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How to GM Romance

Created by Friday Strout, Austin Taylor, Nala J. Wu, and Metal Weave Games

Set your hearts ablaze. Learn to make romance in your tabletop games accessible, fun, and easy for everyone at the table. Including 🔧mechanics,🖋️how-to essays,🎲tables, &🎨art created by leading designers in the field.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Editing Continues! + NPC sheet preview
about 1 year ago – Mon, May 12, 2025 at 11:51:23 AM

Howdy backers!


We are deep into the editing phase of the project and will be wrapping that this month. Then, it's onto layout.

I wanted to provide everyone with a more tangible update and preview of our NPC sheets, which you can see below. These will be provided in the book itself and as fillable PDFs. Feedback always appreciated! Questions welcome.




UNTIL NEXT TIME. Keep romancing.

Moving Onto Editing
about 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 09, 2025 at 09:14:36 AM

Hey there, time for an April update! We are nearing completion. Coincidentally, we are a bit stalled currently due to some family leave on the production team and publisher. However: Art Is Finished!

Here is a preview of my chapter, our Dispute System...


Trump Tariffs

We are wrapping production and have concerns about the tariffs, like all small businesses in America and frankly worldwide, due to the crashing global market. Andreas (Metal Weave Games) has established relationships with many manufacturers, which is relatively "good news", but we don't want to give an answer that could flat wrong next week. As it sits right now, he is better positioned to deal with the tariffs than I am with my own projects, but we'll keep you updated as we get more information.

More to come soon!

End of February Update!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Feb 27, 2025 at 07:24:15 PM

Hello hello.

We are coming close to completing this book! I wanted to make a push for us to wrap production in time to submit for this year's ENNIES, but it does not look like we will be on time for the deadline. Unfortunately a vast majority of us have full-time jobs and this is our side gig, so juggling our responsibilities has been difficult with all the lifeing going on in 2025.

That being said! We appreciate your support and hope that you continue to spread the good word about the book to your friends who might be interested. What's been done lately:

  • Adventure second draft completed!
  • 4/6 essays finished.
  • 99% done on art.

Next steps:
  • Wrap on writing.
  • Editing.
  • Layout.
  • PDF publication.
  • Printing & shipping.

Here are some art posts by our wonderful artists. Please check them out on their bluesky and other socials!

January 2025 Update
over 1 year ago – Sat, Jan 11, 2025 at 07:15:20 PM

Happy New Year!


Some minor news-worthy items:
  • I've asked the co-writer of our 2024 ENNIE nominated adventure Luna Petra Giannotta to take the lead on writing the adventure that will show off the mechanics in GMROM. My day job has occupied too much brain space for me to finish that one up alone, so she's going to be doing the majority of the lifting there.
  • Our mechanics are now finished, barring some additional work from me and Austin to tie them all together. Let's call it 95%!
  • Essayists are writing our essays.
  • Our additional content section is being worked on.
  • Artwork is moving forward.

Thank you everyone for your patience and we are looking forward to shipping this to you soon in 2025.

November Update!
over 1 year ago – Fri, Nov 15, 2024 at 11:57:32 AM

Hey y'all! I apologize for the long wait in updating. I've had a lot going on in my life but things are progressing well. Here's our check in for GMROM:

Art
  • About 50% finished!
  • Per the vision of our Art Director, we are working with a very large and diverse team, which means that organizing everything takes longer!
  • We have a large variety of different styles being presented in the book intentionally.
Narrative
  • Our Romance System (tracking, dating, dispute, serenade, intimacy) is 80% finished with 4 of our designers having turned in their drafts. Sensitivity/cultural checks and then editing are our next steps.
  • Essayists have begun their process of writing!
  • Additional "splat" content will be drafted soon. (NPCs, date locations/ideas, gifts, conversation/dialogue.)

Additional Add-Ons
  • Backers who chose the Art Deco Card add-on with their pledge are currently being worked on. If you have not responded to our email about this, please reach out and we'll get you sorted.
  • Letters From A Romantic backers please reach out via email so we can get you sorted! Drafting these will begin soon and we want you to receive your reward.

art credit: Savanna Mayer (they/them)

New timeline
Due to some chaos on our backend and the overall state of the world, we are expecting that our timeline might be pushed slightly later than first anticipated. I had initially estimated that we would be finished with production by the end of December, but now it is looking more like February for post-production. From there Metal Weave Games will begin layout and pushing our book to printer in the Spring of 2025, if not sooner. Digital fulfillment will occur before printing. Again, I apologize for the delay.

All that being said: thank you for supporting our project and we are looking forward to delivering a quality resource for GMs everywhere.

Want to support the project?
We'd love to ship you this wonderful project soon. Please support queer art with a pre-order of How To GM Romance today. It's not too late!