Gameplay (PW)

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Starfox's Princess World

Princess world is about young girls with magical powers taking on supernatural threats while also running their kingdom and socializing with other princesses.

Fiction First

A central aspect of the game is that the story comes first. Imagine what happens in the story, imagine who is there and what the place looks like, and only then think about what to do. Once you have decided what to do, pick the Action you want to roll, which can lead to a short discussion. Often you will say what you want to do, and the GM will give you a range of Actions that can do that.

Play It Out

Dealing with a threat, obstacle, situation or anything else that might require a roll of the dice also requires an approach. How is your princess acting? What kind of attitude do they have? What aspect of themselves is most expressed, in this situation?

For example, a princess is dealing with a runaway pig, as you do. She could yell at it to stop using Stylish, she could run after it using Swift, she could utilize her surroundings to improvise a trap using Supple, she could sing a special pig-calling song using Tender or try to tame the pig using Pulse.

Indirect Actions

Sometimes you will be asked how you react to a situation that has not yet happened. The GM may say that there is a strange rustling in the brush, or they may say that You are about to be rushed by a pig you have not yet seen! In such a situation your options you rely on the perceptive aspects of you Actions. Flowing allows you to spot the pig, Pulse feels the shaking of the earth, Tender may let you intuit what is happening. Your Effect probably starts at limited, perhaps only letting you get ready. The main point here is to avoid a bad Consequence. Engagement Rolls are create this type of event, where the main goal is to survive.

Action Rolls

When a princess attempts to do something that's dangerous or troublesome, they make an Action roll to find out how it goes. Action rolls and their effects and consequences drive most of the game. Generally, the flow of order for an action is as follows:

• The player states their goal for the action.
• The player chooses the Action they wish to use.
• The GM sets the position for the roll.
• The GM sets the effect level for the action.
• The player may expend resources
  • Change Position
  • Change Effect
  • Change the number of dice rolled
• The player rolls the dice and we judge the result.

Player States Goal

Not just "I attack the monsters", but "I'm trying to get the monsters to run away, show that I'm a serious threat and make them scared of me." Not just "I talk to the faction rep", but "I want the faction rep to favor my kingdom over my rival's." The princess's ideal desired outcome should be clearly stated in this step.

Player Chooses Action

There's a lot of overlap here, but generally the GM and the player should agree on the appropriate Action to use. For example, rolling using Flash when you're trying to pick a lock isn't the most appropriate Action, but it could be if you're just trying to kick the door open. The GM might change Position or Effect depending on the Action used, and how convincingly the player explains how they're using it.

GM Sets Position

The position is how dangerous or troublesome the action is for the player. The three positions are:

• Controlled: There's a clear opportunity, you have an opening, there's little in your way.
• Risky: You're taking a chance, you're acting on equal footing, you're going head to head.
• Desperate: You're in serious trouble, you're at a disadvantage, you're out of your depth.

By default, action rolls are risky. The player wants to accomplish something but there's an obstacle. If it's a particularly dangerous situation, make it desperate. If it's less dangerous, controlled. If it is safe, don't roll, or make a Fumble Roll instead.

The Position of an action represents the severity of consequences for failure (or a partial success). Ask the question, what happens if this goes wrong? Given the circumstances, how bad can it get?

When you are in a contest with some other actor, such as a monster or other princess, Position is their equivalent of Effect. A desperate Position means they have great Effect. A controlled Position is equivalent to a Limited effect.

GM Sets Effect

Just how much will this action accomplish, if successful? Sometimes this will just be a binary pass or fail choice, other times there may be degrees of success. The five basic effect levels are:

• Great: You don't just get what you wanted, but something extra too!
• Standard: You do what you were trying to do.
• Limited: You achieve a partial or weakened effect. What didn't you get? What remains to be done?
• None: Your action has no appreciable effect.
• Negative: Your action has effect, and for it to have any effect you must first increase the Effect to None before you increase it further. In truly bad situations, you may have to do this several times. Maybe doing something else is a better idea? Consequences in Princess Wold are light, so even a hopeless idea can still be worth it to express your Princess' personality. The worst that can happen is usually that you are out for a little while.

