This one is very long. Enjoy it.
Characters with the Romance skill may participate in the Game of Love. If a character does not have the Romance skill, he is unaware of the delicate rules and pitfalls that await him. He is encouraged to study first before endeavoring to play.
The First Game
A Romance begins with a flirtation, a test of wits to see if a potential lover has the required skill. This is called “the First Game.” The flirtatious banter begins and continues in a kind of sing-song, with each trying to keep up with the beat of the conversation. The loser is the first to miss a beat. The winner sets the level of the tasks for the Romance.
Now, for our example, let’s watch Lady Shara as she sees a potential lover and approaches…
Shara knows his name, this man standing close to the fire. The man with eyes like the fire, with black hair spilling over his shoulders. His wide, wide shoulders. His name is Valin, and he is the prize of the court. She approaches him, touching his hand. Her fingers close over his, and she squeezes. She meets his eyes and smiles. The game has begun.
If you have read the rules for inflicting Insult, the Romance rules will be very familiar.
Initiating the Romance
To initiate the First Game, Shara must make a Beauty + Romance risk. The risk is 10.
If her roll is successful, she has initiated a request for romance successfully. He may choose to reciprocate, or not. If he does not, he politely declines with the proper compliment. That’s the end of that.
Raising the Stakes
If he chooses to reciprocate, he makes a Beauty + Romance risk, except with one wager. If the roll fails, his response is out of time, or not equal to her flirtation.
“I see you carry a sword,” Valin says to Shara. “Can you use it?”
“As well as any man,” she replies. Then, her gaze lowers to his hips where his own sword rests. ”Can you use yours?”
“As well as any woman,” he says.
This continues with each character raising the stakes. Each retort increases the wager. At each opportunity, either participant may concede or up the wager.
The tests continue, with both Shara and Valin testing each other’s verbal skills until one of them fails. In this case, its Shara who misses the roll…
“I’ve heard many women have trained with that blade,” she says, reaching forward, touching the pommel. “I hope it hasn’t gone dull from over use.”
“Quite the opposite,” he says, looking down at her. “And the quality of the blade is only one factor.” He touches her fingers resting on his pommel. “The fingers are the true test of a swordsman.”
His fingers touch hers and a little gasp escapes her lips. She misses a single beat, and the first round of the game is over. She breaks away, withdrawing her hand quickly. “Perhaps you are not ready for my training,” he tells her.
“Perhaps,” she whispers.
“Perhaps I need to see your skills first.”
She looks up. “A test?” she asks.
He smiles. “A test.”
Determining the Winner
If a character misses his roll, his wit has failed him, he has spoken out of time, fumbled his response, or has failed in some other way. This establishes the winner of the exchange. The implied premise is that the loser must prove their worth to the winner.
This exchange is important because it determines a crucial factor. The number of wagers made sets the potential of the romance. The number of wagers made in the exchange determine the potential rank of the romance on the two character’s sheets. If three wagers were made, the romance can grow to a rank 3 Romance. If only 2 wagers were made, it can grow to a rank 2 Romance.
The Spoils of Victory
Because Shara lost the First Game, Valin gets to set the first task, thus setting the level and pace of the Romance. If she accomplishes the task, the game continues, this time with roles reversed. Since she has proven her own worth, it’s time for him to prove his.
Beginning tasks are simple favors. A woman may drop a fan, look at the prospective lover and ask him to retrieve it for her. Likewise, most men ask for a drink from the cask or misplace a glove. Shara and Valin have different ideas about starting tasks…
“That man,” he says, pointing across the room. Shara looks. A bloated beast of a man from a minor house.
“I see him.”
“He carries a sword.”
Shara nods, understanding. “I see.” She bows slightly and retreats, crossing the room, her hand resting on the sword at her side. The noble sees her at the very last minute, just before her hand slaps his face and she takes her defensive stance. He draws his own blade and the duel begins.
A few thrusts and parries pass, everyone holds their breath, and when it’s done, there’s blood on the floor. He’s holding his wrist, looking at her, his sword on the marble with his blood.
She walks back across the floor, her heels clicking on the marble. The blood on her blade drips behind her. She steps up to him, holds the sword out before her… and with a dramatic pause, drops it. It clatters loud on the marble floor.
“I dropped my blade,” she says. “Would you mind picking it up?”
His eyes never leave hers. “Of course,” he says, kneeling down, his hand on the pommel of the blade. “Most women would have dropped a handkerchief,” he says.
She almost laughs. “’Most women.’”
