How to make and run a Riot?

[Brian Turner 355]

I am running Curse of the Crimson Throne Anniversary Edition. My group is inthe middle of the first floor battleing Queens Physicians, Grey Maidens and YES the city guard. Well at least one the other died but not before he sent for the rest of the town guard. So one of my players idea is to start a riot something like "Their hiding the cure in there its ours lets take it" and it would escalate from their. Im going to have him make a diplomacy/charisma check to see if he starts one. But im not sure what to make the DC. Also how doyou run a riot? Has anyone done this before? And if i can do it. How do i handle the fallout because right now pretty much the entire city has caught the plague so i know some will be killed because the queen will have to send out he rest of the queens physicians and probably the hell knights to contain it, but that will take time as they are spread through out the city. Another question is how long should it last? should i roll a d4 to determine how many days it stays for? Or perhaps a d10 for how many hours it lasts? Thanks for the help.

[MageHunter]

I would check out the mass combat rules for Ultimate Campaign. That's the best I can think of, and for the Diplomacy check I would just do the diplomacy DC for the average person. So maybe 2nd or 3rd level Commoner.

[Brian Turner 355]

So that should be pretty easy to hit. i was thinking of having the riot have more affect if he like exceeded the dc by 10 or more showing how much people are listening to his words. Thanks for telling meaboutthe mass combat rules in Ultimate Campaign.

[MageHunter]

Maybe you could justify a higher DC for a larger crowd, being a speech isn't as personal as an in person conversation and interaction.

[Foeclan]

They have some rules for this in Inner Sea Intrigue, as a type of Verbal Duel. Doesn't look like they talk duration, though. I'd probably make it on the order of hours, maybe with a few opposed checks against the queen if the PCs want to keep it going. Unless you as the DM want it to last longer, then have it last as long as you want, since dealing with the aftermath of rioting plague victims could make for an interesting story, be it guilt for any deaths or property damage that takes place, or taking advantage of the rioting to do some looting.

[taks]

Hell's Rebels begins with a riot. Whether or not it's useful for you I can't say, but the staged/timed encounter seems apt, at least from a mechanics standpoint.

[Brian Turner 355]

Yea, i plan to make it last well past the time they finish the lower dungeon. I figure it will take the queen time to get the necessary forces together (Gray Maidens and Hell Knights) to put down the riot. I figure by the time they finish the lower dungeon they will leave to find the night lit up by fires caused by the rioters. And than ill leave it up to the dice gods. I'll roll a 1d100 and i roll over a 50 the riots will go on for another 1d20 hours.

[LucyG92]

MageHunter wrote:

Maybe you could justify a higher DC for a larger crowd, being a speech isn't as personal as an in person conversation and interaction.

Just an idea, but would a speech not use Perform?

[Jarrahkin]

I've run riots before, in D&D 3rd Ed, and the mechanics are much the same as PF...it was a while ago, and the detailed notes are long gone, but I do recall the general mechanics of it all.

Basically, treat big units (the Mob, the Army, the Goverment etc) as single creatures with limited Stat blocks...you're going to be using the Mob as a plot/story device, so probably don't want to worry about combat, so can ignore anything combat related (AC, HPs,, etc). You'll need one for "The Town" too. I only worried about skills and saves really...for known quantities, like troops and the goverment, you set the levels based on what you know about them. The mob can be more random, based on what the players do.

Every hour, the bigger groups could try one or two things, depending on how big, how wide-spread or how well resourced they were:

Intimidate: for the Mob, this was based on the size of the Mob, which could be set by the PCs Diplomacy check...the bigger the roll, the higher the Intimidate "skill". Roll every hour or so against amother group, opposed by Will. A success by the Mob might keep troops cowering behind their walls, while a success by the Army will cause some of the mob to disperse, which lowers its overall stats.

Stealth: if the Mob decided to loot or burn something, this was Stealth opposed by Perception. The impact of this varied, but generally caused havoc, did damage and either raised or lowered the will of the opposition ...a good leader could use it to build outrage, weak leadership could lower their resolve to stand against the mob.

Diplomacy: the Mob could try to recruit more rioters, with a roll against the town's Will, while the Government could try to raise the town's will to make it resist better.

Etc, etc.

The idea wasn't to make it mechanically perfect but a general representation of what's going on...you decide what the government is going to do, the players decide what the Mob is going to try, then dice are rolled and you create a narrative based on the results.