I am looking for advice on creating an interesting one session game based on the following general description:
Intelligence for the Kingdom of Northron indicates that Lord Wolfsbane of the rival Estron Kingdom has come to resent his king intensely due the King's failure to follow through with a planned marriage of a prince to his daughter. With the right inducements and guarentees, he might be convinced to switch sides, swear allegiance to the Northron King, and allow Northron troops to occupy his lands and thus gain control of a strategic point on the river. The PCs must seek an audience with the Lord and try to convince him to switch sides. The PCs are a mercenary party, selected for "plausable deniability" reasons.
A planning session at the inn followed by a few hours of parley with Lord Wolfsbane doesn't sound too exciting. I'm looking for better ideas to spice this up.
The ideal game would lots of opportunity for roleplaying and also involve a little combat or threat of same.
A few suggestions:
- assassins are allways great.
- an enemy wizard who tries to manipulate the lord
- a tourney held in honour of somebody, which the pcs can win to impress the lord
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Thanks. More ideas are always welcome. I'm never satisfied with my non-combat sessions. I feel that even a pure roleplaying session should be as interesting and eventful as fighting monsters and grabbing treasure, but its hard to achieve that effect.
You could have a rival mercenary group,
working for the other side to stop the PCs from making and succeeding in negotiations...
... sounds interesting....need another player? lol!
Really, the best way to make a session like that interesting is to get the player's invested in what's going on. If they care what happens, they're interested. If they have a chance to affect the negotiations, they'll probably start caring. If the outcome of the negotiations affect them or NPCs they care about, they'll be interested.
Say, if Lord Wolfsbane wants to marry some young lady one of the PCs is into...or maybe one of the PCs themselves (if you have a female character), things like that can spice up a session without any imminent danger.
Imminent danger IS always fun, though.
Oooo, I just remembered an interesting item: Tyrant's Friend
It is meant to detect poisons, but it does so discretely (the ring itself can in fact be hidden under another ring) and the only indication that it is testing positive is that it grows warmer, which makes it much easier to use in delicate political situations since it doesn't need the somatic and verbal components of detect poison (which would generally be rude). It also has the relatively low cost of 3,000, which would put it somewhat within the price range for a nobleman to have at lower levels (and even if the party went murderhobo and stole it, they are not getting very many benefits, since this is an RP item).
I am mostly throwing this out there since a murder mystery (or an attempted one at least) seems like an easy noncombat scenario with plenty of drama.
Also, a simple idea: prestidigitation is the duct tape or WD-40 of murder. It can clean blood, it could theoretically plant blood (the spell does say you can soil things), and you can alter tastes to hide indiscreet put powerful poisons. It is an extremely common cantrip, but even if you aren't a caster, you can also gain it through the trifler trait for 3/day as an SLA (which means you do not have somatic or verbal components either). I am sure that this could also be used for an intriguing murder mystery.
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I agree with Rynjin that the best idea is to make the PCs interested in the outcome of the negotiations themselves. You can always keep one or more complications in the wings in case things get dull. If you go the assassination route, the PCs might be suspects.
Say, if Lord Wolfsbane wants to marry some young lady one of the PCs is into...or maybe one of the PCs themselves (if you have a female character), things like that can spice up a session without any imminent danger.
Or he might want to marry someone important to his daughter, since the king isn't providing a prince.
Social / RP situations a lot of people find a lot harder to work with. They aren't everyone's cup of tea. They require a heck of a lot more prep work than 'flip to page X of Bestiary Y and roll initiative'.
Couple of noteworthy that I like throwing out there (IMOHO)
- Put something Wolvesbane does REALLY in conflict with the PCs. Not a 'YARGH.... Draw your swords and fight me' conflict, but a political / moral conflict. Say he endorses slavery. Say that they have gladiator games where the slaves are outfitted by their sponsors and have to fight.... not even for their freedom.... just fight til you lose and die. Say that on one of the days they are in court, he hands out a death sentence to a random peasant for what might seem a trivial crime, and thinks it justified and right, not just a random event (or maybe that it is random and that would be more scary to the PCs that murder is a 10GP fine, but stealing a loaf of bread it a flogging, then hung drawn and quartered). This can also work in with things like Druids / Rangers and having a national pastime of Bear baiting or something suitably offensive to the nature-y types.
- Approaching from the other end put some more court intrigue in there. Have wolvesbane as a genuinely nice and amicable fellow to everyone, but someone in the court (the grand vizier.... no-one trusts them) manipulated things such that the wedding was cancelled and they have the princess stashed somewhere or other. Do the PCs side with the vizier to ensure that wolvesbane does join the kingdom, or find the princess in the hope of earning Wolvesbane's trust and loyalty that way (but probably guaranteeing that they won't join the kingdom).
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There should be one very formidable, and very vocal opponent of the PC's position. There should also be one who is much more subtle, working in opposition to them behind the scenes.
Don't let it just be about convincing one man. They have to win over many of the King's advisors to be able to convince him. Some might need bribes, others threats. Some might want power/position, while others need to be humiliated publicly to silence them in court, or be silenced in other more permanent ways. If the PC's rally enough support, they should be able to win over the king.
Also, I like the tournament option mentioned upthread.