The initial Effect level will generally be Standard. However, if the princess is particularly strong and the obstacle particularly weak then the GM might decide that the initial Effect is Great. On the other hand if the princess isn't prepared, doesn't have the right tools, is using an unsuitable Action, then an initial Limited effect might be all she can hope for.

Example: A princess is attempting to stop a group of her subjects from panicking, after all the brooms in the kingdom come to life. The GM judges the effect to be standard; she's a princess of the kingdom, known and respected, and they're just brooms, but she's speaking to a big crowd and trying to calm them quickly.

Example: A princess is in a controlled lands kingdom, pressed into babysitting a bunch of academy princesses, when a half-dozen slimes attack the group. The frontier princess steps in front of the academy princesses with her weapon in hand, determined to wipe out the slimes and protect her charges. The GM judges the Effect to be great; she's a frontier princess who deals with much worse than this on a daily basis, and a bunch of slimes aren't going to present any significant threat. On any level of success the frontier princess isn't just going to defeat these slimes, but she's going to look good doing it, too.

Example: A princess is taking on an enormous fire elemental, all by herself. The elemental's Tier is one higher than her kingdom's, and she has nothing in particular that improves the situation. The GM judges her effect to be Limited; even if she rolls a success, it's not going to do much in this situation.

Beyond the immediate situation, some other thing will also change the initial Effect.

Action

Sometimes the GM will allow the use of an Action unusual for the task, but this might have a worse Effect.

Tier

Tier represents resources and support, the magic of her kingdom, the Wild of the local wild lands, and the general level of power in the campaign.

When a princess is dealing with something of the same Tier, her effect will be based on the situation as described above. When dealing with a higher Tier the princess's effect will be reduced by the difference between the Tiers. If the princess's Tier is higher, Effect improves.

Example: A princess is from a Tier 2 kingdom and dealing with Tier 1 monsters then she'll be at great Effect from the start, barring other factors.

Example: Princess Stella is attempting to bypass a magical barrier. Her kingdom is Tier 2. The barrier is Tier 3. Stella is outclassed, so her effect will be reduced.

Example: A player princess from a Tier 1 kingdom is trying to improve relations with a princess representing a Tier 4 kingdom and the base Effect is standard. The player princess will begin negative Effect — one level lower than no Effect. She'll have to figure out how to improve her effect by at least two levels just to get to limited.

Scale

Scale represents the number of opponents, size of an area covered, scope of influence, and so on. Larger scale can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on the situation. In battle, more people are better. When infiltrating, more people are a hindrance.

How many are needed to provide Scale depends on the Tier of the kingdom.

Relations

Relations mostly affect social actions. Increase or decrease effect by the level of relations. For example, when asking a favor from a neighboring kingdom with +1 relations, the princess would increase her level of effect by one. When Reaching Out to a faction with which the princess's kingdom has -2 relations, reduce effect by two levels.

Changing Position and Effect

This initial Effect which can be improved via critical successes or by special abilities, by trading Position for Effect, or by Pushing.

• A Critical roll increases Effect. This is unusual in that it is decided after the roll is made
• A player may Push. The princess must either spend 2 points of Stress or accept a Devil's Bargain.
• A player may Trade Position For Effect. This represents the princess taking riskier actions, cutting corners, generally sacrificing her own safety in order to get into a more effective position. In mechanical terms the princess worsens her position by one level (controlled → risky, risky → desperate) and increases her effect. Sometimes you will want to do the opposite, and improve Position by reducing Effect.

You can only do this once for each roll, and you cannot move your Position beyond desperate.

Devil's Bargain

On any roll the GM or another player may offer a Devil's Bargain. This allows the princess to Push without expending any Stress, but you have to accept a consequence that cannot be Resisted. A Devil's Bargain must always fit the situation, and sometimes there just is no good choice available. Its OK to ask the other players' for ideas.

The consequence can be anything, but is usually on the scale of a Risky Position.

