Unsuitable Suitor

You're a parent and your child just brought their new partner to dinner.

That's not a problem usually. But this time.

This time, they have picked someone completely unsuitable.

Cue the player having to decide whether to let the relationship be or subtly, or not so subtly, try to sabotage it.

Reasons for why this partner is unsuitable can be anything.

Are they a royal household and the child brought home an enemy royal or a commoner the family can never be seen to endorse?

(This could lead to political arguments, maybe in the form of trying to find the right argument to counter or win the debate, mechanic-wise shown as a parry or counterattack. Or defuse a bomb.)

The suitor could also be a rebellion on the part of the child and meant to cause the parent the greatest amount of offense.

This would mean it's not as serious but still makes it a struggle for the parent to get through the dinner.

Might have a kind of struggle meter at the of which the player character snaps in some way, without input by the player, or make it more difficult to control the character.

The dinner might also include the need to navigate the conversation with the child and their partner trying to find the least offensive topic possible while expressing as little opinion as is conversationally feasible.

So bland a topic it can't be argued about.

Possibly devolving into a stating of facts, if going the silly way.

(It can be used for a humorous purpose game, though, with more and more absurd conversation until the dinner is over or one side "wins" the non argument.)

Or it can end with the characters genuinely trying to find common ground and understand each other and the parent accepting the relationship.

That can make for a heartwarming and touching with a possible moral.

Licensed under CC-BY.