Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dravda 11-05-07, 12:11 AM	Ok, I've had a problem for a while now, and it is this: I have used the "damsel in distress" hook more than once, and my players fall for it every time even though it is invariable a succubus and/or high-level villain. They don't learn. What I'm worried about, however, is that they WILL learn. To this end, I have decided to make a REAL damsel in distress. My only question is this: how can I do this without being cliche? I don't want just "locked in a dungeon" or "in the tallest tower", I want something they'll remember. Suggestions? I need ideas for a villain, location, and suggested method of rescue. Thanks! -Count Dravda
Arelia 11-05-07, 01:55 AM	Since I'll never get to use this: Held captive by a mad alchemist/wizard/cultist/organization of the above, because they need the blood of royalty (or a fair maiden or whoever the damsel in distress is) as a component to a powerful elixir/spell/ritual. Maybe designing a Royal Golem, or summoning an Avatar of Purity to kill and offset the balance of good and evil. Or some crap like that. XD
kuonji 11-05-07, 03:02 AM	Make it seem like a random encounter. Have the players stumble across an orc caravan or somesuch while they are on the way to do something else. Once the orcs are defeated, they find the captive damsel who tells the PCs her sad story of capture, where she lives, and offers of reward to take her home. Perhaps they can even accomplish their current task with her in tow on the way to take her home. Next time the PCs stay at an inn, the BBEG, who has tracked down the group after they ravaged his caravan, sicks his pet fire elemental on the inn to burn it down and distract the PCs. Then while the elemental keeps the group busy, the villian snatches the damsel back and makes off with her, perhaps leaving behind some clue as to his identity, or perhaps some local has heard of "that scary guy with the fire elementals" or something to get the PCs on the trail of the bad guy(s). If you really want to have fun, when it comes time to reveal the villian, have it be her father, uncle, or brother (and also the person she said would offer them a reward for her safe return) and the party can earn their reward by pummeling the guy. This could also set up future adventures with the damsel as the new ruler who needs help (constant rescue by proxy which keeps the damsel theme going). And, I suppose if you want to keep your theme going, have her turn out to be the arch villian who had the PCs doing her dirty work the entire time. Maybe she found her father's, uncle's, brother's stash of BBEG instruction manuals at some point and figured the whole "evil" thing wasn't so bad as long as she's the one in charge. :devil:
Kitep 11-05-07, 03:40 AM	It wasn't a princess, but I had one BBEG who was running a mail-order bride & groom. He would grab gals & guys from around the world and sell them to whoever wanted a mate. Love potion costs extra. Setting was 60 miles north of Rekjevik (or however you spell the capital of Iceland). The BBEG was also named Rekjevik. He claimed the city was named after him (but in truth it was the other way around). It let the party try out cold-weather adventuring. Not a challenge, but different from normal. The other different thing was that they were the 2nd party to arrive at the BBEG's ice cave. So when they entered, they found dead monsters everywhere. It didn't take them long to hear the sounds of battle and find the other party. I think the party's teamed up, but you could also have them split up "to cover more ground". Turns out Rekjevik got away (and if he hadn't, he had arranged to be resurrected in case of death). He held a grudge against one adventurer in particular, who had hurt him and destroyed a prospering business. So one day, Rek showed up outside this guy's house and killed him (he also was resurrected, so no real harm done :) ) Rek considered them even, and after that they became the enemy-who-is-my-friend.
Andorxor 11-05-07, 05:51 AM	A wizard is obsessed with the princess ,before he found the courage to kidnapped her, he used several Poly Any traps to turn the local wildlife into copys of her. Can the PCs find the real Princess and can they avoid being turned into her,before the wizard completes his lovepotion?
