D&D General My party wants to defuse a war by arranging a marriage. Where's the gameplay?

So I ran a very similar encounter in my game. Father wanted to marry off daughter, and received several powerful offers from various factions. He didn’t want to offend any of the factions by refusing them, so he decided to hold a contest so the “best” suitor could win. These challenges were all heroic events, like moving a boulder, offering treasure, outwitting a sage, racing a horse, etc.

The princess didn’t want to marry any of them, and instead hired the party to ensure the most weakest, most charismatic nobody won, who she could manipulate easily and/or divorce without raising a fuss.

The setting was a week long celebration, and each day there was a new challenge. The party could meet the other competitors and their entourages, who all had a fixed list of capabilities and weaknesses, and the party was encouraged to spy, steal, cheat, and sabotage wildly.

They had a tremendously fun time with it! It was a very welcome spot of levity in the midst of an otherwise serious game and really fun to watch their harebrained schemes go ballistic in all kinds of new directions.

Love your setting! I have a soft spot for Bronze Age settings and yours sounds incredible.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I have an idea:

The thing with political marriage is that it rely on political whims and are quite fragile. Nothing stops the mother or the couple to go on an assassination spree after the fact to gain a hold in the other House, and then you just avoided war to hand over the power over the other nation. What you want is real love between the couple so that each of them work for the wellness of the other, hence avoiding too much power play.

But, you have a setting with factual divine powers. What if your party needed to first and foremost quest for the god of love/fertility/heart/whatever (or their clergy) or steal the actual heart of one of the to-be lovers hidden in a monastery by the mother tyrant to avoid the exact play your party is trying to pull.

1) Find the Heartless Monastery in the Underworld
2) Steal the princess heart by foiling the yuan-ti agents of the queen.
3) bring back the heart to the humble prince of City #2.
4) Marry them under the blessing and protection of the god of love.
 

Where is the Aladdin vizier behind the throne with his own ideas on taking over the world? He may be loyal to the queen and carry out her wishes to get the stone to the city, but plans on it being taken by river pirates under a decoy of the ship exploding. Add giant crocodiles or at least were-crocs someplace. Maybe snakefolk are good for secret people behind the plot.

The queen knows that people plot against her and has made a duplicate stone that is bait for stealing as the real stone floats silently through the shenanigans. Some sort of coconut shell game if the PCs figure out her plan. Add flavor of Star Wars' Rogue 1 with decoy ships and blockades. Add an Ocean's 11 plot of the PCs swapping the real stone with the fake on to the decoy ship. Let them figure out how to swap a 5 ton stone. There could be a slim window where ships pass under the great bridge and the ships are out of sight for a couple minutes. One of the dredging cranes might be able to pull things off. Can you find someone that runs them?

You can force the kids to marry, but the queen must first give her blessing and suspects a trap. She requires a mcguffin that secretly will add to her power in exchange for her blessing. This may also give the time for her plans of acquiring the stone to complete.
 

Political marriages (or alliances of any type, really) are large groups of individual parties and interest agreeing to solidify some form of status quo. There are any number of things-people-really-would-have-wanted-instead that are still out there in the form of resentments, backup plans, or now-unresolved-other-issues. If you want to avoid the overdone plots like bride-is-kidnapped or assassin-at-the-wedding, you could have the main plot go off without a hitch, but have adventure-worthy happenings going on in the hither and yon.

  • Perhaps the bride has a cousin and the groom has an uncle, and those two are at war or in competition for something. Suddenly becoming allies and having to play nice was not part of their plans. The party can be involved in smoothing over that tension or preventing whatever escalation those two attempt before, during, or after the wedding.
  • Perhaps someone else had staked marrying into one of the families as their own avenue of ascent or solution to a given problem. Maybe they try to prevent the marriage. Or they don't, but it means that potential-breakaway territory X which could have been kept through the political marriage this replaces is indeed going to break away -- unless some enterprising meddlers can swoop in and find a solution.
  • Perhaps this has repercussions downstream within the marrying families. Firstborn son Abe never showed much interest in marriage and was always threatening to join the priesthood and leave heir status to his younger brother Ben. Now Abe is marrying for political reasons (and maybe suddenly looking and acting more a leader), and all of Ben's assumptions and plans are in jeopardy. Will there be pouting and tantrums or treachery and bloodshed? Maybe an aunt or sibling to
  • Perhaps a third party, or some underling of Queen Kalumum's saw benefit in her success. Perhaps they had plans to usurp her power as she obtained the tablets, or they were just profiting over here in the West while Kalumum was focused on Eshkital in the East. They see the heroes plans as interfering with theirs, and set out to stop them from succeeding. They could show up as rebels or third parties who clearly have no love for Kalumum, and so why wouldn't they be allowed to stay? Now the suspicious party has to both figure out how to prove they have ill intent, but also prevent whatever they have planned.
 

There's so much you can do with that.

You've got an escort quest or two. You've got social maneuvering. You've got potential kidnapping for either potential bride or groom. You've got potential murders of any relevant high-ranking NPCs involved. You've got NPCs who could want to disrupt the proceedings, as in rival factions or NPCs who don't want these two factions joined. You've got possibly unwilling participants in either the potential bride or groom, or both. You've got all the merchants salivating at the thought of war profiteering who want the war to go ahead.

Start with NPCs and factions that would benefit from or be hindered by this war or this marriage. Then decide what they're willing to do to make sure it happens or is prevented.

Seriously, you've got the potential for a season of Game of Thrones level drama right there.
 
