Rescue the Princess: Proposed Improvements (Spoilers)

[Kurgan]

Looking at this translated Brazilian quest (I've glanced at the original and at Phoenix's NA conversion), I like some of the ideas in it but it really seems like a bare bones even unfinished quest... most rooms have no furniture or anything really. Kudos to him for preserving it, but it needs some work to be a fun adventure. The princess is armed to the teeth but she's just sitting in a room waiting for you to tell her to fight? She's not wounded like Sir Ragnar, so why does she even need saving?

See also: The Brazilian Files

I get it, Princess Leia grabs a gun and starts barking orders pretty quickly after Luke Skywalker busts her out of her Death Star cell in Star Wars. But remember all the work they had to do to get to that point!

Also I see that the bad guy is equipped with the "Escape" chaos spell, but there's no location pinpointed for him to escape to. [Edit: Wizards of Morcar has a version of "Escape" that lets the bad guy just teleport to any unoccupied square on the board... so this is the easiest fix, to use that rather than the GS chaos spell]

In fact, the goal of winning the quest is just to get the Princess out alive. So you could interpret it as they intend for the bad guy to just escape (off the board) but there's not even any reason to encounter him. You can sneak past and never fight the bad guy.

I would put furniture in the rooms, maybe set off an alarm when she gets rescued so that the other rooms are activated and go for the Heroes (and try to recapture the princess... maybe a spell to knock her out and take her back to the main room for sacrifice?).

Also I would put a Weapons rack close to the Princess's room, where there are weapons stored she can equip herself with, otherwise. Maybe put a Torture Rack and/or Sorcerer's table in the central room for a start.

I like the concept of this quest but I think some more improvements could really help. I'm also understanding they want the Princess to be super strong, but her Mind Points seem a little crazy... they want her to be virtually immune to magic? Because she has high mind points but no magic ability. Or imagine if she was under a spell already that you had to save her from first, to get her on your side? Jab her with a poison antidote?

Where should Anders escape to? An empty room? Or maybe to the corridor blocking the escape door, forcing a final confrontation?

Suggestions welcome.

Or maybe she is chained and to remove the chains you need to roll a shield on one die or something?

Edit: So here's the file with one small correction from Phoenix's version... a missing single blocked square. An updated version will be posted in a post farther down the thread. Not to rag on Phoenix, who we all respect, this is less a fix of his quest than issues with the original he converted. Oops, misspelled the files, that's fixed now!

[Stig]

Defo the chains idea, that really solves the funny plot issue of her waiting!

[lestodante]

I remember that Princess Gwuendoline were really though, more than a Barbarian, go check her stats!!! She really needs to be re-balanced.
Also the map in the original Brazilian version was rotated 180° upside down.
Not really a great quest in my opinion.

[Kurgan]

Yeah I like the idea that you save the prisoner and instead of being an escort mission, you've now got a weapon to smash the bad guys with, but it's not even your mission... just escape and the main bad guys will never bother you, as is. They didn't think it through...

[Kurgan]

Revision 3:

Okay here's a version that is dressed up with some more furniture so it doesn't seem so empty. I moved one door slightly for the room's sake.

The second "A" is for the Princess Gwendoline's gear (revealed by a Hero searching for Treasure in that room).

The "X" is where Anders can teleport to with his Escape spell. As with other uses of the spell, his figure isn't put on the board until the door is opened in the room where he is hiding (unless the rooms are activated, as below).

As for Princess Gwendoline her stats in the original are Move: 10, Attack: 4, Defend: 4, Body: 8, Mind: 9 (Phoenix reduced her Body to 7)

Instead I propose:

Movement: 2 red dice
Attack: 1, until equipped with her sword, then 4.
Defend: 2, until equipped with her armor (which reduces her movement to 1 red die but ups her defense to 4).
Body: 7 (but she can be healed to a total of 8)
Mind: 5

Somebody recruit this woman as a Hero!

Any Hero adjacent to the Princess can try to free her from her chains by rolling a white shield on one white die (counts as an action). She moves after the one who freed her and is controlled by that player.

Another issue I noticed is that normally there is one character that uses the Chaos Warlock figure. But here there are TWO special characters. So instead of the suggestion (not sure if it was Phoenix's or the original) that we use a goblin or zombie for her...

Ideally you'd have some bonus figures like the Female Elf or even better, the Female Barbarian... and one of the Wizards of Morcar for the bad guy. But if you don't have any of these extra figures, you could use the Notched Sword Orc for Anders I suppose and the Chaos Warlock for Gwen.

As with Sir Ragnar you start to wonder the extent of her abilities. I'm inclined to treat her more like a Mercenary than a Hero.
Let's say she can only wear her own armor and only use her own sword (or bare hands). You can heal her to a max of 8 BP, either immediately or if she's wounded. She can open doors and she doesn't search for anything (if you allow her to search, so be it, but that means another Treasure search for all the rooms at the very least). You can pass a potion to her like with any other Hero. I guess in theory you could pass a Spell Scroll to her (if you have one) that she could use on her turn.

The rule will be as soon as you open the door for the Princess, the alarm is sounded, and all of the doors are opened and rooms are activated.

Keep the Chaos Cleric Anders' stats of 8, 6, 5, 9 (and immune to fire magic).

"...this Chaos Cleric is not to be underestimated, rumor has it he was trained by a Fire Mage!"

The quest ought to be a little bit difficult, since you get a big reward for bringing her to safety out the door (500 gold).

[Kurgan]

Just for fun, here's an "upside down" map, adapted to be upside down like the one in the original magazine. Kept the spacing but a few necessary changes were present to keep the rooms accessible. Added the new furniture to this one as well.

Thought of something else... what if the Princess isn't even someone you control? What if Zargon controls her, and makes her run after the bad guys? This is just brainstorming here. But Zargon would have to have to actually work against himself, she'd go right for Anders and try to kill him. She wouldn't do stupid stuff, she'd try to take him down and any monsters that get in the way. The other Heroes would be then forced to run along with her and make sure she wins the fight, then you all leave together.

I realize the Princess would have to be able to jump traps too. To those wondering, in Heroscribe, Phoenix used the "allinone" icons pack, with a "female elf" icon for the Princess and a "Chaos Sorcerer" icon for Anders the boss. The original uses a one directional arrow for the start of the quest, but the use of a two-way door for the exit makes sense.

[j_dean80]

She’s not a dead-beat drifter searching every crack for treasure (like our Heroes). She’s a rich princess.

[Kurgan]

Excellent point, j_dean. Plus, what happens to any treasure she would find? She just hands it over to the Heroes at the end? I agree: she doesn't search, but she can open doors and jump traps, and once she's equipped, she can hold her own in battle. Unless of course she was a disowned princess (bringing her in for punishment, perhaps? write your own story!).

Activating the rooms will prevent the bad guys just sitting there stupidly while you waltz out of the temple unopposed.

If the Hero escorting her is killed, that player can keep playing by controlling just the Princess. If they all die, the quest can still be accomplished, if she makes it out of there.

[iKarith]

I like the chain idea and having to get her equipment. The alarm works, and having the villain immune to fire magic will make him more challenging.

I like version 3. Non-inverted.

[Kurgan]

Thanks! I can't take credit for the fire immunity, that was in the original (a trait of at least a few badguys in the canonical quest books).

Can't believe I misspelled the file names... that's fixed now. Nothing else has been changed.