Hi Everyone!
The thread on fun circus/festival idea’s had some awesome advice/idea's. I plan on stealing some for an eventual festival. It had me thinking about some fun characters/side encounters I can add to a big masquerade ball that my players will be attending.
I am a brand new DM/player in general, so as always, ignore my ignorance. Quick background. My two players find themselves in a bourgeoisie French inspired country. They are attending a monthly masquerade party held by a rich and powerful senator. They are attempting to find evidence of his connection to a new drug that is spreading across the city.
First: I was wondering if anyone had some fun/interesting things that can be done in the masquerade ball.
I have some neat ideas for some characters, a few are plot based. However, I would love to hear any other fun characters that might be attending such an event.
Some quick non-major plot related ideas not fleshed out:
A Marie Delphine LaLaurie type of character who is just as evil and insidious.
A noble girl/boy from an important family that is looking to be courted.
Strange individual with a very creepy masquerade mask with unclear motives.
Charismatic young lord with perhaps a vamperic nature.
What else do you guys have that might be fun?
Also, what types of events might they be able to participate in the ball? I assume some politicking and gossip will happen. Maybe some type of dance would take place? What else?
Lastly and perhaps even more importantly, I want to make the exploration part of when they sneak out of the party to find the information they are looking for a fun activity. I have no experience with setting something like this up. Beside some basic ideas of…you run into a servant or a guard is standing at a door, or a trap on an important door, what else might add some intrigue and raise the stakes?
Thanks again!
I just ran something similar in my last session, although it was a mask-less ball.
I laid out a set of cards that represented the different people in attendance and grouped them by family/organization. Elven delegates go over here, the Ankleshank family gathers over here.
Since you're running a masquerade you could use regular playing cards instead, Jacks for young men, Kings for the older, and Queens for women. Then the PCs can get into the whole, "I think the King of spades is the senator, since his favourite colour is black." etc.
In my game the lay of the cards became a very loose map of the room and my PCs could choose how they moved around.
The great part about this is that you can move the cards around after a while to show that the attendents are mingling.
Duels are great events to spice things up, and as the night goes on and party-goers get a bit drunk someone's bound to get offended eventually.
The other thing is to include lots of gossip. The other masked people are trying to posture and figure out things too. Give them their own agendas, which can be as simple as 'Charm the Queen of Hearts" or as shattering as 'Assassinate the Jack of Diamonds and steal his jeweled necklace'.
I'd be very interested in hearing how it plays out for you.
Perhaps a scavenger hunt that would give them an excuse to search around the mansion but would increase the chance of a random encounter drastically (mainly with other guests). Of course the rooms they need to get into are off limits but plenty of possibilities for them to play it off if caught. Perhaps another group of guests have a similar idea but are trying to get into the retricted rooms for a different reason.
Other ideas:
A NPC with a Hat of Disguise + Nystul's, doesn't detect as magic and lets them disguise themselves as someone else + mask. They're pretending to be different people at the ball to sow false rumors.
A noble drinks some poisoned wine and keels over. Was it a waiter that poisoned the drink, one of the masked people that passed by, or something else?
Collecting gossip is of course an obvious goal. But what also would be fun, is to have different factions among the guests. Diplomacy and etiquette would probably be very important, and the players would have to be careful what they say. Each faction might ask the players for their opinion on political matters, and what ever answer the players give, tilts the opinion of that faction in their favor, or against them.
A public gathering like this is all a game. The major political players all have their spies, and try to gain the favor of the players, through manipulation and deceit. It's not unthinkable that magic would be outlawed during the ball, and there may be officials keeping an eye on magic use.
Alcohol could also play a funny role in all this. Etiquette demands that the players share a drink with important figures, but you could impose penalties on their diplomacy checks based on how much they've had to drink. For every glass they finish, have them make a fortitude save or constitution check. The DC starts at 10, but increases with every glass they finish. If they fail, they get more drunk, and receive a -1 penalty to any diplomacy check. This starts to add up. Each drink raises the DC by 1, and each failed check, the diplomacy penalty increases with 1 as well.
Keep track of the opinion that each faction has of the players. It probably starts out as neutral, but can improve or become worse, depending on how well the players mingle with the people. If they are very opiniated, this might count against them, and lower their standing with certain factions. If they get too drunk, they'll obviously say the wrong things.
That sounds very cool. In addition to the more hook-based NPCs you have listed, it might be cool to have some that just add details and flavor text about the gaming world.
Not sure what kind of games your players like, but it might be cool to add a more physical challenge to the social ones. Maybe to go with Xanral’s scavenger hunt, have some of the objects be in had to reach places, kind of like in the Assassin’s Creed series.
Whenever I have a social event in game, I also have a menu of food being offered. Here's a site with some medieval French foods:
The only thing to watch out for is characters with magic. You play a murder mystery where the PCs get the chance to talk to the murdered NPC just before his death, you'll have to accept that someone might blast him with a Spare the Dying cantrip and save his life. Then he identifies the would-be killer and your entire event is shut down by one spell.
Hi again.
Thanks for all the input so far. Some really great ideas. A Parma Tart in a fine Verte sauce sounds pretty good to me 
That’s a fun little menu list.
