The cliche that has been pointed out and ridiculed so often that it is no longer a cliche (if that's possible). I can hardly remember the last time I saw a module with a damsel in distress. I once started a campaign like this in Middle Earth (an elf lady who had been captured by Sauron's minions) but I can hardly remember it and we never finished due to moving. What about you?

Once had a young queen, manipulating her captors into doing dumb things to aid the PCs in rescuing her in an AD&D game, by pretending to have joined the bad guys.

Quote from: Trond;1080555The cliche that has been pointed out and ridiculed so often that it is no longer a cliche (if that's possible). I can hardly remember the last time I saw a module with a damsel in distress. I once started a campaign like this in Middle Earth (an elf lady who had been captured by Sauron's minions) but I can hardly remember it and we never finished due to moving. What about you?

Greetings!

You're right, my friend. For some reason or other, it has long been ridiculed as cliche, and whatnot. However, contrary to what *feminists* and pretentious Liberals like to screech about in protest--the fact is, women are a precious, highly valued resource. Women are valued as resources because they alone breed. And, women are beautiful. And, to varying degrees, women as a sexual creature also embody a symbol of, and a reflection--of a community's honour and virtue. This has always been true. In the Bible, the great Patriarch Abraham gathered up strong men to rescue women taken captive by enemies. Helen of Troy--her capture by Paris launched a thousand ships to retrieve her. In the time of ancient Rome, the "Rape of the Sabines" precipitated a war when the Romans went in and captured many Sabine women, and took them captive back to Rome to rape them and breed with them. The Sabine men, of course, sought revenge, and a war was pursued. The Romans won the war, and kept the Sabine women to breed with, and make them as their own wives. Interestingly, despite being initially taken captive and raped--when the Sabine tribe arrived to rescue the raped Sabine women--the Sabine women *chose* to remain with their Roman masters and husbands. This event was later attested to in several sources, and was even notably remarked upon by the Romans themselves as unusual, and unexpected. The Sabine women stayed with the Romans, and married the Romans, and bred new people and warriors to build Rome. This event is very significant for Rome, because without the Sabine women to breed with, Rome would have been extinguished. Also, keep in mind that at the time, Rome was a small, humble settlement, full of mostly young, single men. The Romans at this time were infamous for being poor, rough, and violent men. Ruffians and criminals, without families, and without skills or animals. Their prospects for survival or success were dim. They were poor, and had very little in the way of wealth, animals, or other resources. All that Rome had at this time were young, violent men, and weapons. And a ruthless, hungry courage that drove them to scandalize their neighbors, and to challenge their stronger, wealthier neighbors for supremacy.

And yet, the Sabine women *chose* to remain with them, even though the Romans had agreed in the negotiations with the Sabine tribes that the Sabine women could return with them to their home tribes if they wished to do so. The Sabine tribes were outraged that their women had inexplicably chosen to remain with the Romans. It was a fateful choice, for Rome was able to grow stronger from this, because the Sabine women were eagerly breeding with the Roman men. Rome's population quickly grew after this time, and continued to expand, always breeding, and making more people and more warriors to fight for Rome. Rome grew in strength, wealth, and prestige. Rome would rise to greatness, and did so in part because the Sabine women chose to love the Romans. As the saying goes, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Even in our modern age--recall when a young, blonde American girl was captured by the Muslims, in Iraq. She was a young soldier--a truck driver, working for an Army supply unit, charged with bringing food supplies to different American Army units in front-line positions, fighting against the Muslims. She was enlisted, and an ordinary girl. Nothing special, not wealthy or famous in any way.

And yet, her capture and rape by the Muslim guerillas--moved a superpower to bring the wrath of God down on this young girl's captors. Air strikes, satellites, special Intelligence, and eventually a daring raid by Special Forces to rescue this young American girl from her tragic and grim hell.

An entire nation demanded that she be rescued, and that the Muslims be chastised for their barbarism.