Assigning Tasks
A lover must take care when assigning a task. If her task is too simple, she’s implying she doesn’t have much confidence in her lover’s ability to perform. If the task is too difficult, she’s setting him up for failure, implying she isn’t interested in playing anymore.
A beginning task should be simple, but relative to the skill of the lover. If uncertain, keep the task to something that can be accomplished quickly, to test the lover’s skill.
As the affair continues, the tests become more demanding. They also test the lovers by putting them in situations requiring each other to acknowledge the other in a public way. Each lover continues to trade challenges, the romance becoming more serious with each test. Gifts become touches, touches become kisses, kisses become caresses. Most romances end here, with both parties unwilling to take the next step. It’s a threshold that turns the romance from a flirtatious game into a treasonous crime.
If a lover is successful in his task, he’s awarded merca. Merca depends on many factors, including the lovers involved, the court where the game takes place, and the degree of difficulty of the task. At the beginning of an affair, merca can be a small gift (“Oh, no. You can keep the handkerchief.”) or the right to use a kiss as a greeting. A kiss on the hand, of course. As the tasks become more difficult, the merca also becomes more rewarding.
Rewards
There is another reward for all this nonsense: aspects on your character sheet.
Lovers gain a rank 1 Romance aspect. At the end of each Season, the aspect gains one rank. Romance aspects continue growing until they reach their potential, then they lose one rank until the Romance runs its course.
Naturally, lovers can invoke their Romance aspects for bonus dice: one die per rank of the Romance. But Romance aspects can also be tagged by other characters… if they know about the Romance, that is.
Ending the Affair
Sooner or later, a Romance must end. That’s the way of things. A Romance begins with the heat and intensity of spring; moves into the long, lazy warmth of summer; but then slides into the chilly days and nights of autumn; and finally succumbs to the bitter cold of winter. There are many ways for an affair to end. Some Romances end sadly, some happily, some end in tragedy. There are also honorable ways to bring an affair to an end and less-than-honorable ways to do it.
The most honorable way to end an affair is to accomplish a task and not ask for merca. This informs your lover the affair has run its course and cannot continue. By refusing merca, you have accomplished her request and graciously bow out of gaining the fruits of your labor.
The second honorable way of ending the affair is by not assigning a task. Once again, you feel the affair has gone far enough and any merca granted by a further task would be inappropriate for the romance.
Finally, you can end the affair poorly. There are many ways to do this, but here are two examples.
First, there’s ending the affair by refusing to grant merca. This earns the lover a new aspect: sauginue (saw-gee-new; “savage”). equal to the score of the Romance’s potential. A sauginue is one not to be trusted: an animal driven solely by desires. Of course, that title attracts as many lovers as it does drive them away.
And the most abrupt (and rude) way to end the affair is a public display of scorn or choosing the favor of another over your lover’s favor. Not only does this end the affair and gain you the sauginue aspect, but it may bring bloodshed to your household.
Most husbands or wives try to ignore a spouse’s romance, but no one ever takes kindly to a lover who so shames their marriage by ending a romance poorly. Such behavior is just (and legal) cause for a duel.
Dangerous Liaisons
By the strictest definition, adultery is engaging in activity that could cause an illegitimate heir. Until that line is crossed, all of this romantic talk is relatively harmless—as far as most nobles are concerned. But once that line is crossed, it ceases being a romance and becomes a liaison. The romance has become a danger to the marriage. Most ven understand this and end a romance before it gets that far. Others, however, are so caught up in the passion of the affair, the lovers are willing to risk anything—even their lives—to continue to the passionate conclusion.
Lovers discovered in such a compromising position risk much. They risk loss of reputation, loss of status and—depending on the severity of the court—loss of life.
A liaison may begin as soon as the Romance reaches its potential—reaches its romantic peak. There is only so much satisfaction to be gained from flirting and games until someone finally has to cross the line. So, the Romance reaches its potential, but instead of decreasing next Season, it continues to increase. Except now, it is no longer a Romance, but a Liaison.
Being discovered in a liaison is dangerous. It gives your character the aspect yvaltae (ee-val-tay; dangerous). The aspect is equal to the potential of the Romance. This damages your opportunities to begin new Romances and effects your interactions with anyone with the Romance skill. A liaison is also grounds for divorce in many courts (but not all). The adulterer loses any titles gained from the marriage as well as land and moneys. Finally, most courts punish adulterers in some fashion. Some are branded on the back or legs. A few courts are more sympathetic to the rights of lovers and punish them with banishment. The challenge of a duel most surely will follow any such discovery, from either the wife or the husband; this is high fantasy, after all.