I am creating a one-shot ttrpg campaign, and I am looking for a simple reason why a princess would flee her castle. The main quest is to search for the princess who was kidnapped, but it turns out she wasn't, and she fled on her own.

BUT, I am struggling to find the reason why she fled.

I have thought about it being love-related, but I decided against it because I am going to play with people who have had hard times in that area lately. I don't want it being about fleing to live a frowned-upon love, or escaping a forced marriage.

I don't want it to be too self-reflective either, because it might get too deep, and that is not the tone I want to get into.

Any ideas?

Edit: waw, thank you all for those great suggestions, I was not expecting that many answers so fast!! I will be looking at each of them, even if I don't answer. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me!

My idea was that two legendary warriors are preparing for an upcoming war.

The first warrior is young and excited to be in his first war, and he holds a super rare sword that is the only one in existence.

The other warrior is also powerful but older, and somehow he also has that sword. No one knows it, but the twist is that they are the same person, just in different timelines, and these are two different wars.

Our warrior has changed sides for some reason because of something that happened between those 20 years.

I am trying to write it, but I keep giving it away. As soon as I try to give even a single hint, it feels like it's spoiled and revealed, and the story becomes uninteresting.

I wanted to show how the same person can feel so different in different time periods of their life and other things.
I would appreciate any help or ideas to pull it through!

I've read a few fantasy novels including the antagonist's view, and I'm curious about the community's thoughts on this. Not just the POV from morally grey characters as Joe Ambercrombie does, but the "big evil bad guy" themselves. How they see the world and the struggles they encounter. I don't mean a character in close proximity to them, like a henchman, but from their eyes.

Is this something that others find enjoyable? Do I risk giving away twists and ruining climactic scenes? Does anyone want to read about a character of which they find no common ground?

In the start of my novel, I started exploring that, but I'm beginning to doubt myself.

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What are some of the biggest mental barriers you have experienced while writing?

I just noticed a couple minutes ago, after finishing my first book and nearing the end of my second. I would set a default of how many words I had per chapter.

I never realized until now, how much of a barrier, a crutch that was. I wasn't letting the story flow naturally because I set up a roadblock in my head.

Now that I have grown, learnt and let the story come naturally. I can write and not even think about how many words there are, which then by the end of the chapter, which then I have blown past my old "expectation"

I guess it is almost like repetition in working out. You give yourself a number of 12, then mentally, it is like a shut off valve.

Writing prompt felt like the closest tag? I'm not used to so many rules, so my apologies if I'm breaking the etiquette around here ^_^;;

I thought this may be a fun collaborative activity for other fantasy writers. My character visits the dreams of people from other worlds and asks them about the world they live in, what their life is like, what problems they face, what kind of stories they have, etc. Or... sometimes they will just have an insightful conversation!

This is mostly for fun. I don't particularly plan to do anything with this story besides showing it to friends, maybe sharing online if I ever get the bravado to do so, but I will credit you for your character if you let me interview them even if I don't do anything with the story.

We could approach it in a few ways. It could be a roleplay, or I could simply pose my questions and you respond in character, anything is fine. The point is to display a wide variety of personalities from a wide variety of worlds with a wide variety of problems and stories.

So leave a comment if you want to do this just-for-fun project with me...!

The character in question is the protagonist who has a martyr complex. He is an orphan but has 2 foster brothers whom he cares about very deeply. I have really thought about it, but need a different perspective on the final battle's ending which are is follows.

A) The Protagonist dies protecting his brothers and his new family. His soul actually gets a place amongst Gods for his sacrifices, and watches his brothers and takes care of them from up there indirectly. His ideologies of a perfect society now passed to his brothers which they do actually achieve.

B) The Gods requite the protagonists sacrifices because the cosmic scales of the protagonist's life hang heavily in debt. So they revive him back into the world to reunite with his brothers. With the suffering and pain the protagonist experienced before, he vows to make the society a better place so that no one alone would have to bear the burden the protagonist did before.

