Hi there!! I’m a huge fan of your writing!! I was wondering what your favorite IFs are when it comes to romance? If you know of any that have a deep emotional connection and/or trans-friendly spicy scenes, I would love to know! Thank you!!
Awww thank you so much!
Here are some of my favourite romances that I've played. The games they're in are also excellent.
I've specified where there are spicy scenes, and whether they're trans-friendly.
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A Study in Steampunk by Heather Albano: Finch (male) and Alexandra (female). I like both of these romances a lot. You play as a man.
-This is a magic Sherlock Holmes AU. If that sounds great to you, you'll you'll love it; if you feel a bit sceptical about steampunk or Holmes AUs (I do!) I also recommend trying it. It has fascinating mysteries to solve, fantastic magic and religion worldbuilding, secret occultism, and lovingly detailed characters. This game is SO well put together and structured. I love it.
-In general the M/M Finch romance is the fan favourite, and there's a ton of Yearning and Angst, but I have a ton of Alexandra affection as well.
-You could possibly headcanon being trans in this one; homophobia exists, which I found was depicted thoughtfully.
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Asteroid Run: No Questions Asked by Fay Ikin: Shiori (nonbinary). They're an ambitious nonsense disaster. They get drunk and have a serious discussion about BDSM. They want to do well. They make mistakes. I love them.
-The other romances are also excellent. Oscar (male) is a cute second in command simp for the MC with chronic insomnia. Eira (female) is brisk and brusque and wears leather boots and stamps around in them. Dylan (male) is a hot nervous dumb-seeming puppydog. Katja (female) is a flippy-haired enthusiastic blonde bombshell. These are all accurate descriptions and they have a ton more going on under the surface.
-You can play as a trans character; the spicy scenes aren't super explicit, but are trans-inclusive.
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Choice of the Deathless by Max Gladstone: Vega (male). Yes the gender selectable Wakefield is also very good with inbuilt rivals to lovers stuff going on, and Wakefield is the generally most popular romanceable character from this game. However, Vega is my silly rabbit, my rich annoying Alt Columb's Most Eligible Posh Man. (I can't remember whether Choice of the Deathless is set in Alt Columb. But Vega is my sweetheart. He even stuck by me when I turned into a skeleton.)
You can only play as male or female, but you can headcanon that you're trans (and in the wider Craft Sequence/Craft Wars universe, there are various trans characters); the spicy scenes are non-explicit.
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Heart of Battle by Fay Ikin: Eryx and Remi (gender-selectable). What if you could date both an annoying (laudatory) glory hound, and a miserable awkward burned-out sad sack (laudatory) at the same time, and they're both rivals with each other?
-I'm very fond of the other romances in this game. Petra is adorable, Ferrado is intense and lovely. Note that the vibes of Ferrado's romance are not "domineering CEO bullies intern", and more "ethically conflicted prince/princess wants to pamper you sooo hard".
-Heart of Battle's spicy scenes are explicit and trans-friendly.
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Heart of the Mountain by Fay Ikin (WIP set in the same setting as Heart of Battle): Felician (gender-selectable). A well-intentioned, stressed mess of a person! a short monarch with lovely hair! They're really trying their best to be a leader in impossible circumstances (a horrible isolated arctic outpost). I just want to wrap them up and tell them it's going to be OK.
-Also, counterpoint: Eleri (gender-selectable), an incredibly tall, incredibly sad craftsperson. Because my wife is writing Heart of the Mountain I happen to know what's going on with Eleri but even if you don't, there's so. much. angst-feeling. They don't feel like they deserve comfort! they are uncomfortable accepting help! there's so much chemistry when our hands touch! I am gnashing my teeth over this person!
-Felician and Eleri will eventually be polyamorously romanceable and I cannot wait for my dreams to come true when it happens.
-Heart of the Mountain's spicy scenes are trans-friendly, and are more involved and detailed than Heart of Battle's - you can hook up with Felician or Theano so far in the game!
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Heart of the House by Nessa Campbell: Dev (male). Hello, close friend and colleague whom I can choose to have been harbouring a crush on for a long time? Who is also imperilled?? Dev is sweet, supportive, a long-term connection to trust. He's wonderful.