Empirate 11-05-07, 07:59 AM	What about a damsel in distress that has been married to a noble whom she hates? The noble has a mistress, and the damsel hates being second place; but the few times her husband has actually deigned to visit her chambers were just horrible. She has embezzled or otherwise put aside a bit of money and wants the heroes to rescue her. Problem is: The noble is very important politically, so the marriage means a lot to the powers-that-be. They won't just stand by and let the damsel be "kindnapped". The king or council of nobles or whoever is sympathetic to the damsel's plight, but think it is in the interest of raison d'etat, and she must bear her horrible marriage for the state to prosper. So a different approach is called for. The heroes must find out who the noble's mistress is, and provide proof that the noble has been committing adultery. Then, the marriage might be annulled. Or maybe this isn't enough: The heroes must find (or otherwise "provide") proof that the noble is in fact a traitor! Anyway, if they manage to rescue the damsel from her unwanted marriage, they'll earn her eternal gratitude - she might well become an important NPC to cover their backs politically, as well as a future provider of plot hooks.
aikimiller 11-05-07, 08:10 AM	How about you pull a complete switch on your players? Introduce a character as the supposed villian, and then have her turn out to actually be simply being manipulated by the BBEG, and in need of a good rescue.
Aan-allein 11-05-07, 08:15 AM	Local lord approaches the PCs with a note written in his daughter's hand letting her father know she has abdicated her birthright and ran away, and the father wants her found, to force her back into her rightful birthright. But shortly after the PCs start investigations, a ransom note follows; the waif's disguise was seen through and taken as a means to an easy paycheck. It ends with a real damsel in distress, but she doesn't want to go home and isnt' the baddy. Or, hav ethe PCs encounter a man and his "daughter" in the marketplace, with the "daughter" at some point slipping a PC a "Help, this man's not my father!" signal. By the time the rest of the party is informed, the pair are lost in the crowd, and the PCs must start by figuring out who the man is and the woman. It becomes an easier rescue mission if the PCs initiate it rather than have it presented to them; "Why yes, my daughter has been missing for 8 months, we'd given up hope of seeing her again as no clues have been found in that time." "We think we've seen your daughter; we'll track her down for you!"
Aan-allein 11-05-07, 08:17 AM	How about you pull a complete switch on your players? Introduce a character as the supposed villian, and then have her turn out to actually be simply being manipulated by the BBEG, and in need of a good rescue. Yes, charming spells are good for this (actually Pathfinder #2 went along this line; fight your way to the leader of a murder ring, only to find out he's been charmed by the leader of another group of baddies), as long as you play up the glassy eyes, slightly unnatural speech, and if you have the PCs learn enough about her 'previous' personality to know that she's not acting normally and actually believe her when she snaps out of it and cries "Stop!".
Ornum 11-05-07, 12:41 PM	You could always alter the idea from the first season of the Heroes TV show to suit your purposes. "Save the princess, save the world". She's been prophecized as either personally stopping some great evil, or is supposed to be a part of a group that will do so. As such, an agent of said great evil has abducted her and will sacrifice her in some grand ceremony to order to insure the rise of his master.
Orchomenos 11-05-07, 01:01 PM	Here's a plot I've had in mind for a while. Have the PCs hear that a young priestress is kept captive by a dragon, and the priestress is needed to perform the Spring Rites of Fertility in some distant village. If she's not there on time, the crops will be low next Autumn. Have the PC search the dragon lair, dangerously make their way there, and free the priestress. This should be surprisingly easy, you'll see why later. Now the PCs should escort the priestress to her distant village. On their way, the PCs should realise the priestress will have to commit a ritual suicide at the end of the Spring Rites of Fertility. Should the PCs investigate, the would realise the village's head cleric is in reality a cleric of Nerull or Erythnul, and he requires human sacrifice to bless the fields. The PCs could fight him, but they would have to quickly find another cleric ready to bless the fields in a short delay... And the dragon in all that? It was a silver dragon, who wanted to send good heroes to this wicked place!
