Playing with Stereotypes: Princesses

[bloodystone2]

Hello everyone, I wanted to make a thread about this topic because it interests me. Princesses are have been a type cast of high fantasy adventure and, in general, epic stories. I wanted to know what everyone to pitch an idea for people who desperately need one of how a princess would be the center piece of a quest.

I notice princesses tend to fall into three catagories.
The badass - This type of princess can handle herself in a fight and generally doesn't need anyone to manage herself on her own. Look at dagger in FF9

The trap - In the hallmark of dnd 1e, the bait and switch was always fun. I remember one of the first moduals I used, the sexy princess tied to a large rock in the middle of a mountain was secretly a witch who was going to assassinate you. Good times.

The plot device - The last one is what you'd probably think it would be. The princess is captured by a dragon and needs to be saved or the princess asks you to save her brother in a battle field or whatever. Because why not, think Fionna from Shrek.

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One of the recent adventurers I've done, this is what I have.

One player has been separated from his party members. He then finds a large tower, possible half a mile high and obviously enchanted. He climbs the tower, going through room after room of mobs. There he meets an female orc wearing a crown. Thinking that all orcs are part of a tribe that has a tribal thinking, the player jumps into the fight with this female orc. After fighting and conversing in between rounds, the PC then realizes that the Orc is an orcish princess of a nearby kingdom, relatively hidden on another plane. She then explains that a wizard has summoned her and attempted to capture her. She then snapped his neck and threw him out the nearby balcony but found out that she's locked in the tower until someone assists her. Then, after a day or two of depression, boredom, and starvation, the PC rescued her (and gave her a good way to vent). The Orc Princess then joins the PC as an NPC party member until she can figure out how to get back to her homelands.

[jaydubs]

The Competent Leader - The princess in question may or may not be a competent fighter. But it's unlikely to come up. She spends most of her energies directing the work of her subjects and retainers - and she's good at it. Likely to be either the quest-giver, or the reasonable authority figure the PCs are trying to reach.

The Power Behind the Throne - The person wearing the crown is incompetent. Whether through intrigue, information, personal influence, or simply because the actual ruler is too lazy to attend to the day-to-day responsibilities, the princess actually runs the kingdom. May be the quest-giver or reasonable authority figure, as above. If evil, may be the BBEG or one of the villains along the way.

The Diplomat - The princess is sent as a representative of a kingdom at large. May be the person the PCs are trying to protect. Or kill. Or convince to help.

The Useless Royal - Sits around, lazing in the luxuries of being a princess while never actually helping the kingdom. May be one of many in the family. If the entire family is like this, may be the reason the PCs have to save the day rather than leaving it to the people who should be in charge of things.

The Usurper - Has, or is intending to, take over the throne from the rightful heir. Depending on the story, may be a villain or a force for good.

The Royal Runaway - The princess has left her position of power, for whatever reason. Maybe to escape her responsibilities. Maybe to help her people in a way her position wouldn't allow. Maybe to avoid an arranged marriage. Whatever the reason, she is now traveling incognito. If she meets the PCs, her identity probably won't be revealed until later.

[Geddy2112]

The Humble One: Although she may do things and is not hiding who she is, she does not make a big deal about it. She might think that just because she is royalty does not make her any better, or sees it as boring duty to be a princess.

The Meddler: Seems to have her hand in everything, although the motives are unclear and the results rarely world shaping. Could be behind-the-scenes or up front. If they meddle for humor, then they would be more of a prankster.

The red herring: The princess does not really matter, but the players don't know that...

The mysterious one: Is hidden away, or hard to find, or never speaks, never seen in public etc.

The showboat: Opposite of humble. Name drops, announces she is princess, overt and ostentatious.

All of the concepts can be combined, for example you could have a mysterious badass, or a humble but competent leader.

[Vrock_Summoner]

The red herring: The princess does not really matter, but the players don't know that...
Actually, my players unwittingly (or perhaps incredibly cleverly) subverted my attempt at this and it turned out to be a pretty great game.

She was just a pointless NPC princess that I gave some dialogue in one scene for flavor. One of the players thought she was supposed to be important, so when I didn't give him anything, he went digging. They ended up becoming besties on account of the effort despite her lack of bearing on the plot and helped out later by virtue of being royalty despite her personality and backstory mostly being thrown together as the player tried to learn it. She wasn't a plot device or anything, just another (very friendly) NPC who the PCs regularly incorporated into their plans because... I guess they liked her? *shrug*

[Karl Aegis]

Princesses and mechs go together pretty well.

[kalasulmar]

The Rebellious Scion- uses her family's wealth to fund her adventuring "hobby" much to the displeasure of her father and, of course, stepmother. Puts the PC members of her adventuring party in tight spots picking between doing right by the father or staying true to a companion. She will probably be in disguise when first met, or at least using a false identity. This stereotype probably works better with a noble princess rather than a royal princess. Royalty tends to be fairly visible and well known, making her deception much harder to pull off.

[deuxhero]

The last blood: Final scion of the royal bloodline. Must be protected from conspirators. May be a bastard.

