Breaking the Ice is an indie Tabletop RPG for two players by Emily Care Boss. In it, the players assume the role of two individuals and go on dates, eventually finding True Love or breaking up, depending on how they turn out. The game is not intended for long-term campaign play—instead, you create one-shot characters and play through three dates before resolving whether the two stay together or not.
The game contains examples of following tropes:
- Cross Player: The Switch mechanic requires each Player Character to have one trait of the other player, and suggests taking gender by default if the players are of different genders (so the guy player plays the girl and vice versa).
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Can happen in the endgame (i.e. after just three dates) if the players manage to rake up enough Connections.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Getting into trouble during dates allows you to re-roll failed dice rolls.
- Queer Romance: The game system accommodates any gender combination of the player characters.
- Relationship Values: The player characters have two: Attraction, which goes up and down and represents their mutual desire for each other, and Connections, which are permanent bonds they establish. Both are important during play but Connections determine whether they stay together in the endgame.
- Romance Arc: The rules can accommodate anything from Romantic Comedy to hardcore love drama in the vein of Romeo and Juliet.
