Need ideas for running a Masquerade ball

Needing ideas to play out a masquerade ball with our group. I'd like this to be an interesting and fun event, but I'm low on ideas. Here's the way it's laid out. A noble woman is doing a sort of social experiment by inviting members of all social classes to the ball. There will be 2 hours of dancing and whatnot while masked, and then there will be a big unmasking of all the guests. I've already decided that there will be things like some of the guest being attracted to the wrong social class and being quite startled at the unmasking. Things such as spiked punch or food are a thought, but what would be the effects? Shall we have a disturbance at the ball? My only problem is, I don't want this to de-evolve into combat, but it still needs to be entertaining. Any ideas welcome!

Needing ideas to play out a masquerade ball with our group. I'd like this to be an interesting and fun event, but I'm low on ideas. Here's the way it's laid out. A noble woman is doing a sort of social experiment by inviting members of all social classes to the ball. There will be 2 hours of dancing and whatnot while masked, and then there will be a big unmasking of all the guests. I've already decided that there will be things like some of the guest being attracted to the wrong social class and being quite startled at the unmasking. Things such as spiked punch or food are a thought, but what would be the effects? Shall we have a disturbance at the ball? My only problem is, I don't want this to de-evolve into combat, but it still needs to be entertaining. Any ideas welcome!

I'd recommend checking out The Demonskar Ball thread from the Shackled City archives. It's not a masquerade ball, but it has tons of ideas for interesting non-combat situations at a formal event. My group went through it a while ago, and I'd say it was one of our top three sessions of the campaign so far.

Throw in lots of Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, Intimidate, Knowledge local, Knowledge history, Knowledge nobility, Listen, Perform, Sense Motive, and Spot checks for various "events."

And watch out for Hide, Move Silent, and Sleight of Hand checks!

Also, check out the Shindig episode of Firefly, and "Masquerades" by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb for inspiration.

Can you tell us a little bit about who in your party will be attending? That will help.

Now, some random fun stuff.

*Drunken spellcasters start a contest to do the most magic missile damage/come up with the most impressive prestidigitation/find the most creative use of magic to get a dress off of a good looking guest.

*Thieves who have taken some of the "underclass" spots make their way through, pumping guests for information about their wealth, their homes, their guards, wards and defenses, etc. There's only one or two. One of them tries to interview a PC. Does the PC guess it? Do they then finger the thief? Join in? Something else?

*An important noble, or highly influential merchant, or priest up there in the hierarchy, or someone similar, has an altercation with a PC. How do they resolve it? Might this come back to haunt them later? It might be fun to make this person very cold and aloof, but not actually arrogant, because they are new to town and afraid of making a social faux pas.

*halfling servants stage a revolt and/or protest in the middle of the ball. Food fight ensues.

*a mischievous necromancer animates the dinner!

*a poetry contest of some kind

*a floating chandelier

*the band gets cursed with silence--and the PLAYERS have to sing!

Thanks for all the great ideas! Keep them coming! As for who's attending there will be (all 6th level):
Female elf bard (feminine and charming)
Female human fighter (tomboy)
Male human cleric (of Pharasma, socially awkward)
Male human wizard (he's a prince, btw)
Male half-elf urban ranger (only just found out he's of noble blood)
Male halfling rouge (maybe, don't know if this guy'll show)

Needing ideas to play out a masquerade ball with our group ... but I'm low on ideas.

The following Dungeon issues might help:

A noble woman is doing a sort of social experiment by inviting members of all social classes to the ball. There will be 2 hours of dancing and whatnot while masked, and then there will be a big unmasking of all the guests.

This is problematic.

First, unless she is providing all of the clothing, differences in social class as well as wealth will be immediately obvious from what people are wearing. A few wealthy individuals or nobles might get a thrill out of "slumming", but most will not wear clothes that are "beneath their station". You can dress up commoners, but they will be uncomfortable in the strange-fitting, frilly, fancy clothing.