[atemu1234]

Princesses and mechs go together pretty well.

Am I the only one who started hearing a certain song by Voltaire when reading this?

[avr]

The decoy. Actually the princesses' maid/friend/terrified prisoner in disguise.

[Red Fel]

The Power Behind the Throne - The person wearing the crown is incompetent. Whether through intrigue, information, personal influence, or simply because the actual ruler is too lazy to attend to the day-to-day responsibilities, the princess actually runs the kingdom. May be the quest-giver or reasonable authority figure, as above. If evil, may be the BBEG or one of the villains along the way.

I tend to be a fan of this one, as it gives the Princess a profound level of agency, power, and influence. But I like to play it in one of two ways.

1. The Viper. She's the cold kind of manipulator. Sweet words and poison lies. She doesn't need to use sex, but she does use charisma, to influence people. In doing so, she climbs the ladder of influence, leaving broken hearts and broken bones in her wake - naturally, her new prey won't suffer her old cast-offs to live. She's an ambitious climber, but more importantly, she's competent - she wants to run the show, and can actually do a good job of it. (I can't stand incompetent status-climbers.) Her prey keeps her around, both for appearances (she's gorgeous and charismatic), for dependency (she's capable, often moreso than her prey is), and out of dependence (her words can be very addictive).

Bonus points if you focus on charisma without beauty - i.e. an exceedingly canny, but hideous, hag. Note also that a Princess can still be a climber - after all, she's the Princess, not the Queen.

As a centerpiece, she's either a BBEG, the pawn of a BBEG (while thinking she's the BBEG), or she's latched onto one of the PCs as her latest prey. If this example, expect to be pursued by those she's wronged in the past; expect plots reminiscent of the back and forth between Batman and Catwoman.

2. The Yamato Nadeshiko (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YamatoNadeshiko). (Caution, TVTropes link.) The Viper impresses me, but the Yamato Nadeshiko terrifies me. Here's why. The Yamato Nadeshiko is the archetypical (if dated) concept of the Princess - noble bearing, quiet presence, pleasing demeanor, gentle manners. She is a perfect noble wife, supportive, kind, obedient, and to all appearances submissive. Those appearances lie. They lie, lie, lie. The Yamato Nadeshiko is in absolute control of all things at all times. And nobody knows it. When she enters a room, she has the measure of everyone there, and she is already controlling them. Polite, warm, an excellent hostess, she has them doing precisely what she wants and thinking it's all their idea. And yet - and here's the scary part - she's a genuinely warm, supportive person. Everything she does, she does out of love and support for her Prince. She wants him to be the best possible King he can be. So she molds him, and everyone around him. Out of love and support.

As a centerpiece, she works well as a questgiver, but if you really want to pull the heartstrings, she's an incredible BBEG-behind-the-BBEG. The PCs might mistakenly attempt to rescue her, try to use magic to cure her of her love for the BBEG. She has a spear, people. She will use it.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one of my favorite subversions of the Princess: Punie Tanaka (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/DaiMahouTouge). Punie Tanaka is an adorable schoolgirl with friends and laughter. She is also a princess from a magical fantasy land. She is also the daughter of the horrifically Evil witch who conquered that magical fantasy land in a bloody coup and deposed the kind royal family. She is also a master of truly gruesome hand-to-hand techniques designed to cripple, maim, and generally cause people to resemble pretzels far more than they should. She also smiles. A lot.

[The-Mage-King]

Am I the only one who started hearing a certain song by Voltaire when reading this?

I started hearing Fairy Dan-sing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8BEiiTqGIA). :smalltongue:

[T.G. Oskar]

The Dragon Princess - you know how, usually, princesses are captured by dragons? Surprise: the princess is a dragon. Not the lieutenant of the BBEG; a bonafide dragon, a True Dragon at that, polymorphed into a humanoid and captured by means unknown (after all, being able to capture a dragon should mean something!) The Quest-Giver, perhaps a servant, is really the Dragon Princess' father in disguise, who cannot risk revealing itself or else fall prey to the same trap. Adventurers, on the other hand, are fair game (and if the dragon is evil, preserves for future meals!) Bonus points if the captor is the BBEG's lieutenant or main servant, which in trope parlance is known as a "Dragon". Even more twists if the captor has an Orb of Dragonkind and is trying to play the trope "straight", manipulating the dragon in order to lure adventurers, pose as the princess to have the adventurers rescue "her", and then take the captor straight into the father in order to get an even stronger dragon.

The Half-Dragon Princess - a corollary to the previous. The princess is the daughter of a captured princess and her dragon captor. The dragon passed off as the princess' rescuer (after falling in love, or perhaps dominating the princess?) and took the kingdom in a coup. The princess, though, ends up being somewhat...weird. May or may not be captured. May or may not be rebellious.

The "Prince"-ess, or the "Prinz" - it's a new world, where gender perspective is a thing. Maybe the princess, one of a long line of princesses born to a king with no male heir, wishes to become a male in order to claim the throne? Maybe the prince loves the treatment his sisters receive, isn't meant to be the crown prince OR cross over to the clergy, and wants to go to the other side? The reason for adventuring is to deliberately seek a girdle of mascuinity/feminity, or a Wizard willing to cast Polymorph Any Other on it to fulfill its desire. The problem isn't the quest; it's what happens afterwards.