Ridiculed by snooty, arrogant morons, my friend. It is a primal motivation, seen throughout history, and into our present times.

I often use the "Damsel In Distress" as a plot for adventure. The women players know exactly what the fate of such a woman is likely to be, and are always very eager to help pursue such an adventure, as the men are. The men players, indeed--they are always swift to respond to such an adventure, without exception. In fact, their zeal inspires them to pursue such adventure with ruthless heroism, and extreme violence.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: SHARK;1080579........ It is a primal motivation, seen throughout history, and into our present times.

I often use the "Damsel In Distress" as a plot for adventure. The women players know exactly what the fate of such a woman is likely to be, and are always very eager to help pursue such an adventure, as the men are. The men players, indeed--they are always swift to respond to such an adventure, without exception. In fact, their zeal inspires them to pursue such adventure with ruthless heroism, and extreme violence.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

It is a pretty strong motivator for sure

Come to think of it, it used to be much more prevalent in video games too.

Quote from: Trond;1080661It is a pretty strong motivator for sure

Come to think of it, it used to be much more prevalent in video games too.

Greetings!

LOL! So fun!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Trond;1080555The cliche that has been pointed out and ridiculed so often that it is no longer a cliche (if that's possible). I can hardly remember the last time I saw a module with a damsel in distress. I once started a campaign like this in Middle Earth (an elf lady who had been captured by Sauron's minions) but I can hardly remember it and we never finished due to moving. What about you?

The introductory adventure in the Conan book by Modipheus features a DiD: A Stygian noblewoman betrothed to a Khorajan prince (or something like that) that's stranded on a battlefield following a massacre and has to be rescued before the Asshuri find her.

(Spoilers for Primeval Thule Campaign Setting)




Two of the three adventures in the Primeval Thule Campaign Setting have DiD hooks:

1. A rich merchant's daughter, Naraye Gluor, has been kidnapped by Kelauklyth the Serpentmancer - everyone assumes it's for a hideous rite, in fact he just plans to ransom her back to her father Ahreb Gluor for a pile of cash to buy research materials! A likely fatal misunderstanding for Kelauklyth as Ahreb hires the PCs to get her back.

2. Metira Sedarnel, a scion of powerful House Sedarnel, is missing, her aunt, the Princess of the House, hires PCs to find her. In fact Metira staged her own kidnapping to lure powerful heroes; they think they are rescuing her - in fact she's the local high priest of Cthulu, and the PCs are her intended sacrifice!

In the high level adventure Secret of the Moon Door there is another DiD, a female Sage kidnapped by a Wizard of the Black Circle, who is after the Key to the Moon Door in her possession - his minions miss the key though. The PCs have to find the key & go through the Moon Door themselves, travel to the Moon, where she is held in a trance-like state, to defeat the evil wizard and get her back. This involves a lot of Moon Beasts, too.

Quote from: Trond;1080555The cliche that has been pointed out and ridiculed so often that it is no longer a cliche (if that's possible). I can hardly remember the last time I saw a module with a damsel in distress. I once started a campaign like this in Middle Earth (an elf lady who had been captured by Sauron's minions) but I can hardly remember it and we never finished due to moving. What about you?

Thing is. Quite a few women love the idea of a hero striving to rescue them. A sign of dedication and/or passion.

As for uses of the theme I have employed? Bemusingly one of the first was not as a DM, but as a player. One of my characters got polymorphed vy the villain and sold. And thus had to be rescued. Except... the rest of the party did not know this and did not recognize her and so walked right by and never knew... oy!

As a DM I lean more to the inadvertent rescue. The damsel in distress is on the site the PCs are exploring. But they have no clue she is there. Hopefully they stumble across her. Though I have twice used the theme in a more standard sense. Such as the PCs sent to locate and bring back some agents who vanished on a planet during a covert item recovery mission. And the other being the PCs were hired to rescue a villagers daughter from goblins. Turned out the girl was friends with the goblins and was actually keeping them out of trouble.

