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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7349077" data-attributes="member: 7006">As far as Point 1 is concerned... I think the easiest way is to just not make her your standard damsel-in-distress Princess Plot Point, but rather a character with needs/desires/plots of her own.&nbsp; If she's grabbed &quot;just because the plot needed her to be&quot;, and she can't be returned to the castle &quot;just because the plot needed her to be&quot; and she can't just be dumped off at the first house they come to &quot;just because the plot needed her to be&quot;... you should make a reason why Princess Plot Point doesn't want any of those things to happen.&nbsp; Give her the agency to have her own story and her own plot, and that will explain why those others things can't occur.So far you have something going on at the castle that she cannot/should not return to.&nbsp; So make her aware of it (or at least have an inkling).&nbsp; This is why she doesn't want to be brought back after she is rescued-- she can just tell the party she knows she isn't safe there.&nbsp; As far as why she was grabbed?&nbsp; Perhaps she knows what the cult is doing and was gathering information for herself (or perhaps a secretive do-good-group she works with) and the cult found her and grabbed her.&nbsp; That at least gives her agency and is not just &quot;Well, we cultists need to sacrifice somebody so we'll grab the princess because it makes our story seem important and thus the PCs will follow our breadcrumb.&quot;&nbsp; And then if/when the PCs rescue her from the cultists... she then can tell them straight away &quot;I can't go back to the castle, but I also have my own stuff to do so I'm not going to just follow you around.&quot;If you do that... then you have also seeded more story hooks where the PCs might want to follow HER (and/or the group she works with) because they find out what's going on in the kingdom and what this group is doing.Basically... your answers can all come down to &quot;Have the NPCs that are a part of the plot BE characters that a part of the plot, and not just MacGuffins.&quot;&nbsp; Because otherwise you as the DM have to talk to the players out-of-character to give the information the NPCs could have easily given to the PCs in-character.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7349077, member: 7006"] As far as Point 1 is concerned... I think the easiest way is to just not make her your standard damsel-in-distress Princess Plot Point, but rather a character with needs/desires/plots of her own. If she's grabbed "just because the plot needed her to be", and she can't be returned to the castle "just because the plot needed her to be" and she can't just be dumped off at the first house they come to "just because the plot needed her to be"... you should make a reason [I]why[/I] Princess Plot Point doesn't want any of those things to happen. Give her the agency to have her own story and her own plot, and that will explain why those others things can't occur. So far you have something going on at the castle that she cannot/should not return to. So make her aware of it (or at least have an inkling). This is why she doesn't want to be brought back after she is rescued-- she can just tell the party she knows she isn't safe there. As far as why she was grabbed? Perhaps she knows what the cult is doing and was gathering information for herself (or perhaps a secretive do-good-group she works with) and the cult found her and grabbed her. That at least gives her agency and is not just "Well, we cultists need to sacrifice somebody so we'll grab the princess because it makes our story seem [I]important[/I] and thus the PCs will follow our breadcrumb." And then if/when the PCs rescue her from the cultists... she then can tell them straight away "I can't go back to the castle, but I also have my own stuff to do so I'm not going to just follow you around." If you do that... then you have also seeded more story hooks where the PCs might want to follow HER (and/or the group she works with) because they find out what's going on in the kingdom and what this group is doing. Basically... your answers can all come down to "Have the NPCs that are a part of the plot BE characters that a part of the plot, and not just MacGuffins." Because otherwise you as the DM have to talk to the players out-of-character to give the information the NPCs could have easily given to the PCs in-character. [/QUOTE]

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