Ace the Dead 11-05-07, 01:23 PM	I've been working on a campaign arch in which a merchant prince hires PCs to take out the pirates that captured one of his ship that his daughter had been sailing on. He assumes that she's dead because no ransom demand is posted, where in truth, she just captured the captains fancy. I intend for her to be suffering from a bad, but not incurable, case of Stockholm Syndrome when they catch up to the villains. Be sure to play up the family resemblance if you do this. I'd also include portraits in the merchant prince's home, so that the PCs know who the damsel is when they see her. Oh, and make sure you leave room in the reward for the merchant princes to express his gratitude.
Death-Knight 11-05-07, 02:00 PM	An evil lich, wow, you'd never guess, got lonely, so raised an undead army to kidnap herm so he could keep her as his sex-slave! You could have them find this out when she runs screaming, half naked out of a cave, then the players get nocked out by an 'unseen enemy' they wake up in a town and see posters with the damsel/sex-slaves face on, and the writing 'have you seen this girl???' then they go to the address on it, and get sent to find her for a biiiiiiiiig prize fund! lol, unless theres little people in ur campaign, if there is, cut out the 'sex-slave' part.....
Xylaus 11-05-07, 03:38 PM	An evil lich, wow, you'd never guess, got lonely, so raised an undead army to kidnap herm so he could keep her as his sex-slave! lol, unless theres little people in ur campaign, if there is, cut out the 'sex-slave' part..... I don't understand. :( If he's a lich, then how does he...? I mean...is it still in working order...? That is to say, what does he do...? Nevermind, I don't want to know now. What an evil lich overlord does with a nekkid woman in his cave is his business.:eek:
Amon_V 11-05-07, 03:43 PM	Make the PCs the kidnappers, instead of the rescuers. All you have to do is some judicious use of altering self and making the BBEG become the people who wants the princess returned to him. He will also point out that the princess is under a complusion to avoid him, so she will be entirely unwilling to be returned; but if she is brought to him, he will end the compulsion, and reward the party. The Princess, not surprisingly, doesn't want to be taken away. If the PCs do kidnap her, the BBEG will make good on his payment to the PCs. Then, after they leave, he completes the sacrifice and kills the princess. Now the PCs are accessories to the death of a royal figure. They can expect massive retaliation.
annoyinglizardvoice 11-05-07, 04:26 PM	I once ran a game where the player were hired by a minor noble to rescue his daughter from a cult who intended to sacrifice her. Said noble was unable to sent his own troops for fear of endangering a treaty with the nation from which this cult came. The daughter was not happy to be in the company of cheap, sleazy, shifty mercs (players) instead of the well behaved and disaplinned soldiers, and made this known to them. Several players put a lot of time and effort into thinking of ways to kill her and still get payed. One still sometimes gets enraged when she sees the miniature of the "ungreatful, stuck-up bint". I haven't risked running another "rescue the princess" game since.
Escef 11-05-07, 05:09 PM	The damsel has as part of her body and at no fault of her own something rare/powerful. Perhaps she was born with a strange birthmark on her back that as she grew was revealed to be the text of a powerful spell, her hair is a precious metal (silver, gold, etc.), she is "gifted" with an innate magical attack that she is being forced to use (a third level or higher spell multiple times per day, Spellfire in the Realms, the half-dragon template and a few feats for a decent breath weapon, use your imagination), she has a gift of prophecy, holding charged magic items (wands, staves, etc.) deals damage to her but recharges the item, she has unbeatable SR (like a golem) and someone wants to know how, any weapon she touches gains a threat range doubling for 1 hour per her HD, etc. A great twist would be that she was kidnapped by people who want to use her to combat evil.
bloodtalon 11-05-07, 05:10 PM	i remember seeing this in i think "Raven's bluff" but with a twist. a father who happens to be a noble wants his daughters to get thier heads out of the clouds and stop dreaming of prince charming riding in and marring them and living happy ever after. so he hires the party to kidnap the girls and let them escape but also trail them so they don't get hurt. so far so good the plan goes as they planned it. but a group bandits or orcs, or ect hears oft his and ambushes the girls and really kidnaps them. now it is up to the party to free them and get them home
Omni-Wyvernil 11-06-07, 03:06 AM	Here's one idea. The party randomly happens upon a dragon threatening a princess, and sends it running after a token fight. Only, they sense the dragon wasn't really trying. Turns out one of the local nobles hired the dragon to kidnap the princess so that he could come along, 'fight it off', and win her heart. He had instructed it to throw the fight, but since he arranged this through a proxy, the dragon thought that the party were the ones it was supposed to throw the fight to. And now the noble and his high-leveled guards are going to come running up the hill to save the day only to find that the princess has already been rescued...
