Polyamorous Romances in Choice Games

I do read manga from time to time and this suggestions are very interesting. I will give a read to both so thank you for the showing me this!

One example of stories/shows that I enjoy even though the cast of characters are children would be Erased, the anime. It’s dark yes, but there are moments that are very cute.
I will check out both mangas regardless ^^

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Ok, an even later reply this time.
Haven’t seen the episode of that anime or read the manga it is based on but that description made me think of another manga you might like.

That is, 3 Gatsu no Lion (link here: kissmanga.com - kissmanga Resources and Information.).
It can get a bit dark, especially at the start of the manga, even if it may be more like a kind of grey melancholy but that makes those moments of happiness shine all the brighter.

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Wondering if any of the books have polygamy as an option

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I’ve noticed Choice of Magics has a fair few options for polyamory - might be worth a look, although it’s not a dedicated romance story.

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Yeah but only till a certain point . After that it becomes a single romance

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Thus far, i can only remember Tin Star … i read that it allow up to 5 RO together ??

But me myself only romance 2 RO together, Maria and Carrie …

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I remember with my WW2 resistance game I toyed with an option to date twin sisters/brothers who were waiters/waitresses in a possible headquarters, but I think I was too concerned with how it would work and the inevitable Allo Allo annotations… :sweat_smile:

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Ah I didn’t realise, my bad.

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In Grand Academy for Future Villains, you’re able to have a relationship with more than one character at a time. Not sure if it counts as poly since your love interests don’t interact with one another in a romantic context, but I am fairly sure that Xi at least says they’re okay with you having relationships with other people.

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The good ol’ surprise threesome. We need a full list. I apologize if I don’t have names for some of these characters, I am too lazy to go back and look.

Zombie exodus safe haven: If you are romancing Jillian, when you reach part 2, and you are in your tent with her, about to get things started, Gina will join you.
Choice of robots: AS mentioned, if you have a wife, and a robot who I guess is human like, you can play together.
The last Wizard: I don’t remember the character name, but the hot blonde guard who saves you when you first arrive. If you end up with her, she will eventually bring a friend along to join you.
The Eagle’s heir: Didn’t achieve it, but there is one in there if you check the achievements.

If anyone has others, with as much specifics as possible, copy the above and then add to the list. it seems the event only occurs with a specific character, in specific circumstances, so simply mentioning the title may not get you far.

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In Zombie Exodus parte 2 in the tent scene if you are romancing Jaime and the hole kissing starts Lopez will join you too. And the author actually answered me on Twitter and said that a three way relationship with the two of them is planned for later updates soo… :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Stronghold has 3 sets of throuples that you can be involved in (as in the PC plus two others).

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Salutations!

Before I get to the topic at hand, I’d like to mention that this is my first post in the Choice of Games forum! (I couldn’t find something akin to an introduction thread, so this will need to do.) I’ve been lurking registered for weeks and anonymously for months, but I’ve finally mustered the courage to post here! I discovered Choice of Games after finding Jeffrey Dean’s Werewolves: Haven Rising on Steam; not only is the aforementioned game/novel awesome, but the community here truly is as inclusive and friendly as claimed. Even the welcoming tutorial is the most epic of its kind! :grin:

All right, on to the main matter. I put considerable thought into what my first post would be, and I was surprised to discover that no topic exists specifically to discuss polyamoury (British spelling all the way! I only omitted the U in the title because it’d be more recognisable like that). There are The Polyamory Thread by Sashira and Polyamorous Romance Choices by SmolPirate, but the former is a Q&A thread about polyamoury, while the latter contains suggestions for games with polyamorous options in them. All the other topics I found using the keywords “polyamory”, “polyamoury”, and “polyamorous” only mentioned these in passing, and many of them are works in progress. I’m polyamorous myself — although not part of any poly community, as I’m extremely reserved when it comes to joining new communities — so I figured this would be the best candidate!

Firstly, I’d like to know what people think about polyamorous representation in ChoiceScript games. Rather than merely mentioning examples, I think it would be more useful to mention how polyamoury was implemented and why it worked well, poorly, or mediocrely. I’ve only played W:HR and Rebecca Slitt’s Psy High so far, so I can’t really participate in that part of the conversation.

Secondly, and more importantly, what can be done to improve the poly representation? This isn’t a simple question, so I’ll break it down into more manageable ones:

• What kind of polyamorous relationships would you like to see in CS games? Are V’s and closed triads sufficient, or would you also like to see N’s, quads, or other romantic networks and relationships of a larger scale? (Note: I dislike the term “throuple” quite a lot, as it makes me feel uncomfortable and I think it’s ultimately a silly portmonteau that replaces a perfectly valid, preexisting word. if I’m allowed to, I respectfully request using “triad” instead.)

