Choose Your Own Adventure Gets A Sexually Liberated Update

We’ve been intrigued by “A Choice of Romance,” the latest choose-your-own game, since we heard about it. Especially since it lets you choose betwixt the sexes!

What a coincidence then, to see that one of our favorite Tweeters, from one of the best websites of all time (we speak, of course, of Smart Bitches Trashy Books) had also discovered ACoR’s charms! Tweeted Sarah Wendell, “I am playing with a choose-your-own-romance book game called “A Choice of Romance.” I can choose my gender & whether I like girls or dudes.”

You can indeed. For those unfamiliar with the “choice of” empire, it’s a series of multiple-choice games that have thus far ranged from “swashbuckling naval adventure” to dragon lore, and have now added romance to the mix. (Available, natch, as an app for iPad or iPhone too.) Like all text-based games, the scenarios are necessarily somewhat limited, but it’s still fun — and inclusive! As the site’s blog describes the scenario, “Play as a young aristocrat who comes to court looking for love… and catches the monarch’s eye. Will you find true love? Gain a crown? Lose your head? Choice of Romance is a text-based multiple choice game of romance, deception and court intrigue.” While you’re always going to be a minor Iberian noble, you can choose your sex — and the orientation of your romance.

A reviewer at GayGamer noted,

Playing as a male who fancied males, a few things caught my eye. First, I was given a decent amount of suitors: three. They ranged from that impetuous youth who is passionate, if not fortunate, to the elderly rich guy seeking a suitable young thing for his household. Not wishing to be the househusband, of my two plays, I skipped the latter. Second, there was an early mention of another same-sex pairing during my own ball—it was subtle, but it made me smile and helped me realize the world would not treat my sexuality any different.

As for the steam factor, well, that’s more Classic Historical than Bertrice Small. But there, too, you’ve got some control. My own heroine, Dona Violeta, was bookish and unskliled at magic, but there are options: as one commenter wrote, “I basically played it as a male Anne Boleyn.”