I have tried to decide an ending but ending (A) feels too sad and tragic, and ending (B) just feels off to me like something is missing as I'm it doesn't have much depth to it or maybe it's just me.

Hello! i am going to cut straight to the topic, and it’s that I need serious help and advice on how to organize and plan my series. I know there is much to include (i have jumbled thoughts of around 100 pages on Word document). I have written the first novel but have to rewrite it, and I kind of know how this one would go (I am trying to figure out the transition to get to the end of this book and then the next). I am a plotter (I know this from my other book because even though I wrote it with what came to me in the moment, I had some idea of what I am doing-I guess that’s what you’d call a plotter; besides the point is that this is fantasy, and it needs to be planned out at least to some extent), so I need to know what happens.

When many things happen-and I feel completely blessed to have the ideas-how do you sort them into arcs? How do you make sure everything makes sense? It’s very appreciated!

The way that I write my political intrigue fantasy dramas that take place in a cluster of republics and kingdoms is broken up like Law& Order, with half of the story being about investigation and the other half being about deliberation. But I don't want every courtroom drama to actually be a courtroom. So I've been thinking about how story logic already loves a good ensemble cast and I could use that to play around with a couple different ways to make a drama out of people voting.

Power Couple / Buddy Cop / Odd Couple

Power Trio / Three Amigos

Four Temperaments / Four Philosophies

Five Man Band / Five Philosophies (Sixth Ranger)

Six Friends / Commedia Dell'Arte

Magnificent Seven / The Crew

With each of these ensemble types, there is an inherent "hidden character" in the group itself, where you may care about a few of the members, but you also deeply care about the GROUP existing itself, staying whole, staying balanced. There's even anticipation to be gained watching one person leave and another person who fits that role coming in. Or watching someone grow from having a dependent position to becoming a leader in the group.

So, I wanted to applying this to juries, committees, voting, and decision-making.

Like, Right now I'm writing a story about a high priestess sending her niece with a gaggle of church troops to force a group of gentry landowners to give up 20% of their land by ecclesiastical rights to the church. This group of farmers have got to decide what to do about this, So I want to apply the logic of one of these ensemble types to them in order to ease along how they're going to make this decision.

Or, one of the final stories will be two partners who have spent my entire series working together, basically a Sherlock and Watson dynamic, going after the same position after getting their mentor taken out of her position with a vote of no confidence.

Another will be a jury of background characters deciding the fate of my main antagonist. I have researched the film 12 Angry Men, one of the best examples of this.

Any feedback that you have in mind on how you would see the use of ensemble types being used for political intrigue and decision making drama?

Hello all. Just posting an excerpt from a story I'm working on. It feels a little flat, and I'm hoping for specific feedback on the areas I'm trying to improve. The two things I'm focusing on are description to ground the reader and interiority to bring them closer to my POV character. I like where it's going, but I think it could benefit from your perspective. Be as harsh as you want. I'm not married to this piece and just want to improve it. I think my strengths as a writer are dialogue and conjuring believable people and relationships, but I'd really appreciate any advice/critique on how the dialogue comes across, too.

Thank you in advance and good luck with your own work.

The idea of this first chapter was around a commentary novel where every chapter starts with "They tell..." with a group of people who are only referred to as it, us, them, me, etc.. Please note that instances where the use of the word I is replaced by me or them is replaced they is very intentional as that is how our main character refers to himself or they. If possible I want feedback if you can take your time to read this and especially on a very specific line(Another story...) and whether or not that gets annoying in this first chapter. Also, I've never studied philosophy but very interested in it that's why i included elements of it. Anyways, here it is(NOTE: the syntax of dialogue did not transfer over to reddit so that's why it might look weird):

