So, Creative Problem the First:
Here's the situation. The PCs have recently returned to their home city of Dar Pykos, after having sought out the most powerful archmages in the world. Each archmage has been invited to come to the city to "interview" for the position of Chancellor of the Mages' Academy. This has been an epic quest, consuming six months of game time and about five times that long in real time.
All of the archmages in question will be coming to the city, where the current acting Chancellor, as well as the heads of the four Churches and the King of Dar Pykos will interview them and, together, decide which of them will be Chancellor.
All well and good, right?
The question is... how do I get the PCs involved in this? Fundamentally, this is a scene in which powerful NPCs sit around talking to other powerful NPCs, until the first batch of powerful NPCs decide who it is.
Booo-oooring.
It is, and has always been, my intent that the PCs would play a crucial part in the choosing of the Chancellor. So far, the PCs are the only people in the world (except one of the archmages herself) that have met all the archmages. They've gotten an initial feel for each of them, having spoken with, interacted with, and, in some cases, fought alongside them. Additionally, pretty much every PC is acting in an official capacity on behalf of one of the higher ups: either the Churches or the acting Chancellor. Thus, as their agents, each of the PCs' votes will be listened to by someone involved in the final decision.
Now, I suppose I could simply collect the votes from the PCs, let their higher-ups agree with them, and whoever the PCs vote in becomes the Chancellor.
But, after two and a half years of this, that feels so... anti-climactic. This whole mission has been about finding a new Chancellor. To have it decided behind closed doors, even through PC agency, just seems wrong.
I've been thinking about this one for, oh, much of the last year or so, and I just haven't come up with an answer I love. Here, however, are some of the best ones I've got:
1) The PCs sit in on the interviews.
Pros: Ummm, few.
Cons: The PCs are listening to NPCs talk to each other. Plus, since the PCs have already met these guys, it's basically just replaying scene we've already played.
2) Let the players play the higher ups interviewing the archmages. I'd write up character sheets with strong backgrounds and agendas for each higher up.
Pros: Gives things a new twist. Lets players play someone new and different. Really lets the players affect the outcome.
Cons: Still basically replaying scenes we've played before, just with new characters. Players have to pretend not to know things that their PCs have learned. May also require revealing to players secrets their PCs don't know about motivations among the higher ups.
3) Have the higher ups ask the PCs to "test" the archmages. That is, as part of the interview process, the higher ups would ask the PCs to establish challenges for the archmages, to see how they deal with problems (how do they handle difficult negotiations, physical attacks, interactions with the community, etc). The higher ups would roughly outline what kind of things they want, and then leave it to the PCs to determine the precise nature of the challenges.
Pros: Lets the PCs, in character, design "gameplay" for very powerful NPCs, which is fun gameplay in and of itself. Requires PCs to "role-play" in character, which should be fairly entertaining.
Cons: Puts a lot of the design burden on the players. If they don't embrace the concept, it could crash hard. Parameters of each challenge need to be sufficiently intricate so that they can't just be solved with a wave of a hand and a single high level spell (adding to the burden of the players).
4) Let the higher ups interview the archmages off screen. Then reveal that the various higher ups are unable to come to an agreement on who should be chosen. The PCs then must broker an agreement that all groups can live with.
Pros: High role-playing. PC will, essentially, become entirely responsible for the outcome.
Cons: Gives the PCs closer relationships with the higher ups than I might want. May essentially devolve into arguing back and forth with various stubborn, seemingly unreasonable individuals (something that has happened before and tends not to make my players happy).
Anyway, those are the best ideas I've come up with yet. Anyone else got any thoughts on the above ideas? Any new ideas? I'm dyin' here...
(By the way, for those unfamiliar with my game world, the most relevant thing to know is
how arcane magic is treated. And the rest of the Story Hour ain't such a bad read either...
)