• How many poly relationships would an ideal CS game contain, in your opinion? This naturally refers to the possibilities open to the player character, but also to the number of non-player characters actively engaged in poly relationships.

• More generally, what do you want to see in poly relationships? What kind of characters and character interactions do you like? What are some obstacles you think they should face?

• Alternatively, what don’t you want to see? There is a very, very long list of things that can go wrong with polyamorous relationships, so I think it might be best to limit responses to whatever would annoy, upset, or anger you the most. (Let’s keep this to the minimum, though, as I feel the spirit of this topic should be positive and constructive.)

• For those of you who have written or are writing poly relationships, what were the obstacles you faced? Writing a dyad is hard enough already, but with each additional member of a relationship, the amount of writing and coding increases exponentially. What are your limits?

I’m excited to see where the discussion leads! I trust anything said here would be useful to far more people than just me. :innocent:

PS: The Glossary for Polyamory Terms is a useful link for those unfamiliar with the terms associated with polyamoury, and the site itself is an excellent resource for polyamorous and monogamous people alike!

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Heroes of Myth has a good Poly amorous route with Verity and Al. They both have decent chemistry with each other too and they’ve been teased even at the start since Al had a crush on Verity. You can convince one to start a relationship with the other even if you’re dating iirc.

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Wow great start! This is very interesting, and something that I would love to talk about.
I’m also polyamorous (Though I’m switch) and it frustates me a bit knowing there isn’t much in Choice of games. As far as I seen, the polyamorous choices tend to be more sexual, like threesomes, or more about dating all the ROs but they don’t actually care who else you’re dating.

I would love to see more polyamorous relationships that are more romantic than sexual. And this is a preference thing but I love a closed triad relationship, where each loves each equally.
Regarding how many poly choices should be available is difficult. I’ve never minded only one, especially because I know the rarity of it. But I wouldn’t complain for more.
I’m waiting for a game that takes a poly relationship seriously, more about the realism of it. I would love to see the character fall in love, and most of the time, it’s a slow process, where two fall in love first before the third is ever involved. I want endearing interactions, where you can see they all care for each other, they’re best friends and lovers you know? I want to see them tackle prejudice, or even some sort of jealousy at the beginning stages (though I hate that, there’s a lot of poly relationships that go through that)

As you said, I’m gonna keep criticism to the minimum. But I wouldn’t like to see a poly relationship where it’s purely sexual, or a sort of don’t show don’t tell. And though I said I’d like to see them overcome jealousy, that’s purely optional because it makes me a tiny bit uncomfortable.
Now writing poly in my opinion, is as hard as writing different ROs. I’m, of course, adding a poly option for my games and so far it has been fun writing it - though I’m biased. It’s very similar to writing a single RO path to a relationship

Also thanks for the link, I’ve never been active in the community and I love to learn more about it! :blush:

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It will be a challenge to develop a logical Poly Romance which is respectable, in some google playstore games , those games emphasis on MC could easily attract or marry all available Options as long as they reach certain star rating, and these ROs will deliver babies over and over again, these games are about living life as king or Gangsters boss, i feel such approach is awkward and irrespectable to Those ROs but unfortunately these are also attraction to many people , i believe most readers won’t really understand the meaning of poly romance ( which include me initially ) , most likely many will consider poly romance similar to those apps game and at such will be damaging to CoG/HG as a whole…

More ever , in story mode such as choice game , it will be another challenge to deliver it in a respectable and logical manner, for example what will the other RO think if they know MC has another RO? Surely this will be consider as cheating … to have a branch about explaining poly romance and make them understand will open up more branches ( and these branches are just for poly romance route ) , hence resulting in more txt and variable…

In some games, poly romance was deal like , assuming the other RO doesn’t know about it , the aim was just to allow the readers to feel that they are dating multiple RO and be proud of it, but such method had an aura of “cheating” surrounding them , most readers will be assuming that the game simply allow MC to cheat on RO, thus not justifying true poly romance at all …

Hence authors need to design more scene on the consequence of such poly romance and explain why the other RO would accept it …

Tin Star had one scene that smartly apply MC skill and stat into playing a role on whether Maria and Carrie agree on the poly romance , i heard there were more such scene for other ROs , plus the epilogue also smartly explain what is the after life of such romance…which for my opinion is a classic example on how to write a good poly romance , even so i still feel there was some lacking in emotion on how RO deal with such relationship , like Maria as a chaste noblewoman should had more conversation and emotional interaction with MC before accepting such relationship, this outline the difficulty in writing a good poly romance choice game

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One of the still work in progress Hosted Games on here, The Soul Stone War by Morgan, has polyamorous romances as a big feature. There are four main romance options and three poly-romances between them.