Bonus Dice

You start with a number of dice equal to the rating in the Action you are using. You can then do various things to improve the number of dice. You can only do each of these once.

+1d Your Specialty applies

+1d You may reduce Effect, taking a shortcut or easy option

+1d Another princess can Assist you (see Teamwork)

+1d A non-player character with abilities that fit the task assist you

+1d The GM may say that the situation is unusually easy and requires little skill

Player Rolls; Everyone Judges

If you have 1d or more to roll, you roll all the dice and read only the highest die. If you roll 2 or more sixes,

If you end up with zero dice, you roll 2d and pick the lowest. If you somehow end up with negative dice, add the negative number to the 2d for having zero dice, roll all, and read only the lowest.

The results of the dice roll are important, but interpreting them is vital.

• 1 — Fumble Something went wrong. Not only did you not succeed and suffer the Consequence waiting for you, something additional negative Consequence comes up, usually on the Risky level.
• 2-3 — Failure then the action didn't go as planned, and you suffer the Consequence negotiated earlier. You may still have some progress or "fail forward", something happens to move the action forward.
• 4/5 — Partial Success You succeed, but not without opposition. You achieve most of what you wanted to to, but also suffer the negotiated consequence.
• 6 — Full Success You succeed, and also manage to avoid any consequence.
• 66 — Critical success If you manage to roll two or more sixes, this is a full success, and you also gain an additional bonus, usually increased Effect but sometimes some other benefit.

Keep Moving Forward

Sixes are great, obviously. We all love a six. Most of the time, though, you're going to be dealing with partial successes if the roll isn't a complete wash. It's important to remember that a partial success is still a success, it just means there's some kind of cost or unwanted consequence. The action still happens and the princess makes progress towards achieving her goal. She might get thrown around and beaten and discouraged, she might attract the attention of every elemental in the area, she might put ticks on three different clocks, but she's moving forward.

GM, balance the consequences you dish out with forward momentum. Tick those clocks, deal that harm, increase that Chaos, but make sure you're also letting the princesses make big steps towards what they want. If you're having trouble thinking of consequences, there's a table in Appendix B (pg 108) that could provide some inspiration.

Princess, remember the tools you have available to control the narrative. You can always resist consequences at the cost of Stress. This is very powerful! No matter what pain the GM dishes out, you have the option to just say "Nope!" Of course you then have to deal with mounting Stress and potential scars, but that's all part of being a princess. Strong heart, easily scarred. You can also Protect That Smile on the behalf of others, taking consequences for them. When you're fighting monsters, the fighty princess can step in and take the hits. When you're at a party, the talky princess can be a social tank. Cover for each other and work as a team.

Example Effects and Consequences

Effect and consequence are two sides of the same coin. When you are in a contest with some other actor, such as a monster or other princess, Position is their equivalent of Effect. A desperate Position means they have great Effect. A controlled Position is equivalent to a Limited effect. Even when there is no actor, the situation itself inflicts consequences in a similar manner.

Limited Effect or Controlled Position

Level 1 Harm or a minor delay or setback.

• It took more time than you thought
• You end up in a precarious but safe position, trapped for a moment
• You attracted attention
• A momentary stun
• Someone earns your notice or makes you see their side of an argument.

Standard Effect or Risky Position

Level 2 Harm or major delay or setback.

• Get sidetracked for the rest of the scene
• You end up in a precarious position; hanging by your hands, down at a lower level, in water
• Caught in the act
• Knocked unconscious
• You are impressed or are convinced of a minor point.

Great Effect or Deadly Consequence

Level 3 harm or a dramatic delay or setback to take you out of the Adventure.

• Get lost, abducted, or otherwise out of the Adventure
• You end up in a lethal situation; on a high tightrope, barreling towards doom
• Leave incontestable evidence.
• Get mind controlled or confused to the point that you act for the other side
• You are awed or accept anther's' argument

Harm

Harm is a sub type of Consequences that represent injury, shock, and loss of control.