High Octane 11-06-07, 03:51 AM	My only question is this: how can I do this without being cliche? At low levels I had a child part of a convoy of merchants stolen by orcs and about to be sold to the drow as a slave. Perhaps a similar thing could happen to your "princess". She could be in disguise with a merchant group trying to get to a safe haven and a group of bandits happened to be in the forest and had no idea who they were kidnapping.
Varia 11-06-07, 10:09 AM	I don't understand. :( If he's a lich, then how does he...? I mean...is it still in working order...? That is to say, what does he do...? Nevermind, I don't want to know now. What an evil lich overlord does with a nekkid woman in his cave is his business.:eek: A lich is more or less a walking skeleton. Need I remind you that one of the euphemisms for this particular deed is "boning"... Do I need to draw you a picture?... :P Todays special- eye gouging spoons, 2 for $13,449.99!
Escef 11-06-07, 01:02 PM	Todays special- eye gouging spoons, 2 for $13,449.99! It's a bargain at twice the price.
aotrscommander 11-06-07, 01:19 PM	An evil lich, wow, you'd never guess, got lonely, so raised an undead army to kidnap herm so he could keep her as his sex-slave! You could have them find this out when she runs screaming, half naked out of a cave, then the players get nocked out by an 'unseen enemy' they wake up in a town and see posters with the damsel/sex-slaves face on, and the writing 'have you seen this girl???' then they go to the address on it, and get sent to find her for a biiiiiiiiig prize fund! lol, unless theres little people in ur campaign, if there is, cut out the 'sex-slave' part..... A lich is more or less a walking skeleton. Need I remind you that one of the euphemisms for this particular deed is "boning"... Do I need to draw you a picture?... :P Todays special- eye gouging spoons, 2 for $13,449.99! Yes, we're missing the point of being a Lich here, aren't we? Take it from me, half the freakin' point of becoming a walking skeleton is precisely so you don't have to worry about pointless fleshy and hormonal nonsense. No real Lich worth his salt would arse about doing alive-people stuff when he can spend that time, y'know, doing something slighty more useful, like watching paint dry or reading the dictionary (or maybe even, y'know, actually doing research to become more stupidly powerful...) No hormones = no problem. Anyway, on topic, I suggest taking the usual cliche and working it backwards. Send the PCs to rescue the dragon princess from the clutches of the evil human. Seriously. You can even tell them before hand if you like. I garentee they won't forget that adventure in a hurry.
Morits 11-06-07, 01:46 PM	Baron Gothenstein hold prisoner in his castle, Mad sister Martha daughter of Titus Hodge, the dung farmer. All farmers need dung, so Titus can offer a decent reward. In fact if you get rid of the Baron, he will pay your this years rent for his farm. Some villagers think Gothenstein intends droigt de seigneur, some think he will do eldritch experiments on her. Janner si Vendetta: He will clear her madness. Just like he cured mine. Titus: But Jaaner, thee be the village idiaat. Janner: That I be Haadge. That I be. But remember, before he cured me, I were Idiot for the whole County. Later, the Party discover Martha's madness. She has been going around the villages urging the Peasant to get flaming torche and pitchforks to raid the castle and overthrow the tyrant. For an added twist, tack on a Scarlet Pimpernel who plans to rescue the Aristo from the vengeful Peasants. Martha stumbles out of the Castle gates staring bearily at the Sun and murmuring "I love Big Baron." (1984) Describe events dispassionately. Give no clues about the alignments of Baron, Peasants and Pimpernell. When the Party guess which side DM is secretly on, surprise them.