In general though gender of the person being rescued is irrelevant to us. Someone needs rescuing? Lets go! As a player a few times the party set off after getting a rescue mission... and then realized they had forgotten to ask who the person was. "Rescue em all and let the family members sort em out!" :eek:

Quote from: S'mon;1080724(Spoilers for Primeval Thule Campaign Setting)

Two of the three adventures in the Primeval Thule Campaign Setting have DiD hooks:

1. A rich merchant's daughter, Naraye Gluor, has been kidnapped by Kelauklyth the Serpentmancer - everyone assumes it's for a hideous rite, in fact he just plans to ransom her back to her father Ahreb Gluor for a pile of cash to buy research materials! A likely fatal misunderstanding for Kelauklyth as Ahreb hires the PCs to get her back.

2. Metira Sedarnel, a scion of powerful House Sedarnel, is missing, her aunt, the Princess of the House, hires PCs to find her. In fact Metira staged her own kidnapping to lure powerful heroes; they think they are rescuing her - in fact she's the local high priest of Cthulu, and the PCs are her intended sacrifice!

In the high level adventure Secret of the Moon Door there is another DiD, a female Sage kidnapped by a Wizard of the Black Circle, who is after the Key to the Moon Door in her possession - his minions miss the key though. The PCs have to find the key & go through the Moon Door themselves, travel to the Moon, where she is held in a trance-like state, to defeat the evil wizard and get her back. This involves a lot of Moon Beasts, too.

Consider these STOLEN.  I'm planning to run a Legend of Steel game (using the BOL system) in a con in a couple of months, I AM SO USING ALL THREE!  With some appropriate changes of course!

Thank you, sir!

Quote from: Christopher Brady;1080753Consider these STOLEN.  I'm planning to run a Legend of Steel game (using the BOL system) in a con in a couple of months, I AM SO USING ALL THREE!  With some appropriate changes of course!

Thank you, sir!

You're welcome. :cool:

Quote from: Omega;1080736Thing is. Quite a few women love the idea of a hero striving to rescue them. A sign of dedication and/or passion.

Hard to make this work in a regular RPG, where the PCs are typically the rescuers and the DiD a maguffin. I could see it work with a setup like Krull, where the Princess PC has to resist (or fall to) the kidnapping Beast in a psychological duel, while the Prince N/PC tries to rescue her through conventional heroism. This would probably work best in a Narrativist Storygame thingy, although it could be cool to get it to work in a trad immersive RPG.

In general feminine strengths and feminine concerns don't get much attention in RPGs. The usual tendency is just to put a female protagonist in the heroic-ass-kicking role. Which works if they are rescuing a small child (like Newt in ALIENS) but any male romantic interest needs to be at least their peer, which causes trouble for storytelling.

Quote from: S'mon;1080788Hard to make this work in a regular RPG, where the PCs are typically the rescuers and the DiD a maguffin. I could see it work with a setup like Krull, where the Princess PC has to resist (or fall to) the kidnapping Beast in a psychological duel, while the Prince N/PC tries to rescue her through conventional heroism. This would probably work best in a Narrativist Storygame thingy, although it could be cool to get it to work in a trad immersive RPG.

In general feminine strengths and feminine concerns don't get much attention in RPGs. The usual tendency is just to put a female protagonist in the heroic-ass-kicking role. Which works if they are rescuing a small child (like Newt in ALIENS) but any male romantic interest needs to be at least their peer, which causes trouble for storytelling.

Greetings!