Last edited:

Act 1: Seeking the Groom

The adventure begins with the party in Eshkital meeting with the propsective groom where they learn that while he is dutiful to his fathers urging the lad is a bit clueless, has very little charisma and initially isnt enthusiastic about meeting the princess. The PCs have to convince him and set about teaching him a bit about how to "talk to girls" (Its an RP session!)

Complications: Queen Kalumum has spies in Eshkital who will want to keep tabs on the PCs and disrupt their interactions with the groom and his father.
The Spies might even attack the PCs when they eventually leave Eshkital!

Scene 2: Journey to the Frontier

The party and the groom travel through dangerous wilderness toward the small town where the queen and princess are blessing the temple. Along the way, there are various encounters with strange weather, wild beast and weird effects which hint of the queen’s meddling.

The Queens spies and soldiers are also on patrol, and will not look kindly on the PCs party approaching the new temple and the Princess without an official invitation*

Act 2: Introducing the Groom to the Princess (Scene 3)

The Queen and Princess are busy with temple rituals and a grand festival is being arranged*. The party must find a way to get pass security, navigate the politics (ie they might secure official invitations*) and act as match maker between the Princess and the Groom.
  • The Princess is very astute and ambitious and will need to be convinced that a romance is worthwhile
  • As such she is initially indifferent about the proposal and does not trust the party's intentions.
  • However the Princess is wary of her mother’s tyranny and may see the proposal as a means of securing her own independence (and influence in her own temple)
  • Skill Challenge: the party must earn the Trust of the Princess and trigger some romantic association between the Princess and the Groom^

Act 3: The Barge & the Testament (Scene 4)

While the queen is busy with the Temple ritual and organising a celebratory festivital her servants prepare to return to No-Ostalin, having secretly loaded the second Testament. The party learns that the massive barge has arrived in a secret dock nearby and they need to move in to hijack it Now! - The Day of the Temple opening is the perfect opportunity!
  • 5 Room Dungeon:
    • The dock is guarded and the barge is a floating fortress that the party must infiltrate to get the Testament.
      • Room 1 – Guarded Dock: Approach the barge while its still in dock and guarded by soldiers.
      • Room 2 – Deck: Get on board and explore the deck, avoiding traps and sailors to locate the hatch
      • Room 3 – Captain’s Quarters: Knock out the Sub boss.
      • Room 4 – The Cargo Hold: Bypass the security, Secure the Testament and work out how to move it (or hijack the barge)
      • Room 5 – Escape Route: The queen's forces arrive as the party tries to flee the river. A chase ensues.
  • The party either escapes with the Testament or faces a climactic battle as the queen’s forces descend.

Act 4: The Official Betrothal (Scene 5)

While the Testament has been stolen, The Princess and the Groom are at the Temple Opening Festival where they will announce their official Betrothal to lawfully bind Eshkital and No-Ostalin. (They might even be bound by the power of a Law tablet) The groom and princess are prepared, but the queen stands and opposes the union, threatening to use force if necessary!

Complications: Has the Princess formed a suffient bond with the groom to make the Betrothal binding or will she return to her Mothers side?

Scene 6: Final Betrothal!​

The PCs need to protect the Groom and ensure he and the Princess are lawfully Betrothed - even if things breakdown and the queen orders her troops to attack and uses her powers.

Intended Outcome Trope: The Princess and the Groom confirm their Betrothal which unlocks the Princesses own power over the second Testament which she uses to oppose her mother, turning the tide of the battle.

The party negotiates a peace between No-Ostalin and Eshkital. The second Testamentis given to the princess for her new temple.
 
Last edited:

Runaway bride/groom

Romantic entanglement with a PC

Bride/groom is a PC, and would be expected to give up up adventuuring

Hostile parties want to prevent peace so kidnap the bride/groom/officiating cleric

Hostile parties bribe or coerce the PCs to sabotage the wedding

A prophecy foretells doom if the wedding goes ahead

The bride/groom is secretly a vampire or other monster

One of the PCs is an exact double of the bride/groom.

Read The Prisoner of Zenda for research.

Or watch the classic Doctor Who serial The Androids of Tara. Which basically stole its main plot from Prisoner of Zenda. Just replace look-alike androids with dopplegangers to translate it to D&D. Also ignore the Taran Beast, which was an embarrassing "monster" costume even in the late '70s lol...
 

PCs have to find a certain spell. Because it is not the first time it happens they deities had got a ready answer. Well, the truth is different. A king didn't want his daughter to be sent to other kingdom as "hostage" and then he agreed a deal with a female criminal to forgive her life. This was "polimorphed" to become a clone of the true princess, and she was sent instead the original one. The clause is the children of the "impostor" would be for legal effects the "fruit of her blood" by the original.

The spell could be casted foward a prince's concubine, and this for legal effects would become the "twin sister" of the princess.

Or at least you could save this as plan B if the main plot fails.
 

Or watch the classic Doctor Who serial The Androids of Tara. Which basically stole its main plot from Prisoner of Zenda. Just replace look-alike androids with dopplegangers to translate it to D&D. Also ignore the Taran Beast, which was an embarrassing "monster" costume even in the late '70s lol...
You can learn a lot from the Doctor Who of that period about how to steal a plot.
 

If you want I can pass you the social combat rules I've written for Martial Artistry?

That way you can do travel/exploration/combat between different locations, mechanical social interactions when they get there, work to arrange the marriage through skill checks and social manipulations...

The social combat system even has places for things like blackmail and inducements to translate into a direct mechanical benefit, too.
 

Remove ads

Top