Princesses are pretty tough, and also quite good at avoiding getting seriously hurt and bounce back very quickly. Sometimes, though, you just can't help but break a leg or two. Harm is usually a consequence of failed action rolls, and comes in a delightful variety of shapes and severities.

Harm comes in three levels as a series of three boxes. When you take Harm of a certain level, fill in the box with a description of the Harm. The description matters, as the penalties only apply when it makes sense for the described Harm. If you take Harm of a certain level again, fill in the next higher level. There is no level of Harm beyond level 3, simply ignore further Harm once the level 3 box is filled. Princesses never die or suffer permanent effects from mere Harm, that is reserved for Stress and Heart Scars.

Princesses are very spunky and Harm cannot keep them down for long. At the end of each scene, downgrade all harm by one level; Level 3 → Level 2 → Level 1 → Nothing. At the end of an Adventure any remaining Harm is removed. Princesses may sport a band aid or bump, but are otherwise OK very quickly.

With Harm so temporary, it can be used to represent most types of consequences. In Princess World, loss in an intellectual debate or severe snubbing at a tea party can be as severe as that of a hostile spell or physical trashing.

1. Light Harm: Limb injuries or a loss of temper giving -1d on relevant Actions.
2. Heavy Harm: Body wounds, rage, loss of self-control. Lose Effect on relevant Actions.
3. Incapacitated: Unconscious or delirious, unable to act at all unless you Push.

Progress Clocks

A progress clock is a circle divided into segments. Make a progress clock when you need to track ongoing effort, the approach of impending trouble, the passage of time, progress towards finishing a project, and so on. Generally, actions will fill progress clocks at the following rate:

• Fumble (1): Lose all ticks
• Failure (2-3): One tick
• Partial Success (4-5): Two ticks
• Full Success (6): Three ticks
• Critical Success (66): Five ticks

Levels of Effect reduces the ticks by 1 (limited Effect) or increases the ticks by 1 (great Effect). When done during an Adventure, such rolls as Consequences as normal. In downtime there is never any consequences except from a fumble; that resets progress.

Other Clocks

Clocks can also be used to track other game effects. An alarm clock that ticks as a consequence can determine when an alarm finally goes off, a sinking clock can determine how decks on a ship are flooded before the ship sinks.

Example, each faction or kingdom with which the player princesses have contact will have a six segment relations clock. This clock earns ticks via social actions, doing favors for that group, and so on. When the clock is filled it resets to zero and relations with that group are improved by +1.

Other Types Of Dice Rolls

Action Rolls are the most common and important rolls in Princess World, but there are several other types of rolls you may have to do that have less impact, but are still important. All the normal modifiers apply, but it is not usually worth expending resources or Stress on such rolls.

Fumble Rolls

Sometimes a situation is relatively easy to succeed at, but there is a chance you might fumble. Climbing and balancing are typical situations, but also avoiding a faux-pas in a social setting or not looking the other way to miss an obvious event.

This is a normal roll, but the only result that matters is a fumble; anything else is considered a full success.

Gather Information

Sometimes the situation is safe, but the benefit is uncertain. This is the opposite of a Fumble Roll. As the name says this is mostly about spotting, investigation, and ¤

Downtime Rolls

Between dealing with those pesky Adventures princesses can perform downtime activities in relative comfort. You make downtime rolls to see how much they get done. Downtime rolls have no Position and thus you cannot trade Position for Effect.

Fortune Rolls

Fortune rolls are made when something is purely down to luck. The GM can make a fortune roll to disclaim decision making and leave something up to chance. How capable is this subject? How badly does that wild magic burst affect the crops? How many of those falling rocks hit that goat? How does this kingdom feel about ducks? Is this visiting princess helpful and competent or selfish and interfering?

Generally a fortune roll will be a single d6, with a 1 representing the worst possible luck and a 6 representing the best possible luck.

Resistance Rolls

A player can make a resistance roll when their character suffers a consequence they don't like. The roll tells us how much Stress their character suffers to reduce the severity of a consequence. When you resist that level 3 harm 'Broken Leg', you take some Stress and now it's only a level 1 'Sprained Ankle'. If you resist dropping something fragile, instead you mark Stress and manage to catch it at the last second.

