How to GM Romance - Pre-order now!

Our most recent release, How to GM Romance, is now available for digital download and physical pre-order!

Created by Kienna Shaw, Friday Strout and Nala J. Wu, this book is a treasure trove of ideas and systems you can use to bring romantic situations into your games in ways that are safe, respectful and meaningful for GMs and players alike. 

Why did the creators make this book?

"At the time of ideation, I was a professional GM of a few hundred sessions and found myself, a roleplayer of two decades’ experience roleplaying romance, serving a niche that many of my peers expressed they would never feel comfortable enough to do with even their close friends.

I scoured the shelves online for a “how to” book on romance, only to find some very outdated material. Much of TTRPG romance in the past was not written from a place of expertise or with the desire to create mutual fun between the GM and the players—but clearly there was a market desire for it. I ran a poll with some of my pro Game Master peers and found that they would actively use such a book if it existed. Green light!" - Friday Strout

Why this team?

Friday brought together a team of creators who focused on creating a TTRPG romance book that centred queer people instead of cisnormative and straight perspectives. Alongside Kienna and Nala, Friday found like-minded individuals who both speak out for marginalized communities and great extremely high quality professional works too. 

What's inside?

Inside this book are a number of system ideas for your games, including romance trackers, a dating system and a way of dealing with intimacy in a safe way. Alongside this are a number of essays from prominent creators around the world on topics like liberational romances, the sex work industry and how asexuality fits into this book (spoilers, it absolutely does!).

These are written by some of the most recognisable names in the tabletop gaming space, and provide readers and GMs with new ideas and tools for their own games.

This is all bookended by a plethora of incredible art work, directed by Nala to represent gender, sexuality, body types and ethnicity of the peoples we play and encounter in the games that we play. We can't emphasise enough, just how incredible this art direction is! You'll just need to grab your own copy for yourself to see.

"We approached creating this book with a vision: to bring together perspectives from across the TTRPG space and center ideas of romance outside of a cisheteronormative lens, assembling an array of tools that empower GMs to facilitate their own romantic storylines at the table. TTRPGs are already a collaborative experience. They require everybody to bring their own views and experiences, to give a little piece of themselves and receive tenfold in return." - Kienna Shaw

The Art of "How to GM Romance"

"The art process for this book was unlike anything I’ve seen in tabletop publishing. We offered above-industry-standard rates (plus royalties on all future sales) to incredible artists from around the world. I’m proud to say (and this was written into the art contracts!) that no generative AI was used in the making of this book.

The only artistic directive I provided was a key color to feature prominently in each work. In layout, these colors come together as a cohesive rainbow gradient, reflecting the beautiful spectrum of love that this book celebrates. And especially now, with fascism and bigotry on the rise and BIMPOC, Queer, Trans, Disabled, and other marginalized communities under attack, releasing a book centering us is beyond special." - Nala J. Wu

You can pre-order your own copy of the physical book, coming soon, or download the PDF right now. Just head to https://metalweavegames.com/collections/how-to-gm-romance for the options you need.