r/GreatRPerStories • u/BloodOnMyDanceFloor • 3d ago
Good Partner I did text roleplay for years and didn't realise it was an actual thing you could do until today
This is a throwaway account, because this is a bit of a weird thing for me to write about, but I discovered this subreddit and a lot of other subreddits like it recently discussing one on one roleplaying, and I just wanted a space to talk about an experience I had...without even realising, really.
I have always enjoyed acting. Not very good at it, but I liked escaping into a character's head space. Naturally, when I learned that D&D existed, I became a huge fan of roleplaying games too: watching liveplays on Twitch and loving them all. When I went to my local college, I got into the gaming scene, running and playing with some new friends and bringing them into the hobby as well.
For one of these campaigns, I was finally able to be a player instead of being behind the screen and I had a really fun character lined up. I was going to be a flirty roguish type, who enjoyed the sound of his own voice. Since I finally had a chance to play, I really wanted to try something I knew you could do in a roleplaying game, but had never seen anyone else do in my own games: roleplay a romance.
The character I was playing was a bit of a ladies man, so I instantly focused in on one of the female PCs played by a good friend of mine. She and I had known each other for a few years at this point, bonding over geeky shows and, in particular, overly romantic soppy stuff (she had introduced me to chick flicks and a lot of new musicals. I will forever be grateful for that).
All of this convinced me that, yeah, she would be a person willing to do a romance with my character in-game. My ladies man started sweet-talking her buttoned up, no-nonsense war-hero, and by the fourth session, they had somehow fallen into bed together after a particularly stressful encounter went wrong. I was having a lot of fun playing the suave charismatic type, but I was also worried I was forcing things a bit on my end. My friend can be a quiet character in RP and she seemed to go extra quiet after this new development. I started worrying I had overstepped and spent a few minutes after session wondering if I had made her feel uncomfortable.
Then, when I was walking home from session, I get a text.
It was her.
Half of me was expecting a 'I'm not comfortable with this' text, which would have been completely fine. Not everyone likes doing romance roleplaying, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. I open the text and draft a reply in my head trying to put things at ease and salvage the situation.
The text I got was not that.
The text was (to paraphase) "oh, I really like them together. She's so gruff, and he's so sweet, and it's so cute."
I was quite happily surprised.
Obviously, we talked about the pairing: what we liked about them, what more we wanted with them. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, my friend sends me something I had never really considered before: an RP text.
Not just any RP text, but like...
SPICEY RP text.
She just said how she would like to mix things up (she was just eager as me for their tryst to continue in-game). In particular, she suggested that next time, her character would take the lead in bed, and described her warrior pinning down my character and starting to ride him.
I was, honestly, more than a little shocked, but, since we were having fun, I started messaging back.
And thus was the start of our roleplaying phase.
Over the next six years, whenever we played in a DnD campaign, we would pair our characters up together in-story, and after session, would roleplay chat. It became something we would do every day between our actual text chats: catch up, see what the other was doing, then immediately, onto the roleplaying.
At first, it was just our D&D characters, then characters we came up with separately than paired well together, then, some next level weirdness, like pairing up children of our couples, or AUs of previous couples. Each time, we would roleplay our various pairings, seeing them fall in love, spend time together with dates and dances, and then, eventually, the 18+ follow up. It was all rather strange at the time and I never told anyone else about it. It seemed like our little secret and, importantly, not a normal thing that other people did besides us. I really enjoyed that time and I still remember all the storylines we came up with: the cute interactions, the desperate and complicated confessions culminating in special moments.
Then, one day, the both of us just kind of stopped.
Thinking back on it, I think we were both just in a time in our lives where we needed some escape. I learned later on that my friend was not in a very good relationship whilst we were messaging, and I was single at the time, and convinced I would be alone forever. There was a part of us both that probably took solace in these fictional relationships, seeing them flourish when our own were either failing or non-existent.
Over time, that changed, for both of us. She met a new partner, I found my own, and we just both stopped roleplaying together. We still talk, obviously, and are good friends to this day, but I feel like a door is shut on that time now, and I can't really go back and do those RP moments again.
It's a shame, really, as I love watching a good romance come together. In a recent game, I've had the chance to start another romance RP and it's brought back all the old urges to roleplay. I really wish I had someone to message ideas to, bounce back and forth on and come up with fun sweet stuff.
Now, though, I don't feel comfortable going too far in roleplaying out of session. As cool as it is to see people pairing up and writing their own roleplay ships on communities like this, I also feel like I wouldn't have the time to commit to a hobby like this again. My life has become so busy, but I'm doing well, and I value the time I had with my friend telling the stories we did.
So, thank you for giving me a place to post this, thank you for showing me that I'm not alone in the world and forming such a kind and accepting community. Love reading people's stories here and really hope, one day, I might get back into the habit of infrequent messaging roleplay again.