You may only resist a given consequence once.

Resistance is always automatically effective. The GM will tell you if the consequence is reduced in severity or if you avoid it entirely. Then, you'll make a resistance roll to see how much Stress your character marks as a result of their resistance. In general, resisting reduces the Consequence by two levels, removing a controlled or standard consequence and a deadly consequence is reduced to a controlled one, but the GM may decide to only reduce consequences by one level in a dramatic situation.

You make the roll using one of your character's attributes (Insight, Prowess, Resolve). The GM chooses the attribute, based on the nature of consequences. In general this means you roll the Attribute that governs the Action roll that resulted in the Consequence, but there are exceptions.

• Insight: Mental harm and effort; magical damage, fatigue from study, messing up an invention
• Prowess: Physical harm and effort; being thrown around, taking damage, falling, exhaustion, dropping something
• Resolve: Social harm and effort; making a faux pas, being caught in a lie, cutting words from a rival princess, a drop in relations, wild magic & weird harm

Your character marks 6 Stress when they resist, minus the highest die result from the resistance roll. So, if you rolled a 4, you'd mark 2 Stress. If you rolled a 6, you'd mark zero Stress. If you get a critical result on your resistance roll you clear 1 Stress.

Example: During a scuffle with an elemental, Stella rolls badly and gets slammed against a tree. It's a desperate situation and a strong elemental so the GM decides Stella will take the level three harm, 'Crushed'. Stella isn't in the mood to be hurt, so she chooses to resist. The GM decides this is a Fitness roll. The princess, with her Fitness of 2, rolls two dice and gets a 2 and a 1. She marks 4 Stress, and the GM reduces the harm to level 1, 'Bruised Ribs'.

Teamwork

Princesses can work together in various ways, most can be covered by the teamwork rules.

Assist

This is the most common and easy way to help someone else with an Action roll. Its a good way to contribute even when you don’t have a rating in the action at hand. As long as it makes sense you can Assist, it takes no special ability or Action.

Describe how you are of assistance, make 1 Stress, and the princess you are assisting gains +1d on their roll.

You cannot Assist an action ¤

Examples: Opening the door as someone charges trough, supporting them physically as they climb, holding their hand in a social or mental challenge, encouraging words or even glances to fill them with confidence.

Group Actions

A group action is several people working together.

When you lead a group action, you coordinate multiple members of the team to tackle a problem together. Describe how your character leads the team in a coordinated effort. Do you shout orders, conjure helpful glowing symbols in the air, lead by example, or provide royally charming inspiration?

One princess nominates themselves as leader and describes the task at hand. Everyone then decides on an Action to roll with the GM's approval. This is often the same Action for everyone, but not necessarily so.

Each PC involved makes an Action roll and the team counts the single best result as the overall effort for everyone who rolled. However, the character leading the group action takes one Stress for each PC that rolled a failure (2-3) as their best result. A fumble (1) indicates a serious error that causes the fumbler to suffer a consequence in the normal manner.

A group action almost guarantees success, at a stress cost for the leader. In some cases, this makes little sense; a group sneaking together should not be significantly easier than doing it alone. In such cases reduce the Effect. For Stealth, Effects indicates the speed and how far you can get on a single roll, a group is slower and needs to roll more often.

Set Up Actions

A Set Up action is a more active way of helping another than a mere Assist. This can represent a distraction, musical accompaniment, providing leverage, or directly coordinated effort such as forcing a door open together. In some cases you can Set Up for yourself, either by taking time right before the action or in a flashback; drawing that special rune or planning that special disguise ahead of time.

A Set Up is a normal Action roll, but lacks Effect, there is only Position to consider. When a Set Up action succeeds, you increase the Effect of another's action.

Only one princess can Set Up a particular action, NPCs generally cannot do Set Up actions.

