Why must I be a teenager in love?

[Michael Hopcroft]

Teen heroes in RPG campaigns often display an alarming tendency to ignore their hormones in play. I'm wondering if there are possible ways for players of teenage PCs to roleplay the things real teenagers go through in addition to adventuring -- like falling in and out of love, having to make up an explanation why you didn't make your date without revealing you're really part of the sentai team that stopped that giant monster from trashing the city, magical girls who get crushes on their protector-type characters, that sort of thing.

[Polaris]

The group I play in recently completed a High School campaign. Our characters were part of a high school team of "superheroes". While they were trying to deal with their newfound special abilities, they also were concerned with not being embarrassed (for being a 'freak' when things seemed to happen), making it to prom (even when other matters were perhaps more important to most in the outside world), etc. One of the characters had finally gotten a date with the beauty queen type, only to get a call that he was needed when he was on his way to pick her up.

Yes, I think this is quite possible to play in such a game. Some of the most interesting aspects of the game were the efforts to have a 'normal' life while answering the call as superheroes (and, for at least one of us, the temptation to USE the growing fame of the superhero identities to get a date).

The characters graduated from high school, and are now heading off to college (all but one.. he is still trying to get into college, and is working a construction job and taking some pick up classes at night until he get fully admitted).

Polaris