Very true, S'mon! I've had to learn and adapt as campaigns developed. In one episode, one of the player characters--a female paladin, no less--was captured and imprisoned by an evil Vampire Lord. The Vampire Lord was intending to torture the player character, and sacrifice her to the dark gods after he drained her of most of her life essence, in revenge for a group of temple knights that had captured a large herd of enchanted cows, that helped feed the Vampire Lord's Trolls. Her death would be a good symbol of his wrath, and put the other knights on notice that their raids would not come without a severe price. The female Paladin ended up seducing the Vampire Lord, and then she fell in love with him. The female Paladin helped the Vampire Lord with information and maps that allowed him to recapture and regain his herd of enchanted cows. The female Paladin then negotiated a peace treaty between the Vampire Lord and his realm, and the Baron that was ruling a realm on his borders. The rest of the party was involved in the process throughout--though there was a definite awkwardness when the rest of the party 'rescued' the female Paladin from the Vampire Lord, only to gradually realize that the female Paladin had become the Vampire Lord's lover, and that she was not really "imprisoned" after all, but had become far more in control of the Vampire Lord.

Eventually, however, conflicts developed, as Vampire Lords aren't especially benevolent, though the party was frustrated, uneasy, and conflicted with how complicated the Female Paladin's life had become, and how her choices added increased complications to their own lives and goals. Of course, the women in the group were entirely sympathetic with the female Paladin--they all thought their little relationship was "So Romantic" and sweet--where as the men players felt like their mission had been compromised, and that the female Paladin should be vigorously and thoroughly interrogated and measures taken by the temple authorities to ensure she was "cleansed" properly. The women players didn't believe that was such a good idea. They unanimously supported the female Paladin, and believed her stories of confusing romance, twisted escapades, and conflicted goals and loyalties. The male players viewed her as being "tainted" and morally weak, being seduced by the Vampire Lord into depravity and embracing wickedness. It was only with further quests and a ceremony with a powerful Unicorn in an enchanted, holy grove where they became convinced that she was not "Tainted" and was not embracing heresy.

The adventure's developments definitely did not go the way I had anticipated. I had assumed she would be defiant and hostile with the Vampire Lord from the very beginning of her captivity. Instead, she proceeded to seduce the Vampire Lord, and along the way offer various services, goodies, and information that benefitted his goals, while negotiating and gaining concessions and promises from the Vampire Lord in return. Her actions ended up saving a small, ancient church from being destroyed by the Vampire Lord, and also the lives of several hundred villagers that the Vampire Lord was going to unleash his Trolls to devour them. The female Paladin felt like her personal sacrifices were entirely justified, and that she had gained most of what she had wanted from the Vampire Lord. It didn't turn out to be a classical "Damsel in Distress" but something else that was conflicting and messy all the way around.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Just recently:
My GM was running Nova Praxis, a FATE System game where one of the premises is that technology is so advanced that a person's consciousness can be transmitted into a special-made body, or "re-sleeved."
Our team had to get information out of a female inmate at a co-ed prison, and the price was that we had to spring her from the prison.  So the day we had to pull the job my character is disguised as a guard, and goes to get the girl.  I then find out that because the girl had won a prison brawl that guards were betting on, that her reward was to get re-sleeved in a better body. Which turned out to be a man.
That was a twist I did not see coming.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;1081032Just recently:
My GM was running Nova Praxis, a FATE System game where one of the premises is that technology is so advanced that a person's consciousness can be transmitted into a special-made body, or "re-sleeved."
Our team had to get information out of a female inmate at a co-ed prison, and the price was that we had to spring her from the prison.  So the day we had to pull the job my character is disguised as a guard, and goes to get the girl.  I then find out that because the girl had won a prison brawl that guards were betting on, that her reward was to get re-sleeved in a better body. Which turned out to be a man.
That was a twist I did not see coming.

JG

Ah the old........dude in distress plot.  

Here is one adapted from a certain wargame disguised as an RPG.

The PCs are summoned to a kingdom to help a princess stop the villain from performing a dark ritual at his castle. The princess tags along, but isnt much help. Eventually the PCs grind their way to the summoning chamber and the villain is not there? This is when the princess transforms into the villain, who needed heroes for the sacrifice and ran them around the kingdom to wear them down.