TarlSS 11-06-07, 03:31 PM	Kill the princess, rescue the dragon!
SearcherOmega 11-06-07, 05:34 PM	It really depends on which way you wish to make the standard 'rescue the damsel in distress' trope interesting. One way you might stay true to the concept of 'you're rescuing this person' while still turning over their expectations is to make the victim in question a nonstandard hostage. Perhaps rather than a limp-wristed 8 STR 10 CON noble lady in a dress surrounded by chirping bluebirds, the damsel in question is actually the rugged daughter of a weaponsmith, who's been taken hostage because she, as the last surviving member of her father's line, is the only person who knows the location of an important historical / magical weapon. In this case, the subversion would not be from the 'rescue the girl' angle, but rather the implicit 'helpless and fragile' angle. Another way you might do it is by subverting their expectations about the captor. What currently seems to be popular is the capture of a maiden for either perverse reasons (or simply 'forced marriage' in a more PG campaign) or for evil occult reasons (virgin blood drives the evil spellcasting economy, you know). Try to think of reasons that a person could genuinely want to abduct a person other than those. Political leverage and blackmail immediately come to mind, and to be fair, those are done probably third most frequently. A rather obvious subversion is to foil gender expectations; the so-called 'damsel' in distress happens to be male. Works better if the party has as little contact with the person giving the mission as possible, and the name is already rather gender-ambiguous ( Alex (andrea, ander), Francis / Frances, Jamie, etc ) - though you could just make it clear from the beginning that the captive is male. A completely separate idea that occurred to me involved the whole 'evil damsel allegedly in distress' route that you seemed to be taking earlier - have you ever considered the virtues of using a male antagonist? Everyone seems to be suspicious of maidens these days, but if it's just a normal male political captive, they probably won't look twice. In any event, I hope this has been helpful to you. Damsel in distress is a plot I use so infrequently that my party would probably be surprised if I did. Which is, I might add, precisely why I intend to add one somewhere when the party gets to mid-level.
The_Wrath_of_Talos 11-06-07, 05:48 PM	The princess is located in a necromancers castle, instead of being imprisoned she is serving as his consort. Her body is possesed by his original consort via imprison possesor(libris mortis). Due to her resemblence of his past wife and instead of bringing her back from the dead he found her a new body. In this senario you have to free her in a physical sence as well as a spiritual one.
Tichrimo 11-06-07, 05:57 PM	Couple of short ideas/thoughts: How 'bout a good, old-fashioned ransom? Star-crossed lovers, a la Romeo and Juliet, and young Juliet needs to be smuggled out of the city to rendez-vous with Romeo Not so star-crossed lovers, princess needs to be extracted from a neighbouring city for her arranged marriage
JohnnyWeird 11-06-07, 06:40 PM	Perhaps a page from the Bard's book: The princess is actually a brat, spoiled and pampered beyond belief. As a result, despite being heiress to a vast and rich kingdom, no self-respecting noble or commoner will take her hand! The PCs are hired by the king to 'kidnap' his daughter and drag her with them on a quest full of danger and deprivation in an attempt to scare her straight. Things become complicated when her wiles begin to work on the party rogue, or the party paladin's fervor to reform her becomes a deeper romantic urge.
mists_cloud 11-06-07, 07:04 PM	Have a horror theme put in, have the princess kidnapped by a dragon and then forced to spawn minions for him, because only noble blood will do, and have them discover this the hard way. Or have a Mindflayer steal her to have her captive for breeding, because the brains of noble blood are much tastier then the usual minds. This leads to them having to infiltrate the Mindflayer city to rescue her and avoid detection at the same time, by having a disguise and constantly not thinking of rescuing her, in case of detect thoughts.
Rood_Inverse 11-06-07, 07:50 PM	A bunch of thugs wake the PCs up in the middle of the night, rough up the PCs and urinate on one of their favorite items or Art Objects they collected from a BBEG. Turns out, there's someone else in town with a really similar name. And he owes people money. When they go to collect from the rich guy with the same name, they find out his mistress has been kidnapped, and he's willing to pay the ransom, but your guys have to be the drop men. That's just the start of things. They get even more bizzare from there. (What are the reqs for a Nihilist PrC, anyway?)
