Royal court life: need ideas...

[Wepwawet]

Hi!

I started a campaign where all PCs are either princes, or related to the royal family. They're all level 1. You know, young royalty who spend their days practicing calligraphy, floral arrangements, fencing and some magical practice.

The first sessions will bespent entirely on the court, with all their corrupt back-stabbing siblings and cousins, but I don't know how to challenge the players...

Could you give me ideas about activities, skill challenges or whatever to put them into, so that they can earn some XP?

For instance, I wanted to make a "collective duel", like a formal duel where more than 2 people can participate (rugby or cricket doesn't count ). I found somewhere a skill challenge for an 1-on-1 duel (Edit: found it!), but it would be nicer if everyone could participate in it.

Any ideas?

 

[Sigurd]

practicing calligraphy, floral arrangements, fencing and some magical practice

Sounds like you have your plate full. That flower arranging can be tense, especially with dice!

The problem with the idle rich is they're boring.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Well a collective duel is effectly a tourney melee and why not use the combat rules but make all damage non lethal?

A couple of questions spring to mind, are any of the PCs in line of sucession and how far out?
If they are then they would be subject to intrigues involving factions that do not like the current regning monarch. Do they hold (or are heirs to ) lands or estates in strategic locations?
By strategic location, I mean location in the path of trade/invasion routes or locations that produce a resource important to the economy of the state.

Does this society do arranged marriges? If so that is another like of potential scheming and intrigue. While historically men had more leeway in that they could phillander without much consequences they still (often) had little choice about who they married, especially any who were in line or any important titles or wealth.

 

[Wepwawet]

Sounds like you have your plate full. That flower arranging can be tense, especially with dice!

The problem with the idle rich is they're boring.

LOL
True, but that is about to change radically

Well a collective duel is effectly a tourney melee and why not use the combat rules but make all damage non lethal?

Doh! Obviously
But I wanted to make it more interesting than just combat, or combat with a SC mixed in.

A couple of questions spring to mind, are any of the PCs in line of sucession and how far out?
If they are then they would be subject to intrigues involving factions that do not like the current regning monarch. Do they hold (or are heirs to ) lands or estates in strategic locations?
By strategic location, I mean location in the path of trade/invasion routes or locations that produce a resource important to the economy of the state.

Does this society do arranged marriges? If so that is another like of potential scheming and intrigue. While historically men had more leeway in that they could phillander without much consequences they still (often) had little choice about who they married, especially any who were in line or any important titles or wealth.

One of them is the 2nd prince; there is 1 or 2 elements in the family interested in gaining power; they don't hold land but are usually assigned to the government of an important city; and yeah, arranged marriages are common practice. (ufff)
This is a big empire and the royal family lives secluded in the luxurious inner city and their palaces.

Soon they'll get a royal mission and they'll leave all that behind, and then the adventure gets a lot more standard

 

[Celebrim]

I've had an idea for a campaign since about the 6th grade that sounds roughly similar to your idea. Everyone would be required to create a back ground that makes them the intimate acquintance and childhood friend of the younger of two princes - whether it is a cousin, the child of some prominent servant, a child of a wealthy merchant who had the same tutor, a hunting partner, the maid the prince lost his virginity to, or whatever. I've never had the oppurtunity to start it up.

However, I think your idea for how to start the campaign out is not a good one. While a session where the party spends time socializing admist scheming nobles and participates in a number of skill challenges might be fun, it's not a good way to start a campaign. Every campaign needs to start with some intense action to set the stage. The first chapter of every campaign needs to be some intense hook that wets the appetite of the player for more. Afterwards, you can slow down and do some exposition to deepen the players understanding of what is going on.

For example, my campaign would start with the party being thrown right into the middle of an assasination attempt (while relatively unarmed) which ends up seeing the court look about like the same sort of bloody mess that ends Hamlet. This throws the court into turmoil, and sets the stage for the first adventure (your friend the prince asks you to investigate a murder mystery he was going to investigate himself, before the attempt on the life of his father forced him to attend to other duties).