The Queen behind the Princely Mask - the Queen has died, and the only hope for the kingdom is to rescue the Princess (or Prince!). The truth is, the Queen is immortal, but rules over mortals...thus, it has to change her identity every now and then, and while she usually builds a proper identity for her "successor", she needs to play hard and fast this time. Thus, the Queen's last will reveals that a noble scion was born in a certain place, and it's necessary to reclaim her. Of course, those who know the truth want to depose her forever, and she has to seek the aid of adventurers. Kinda strange when the adventurers see her, after a mortal wound, stand up and say "that was only a flesh wound!"...when her head was cleanly severed off. Bonus points if one of the PCs has received a counter-offer.

The High Priest's Daughter - who said that you needed to be of royal blood to be of high standing? Traditionally, the clergy has been part of the high class. The "princess" isn't a princess at all, and perhaps may have a bit of noble blood, but she's important because she's the daughter of the High Priest of the kingdom's most important faith. Thus, she is either the High Priest(es)'s successor, or perhaps important to a prophecy, or maybe just loved by her parents very much! However...she has the typical attitude of a princess. Bonus points if she's friends with the princess of the kingdom, and thus caught a lot of the attitude.

The CEO's Daughter - not exactly something for D&D, but d20 Modern just happens to be part of the d20 System, so... Remember Rush Hour. The girl the protagonists' have to save IS pretty much a princess. She's just not the princess of a kingdom, but a socialite-in-making. It can be translated into D&D; after all, Dilettantes are a thing, and most likely the "princess" can adopt many of the quirks and attitudes of modern era socialites. The "High Priest's Daughter" is actually a variant of this, if you notice.

The Queen - why bother with a Princess? Have the Queen herself be the centerpiece of the story. I mean, Frozen dealt with that! Sure, one of the main characters was Princess Anna, but the core of the story was centered on Queen Elsa. Who happens to be a sorceress as well. Ain't that cool, that stories are turned left and right?

[BWR]

Princesses as NPCs haven't come up much in our games. The closest we got that I can think of off hand was the daughter of a powerful noble who fell in love with one of the PCs. She didn't take rejection lightly (and the political nightmares that would have ensued had he accepted her advances don't bear thinking about) and ended up being a major obstacle to the PCs for years to come.

So you can add that to the list: (Un)Welcome Advances: handsome, powerful, dangerous, possibly famous adventurers come around; how can a young, impressionable girl/boy/other not be attracted to them? Having to handle starstruck admirers, not give offense to a spoiled brat, not seem threatening to overprotective parents, not get in trouble with rival suitors; court can be fun.


Princesses (and princes) as PCs has occurred quite often, really. Even moreso if you count 'daughter of very high noble' as well as 'daughter of the ruler of a country'.
One was the noble, spoiled, supercilious brat who ran away because she wanted adventure. She is a dragonblooded sorcerer working her way towards half-dragon, part of a breeding program of her rather disturbed and evil great uncle. He would, unbeknownst to her, use Clone to not only have back-ups but to have something to vivisect and perform various other experiments with. When she had died one too many times he decided she was a waste and kidnapped her home again and was going to basically mindwipe her and use her as a broodmare instead of a political marriage pawn.

A couple more were Fel's yamato nadeshiko nightmare (bonus points for actually being Japanese). One is the twin of the emperor and has his full confidence and is as competent, cutthroat and dangerous as any GoT character, the other is the nice kind so long as you don't try to mess with her family.

We've have one who is stronger than all but the strongest warriors and skilled magician to boot, a bit overly proud, but diligent and hard working so people can't really fault her pride.
Another who is the Emperor's bastard but raised in his household - few friends, lots of sycophants, lots of people secretly looking down their nose at the bastard. Spoiled but lonely, until she met a friendly ghost.

Apart from the first one, the other PCs were not conceived as being a princess as part of their character, since they all descended from one of my PCs who married well. They had stats rolled and personalities determined in the same way as any other PC - they just had a fortunate background.

[M Placeholder]

The Cosmic Horror Princess - Shes actually a Mindflayer in disguise who ate the brains of the last heir to the throne.
The Vampire Princess - The next Queen is an undead abomination.
The Avenging Princess - Shes raising an army to raze the kingdom.

[Arbane]

The Half-Dragon Princess - a corollary to the previous. The princess is the daughter of a captured princess and her dragon captor. The dragon passed off as the princess' rescuer (after falling in love, or perhaps dominating the princess?) and took the kingdom in a coup. The princess, though, ends up being somewhat...weird. May or may not be captured. May or may not be rebellious.

http://i.imgur.com/QkJl8.jpg
(Presumably, she's not a HALF-dragon, mind you.)




The CEO's Daughter - not exactly something for D&D, but d20 Modern just happens to be part of the d20 System, so...

Also, the Mafia Princess (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MafiaPrincess) (warning: TvTropes). Useable in any setting with organized crime.