Star Crossed

Star Crossed is a 2019 roleplaying game by Alex Roberts. It’s for two people interested in playing out a romance. You might know it for its use of a Jenga tower, much like Dread. The tower of wooden blocks serves a similar purpose here, making the game’s tension tangible. Whereas in Dread you die, should the tower fall, in Star Crossed your character finally acts out on their true emotions. We played the game for research, as we’re developing a romance/intimacy game currently.

Star Crossed is not about just any romance. Its magnificent opening states it’s a game about two people who really, really want to… but really, really can’t. I haven’t seen a game’s concept ever outlined as well! Beautiful work. Outside of that setup, it can be set anywhere. We went with a romance reality TV contestant and the show’s producer, imagining Love Is Blind Finland. (The game we’re working on is based on romance reality TV.)

The game is played over eight scenes. They have very broad themes (“introduction”, “a disagreement becomes heated”) on which to build, but that’s everything you get in terms of structure and guidance. The scenes are always the same, in the same order, so if you play multiple times, you know what’s coming. I am a fan of this type of structure in general (seen for example in Mountain Witch), and here it works really well. While the prompts are vague, they do push twists into the narrative that the players might not otherwise bring up.

In a scene, one of the players leads, and the other follows. These roles are not exchanged during play, but rather chosen at game beginning. The lead always sets the scene, and the follow decides when it ends. This brings a fun dynamic into the drama budget – how much time you get to advance things – and further builds the tension at the core of the game.

When it’s their turn, the players play moves from their character sheet. Things like describing the scene and their character’s movements are “free”. For everything else, like touching the other character, or revealing something about yourself, you need to pull a block from the tower. If you want your character to speak dialogue, you need to touch the tower while doing so! This quickly becomes very tense as the tower’s stability is disturbed. You’ll find you’re holding your breath and staying very still while the other player is pulling a block. This all works beautifully with the forbidden love theme.

Key drama moves come with a counter. You’re trying to build up as much unanswered tension between the couple as possible, and for every successful unintentional touch and revealed secret, you get a point. The lead and follow have slightly different moves, in terms of what kind of action is intentional and unintentional, for example touching.

When the tower finally falls, the last player to touch it acts out on their real emotions, whatever they may be. Then you add up your scores and see what kind of future is in your pair’s stars.

It’s possible the tower doesn’t fall, and then your pair never acts out on their emotions. That’s a fine ending! You can also choose to push the tower over intentionally, for any reason.

Star Crossed created a tense romance in 90 minutes. The structure guarantees tension, and the game is simple enough to not get in the way in the least. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in props in gaming, unique mechanics, two-player games, or just romance.