Protect

If you're in a position to do so, you may step in to face a consequence that someone else would otherwise face. Describe how you intervene, then suffer the consequence in their place. You may roll to resist it as normal.

Stress

Princesses have a Stress counter with ten steps. Stress represents the heaviness of the princess's heart and the burden she is bearing; the more she pushes herself and the more Stress she suffers, the heavier the responsibility she feels and the harder everything seems. If Stress reaches ten then it is reset to zero and the princess takes a Heart Scar.

Uses of Stress

Stress is a resource under the player's control, used to modify action rolls and escape consequences.

• Push to improve the Effect of an action.
• Assist to help another's action by giving them +1d.
• Resist a Consequence to avoid a detrimental result.
• Some special abilities cost Stress to use.

Heart Scars

If Stress reaches ten then the princess has pushed herself too far and her heart will be scarred as a consequence. Reset Stress to zero then pick an appropriate scar from the list. The emergence of a scar is a dramatic event and can completely change the course of a scene. The GM has the final say over how a new scar affects events, and over what actions the princess may take for the remainder of the affair. Some suggestions for how heart scarring might play out:

• The princess is immediately whisked out of danger and back to the castle, to recover and reflect. Her companions may or may not go with her.
• The princess is filled with dramatic power, and immediately utilities this power in a manner appropriate to her new scar. This could attract the wrong sort of attention, increasing the kingdom's Chaos.
• The princess is incapacitated by the impact of this new scar, and is considered incapacitated. However, if the GM deems it appropriate she may come back into the scene at a dramatic moment.
• All focus is upon the princess. Her player takes control of the scene and it plays out with the newly scarred princess in the spotlight. After the scene has built to an appropriately dramatic climax, the princess collapses or is otherwise incapacitated; cutting to a new scene or the aftermath of the affair might be appropriate.
• The newly scarred princess is able to hide the change that's come over her well enough that nobody can really say for sure what just happened. The true effects of the scar will be felt, and perhaps noticed, later.

Ideas for Heart Scars

1. Regretful: You've made mistakes. You have to be better.
2. Guilty: Why did you DO that? Why do you always mess up?
3. Cold: Feelings are a distraction.
4. Hot: Feelings MATTER!
5. Overwhelmed: Everything is so complicated. Things just keep piling up. You just want things to be simple.
6. Savage: No more polite lies. You'll let them all know exactly what you think of them.
7. Impatient: You have no time for those who stand between you and what must be done. Step aside or be trampled.
8. Overprotective: As long as they're okay, you're okay. Just don't let them get hurt. Just don't let them down.
9. Contentious: WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?
10. Vindictive: They have wronged you, your friends, your kingdom. They must be punished. No matter the cost.
11. Manic: Let's have a party! Let's go fight those elementals! Let's do whatever, just don't stop! Don't stop!
12. Withdrawn: You're okay. You can do this. By yourself. Definitely by yourself.
13. Proud: You did nothing wrong. It's everyone else who's mistaken.
14. Competitive: Anything's better than losing.
15. Trusting: They know best. You just have to keep faith. No matter what happens. Just keep that faith.
16. Merciless: Whatever lenience you once had is gone. You will cut those who oppose you without hesitation.
17. Reckless: You've survived worse. You'll survive this, too. Or not. Either way.
18. Idealistic: You're right! You KNOW you're right! If only you could make them understand!
19. Blinkered: This is fine.
20. Relentless: So what if you're heading for ruin. Just as long as it gets done.
21. Paranoid: Everyone's hiding something. Nobody's free of secrets. The only sane position is one of suspicion.
22. Shy: Everyone keeps looking at you, and you don't know how to deal with that.
23. Stubborn: No.
24. Anxious: What if you're just making things worse? What if every decision you make is wrong? How can you be sure? How can you do this?
25. Obsessed: Was it that? It was. Just that one thing. That one little thing.
26. Disillusioned: It's not how you thought it'd be. It's not how they said it'd be. Is there even any point to this?
27. Arrogant: This wouldn't have happened if they'd just listened to you. You're better than them. You're better than everyone.
28. Selfish: Why does everyone expect you to sort everything out? Someone else can deal with it. You have your own priorities.
29. Apathetic: Whatever.