Second, the speech, accents, mannerisms, conversational interests and general knowledge of the participants will give everyone away. Only if they are all wearing masks enchanted with a modified tongues that gives them all noble accents, and better yet a few ranks of Diplomacy, is there any hope of confusion. Even so, without training the mannerisms and lack of "social graces" will give away the lower-class individuals, neglecting to discuss their differing interests in conversation.

Check out the following movies for some inspiration regarding both Masquerade Balls and this sort of Class/Switch (you can look up descriptions yourself easily enough online) ...

I've already decided that there will be things like some of the guest being attracted to the wrong social class and being quite startled at the unmasking.

Only if a nobleman is attracted to a very pretty but common lady in a dress given to her by the hostess or some other patron. He presumes that her silence and habit of covering her face with her fan is a matter of discretion, decorum and coyness (perhaps she unknowingly fans herself in a manner than among the nobility is a signal of secret attraction) when in fact she is simply overwhelmed and too terrified of the circumstances to even speak.

Things such as spiked punch or food are a thought, but what would be the effects? Shall we have a disturbance at the ball? My only problem is, I don't want this to de-evolve into combat, but it still needs to be entertaining. Any ideas welcome!

First, you can avoid a lot of "combat" by requiring that everyone leave weapons at the door, then putting the entire place under the effects of a massive antimagic field. It's a contrivance, though.

You need to decide if the PCs are "Guests" or if they are hired as "Security". Perhaps they are supposed to keep rivals and uninvited persons out, patrolling the grounds of the estate. Perhaps there is a thief trying to rob the manor on the evening of the ball and they need to catch the thief without making a disturbance.

Maybe they are "Guests" or else have been hired as "Undercover Security" (I did this at a high-class Art Gallery Exhibit and Auction for a party, once).

If they are Guests then the Fighters will have to leave weapons and armor behind and improvise weapons if combat begins. The Wizards will think they are going to a party and prepare social/enchantment/illusion/non-combat or at least non-blasting spells. Basically, if a major fight breaks out the party should find themselves at their least-prepared, racing to the kitchens to find cleavers, firebrands broomsticks and so forth as improvised weapons.

As Undercover Security they might be responsible for smoothing over the missteps of guests, removing rowdy commoners or drunk and insulted nobles without causing a scene or offending anyone (in my game, a powerful nobleman's trophy-mistress was so drunk that she was stumbling into statues and risked breaking the artwork ... she had to be removed but without offending him or seeming to be "coming on" to her). Also, they might be on the lookout for a rival or troublemaker that is expected to try and disrupt the party (perhaps they were alerted late that a "switch" had been made), but they must uncover the individual behind a mask through observation, conversation, meeting guests and so forth so as not to disrupt the party and break the masquerade. Perhaps a nobleman arrives with a forged invitation or another arrives to find out that someone has already arrived on an invitation forged from his. Perhaps a nobleman arrives to find that his valet has stolen the second pair of invitations to his household meant for his son and daughter-in-law.

Regardless of how you handle it, I think the "Social Experiment" on a broad scale is problematic for the reasons I described above.

OTOH, if you go with the Eliza Doolittle approach and have the hostess specifically train and dress a few commoners (various genders and races) and slip them in among the nobles to see what happens, or you sneak in a couple "fakers" from the outside that she doesn't know about but the PCs are charged to remove then that could work.

Also, perhaps she trains the PCs to fit in as Undercover Security, only to learn that other Commoners have sneaked into what was originally supposed to be a nobles-only ball. The hostess orders the PCs to remove the "unwashed commoners" but in doing so offends them. How will they react to her orders, particularly if the "commoners" turn out to be another party of adventurers hired to disrupt some evil plot that is taking place at the party?

HTH,

Rez

Ok, the PC's are going as guests of the party. Also, the hostess is taking care to make sure everyone who cannot afford a costume has one.

Quick post; more ideas later.

Servants would easily be useful "ringers". It could also be a "trade-in" deal where the upper crust slum it by buying cheap clothes. note that many servants got their masters and mistresses cast-off clothes, that they then repaired.