They tell me to trust them. They tell me so I believe. 
“Your name, sir,” the deadpan of they drones. It sounds like a softened machine gun firing faster than intended. How fast is a machine gun supposed to fire? They stay silent. I say this because I presume they know my thoughts. But then, why ask me my name? They know I don’t know if it were true they could read my mind.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, since we have no identification of your instance we will have to settle for something more practical than ‘unnamed subject’… unless that is what you prefer to be called?” they ask. It seems like a rather peculiar amalgamation of words. Unnamed subject. What is my preference? Well that takes out the idea they know what I think. All these questions would be useless, unless they want to mess with me? But who am I? A different person might tell you that’s a story for a different day. Maybe a different person would never tell you what makes them up. Well sadly, that different person is me. It might sound like a cliche but that makes it all the weirder for a person of my stature(or rather lack thereof) who is anything but cliche to not know who they are. How do I know that I am not a cliche human. Does the hero have no memory of the world “before”. In a certain story it could be possible. But then, who decides who is the hero? The winner? Some people may tell you that and that is certainly true for most stories or maybe even most history. Well, neither of these are true in a way. I have memories of something but also nothing. Would you understand a full explanation, I think not. Am I one to fully speak on the terms of your intellect? That is one of your choosing. Identification is a unique idea I would think. Most people would make up a name at this time as a point of familiarity perhaps. Perhaps I would have done this.
“We don't quite have the time for meaningless pleasantries to deal with a form of identification. For now we will have to settle with no identification. However, to give this information as early as possible, we have your wife and 3 daughters in custody inside another facility,” they say. As I am sure your imagination runs wild with who “they” are. I must tell you, I don't know. Maybe you think that’s another cliche which seems like a large coincidence for the man who isn’t cliche. Not knowing who your capturer is is quite an overused trope. For what I can tell you from my knowledge, they sound like a chorus of voices in unison. Not like a choir but more like the same person, with very slightly different timings giving it the sound of a round like Helena used to sing with her friends.
“I do not have multiple daughters… being,” trying to address an unknown entity. Is it an entity? In a different story you could eventually learn what the thing is. But this isn’t that story. It’s a story about me and about they. About Us, them, and it… most certainly it. But that’s too far ahead for someone with no sense of time in this world. For now we must go back to what me knows.
“Me, we have three people in custody from which we have taken samples matching your samples. Unfortunately your state after the return from the program has left… the rest of this sentence would have aroused precautions in our system. As a simple fact for your simple brain, we have three daughters of yours as well as your wife in custody,” they say.
“May I see Helena,” Me asks. There is no word to explain the way I ask things. At least not one simple enough for your likings. You may ask the question of how I know your knowledge. I must say that I never intended for questions to be asked by people. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Sorry, Me is getting ahead of ourselves. In a few stories someone might drone on about questions they want to answer. This is not that story. Certain individuals would ask me why. For the people who ask me the truth, that is exactly why me can’t answer.
“We are sorry to be unable to help in any manner without clarification into the matter of Helena,” they enunciate. Enunciate would be a word some authors would avoid. But focusing on the truth of what I know that would be accurate to the situation. Another thing some authors would avoid is the idea of subtlety. Some stories would do the same. But this story would be different from those stories. Because, they know what I know.
“My daughter, Helena. May I see her?” Me clarifies.
“We know, however, according to our records, you do not have anyone… There is no person with the name Helena. You do however have three daughters who are currently in custody with your wife,” they say, “Those three daughters have given up their names for your safety.” The irony of such a statement could be debated in another story. Perhaps another story would tell you that what they say is wrong or perhaps even right, but this is not that story.
“I only have one daughter,” I say with what another story would say ironclad will.
“We are sorry for your confusion however we must continue onward and will therefore leave you alone at this point.”
“Prove to me that I’m hallucinating!” I scream. Screaming is something that other stories would leave at that; an enunciated statement that's loud that they may even leave the idea reverberation out of it. But perhaps as you might have caught on, this is not that story. Maybe a few stories would go into how that scream sounds, maybe show it instead of telling as some may see. This story would not be that story. Every story is different yet we group them to try to prove points. But that is beyond what happens.
They don’t respond. Some stories would tell you what happens next: a man continues screaming at something with no answer trying to find answers. You don’t need the rest of that sentence.
“Show my supposed daughters!” “Or show me proof that Helena isn’t real!” His words reverberated around the room.
“Is that what I would think it is! Silence? Show me the truth you try to hide!”
Silence.
“What is that; there is no truth? Or does you silence say something else?”
Silence.
“Answer me!”
“Answer me.”
“Answer me,” I whisper.
Answer me, I think. A different story would tell you how the valiant fall of the hero or heroine would cause the truth to come from a story, yet, you know the rest of what happens — at least in part.
I fall on the floor as the silence fills my mind. You go black.

