So guys, my group starts a new campaign next week and we decided

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>>50354342
>not some badass warrior joanofarc-like princess
Jeanne was an illiterate peasant girl.

Ignoring that historical error, I don't think a purely princessy-princess would be a good character for an adventuring party as anything other than an escort mission NPC. You need something that can be useful to the party while maintaining the image of a prim and proper princess. You can either go for a mage/cleric, because education in the magical arts is (in most settings) expensive and allows you to get involved without getting your hands dirty, or you can go for a roguelike character. The latter would make your princess looks a mere façade, a femme fatale hiding underneath.

As for motivation, noble lords and ladies who weren't in line for an inheritance were usually used as pawns in political games. Perhaps that's where you come in, navigating the political landscape to the benefit of your family. Perhaps an enchantment spell or two can 'persuade' a rival noble house to direct their efforts elsewhere, away from sabotaging your family.

Also, Jeanne a best in any franchise (including reality).

>>50354342
So i want to make her interesting without breaking the "princess" thing, that means she won't be learning to be a badass warrior or wizard. But also i dont want her to be a burden for the group, or to play the helpless damsel on distress.

so, please let me know if you think this might work.

As a young girl, like every princess she was married to an important lord. They never loved each other, their marriage was just a political thing. Even after their marriage her husband continued to see other women quite regularly, she had a couple of affairs too when her husband was away at different military campaigns (of course this was a secret because if anyone knew she would have had her ears and nose cut off and her forehead marked). For the most part they didn't cared for each other, both of them fullfilled their roles and that's about it, but they did loved their children fiercely, and she have him many, the first where 3 boys, then 2 girls and after many years they had twins, a boy and a girl who would not live after their first winter. The 3 boys grew up and all of them became great warriors, they all marched to war with their father manny times while their mother stayed and ruled on his place. At some point, when all her children are already adults, her husband loses a war he was fighting agains a neightbouring kingdom, one of their sons, the younger dies in battle, the older with his spine badly wounded by a lance is taken out of the battlefield and will never be the same, and the husband and his remaining son are captured. She does everything in her power to bring them back, she's forced to surrender and pay reparations and disband her armies and marry one of her daughters to an enemy prince but in the end only her husband is released, the enemy keeps their last son and heir as a hostage to make sure they keep true to their word. (cont)

>>50354457
in my defense, i didn't said jean was a princess, what i meant is that most "princess" characters end up being something like jean of arc

>>50354539

anyway, all those years passed since she was married at 14. She had been a mother, a ruler, and in desperate times she even became a tyrant. She became a hard woman with no love for anything but her children (who are all adults by now) and who knows how to play the games of courts and politics (and their dangers). She's still married to her husband, and she still keeps her position but something happens that makes her end up with a group of adventurers made of a gipsy wanderer (and his baby), a crestfallen knight, a fugitive hangman and a fish merchant

>i have no idea how to make a princess princess travel with such group

>>50354457
>>50354557

the magic thing soudns great btw, in our setting magic is rare as fuck and only a select few can afford even the most basic magical training. So maybe if she had some spells useful in court... i think about something like elder scrolls ilussion school

It's all a matter of the game you're playing. In GURPS being a princess can be pretty awesome honestly, if you're playing D&D it's kinda shit. I'd probably go with "our noble line is marked with the blood of (whatever)" and make her a sorcerer with lots of social/history skills or something then give her a reason not to sit home.

As for the story >>50354539 is interesting but she also seems a bit old for most starting adventurers as well, but that could be a personal thing. I always tend toward younger characters starting out in life, because the whole XP and levels thing is pretty meta and feels better that way.

>>50355492
i would call it an edited GURPS, we are still ironing out some details but it's basically that.

>I always tend toward younger characters starting out in life, because the whole XP and levels thing is pretty meta and feels better that way.

good point, i usually have a problem with character's age. I like playing experienced characters, but it clashes with the idea of being "level 1"

>>50354342

Things to keep in mind:

A princess is trained from birth to protect and preserve her family's holdings and to play politics at the highest level.

If you fuck up you can end up dead, your children can be dead and your kingdom disintegrating.

Princesses were also often used for administrative task. This is because in feudalism there's a lot of administrative work to do, such as managing complicated households, but the work has to be done by people that can be trusted inside the family.

Last:

Family is your greatest foe. There's always someone that would benefit from your death and might be plotting to take you out of the way. As a princess you have to be ready to fight a shadow war with your own sisters and anyone else that might be planning to marry the same man that is picked for you.

>>50355556
GURPS opens up all kinds of stuff.

Status and Wealth and Contacts and other Advantages can be great tools in a game that isn't all murder hobos. You can even buy a "protector" in the form of a chaste, love-lorn junior knight or a loyal family pet (dog, gryphon, dragon, depends on the game) as well as a servant or two (or a "servant" who is a secret assassin-bodyguard-virginity protector). Ally's can do lots of crazy thing.

You could be a social princess or maybe smart but shy and/or ugly so she is scholarly and more into management so knows history and maths and accounting... or maybe delves into the families "forgotten lore" and entreats ancient pacts the family forged with otherworldly beings centuries ago.

Sorry, the possibilities GURPS opens always gets my brain running.

>>50355761

>GURPS was the system for the first campaign I ever participated in
>my character was a big guy with a gun

Does GURPS have an online rules database? I feel like I should look back at the rules for that now that I'm not 14 years old.

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>>50359195
>>50354342
>want to make a really girly prim and proper princess character
>afraid of being teased
>even then there's the superficial feeling of everyone judging me
>they most likely aren't but because I'm so egotistical, I think so
>I wouldn't even be able to play the character well under all this self-created stress
>mfw pussy ass bitch

>>50354342
Read the Wikipedia article of the pic you chose and base it off that, she was an interesting enough character.

>>50360193
You don't think he did that already?

Play her as a princess, go for high charisma and literally just be the party's face. To contribute to fights just use a crossbow with a winch to draw back the string easily

>>50354539
>>50354613
Wouldn't marriage make her more of a duchess/countess/baroness/etc rather than a princess? It seems like her status as a princess would mostly be in the background at this point in her life.

>>50362726

Princess is ALWAYS relevant if you haven't been forced to abdicate your claim because your fucking DAD WON'T DIE.

>>50354342
>Princess is forced into an arranged marriage
>Wants out
>Dresses up as one of her servant and goes on the run before encountering the party
>Joins local town guard (fighter) / has to steal things to get by (rogue) / takes a spellbook from her father's library (wizard) / etc.
>Can't reveal her identity to her party in case they hold her for ransom or sell her to her betrothed

For bonus points:
>Gradually reveals her identity to the party as she comes to trust them and/or is found out
>Her betrothed is the main villain or his associate
>Womanly shenanigans

Overall I like the idea, however playing a princess as a princess means being nothing more than diplomacy skills bitch, so you'd best take some liberties.

>>50359220
i actually do want to play this character, seems interesting and i never played something like that before. I'm always the experienced warrior or heroic wanderer, or a villian
>>50360193
done that, she's fucking interesting
>>50355761
>>50360888
this might be how i end up playing, except that she's not so pretty anymore
>>50362726
nope, she can be both as she hasn't lost her claim yet
>>50365887
i want her to keep her status during the adventure and maybe use it in some way

>btw thank you very much for your answers guys