If you look at these sorts of things in the past, everyone knew who everyone was behind the mask anyway. It was a socially acceptable (sometimes) way to flirt and misbehave a little with folks you wouldn't otherwise, if not sneak into the bushes for some possible STD acquisition and bouncy bouncy fun. Many nobles brought their mistresses and their wives.

The fun was identifying new faces behind the masks, among other things. So peasants coming? Swine farmers, unless they are devilishly handsome, won't be invited. Artists and other marginal types who spice it up? Sure. A troupe of performing bards, rogues, rakes and ladies of the evening would definitely be invitable. I wouldn't argue too much with the conceits of the idea. This is a really fun RP opportunity. I do like the suggestions for the magical leveling effects to take some of those issues out of it, though it does mess with magic being an issue to deal with. Perhaps magic works out in the garden where the suppression field doesn't cover.

Female elf bard (feminine and charming)

Could run across the awkward son of the Prime Minister. You know, the medieval sorceror-geek that we all know, love and maybe fear. How does she deal with him? He wants her to help him plot his revenge on half the people there.

Female human fighter (tomboy)

Oooh, easy. Happens across a group of other fighter types (noble jocks) arguing about who can beat up what giant. Rope her in with a challenge. Hopefully she hands someone his butt.

Male human cleric (of Pharasma, socially awkward)

Is this the Gamer Buddy of the group? Perhaps the wives of various noblemen off in the garden dealing with prestidigitations interfering with their shag attempts find him helpful. So helpful that they try to outdo each other in asking him favors.

Male human wizard (he's a prince, btw)

This one can probably make his own trouble.

Male half-elf urban ranger (only just found out he's of noble blood)

Could be played for politics, due to the noble blood angle. He has enough of a connection to a family that various nobles try to subtly sound him out over the course of the evening.

Humor option: Various people keep coming up to find out if he's their cousin. They have moles only visible within a continual flame spell's effect, birth defects that are third arms in the astral plane, or just familiars who delight in pulling the hair of posers, or those who they can construe as posers.

Male halfling rouge (maybe, don't know if this guy'll show)

The rogue could just be around to nose into everyone else's business. This is a prime opportunity actually for him to chase bejeweled baubles under tables and hide under the tablecloths, eavesdrop on state secrets, get discovered, etc.

Okay, you say your noblewoman is doing this as a social experiment, and that's why she's inviting the commoners along with all the other classes.

From the sound of things, she's basically a cross between Henry Higgins and Cinderella's fairy godmother.

One assumes that she's got money to burn for catering expenses, or at least some to burn to make her social experiment a success.

So look at the Rod of Splendor: It can create noble clothing that lasts twelve hours. Of course, the rod can only be used once a day, and it costs 25,000 GP.

We'll assume that the noblewoman has either contracted with a local magic items dealer to rent a dozen Rods of Splendor for the evening, at a cost of 75 GP per (rounding up from 68 and an insane fraction) or else has simply purchased the services of a mage who can cast Major Creation and Fabricate to whip up beautiful costumes for her chosen few: a pigherd, a goosegirl, that nice tavern wench, the ill-treated squire, etc.

Or she could simply go for the gusto and have nice costumes made for all of them and she could loan them the appropriate jewels for the evening, as with Liza at the Embassy Ball.

While you're at it, you could have some actual fey show up.

There should be a few thieves and a few party crashers, but keep it within reason.

It would also be interesting to have a few haunted masks among those used for the party. Have the fun of a bit of ghostly possession liven things up.

Only one thing comes to mind when the words social experiment and commoners will be invited springs to mind. Have some of the fighter types (including PC) and maybe some commoners get a little punch drunk and try to get a contest of halfling toss going. Always a favorite when the PC fighter and possible the PC rogue being ringers together (like they know each others habits and can get momentum going for a further toss.) Or even better have the PC rogue struggle with some of the others so the PC fighter can show up one of the nobles.

If you can get your hands on it you should check out the ebberon adventure "Whispers of the vampires blade" theres a entertaining masquerade ball scene.