short tem social intrigues


Advice

Liberty's Edge

I am starting a campaign with a ballroom gala, and am having trouble brainstorming some short term social intrigues if the players decide to go roleplay heavy in the scene. Anyone have some ideas to share?


There's a fundraiser going on and everyone assumes the party has or is planning on donating an absurd amount of money.


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Is "social intrigues" a specific game term, or do you just mean, like, social encounters?

A few ideas:

- Two (or more) would-be suitors start competing over the right to ask one of the partymembers to dance
- A group of would-be suitors join with the PCs looking for dancing partners
- The PCs see one guest arguing with their parent about being allowed to dance with someone, and that guest singles out a PC as their "I'm going to dance with this person, so there!" target
- A few catty guests come over and start negging one or more of the PCs' outfits


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This thread should head to advice btw.


There're rumors that a band of thieves will steal the precious necklace ( or anything else) during the big event.


As inspiration: the modules of Agents of Edgewatch, the casino adventure. And perhaps something from War for the Crown, but I am not well acquaintanced with it.


There are several PFS1 scenarios that have social settings, like parties, weddings, etc. that might be helpful. The main trouble is in those cases the PCs are assigned goals, and sometimes individual ones depending on faction. And they often get data or have time to collect it, again with those given goals in mind.
So why are the PCs there? I don't mean why do you the GM want them there (to witness the spark of the campaign arc I'm guessing), but what brought the party to the party? Do they have any hints about what's going to occur? Are they there to aid or prevent?

A part of the problem with new PCs AND with social situations (so doubly bad in this case) is the players finding their footing, turning the conceptual into the tangible. Goals can hope them focus past finding their new PC's voice. Pictures can be helpful in giving them a sense of setting & character, and I'd make sure to use the tabletop as much as with any combat, though likely just to show who's talking with whom and the various places the PCs can go even if they're just metaphorical spaces, like "working their way into the Duchess's conversation circle" moving "closer" socially rather than physically.
Other ways to help make the concepts tangible would be tokens, something I found of great use in showing a player/party how much impact they've had on a scenario in vaguer ways (i.e. the party's popularity in a tournament). These could be different colored dice, maybe turned as weal or woe occurs. Funny thing is, it doesn't always matter if they know what "5 Red" means in the overal scheme of things, they just know it's better/worse than 4!

But this is only if you have some contribution to the story to offer them by RPing. If it's just fakery with PCs unable to contribute or alter events, one should well narrate (possibly w/ player participation to fill in the blanks, flesh out the scene) to the portion where player choices do matter.


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I've done one that was a masquerade ball. Each PC/NPC has a disguise and there is a contest to see who can correctly identify the most guests. Various checks or deduction can give away different characters.

Like two characters might be gnomes which immediately stand out due to their height difference with most of the guests. But perhaps one of them is a known jeweler, so attempting to start up some shoptalk might give that away.

Different accents, perfume, physical characteristics that are hard to hide, etc can all give people away.

This setting especially works well if there are disguised thieves or assassins impersonating guests.


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Leitner wrote:

I've done one that was a masquerade ball. Each PC/NPC has a disguise and there is a contest to see who can correctly identify the most guests. Various checks or deduction can give away different characters.

Like two characters might be gnomes which immediately stand out due to their height difference with most of the guests. But perhaps one of them is a known jeweler, so attempting to start up some shoptalk might give that away.

Different accents, perfume, physical characteristics that are hard to hide, etc can all give people away.

This setting especially works well if there are disguised thieves or assassins impersonating guests.

That's a good way to encourage interaction w/ NPCs, some which might simply be seeds for far off scenarios. And it works as a good mini-game to get the feel for their PCs and setting up events, especially if they interacted w/ some of the players of whatever unfolds at the event. And they wouldn't have to know each other to engage nor worry too much if they lack social skills since the stakes are low.

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