Gen Con ’23: Ryan Lynch’s Happy-Making ‘Perils And Princesses’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
The lead-up to and time during Gen Con ’23 makes me happy. There are definitely a collection of the bottom-dwelling “Um, Actually” trolls and bad actors who come out of the woodwork to stir pots. I find myself writing that bit about the trolls just to placate anyone who reads this and has a thought that runs along those lines of “Um, actually, there is a lot of negative nonsense that happens around the convention season.” I KNOW!!!
I’m a disabled man from an abusive religious home, whose friend group is full of people with marginalized voices. I understand being stoked about things, only for some edge lord to pop up and give some crappy gatekeeper take on something that creators who work ten times as hard for ten times as long to be seen have made.
That’s why when I see something I feel has the potential to do some real good in the representational sense in our space comes out I feel the need to talk about it.
Behold! I give you Perils & Princesses…
Princesses are a specific kind of fantasy character. Regardless of gender, they are fairy tale adventurers that rely on emotional resolve and cleverness more than physical strength. Your character can be any gender you choose.
That quote is the thing that sold me on this game and its designer. The beautiful art and from what I can tell from the Kickstarter pictures, and stellar layout, locked me in as a lifelong fan.
Created by Ryan Lynch, this TTRPG is made to be played with your basic D&D rules but in a way that is a little more accessible to younger players. That is not to say I would give a five-year-old some dice and a character sheet… okay maybe I would, I am not a parent yet and have no idea what is or is not safe for a kiddo to have. Do they eat weird stuff at that age?
Editor’s note: They do.
Dice consumption aside, Perils & Princesses looks to be a fun gritty magical adventure that could make for an enjoyable evening for the whole family. I love that this book seems to be set to really set a tone that can be played by adult friends, kid friends, families, and their kids, or some healthy non-weird combination of the aforementioned groupings.
The story is firmly fixed in the mindset of heroic princesses. That energy that Merida from Brave had when she stood up to her bear-mom or when Kida, in Atlantis the Lost Empire, evokes the powers of the ancients and becomes a demi-god super weapon, that’s the stuff that feels like it is infused into each page of this book.
That’s what I am here for with this whole thing. It’s storytelling with princesses at its core but it seems to shrug off the negative tropes of typical “princess” vibes and lean more into that empowering basket-wielding, fairy godmother-blessed, woodland animal-unleashing princess that we know can save themselves, the prince, the kingdom, and if allowed to inspire the future generations the whole damn world.
There is a lot of bad in the world right now. There can be a lot of bad in our space. I could spend hours telling you about it and sometimes I need to so that light is shined on it and we can see where the calls are coming from when they are inside the house.
For now though, as I’m blissfully happy with the texts, pics, and group chats I am getting from my friends and creative partners at Gen Con… It delights me to share with you something that I think will be a beautiful addition to our landscape.
I will have more to come on Perils & Princesses very soon for now click the link, head over to the Kickstart, and grab yourself a copy or three before it ends.
Until next time, take care of each other!