Dravda 11-06-07, 09:33 PM	A lich is more or less a walking skeleton. As the proud player of a lich, I feel obliged to point out that liches DO have flesh, most of it is simply rotting. Although the party sorcerer has taken to laughing at my character's...shortcomings. Have a horror theme put in, have the princess kidnapped by a dragon and then forced to spawn minions for him, because only noble blood will do, and have them discover this the hard way. Someone been reading Heroes of Horror? Lol, I recognize that one from when they posed the question: WHY do dragons kidnap maidens? Great stuff, guys. Keep it coming. -Count Dravda
Fly666monkey 11-06-07, 10:32 PM	A sick wizard/cleric is transforming fair maidens into vampires so he can command them and use then as concubines.
lentax 11-07-07, 07:46 AM	A bunch of thugs wake the PCs up in the middle of the night, rough up the PCs and urinate on one of their favorite items or Art Objects they collected from a BBEG. Turns out, there's someone else in town with a really similar name. And he owes people money. When they go to collect from the rich guy with the same name, they find out his mistress has been kidnapped, and he's willing to pay the ransom, but your guys have to be the drop men. That's just the start of things. They get even more bizzare from there. (What are the reqs for a Nihilist PrC, anyway?) You know, this really only works if one of the heroes is named Something, 'The Dude' Lastname
Grumman 11-07-07, 08:26 AM	The PCs are hired by the king to 'kidnap' his daughter and drag her with them on a quest full of danger and deprivation in an attempt to scare her straight. Things become complicated when her wiles begin to work on the party rogue, or the party paladin's fervor to reform her becomes a deeper romantic urge. Riiight. More likely, the PCs start looking for likely places to dump the body once their Mary Sue/DMPC alarms start ringing when they start feeling "romantic urges" despite her being an annoying brat. One I used: The party was hired by an adventurer who had been ambushed by a medusa. She needed their help to rescue the rest of her party, and to make sure she didn't get stuck permanently petrified in the attempt.
Varia 11-07-07, 12:56 PM	As the proud player of a lich, I feel obliged to point out that liches DO have flesh, most of it is simply rotting. I never said liches dont have flesh. Of course they have flesh. In a jar... (top shelf, 3rd bookcase on the left in their lab, if you must know...) :P
Orchomenos 11-07-07, 01:59 PM	You could try a plot similar to The Man in the Iron Mask (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Iron_Mask_%281998_film%29 ), in which the PCs learn that the spoiled Prince spending all the Kingdom gold on pointless military campaigns and fancies has a twin brother kept in a secret area. It is proposed to secure the twin brother, and switch the true prince for his twin brother (who is also a true prince).
Loren Pechtel 11-07-07, 02:04 PM	The king is rather out of touch with reality and the kingdom is in trouble because of this. He *THINKS* his daughter is a typical princess but that's only because she's been playing that role for him. In reality she's a powerful wizard and has been subtly guiding the king into running things properly (it's not been all that effective because she has to be so subtle about it.) There is a group seeking to overthrow the king because of his mismanagement and she's determined to stop them. To that end she has planted the seeds of a plot get them to kidnap her as a means of infiltrating the group and bringing it down. When the PC's track the bad guys to their base and break in they find the defenders roasted and the princess gone. They hear something going out the back way (or front, if they slipped in the back), when they get to where they heard it they see a red dragon flying away in the distance. Actually there was no dragon, it's just someone tried to kill her and so she had to bust out herself. (All her spells were prepped stilled/silent and she's the variant wizard that doesn't get a familiar but doesn't need a spellbook.) The dragon was an illusion meant to cover the fact that it was her own fireballs that roasted the place. Should the PC's go back to the castle they'll find that she escaped from the dragon when it got in a fight with something else--but if you're on a mission to rescue the kidnapped princess are you going to try looking at her own home??? Plenty of space for wild goose chases. (Note that she is *NOT* trying to hide at home, she just doesn't realize there is a party of rescuers who don't know she's safe.) Note that the PC's do *NOT* get the mission from the king--he doesn't know they are out there. Either the PC's take it on their own when they hear she's been kidnapped or they were following up on a generally-publicized reward offer.