Heart Scars In Play

Taking a heart scar is a dramatic, permanent change to a character, but it doesn't have to define them going forward. Nobody is just one thing, and every princess is going to react to a scar differently. Some will accept it, even embrace it, using it to drive themselves forward. Some will be afraid of this new facet of themselves. Some will fight against it, striving to be better than the heavy little darkness deep in their chest. Some will try to ignore it, throwing themselves into affairs as a distraction. Some will deny its existence, doing anything to keep from acknowledging their new scar. Some will see it as a mark of honor, a reminder of what they've sacrificed. Some will see it as a mark of shame, a reminder of their failure. Some will be able to laugh it off; it happened, it's not that interesting, let's just move on. Some will find that they're not able to treat it so lightly.

In this Princess World heart scarring is a known phenomenon. Everyone sort of knows that it's a risk for princesses, especially frontier princesses. Accumulating too many isn't the end of a princess, it's mostly just a sign that she's done enough. There's a level of respect for a princess with heart scars, sometimes even awe. It means you've been out there. It means you've fought and pushed yourself, maybe a little too far. It's rare that anyone would blame a princess for taking a heart scar. Even a princess's rivals usually won't use her scars against her. After all, they could be next. Still, it's not really considered a polite conversational topic. In most situations it would be tremendously rude to ask a princess if she has any scars, akin to asking a soldier if they've ever killed anyone. Heart scars are spoken of in hushed tones, when they are discussed at all, with a degree of reverence and delicacy. The Action for supporting someone with a heart scar is Tender.

For players, don't be too scared of heart scars. Getting one isn't the end of the world. From a game play point of view there's no mechanical penalty for taking a scar, your Stress gets completely cleared, and if you use the scar for roleplaying. Of course if you get too many you're forced to retire, but that's not the same as dying. Either your princess becomes an NPC in the kingdom or she leaves the frontier and takes a position elsewhere, supporting the place she fought so hard for from afar. It's not the end of her story.

For the GM, don't be scared to pile on the Stress, but if a princess is close to gaining a heart scar it can be a good idea to bring it up whenever she takes action or does anything that could push her over the edge. If a princess is about to resist a consequence, for example, make sure to tell her that if she rolls under a certain number then she's going to take enough Stress to gain a heart scar. Don't blindside princesses, is what I'm saying. In a certain sense, gaining a scar should feel almost like a choice. The princess chose to push herself, to resist, to take those risky or desperate actions, to escalate. It all added up and led to this one moment. In a particularly tense or dramatic situation, when a princess already has eight or nine Stress, you could even offer a heart scar as part of a Devil's Bargain. She doesn't have to roll that desperate action. She'll have full narrative control of how this thing plays out. All of her Stress will be cleared. The only price is a scarred heart.

Retirement

Scars are permanent. When a princess gains her fourth scar she must take a step back from active involvement in kingdom affairs. Let the younger, brighter princesses deal with them. She's not dead or broken or useless, she just... can't do this any more. Not like she used to. The princess can still be a part of the kingdom, but she is now an NPC. The player must make a new character to continue.

The retiring princess may remain in the kingdom as a cohort under the GM's control. She will be extremely reluctant to participate in any activities related to the event that caused her retirement. For example, if she took her fourth scar while fighting elementals in the wild lands, she won't do anything that might result in a fight or contact with elementals. If she took her fourth scar while at a party then she will shy away from social or diplomatic engagements.

Alternatively, the princess can leave the kingdom for the controlled lands. This reflects well on the kingdom — clearly this princess has worked hard and sacrificed a lot to advance her kingdom, and so the kingdom must be worthy. Immediately add six to the kingdom's Standing. Also, the princess will probably take an important position in one of the factions or otherwise act as a positive (if remote) influence. Add her as a contact for the kingdom.

When a princess retires due to heart scarring her kingdom gains +1 relations with the faction Scarred Hearts.