Drew Young (left) and Aneesa St. James (right).
Roommates with Benefits is one of the many stories under the Choices: Stories You Play collection.
A newly transferred college student goes about her normal life until she finds out that a party animal is her roommate.
The book was released for VIP players on February 24, 2023 and it was released for all players on April 14, 2023. On June 26, 2023 it was announced that a spin-off was in the works. It's going to be called Rivals with Benefits and is currently scheduled to be released in Summer 2024 on VIP Early Access.
Roommates with Benefits includes examples of:
- Big Bad: Edwin Smithe. While initially portrayed as a Hero Antagonist who later develops an obsession with catching Drew and Aneesa breaking the rules (as well as being an uptight stickler for the rules in general), Chapter 16 and beyond pushes him into this territory when it's revealed that he deliberately set the two up to get them in trouble, and that he's been doing the same thing to many other students for over a year.
- Breaking Old Trends: This is the first genderlocked Choices story to become an anthology, the others (It Lives, High School Story, and Untameable) were gender-of-choice.
- Breaking the Fellowship: At the end of Chapter 13, Aneesa misses Samira's big game after promising she'd be there (because, unsurprisingly, she was with Drew and lost track of time). Samira, sick of Aneesa's behavior, declares their friendship to be over. However, the end of Chapter 18 implies that they will repair their relationship in the future.
- Character Customization: The player can choose Aneesa's ethnicity, including first and last name. Drew can be customizable in the same way, but the default name is Drew Young.
- From Roommates to Romance: The main plot of the first book.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As with all Choices characters, you can name your character. The default name here is Aneesa St. James. You can name your roommate. The default name is Drew Young.
- Extreme Libido: Davina Tierney at least says she has it when she introduces herself.Davina: "All right, you tempting TAs and dirty dropouts! I'm Davina, your headmistress of horny. Who's ready to play?"
- Friends with Benefits: Drew and Davina are exactly that.
- Inspector Javert: Played with regarding Edwin. At first, he's portrayed as an uptight RA who takes his job too seriously and considers Drew and their friends an annoying bunch because of their disregard for the rules. As time goes on, however, he becomes obsessed with proving that Aneesa and Drew are sleeping together (which is against the rules, since Drew is Aneesa's RA), especially after nearly catching them in Chapter 12. He goes into fully-fledged Knight Templar territory in Chapter 16 when he steals Aneesa's phone, manipulates Drew into throwing a party and getting Aneesa to come, just so he can "conveniently" catch them in the act and get them in trouble. Chapter 18 takes this even further, nearly all of the people that Edwin "caught" breaking the rules were actually set up in the same way that Aneesa and Drew were.
- Lovable Jock: Samira is not only Aneesa's best friend, but she is also one of the college soccer players.
- New Season, New Name: It was revealed in the February 2024 Insiders that the upcoming spin-off will be called Rivals with Benefits.
- Rivalry as Courtship: Implied with the second book being called "Rivals With Benefits".
- Same Content, Different Rating: Subverted. Nearly all Choices books that open with the "This book contains mature, sexual content" warning also have a 17+ rating. This one didn't (as least not initially), despite opening with the same warning and having the option to exit the book before it even begins, an option which (for books with mature, sexual content, at least) has only been seen in Surrender and Kiss of Death. However, Pixelberry added the "mature" tag in April 2023, just after the general release.
- Sexiled: After Aneesa and Drew get their roommate agreement sorted in Chapter 2, Drew almost immediately kicks Aneesa out so they can hook up with another girl.
- Sadistic Choice: Aneesa is given one at the end of Chapter 17; either testify against Drew and be pardoned, or don't testify against them and continue the conduct hearing as normal, knowing that if she loses, her scholarship will be taken away.
- Title Drop: Chapter 10 gives a double whammy. At the end of the chapter, Aneesa declares that she and Drew will be "roommates with benefits". As she says this, an achievement pops up, and it's called "And They Were Roommates", which is also the name of Chapter 10.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Edwin accuses Drew of being this to Aneesa during the conduct hearing in Chapter 17, pointing out that she was a straight-A student until she started hanging out with Drew.
