Cringy Romance

[Razuchee]

Hi Playgrounders

I am going to do a little character backstory adventure for one a PC in my campaign. Everyone gets one and people can tell me if they have certain wishes about how they like it, it is their backstory after all. And he likes it cringy (Don't worry the other players are okay with it).

The PC is a sun-monk, who fell in love with the other disciple of his master (she is an NPC open hand monk). Since their master wanted them to find true enlightenment and thought this cannot be achieved without cutting all ties to the worldly, he forbade them to be together and meet each other. The thing now is, the old world, and their master, are dead and they entered a new world. The PC received a letter of invitation from her.

This is where I need some inspiration. I was thinking about some classic 'bad guy does something terrible to the love interest, turns her to the dark side so she starts to fight him and he must save her from herself, but is still in conflict with himself because he wants to live by his masters teachings' type of thing. The main problem is the set up. Do they meet on good terms, just so she can betray them during the meeting? Has she gone missing from the monastery and they have to track her to the bad guys lair, where the PC sees them together and experiences a real heart breaker? Or maybe they meet up, then the bad guys abduct his girl, and he has to save her and then has to fight her as the end boss of the adventure?

How would you roleplay something like this and what should the general ambiente be? Or do I even need a bad guy to get the cringefest going?

C&C appreciated

[Unoriginal]

How about she abandonned their master's teaching, realizing that a man who claimed to have cut all ties with the worldly yet was still obsessed with the worldly enough to forbid others in partaking in it (instead of just letting them find enlightenment -or fail to - by surpassing their desires from their own volition) was just an hypocrite, and then she became a famed treasure hunter (maybe taking Rogue Thief levels).

If the PCs go visit her, she has this big, luxurious mansion filled with treasures, archaeological artifacts, and monster hunting trophies.

And then she is hired by a bad guy, completely by coincidence and not knowing their villainous nature, to acquire the same macguffin from some ancient ruins the PCs are trying to get, and they're now in a race's opposing team for the item.

That way you can have a romance/rivalry where the lady has her own agency and isn't just a corrupted pawn or a damsel in distress the monk has to save.

Bonus point if you make her the leader of a fun and awesome team.

[Fri]

Just have the love interest fighting the party as opponent, maybe not villain, but just not explaining it for whatever reason, but he's assuring them that it's for the greater good. The party don't know what they're doing. What is it actually about? No time to explain, bye bye. That's the ultimate cringe in these supernatural adventure story. But make it super obvious that she's really is not a villain, but just... dunno, don't have time to explain or whatever. It's important to make it super obvious and have him/everyone torn apart or whatever. No need to be brainwashed by a bad guy.

If necessary give the love interest a mask for his first appearance, when they're tryign to get a macguffin, but she destroyed/steal it first. Then the mask that fall apart in a tweest, it's the love interest! Also obviously she should die in his hand later.

[Razuchee]

How about she abandonned their master's teaching, realizing that a man who claimed to have cut all ties with the worldly yet was still obsessed with the worldly enough to forbid others in partaking in it (instead of just letting them find enlightenment -or fail to - by surpassing their desires from their own volition) was just an hypocrite, and then she became a famed treasure hunter (maybe taking Rogue Thief levels).

If the PCs go visit her, she has this big, luxurious mansion filled with treasures, archaeological artifacts, and monster hunting trophies.

And then she is hired by a bad guy, completely by coincidence and not knowing their villainous nature, to acquire the same macguffin from some ancient ruins the PCs are trying to get, and they're now in a race's opposing team for the item.

That way you can have a romance/rivalry where the lady has her own agency and isn't just a corrupted pawn or a damsel in distress the monk has to save.

Bonus point if you make her the leader of a fun and awesome team.

I also played with the thought of her having left the masters teachings behind, and had her search enlightenment in her own way. I really like your reasoning why, I think I'm gonna steal that. I also really like the idea of her having gone full blown materialist. Thanks for the input.

[90sMusic]

So it's basically a Ji Firepaw and Aysa Cloudsinger situation.

Same master, some teachings, just different perspectives that drove them apart and made them fight on opposing sides. IIRC, one was eventually severely wounded which caused the other to rush to their aid and they stopped hostilities between themselves.

They eventually returned home and got in on together, abandoning both causes in general and decided to stop fighting and instead just teach the next generation together.

[Sorlock Master]

How cringe are we talking here? Are we talking epic levels of uber cringe? Like lanky villian with ridiculous mustashe that he twirls constantly while droning on about his plan is a high pitched nasaly voice?

[Razuchee]

How cringe are we talking here? Are we talking epic levels of uber cringe? Like lanky villian with ridiculous mustashe that he twirls constantly while droning on about his plan is a high pitched nasaly voice?

Yes, also explaining his scheme in front of the heroes while they are strapped to his doomsday device.

[Easy_Lee]

Cringe is subjective. You appear to be talking about dead horse stereotypes. Stereotypes happen for a reason. If you want your story to be compelling and "cringey," invent good reasons.

The most stereotypical way for this to go, I think, is the standard plot "My Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu." She joined with the bad guy for more power, and thinks she is now stronger than the main character with his presumed compassion and discipline. Once he beats her in a fight enough times, she realizes she was wrong and becomes a friend to the party. You don't have to kill her. You can just have her doing unverifiable things in the background - think Zero from Megaman X who always had a computer to destroy or something.