I really like the idea of playing cards. I’m not sure I could make it run perfectly, but might as well try. I think I might instead find some pictures of cool masquerade masks and print them to use as the cards. I am sure there are tons of cool masks online that can give a visual vibe of the character to my PC’s.
Xanral, some really cool stuff. Would be lots of fun for them to run into some other guest lurking around. Maybe looking for signs of the Senators infidelity or such. Would make for those awkward moments I love when they meet. The only thing, I also really like the idea of someone using a NPC with a Hat of Disguise + Nystul's to spread lies.
Only thing, I can’t figure out how I could make this work with the card idea, as I would need to remove their old masks from the party. Might have to pick which concept I like better.
Oh yeah, and definitely a duel might have to happen. I have one PC who is a haughty noble, so it’s only fitting. I am sure he will piss someone off at some point.
The more I think about it, I like using the party as a way to ramp up the political suspense in the country. As a major election for a new Chancellor by the 50 senators is only months away. Also, I can throw out a bunch of hooks and see which way my PC’s want to run. I want to try and open it up a bit more and have the PC’s push the story in a way they want.
I have created a movement in the game called The Wave, a group of mostly young free loving war hating liberal minded souls (yes, basically hippies) who are trying to spread their idealistic views. Might seem like a perfect event for them to peacefully disrupt and cause chaos at.
- The PCs see a young man and woman in a quiet secluded niche, playing kissyface.
Do the PCs leave it alone, or start gossip? Maybe the families are keeping them apart a la Romeo and Juliet? Maybe they were engaged at birth and want to find out if they can stand each others' company? Is it considered 'good form' to be alone? Is a chaperone looking around the hall for one of them? (Or maybe the chaperone is neglecting his duties accidentally on purpose?) Have they already been drinking? Is proper ball attire so difficult to get into / out of, that nothing serious will come of it anyways? Is the couple already married? If they can be identified, does either have a reputation for starting scandals? Do the PCs have to make their father(s) happy in order to get a favor done?
- One person is dressed as Zorro or the Scarlet Pimpernel or Robin Hood. Is it really him, flagrantly flaunting his ability to escape the Oppressive Duke, or a daring teenager showing off?
- One person is wearing a The Man in the Iron Mask mask. This is a deliberate political statement.
- Somebody is wearing the Phantom of the Opera's mask. Too bad he can't sing. But he does seem to know how to get around the building without being followed.
-A shady man approaches the players, and says he lost his invitation. If they help smuggle him inside, he'll help them out.
-Two thieves are in a tender embrace, as a distraction. They are really a man and a woman who are trying to rob the estate.
-Someone tries to disrupt the party and throw a bag of manure at one of the nobles. The party can intervene to gain good favor with the noble.
-One of the noble ladies tries to convince the players to get some dirt on a bishop, who wields a lot of influence, and he is undermining her influence. Maybe the players will catch him with a lady during the party, doing things that are quite harmful to his position as bishop.
-One of the nobles is without a partner, and asks one of the players to be his/her company during the ball, in exchange for his/her help.
-A band of jugglers/musicians requires help, since one of them has fallen ill, right before their big night. Perhaps they ask the players to help out?
-One of the noble ladies loses consciousness, and require medical aid. The players can help her to earn her favor.... or is it all just a big distraction?
-Perhaps part of the celebration revolves around figuring out who is hidden behind each mask? Maybe the players know which nobles will be in attendence, and have to figure out who is who? And maybe there is someone who doesn't belong?
A competition of storytelling, who can spin the most outlandish (yet convincing) story, only the wittiest competitors need apply.
Like the hippie protest idea, perhaps an elaborate plot to embarrass someone in particular (e.g. arranging for a bucket of blood to be poured on the minister of war to symbolize protest of death). Party comes across, and depending on connections, might even aid it or redirect it to another.
I'd just be careful of putting time into creating things that don't have anything to do with the player's/PC's motivations or goals. You know your players better than us, and know what they'd respond to. Make sure your encounters have a purpose and aren't just "filler". Depending on your players, anything other than achieving the objective could be seen as a waste of time.
Plenty of the ideas here are great ones. So long as you know how the main encounter is to be handled, everything else is just icing.
Secret drug deals? Hello! <puts on DM hat>
Perhaps somebody at the party makes a monthly transaction during the party. Maybe several, "customers," attend the masquerade specifically to do business to purchase and transport the drug? A person that might be horribly disfigured or otherwise not normally allowed in the city might be able to attend thanks to the masquerade party perhaps? Obviously, this has to be done in a very cool secret room, with all attendants wearing a mask. One of the attendees might be a PC, if they successfully discover earlier one of the attendees have an invitation for the meeting, and they proceed to borrow that person's mask and outfit. Maybe one of the secret meeting attendees is the Mayor or captain of the guard, but if discovered, they try to claim they were there to uncover the troublemakers. Maybe they proceed to arrest the PCs, but then have difficulty persuading the judge of the exact charges? Heck, just let off a magic missile at the height of the deal when it goes down and let the sparks fly! It totally works.
Anyways, I see a lot of potential for cool stuff. I cannot believe the follow-up posts are all not on top of this like 100 different ways. You can pretty much borrow any scene from a movie or TV show that has a drug deal in it.