-And then there's also Lord Bastian/Lady Sophia Reaves (gender-selectable). The push-pull of Reaves absolutely drew me in and is a thrill. They don't want you here in their creepy house! (or do they?) They don't have weird conflicting feelings about you flirting with someone else! (they do) Pay no attention to their weird family history! Heart of the House exquisitely teases this romance with hot-and-heavy tantalising and Feelings.
-Heart of the House is on the spicy end of the spectrum. When I played it, it was the most spicy CoG IF I'd encountered and was like "are we...allowed to do that?!" You can explicitly play as a trans character and the spicy scenes are affirming with it.
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-Tally Ho by Kreg Segall: Haze/Hazel (gender-selectable). An apathetic goth with a spiky manner and maybe some secrets going on. I'm not always into the angst-ridden types but Haze melted my heart.
I don't think you can explicitly state that your character is a trans man or woman in this one, but you can likely headcanon comfortably (though it's been a while since I played).
An Imp and an Imposter by Athar Fikry: Selim (male). As soon as I came across Selim I was like "hapless tired scientist who's kind of trying too hard and is out of his depth and is a chatterbox: this is my person right here". He has a dog whom you can befriend. He has a bunch of secret magic stuff afoot with him. He is annoying (positive). He is awkward about various things. He is a delight.
-However, counterpoint: Alia (female), a serious waistcoat-wearing colleague who immediately flags as 'having something going on', hello, we can be competent together or I can annoy her (positive) with my nonsense? I LOVE having the chance to be a nonsense character and sparking off Alia is so much fun.
-Additional counterpoint: Kamal (nonbinary), a fancy-outfitted-crime-boss, hello!! I LOVE socially-powerful characters who are pulling a lot of strings and look hot doing it.
-I usually glom onto one romanceable character, maybe two, when I'm playing; An Imp and an Imposter managed to make it really hard for me to choose by accidentally tailoring each of the romances to my personal character tastes. I went for Selim on my first playthrough and was happily able to befriend the others and do very cool characterful and plotty stuff with them.
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Professor of Magical Studies by Stephen Grenade: Manish/Manisha (gender-selectable) and the Lodger (gender-selectable; aka other names that can be picked by the player; it's complicated). Manish and I were great friends in our past and then he burned out due to a bunch of traumatic magical stuff. We reconnected! it was complicated but we slowly regained some trust in our relationship! I started a romance with the voice in my head and the three of us made it work! I really like the characters and the sense of history and present development, as well as the complication and nuances of the polyamorous romance.
-I was very tempted by Darcy, the mean rival, and want to try romancing them at some point in the future. I hear you can romance them polyamorously with Manish/a and the Lodger which... intrigues me.
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Their Majesties' Pleasure by Leia Talon: Julian and Javier (both male). You're a guard, and you can have a polyamorous romance with a prince of the realm and a prince of thieves. It's hot and fun and spicy! There's a decent amount of getting to know both characters separately as well as together, and they have a lot of chemistry between each other too. They're in a casual relationship at the start of the game and between the three of you, it can become less casual by the end, which is a impressive needle to thread, writing-wise!
-You can play Their Majesties' Pleasure as a nonbinary character but I've not, so I can't speak to the spicy scenes. Playing as a cis man, the scenes were a lot of fun.
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Thicker Than by Barbara Truelove (WIP): so far I've romanced Iliya (male, giant socially-clumsy bodyguard), Tracey (female, leather-clad fake nun who tells it like it is), and Marcel (male, shadowy freak) and have never quite settled on which I like best, nor have I finished the WIP yet because I think I'm waiting until it's all done. There are a ton of other excellent romanceable characters, some of whom I've not even met yet; they're all fleshed out and vividly put together. A fantastic game and cast.
-I prefer playing the spicy scenes as a cis character than trans in this one; I've heard from other trans players that they've enjoyed playing as a trans character, so preferences will vary! If you don't mind spoilers, I'd probably recommend skimming one or two of the scenes beforehand to see where they land for you.