So I’m about halfway through drafting a space opera and I’ve hit a wall with the ending that I can’t figure out on my own.

Quick setup: there are two timelines running through the book. The present day one is a galaxy wide war, and the MC is a pretty central figure in it, plus he’s got this reality-warping power he doesn’t fully understand himself. The other timeline is basically his backstory, showing his family and how he became the person he is now, kind of in contrast with who he is in the present.

At the climax he finally gets his hands on an alien artifact that can basically send someone’s mind to some higher dimension, and his whole plan was to use it to undo a big loss that happens in the present day. Except instead of that, it throws his consciousness back into the climax of his OWN backstory, and from there he actually manages to stop the loss from happening at all.

Here’s my problem. If he pulls this off, it kind of reads like the entire present day timeline just… didn’t happen? Like every character, every relationship, all of it, just gone. And I’m worried that’s gonna feel like a slap in the face to anyone who read the whole book invested in that stuff, not like a cool twist.
I don’t wanna throw out the two timeline structure, I actually really like it, and I like the idea of this guy being shaped by loss and then suddenly having the power to undo it. I just can’t figure out how to end it without basically telling my readers none of what they cared about mattered.

I’ve messed around with a few ideas already, like he’s the only one who remembers the old timeline, or maybe it branches off instead of overriding it. None of them have really clicked for me yet though.

Hi, so this is a redraft of Chapter 1. I hope you enjoy reading this!

This story focuses on my 2 MCs (15F and 14M) who are both maturing throughout this entire story and who both want to bring justice and peace to their own homelands.

The things that I'm curious about, in terms of feedback, are:

- This is the narration of my 15F MC, does it appear too formal and mature for someone of her age, even if she has survived through events that have forced her to grow up quicker?

- What are your impressions of her motivations and voice (I am trying to write her so that ambition is a particular flaw and I am unsure whether it is clear even from this chapter)

- Are there any points where I info-dump?

- Are there any other ways in which I should alter my prose?

I'm working on a fantasy story and I have the beginning figured out, but I'm struggling with where the plot should go from there. I'd love to hear basically any ideas you have, even small ones.

The story starts with a boy living in a village in the desert. He goes climbing in the nearby mountains and discovers a hidden cave. Inside, he finds a very old girl who is capable of magic. She has been asleep for an extremely long time and has no memories whatsoever.

The important part is that the girl herself is an ancient weapon of mass destruction and she has been put to sleep in this cave.

I've already written a journey where the boy travels with her while she's still asleep. They're eventually heading toward a kingdom that exists inside a giant water dome. I have tried to use the volcanoes in the kingdom and somehow use their heat/energy to awaken her.

However, I don't really like the volcano idea anymore. It feels too arbitrary, and I'd like a more interesting reason for them to go there and a more interesting way for her to awaken.

I'm also having trouble figuring out the larger progression of the story. I don't really have a final heroic ending yet, and I don't want it to just become a generic "ancient superweapon wakes up and destroys everything" story.

Also, there's a war between two large empires, an empire of earth and an empire of the sky.

So I'm looking for any ideas you might have:

- What could cause her to awaken?

- Why was she put to sleep in the first place?

- What ideas do you have to do with her memories?

- What could the underwater kingdom have to do with her?

- Possible plot twists or revelations

- Factions that might want to find/use/kill her

- Things that could happen during their journey

- How her powers could work

- What the original purpose of creating her was

- And especially: what could eventually lead to a satisfying heroic ending?

I'm not necessarily looking for one complete plot. I'm happy to take small ideas and combine them into something myself.