Disagreements regarding the differences between Romance and Seduction have existed since the dawn of time.

Affairs of the heart and the intentions of each participant in the romantic or seductive dance continue to defy scientific analysis to any reliable degree.

One key consideration is the Goal of the participant.

If the participant makes overtures or advances because their heart drives them to for reasons they can't explain, for hopefully mutual gain of both participants, that tends to fall into the romance category.

If the participant makes calculated overtures or advances because they have a hidden agenda such as information gathering, enabling access to otherwise prohibited locations or materials, or exploiting a participant for purely personal gain of the other tends to fall into the seduction category.

The seducer may choose actions and discussion topics they believe may engage and influence their target.

The seducer may also choose fundamentally honest or dishonest tactics leading to persuasion or deception attempts.

Seductions also tend to start with a dishonest approach from the seducer as they misrepresent their interest and intentions.

A calculated meeting and quotation or action may ambush or surprise the possible target of seduction and kick off Turn by Turn rounds of action and reaction navigating the encounter.

The Intelligence, and Will attributes of both parties to the seduction encounter drive the Task Resolution and Degrees of Success results of each Turn of the romantic encounter, until one side or the other “wears down” the Will Reserves of the other and disengages or capitulates.

Naturally, Appearance and Charisma count toward successful advances or resisting them.

For the target of a seduction, successful Awareness checks may trigger feelings of unease as small errors or clues which do not fit the seducer's narrative pile up.

For the seducer, the target's growing Awareness may trigger increasingly difficult Ingenuity checks to continue reshaping the seduction narrative to explain away the discrepancies.

☐ Seduction Example

Markus, a corporate agent, attempts to seduce Brianne, a lawyer, to secretly pry into her case files regarding pending litigation involving his employer.

After arranging to encounter her, he strikes up a relationship through a series of successful Charisma / Seduction checks which start warming Brianne's heart.

During this time, Brianne asks where he works.

Unable to tell the truth, he claims to work for an entirely different non-profit agency requiring a successful Ingenuity / Fast Talk check to be convincing, which he fails.

Following her gut feeling, Brianne investigates Markus' claims with a successful Awareness / Investigation and finds the agency he claims to work for does not exist.

This re-builds her Will Reserve to resist Markus' future advances and erodes her first impression reaction to meeting Markus.

▲ Chronology