Pyramid Review
Breaking the Ice: A Game of Love For Two
Published by Black & Green Games
Written by Emily Care Boss
Cover by Barry Deutsch
Illustrated by Barry Deutsch & Jennifer Manley Lee
42-Page b&w softcover; $14
Breaking the Ice: A Game of Love for Two is a little game that deals with that most difficult of subjects -- love. Few if any RPGs really address this subject, perhaps the most notable being the Shoujo titles Heart Quest: Romantic Roleplaying in the World's of Shoujo Manga and Hearts, Swords, Flowers, the latter better than the former. Yet both draw from a very specific genre and culture -- Japan's Shoujo Manga -- and in comparison few if any occidental set RPGs approach the subject to the same degree although it may figure mechanically and thematically.
Breaking the Ice is different, tackling the subject directly in the form of two people playing a couple going on their first three dates. Taking it in turns, they narrate and guide through the major events -- the sort of memorable things that they might be able to tell their grandchildren someday -- of the three dates, aiming to create and find compatibilities between, and increase the attraction between the pair. Hopefully enough, that the couple will form a long and lasting relationship, if not actually marry. In doing so, the game sets out to model the romantic movie and its various sub-genres such as the dramatic (Romeo and Juliet), dark humor (Grosse Point Blank), comedy (When Harry Met Sally), screwball comedy (His . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 17, 2006
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