Role-Player said:
Admitedly that can cause a problem. NWN seems to cause the larger problem, though. There are players who rest after every battle, others don't even use inns. But then again, the NPC could comment that he/she would want a quieter place to talk to the PC; and the player would realize that the romance could be moved forward only when using inns. A timing counter could be tacked on to determine that the next NPC romance advancement would only occur in a given time (like say, 5 days within game time), but only on an inn. If there are several towns, this is easily doable. If there is only a major hub-like city, then it would cause problems having to travel back and forth.
Another thing they could do is encourage a player to go to the inn for reasons other than resting. Fallout is probably the first RPG where I actually went to locations like that due to the gambling skill. When I needed money and had a character with that skill, I'd just gamble for it. You can also do things like having some kind of friendly combat dealie like the boxing in Fallout 2 or KotOR's nondeathmatch thing where you can gain experience through sparring in that locale. You can also do something like ToEE's drinking game situation where an unsavory character might drink some people under the table in order to loot their belongings. You could have the tavern keep as a source of information if the tavern caters to a more unseemly crowd, rough him up for some info or bribe him.
Whatever you do, if you do have reasons for players to take more of an interest in taverns, then you can also make the initiation of the romancy stuff fit the activity at the tavern the player is interested in. Making it situational based on the activity the player is engaging in at the time would also make it seem more, for lack of a better word, realistic.
Take the gambling example. You could have a good aligned follower express concern about the gambling, somewhat nagging them, with a basic, "I didn't know you cared." reply from the player as a simplified case. Meanwhile, a less scrupulous follower might be interested when the player might spend some of that money on him/her as a lead in. Basically, the
love me for my money theme.
I think its the gamer mentality that needs to change, not games that have to adapt. Its simple really: if a character doesn't have enough Int, he can't talk well, and can't learn enough spells. If a character doesn't have enough Str, he can't carry as much items as he would be able to with a higher value. If a character doesn't have enough Con, he doesn't get more bonus HP per level. If a character doesn't have a high Cha, he can't alwwys convince people, and he doesn't get the booty! If players have gotten used to a gameplay concept where you need the right stat to do certain things, then it shouldn't be a problem to them. If my character with very low stats can do the same things a character can do with higher stats, then the game is being made for lazy people with no real wish to play.
I tend to agree with this. In fact, if the low charisma character did want the romance, you can play on that as well by having the low charisma character do something to force the follower in to a romance by some third party means. You know, by magic spell or potion, a curse, or some other thing that the player can either cast or brew themselves or pay to have it done. The game just has to show them there's consequences for that. There should be a consequence for the nappy dwarf having put his points in to something other than Charisma, and that consequence is no
true love. But they can get around that if they're willing to pay a price and do something that's basically wrong, subjugating the follower. There should also be a price for subjugation, like other followers really not being happy about this situation
or the subjugate becoming so compelled by the love magic that they become overly obsessive to the point of being scary.
Basically, they should know that being charming is more likely to get them the lovin's, and if they bipass that, there's a lofty price but they can still do it. If they're evil, there wouldn't be much of a price they would care much about. If they're good aligned, then they damned well should learn a lessen out of it.
I know she was in a Jackie Chan movie though. I'd almost bet anyone on here's life on it. 
Damn, I wish I hadn't of lost all my video tapes. 
She was in a Jackie Chan flick, right?