One is with two guys, Straasa and Morkai, who have been best friends and companions since forever. They are close, they have a deep connection, and complement each other wonderfully (Straasa being more calm and gentle, while Morkai is hot-headed and brash). The other is between to women, Daelynn and Eledwen. Eledwen isn’t officially introduced in the demo, but her description is as being serious and being a true friend for life once you’ve gained her trust. Daelynn is less serious, likes causing mischief, and playfully (on her part playfully) butts heads with Morkai. Daelynn and Morkai are also the third poly option which will be a lot to take for MC.

There is a lot of character interaction in the demo, it is apparent that Daelynn takes a liking to both MC and Morkai (one tease and he erupts, she seems to think it is hilarious). Straasa and Morkai both care for MC in their own ways, and the chemistry between those two themselves is incredible.

Admittedly, I don’t have any personal experience with polyromances. And in games, monogamous relationships often feel more “natural” to me, but that could also be because there are so few cases of polyromances that are well portrayed or even offered. With the characters of The Soul Stone War, the polyromances feel natural. It is easy to see Morkai and Straasa welcoming a third person as their close companion and forming an even closer bond together and I’m looking forward to it.

Though not yet completely implemented, malinryden’s Fallen Hero: Retribution is also going to introduce polyromances between some characters. The start for one of these routes was recently implemented in the latest update. Seeing as how Fallen Hero is a very character centered story, with tons of character interaction, opinions, emotions, conflict… these romances will certainly not have a sexual focus, but will be a lot about feelings and actual interactions. And heartache. That’s an integral part of Fallen Hero and it’s wonderful.

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Thanks! If you’re wondering why there’s a link to this thread in my post, it’s because it was initially a different topic that was merged with this one. :yum:

Like I said, I’ve only played a couple of CS games, but if that’s the case, I agree wholeheartedly! The whole thing about polyamoury is loving more than one person at a time, so neglecting the romantic aspect strikes me as counterproductive. :thinking:

Based off the replies earlier in the thread, it seems closed triads are rather rare! Most of the poly relationships mentioned so far are either V’s or stars. Psy High has an achievement for dating three people at once, but I’ve avoided pursuing it so far, as the emphasis is on monogamy, and three of the four romantic options are so different, I can’t see how they’d view your dating more than one person as anything other than cheating. I might stand corrected, in which case I’ll happily relay that here! But yeah, a proper closed triad would be an awesome thing to read and play.

Romance is a significant factor to many of the forum-goers in deciding to buy a COG game, yet I’m surprised (though also not really) to hear how it’s not always properly developed. Any advice for either polyamorous or monogamous relationships can, at least loosely, also be applied to the other type, because no matter whether you’re seeing one or more people, they’re still people. Things like trust and honest communication should be the foundation of every relationship. Seeing these be present in poly relationships in interactive fiction, then, would be wonderful! Everything you mentioned would be great to keep in mind for anyone considering writing polyamoury.

You’re welcome for the link, by the way! I like the technical approach the writer uses.

Yeah, I get exactly what you mean. Using polyamoury as an excuse for cheating is detestable, and while I sincerely doubt any CS games would do that, they could easily create such implications based off their approach to the matter. All people in a polyamorous relationship should know about each other, and ideally, they should try to get along. Having one or more characters explain this in a game would definitely be useful! And having the PC participate in such discussions with other characters and their partners would be even better.

@Sylveranty, those sound like very well-thought out poly romances! Thanks for mentioning the WIP, since I haven’t checked out any of those yet. I enjoy your descriptions of the characters and the motivation they’d all have for going poly. I do hope The Soul Stone War reaches completion! Fallen Hero is a name that’s come up many times in the forums, so I have faith the author will do their best to do the characters justice. Seeing how the dynamics between characters change would be fascinating — and hopefully rewarding! :grin:

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Can anyone tell me how I can achieve poly romance route in Stronghold? And who are the options?

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Normally I am quite against poly options, but reading here, it might have been, because it often means just fetching a personal harem. Which is something I can not like, since I find it degrading, my personal opinion though.
But if it would be a real relationship in which everyone feels ok, and works on getting it work sounds nice. Not in a way where the mc just has two partners and they have to live with it, if they do not want to break up. I might like that in a happy an not angsty way. I do not want to hurt even imaginary feelings^^

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