lentax 11-09-07, 12:45 PM	A kindom died long ago when it was overrun by the forces of darkness. Her people fled to the south and made a new home, but it has an empty throne for noone but the line of royalty may sit in it. Now as evil threatens their homeland once again, the people look to the nobility for comfort, and the nobility has sent out a call for the last of the royal line to be found. Only she doesnt want the job. She is quite happy being the healer in a small village and doesnt want to believe the heroes when they tell her she is the true princess, and that her people need her. Assuming the heroes can track her down. A thousand years of history is a lot to sort through. And yes, my campaigns do usually have this much tedium to go through. It makes for a nice change from the typical hack 'n' slash adventures. Though there is enough of that to keep everyone happy as well.
JohnnyWeird 11-09-07, 06:37 PM	Riiight. More likely, the PCs start looking for likely places to dump the body once their Mary Sue/DMPC alarms start ringing when they start feeling "romantic urges" despite her being an annoying brat. If the feelings are forced on them, I'd agree. In my experience, however, many male gamers see a female NPC as a chance to play Lothario. "Of course she'll fall for me, I have 18 charisma!" If this is unique to my circle of gamers, you are all very lucky and I need to find a new group.
CaptainPicard 11-09-07, 10:33 PM	I've played the Save the Princess plot straight a couple of times. If the adventure has an interesting site or villain, it's fun even if the players know exactly what kind of game to expect, and sometimes it's fun because the PCs know they're doing the old cliche. One thing I could think of, though, would be to play the Resident Evil 4 angle, where the villain expects the princess to be rescued, but has planted something in her that will allow him to gain mental control of her, and therefore control of the kingdom without anyone expecting a thing. The adventure then becomes compounded as they try to search the villain's layer for a cure for whatever ails her, while now having to protect the noncombatant princess. Damn, that game ruled.
Silvercrys 11-09-07, 10:52 PM	I've played the Save the Princess plot straight a couple of times. If the adventure has an interesting site or villain, it's fun even if the players know exactly what kind of game to expect, and sometimes it's fun because the PCs know they're doing the old cliche. One thing I could think of, though, would be to play the Resident Evil 4 angle, where the villain expects the princess to be rescued, but has planted something in her that will allow him to gain mental control of her, and therefore control of the kingdom without anyone expecting a thing. The adventure then becomes compounded as they try to search the villain's layer for a cure for whatever ails her, while now having to protect the noncombatant princess. Damn, that game ruled. Along this vein, there's a couple of spells called Necrotic Cyst spells, I believe, in Libris Mortis. They implant a Cyst into the target creature. One of them Dominates the target. Might be worth looking into.
Entropy_Judge 11-11-07, 11:09 PM	There was a 2nd-Edition campaign called "Night Below" which took a group of characters from 1-3rd level all the way to 18+; the first real 'mission' of the campaign was to find a Wizard's missing apprentice (who was also engaged to a local noble). The heroes don't find her on the surface, but find a kidnapping/undead ring of thugs with connections to the Underdark. Going below, they get to meet: Svirfneblin and Rockseer Elves, as well as fight: a Behir, a Shadow Dragon, Grell, and a CITY (yes, they get to assault a city). That's parts one and two. In part three, they finally discover the true meaning of the kidnapping plot, fight off Fire Giants, possibly team up with a group of demons (1 Marilith, 1 Succubus, 2 Alu-Fiends), and get to attack another, bigger, more dangerous city, and if they fail, the world is likely doomed. Oh, they also find the girl they were looking for in the third part (Yay, 300 XP for the original goal!).