if we as the author might not be in the group that experiences that effect. If to many players adding an RO-NPC romance undermines the romance routes or characters themselves, or locks them out of those routes / or locks them to RO route to not have to see jealousy inducing content, that to me is quite an important factor and should be taken seriously. If those things are intended by the developer that’s a different thing—but if it is not—I think it’s right to listen to it and weigh the pros and cons as they actually are.
There seem to be some solution to some of the issues tho:
- The RO-NPC is without similar conflict as MC-RO: make the conflict atleast similarly difficult / or sell the reason for the difference more as situational and not pointing to some inherent MC-RO mismatch.
- Don’t want to see the content while playing other routes (as it makes it hard to play other routes/ROs): make the start or success of the romance based on MC or player action.
- Don’t want to know about the RO engaging in other romance content, even in playthroughs they do not play (because it triggers jealousy, etc): I don’t have a solution to that. I know some argue it’s silly, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t truly felt—and should be considered if it’s worth it to add the RO-NPC content.
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I mean isn’t this more of an opposition to established relationships if anything? With more I don’t want to get in between them vibes.
Players are toxic controlling ex’s got it.
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It’s interesting, I have gone on my own little journey about romanceable NPCs getting together if the PC doesn’t romance them. I started off being strongly positive about them because I felt that it was a way of showing NPCs having agency outside of the PC (which I think I mentioned in the other thread @Havenstone linked to). That was part of why I did it in a couple of my games and I am happy with it in general because I think it fit the atmosphere.
With other projects I’ve become less enthusiastic about spending the effort on it though. Partly because of realising how many people have strong feelings about it in the other direction, and partly because I’ve been leaning towards other ways of showing NPC agency (shared/conflicting values, rivalries, friendships, personal goals, them dealing with problems in their life etc). And… partly because it is a lot of branching and effort - it is always fiddly tracking who’s with who under what circumstances. Though I love making obscure paths that few people will see, in some cases I feel more interested in making those paths something other than NPC-NPC romance.
I will likely go in the other direction again in the future, depending on what works for the project, but for Honor Bound I have really enjoyed focusing on developing NPC-NPC friendships and other kinds of relationship rather than them getting together romantically.
All that said, I do still disagree that NPC-NPC romances represent authors considering that relationship a secret “canon” or OTP. (Speaking for myself, at least - I don’t consider any branches canon, whatever they are, because they’re not seen by every player on every playthrough.) I totally understand not wanting to feel like a third wheel though!
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I don’t care if people call me toxic, I’m 100% against the idea of ROs dating anyone other than MC.
When I romance someone in a game, I want our relationship to feel special, like we are meant to be with each other. It might sound silly, but it is fiction - I don’t want something boring and ‘realistic’, I want something epic and dramatic instead. If RO could easily fall in love with someone else from our circle of friends/acquaintance/colleagues, was our relationship really that special to begin with? I don’t think so.
If we’re talking about how ROs finding other partners is realistic, think about this: usually, unromanced ROs start relationship with other characters only after MC is already locked-in with their chosen RO. It’s not very realistic, is it? Realistically, if the MC is extremely shy, or for whatever reason they hesitated too long before opening up about their feelings for RO, they could simply miss their chance and RO has already started a relationship with other character. That would be realism, but also very depressing - I personally don’t want it in my escapism.
Perhaps unromanced ROs will meet someone in the future, after the game events are completed and it ends. In that case, good for them, but I don’t want to see any of that. 
This is actually a great point. People who don’t have dating life are not lesser than people who do. ROs that don’t date anyone else after MC didn’t choose them could still be very interesting and important characters while staying single for the rest of the story.
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I think part of the push back against npcs getting together naturally is that sometimes their romantic dialogue and interactions with each other feel better than their romantic dialogue with the MC. There’s also a sort of “feel bad” if the couple gets together in every iteration of the story except for the one where you romance one of them, just because it feels like you, as the MC, is breaking up a couple.
Not a choicescript example, but in Dragon Age Inquisition, I could never really bring myself to romance Iron Bull or Dorian because their background romance with each other feels more natural and I’d feel bad for breaking them up.
From a more selfish point of view, I can kind of see why readers might be sort of possessive of their ROs. Its sort of a trend in choicescript games that romances are sort of depicted as “once-in-a-lifetime” in a true love sort of way. Sometimes even including literal soulmates. A lot of choicescript games also veer into wish fulfillment, and even if the MC suffers horribly during the story, their RO is still the one person that accepts them.
For some people, the fantasy of being special might be broken by the idea that they (as their MC) is replaceable. Like its not actually a true love/soulmates if the RO can just turn around and act the same way with someone else, if the MC isn’t romancing them.
I don’t really care if ROs romance someone else, but I can def see where people are coming from.
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I definitely agree. It might feel like that, as some have said, but I really doubt many (if any) authors would intend this
Ohhh you know, maybe the whole thing just once again, like many topics here, come down to escapism vs realism? Some topics people prefer realism (usually because it increases their immersion) and for some topics people prefer escapism (because it is more enjoyable).
Mmm! Yes—I’ve seen this from quite a few players! Humans are creatures of emotions so It’s not so strange we can’t shrug off what’s “canon” or not once we know of some alternative that stick in our mind.
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