So I personally would advise abandoning plans to make this sort of thing be the first session. Until you've hooked the players into the setting, they are likely to be bored and wonder what your campaign has in store for them. Hook them first, and then they'll want to do more exploring to see what they can find.

As for the sort of challenges one faces at a royal court, someone was right to point out that the rich are generally bored and seldom do anything challenging collectively. A hunting party is one possibility. A masked ball is also a traditional setting for fantastic intrigue and offers party members oppurtunities to embarrass themselves individually by failing skill checks they might not have like Diplomacy, Perform (dance), Innuendo, and Knowledge (Nobility and royalty) (using it as an ettiquette roll for court life). Establish some rituals of the court that the party is expected to negoitaite and then have them blunder through them. Too much blundering and some one gets offended and tries to provoke a confrontation that leads to a challenge to a dual (in the early morning hour), one which turns murderous when the challenger doesn't show and instead sends thugs to kill the party. Meanwhile, while they are blundering through these minor challenges, have some minor conspiracy (which may turn lethal if the PC's don't intervene) be going on around them, forcing them to make sense motive and spot (read lips) checks to keep up with what is going on. I don't much like the skill challenge model, as I'd prefer that they peice together that someone has drugged the dukes daughter's desert wine and plans to rape her (for example) from the clues rather than just telling them the plot after they get 6 successes. But that's more second or third session sort of stuff than first session, IMO.

 

[LostSoul]

Sounds like you have a nice setting there.

What's just happened that upset the status quo?

(War, plague, debt, famine, infidelity, dishonour, succession crisis, heresy, political upheaval...)

 

[Sigurd]

Are they responsible to an estate, they can care about?


Have you ever seen a game called 'Birthright' its a TSR game were every player governs a province. I've never played it but it sounds like it might have ideas for you.


Sigurd

 

[Quantarum]

Don't forget hunting, a trip into the king's reserve provides a chance for combat and possible intrigue: poachers etc. -Q.

 

[inkmonkeys]

If you want to have a grand (nonlethal) melee that's more than just battle, you could work in the politics of victory. One faction wants to make sure that a family member from the eastern provinces wins to make them feel welcome. The royal prince wants to win to show how noble he is, and his lickspittles want to let him win. One local cousin is motivated by his father, who is upset with the king and wants to show it by having his son (the cousin) beat the pants off the prince in a permitted venue. And then there are the landless nobles who are betting money they don't have on the fight and want to make sure they win. And winning the PCs over to one faction or another, at least for the duration of the melee, can turn the tide. Especially if they betray someone at the last minute.

So work in some hints during the pre-battle feast, where one local cousin says that the eastern cousins would be happy and generous if they won, someone else hints that it would dishonor the kingdom if the prince was not victorious, and another offers a share of the winnings if the prince is the second-to-last man standing but not the victor. It gives the PCs a chance to be important, and also to declare allegiances: their decisions will impact who trusts them and who holds a grudge for a while.

Also, unrelated to the grand melee: falconry and horse breeding. Two more noble activities.

 

[Wepwawet]

Ok, here's a synopsis of this setting:

This empire, the Galkian Empire, is now threatened by the recent alliance of the 5 barbarian kingdoms, while the royal family, descendants of the god Zeldin, has degenerated into a bunch of fops, cowards, madmen and evil schemers that do their best to ignore the world outside their country while back-stabbing each other. It is an empire sinking in decadence, after a glorious past. The only hope left lies in an ancient legend about an imprisoned saviour, that only a member of the royal family can set free. But first he has to gain the keys to the prison from the seven most powerful sorcerers alive.

I have to stress that the PCs are not connected to the royal family, they ARE the royal family (supposedly the only ones left who can save the empire). Probably this is what makes it more difficult.
The game started with a huge encounter. No roleplay nor talking. Just rolling initiative. It was a prophetic dream about the demise of Galkis.
Now they are on their way to a presentation ceremony of the youngest prince (one of the players) where a lot of the corruption will be revealed, and soon they'll be sent out of the country to find the keys.
I just wanted some stuff to fill in the voids.

I like the ideas about the masquerade ball and the assassination attempts inside the court, during a banquet or a ball. How could I prepare challenging situations for the players?

Oh, and thanks for the suggestions so far