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Message: <blockquote data-quote="weem" data-source="post: 5002912" data-attributes="member: 9470">Thanks everyone for the ideas - I appreciate it!We played last night of course, and it went well.The PC's left with the entertainers led by a man named Sybelu, hiding in the back of a carriage (one of four) as the Murkers were looking for them. But they were stopped at the gate leaving town and the carriages were checked.As the door to their carriage was pulled open, they saw the one opening the door was someone they let live (and let go) in the game before - a young Murker who had begged for his life. He looked at them and closed the doors, yelling out "all clear".They left town and for the next two days traveled with the entertainers through hail and rain - miserable weather.They set up camp on the third night. This night allowed for various social encounters which was fun.The next morning they were approached by men on horses - they spoke to Sybelu."He wants to see you Sy""Good, he owes me money""He knows"'He' turned out to be Goris, as Sy explained, a former Murker member who had ambitions of his own and now led a smal group of bandits (10 at most). They would take a slight detour and meet with Goris at the ruins of North Keep - a common hang out for various bandits, thugs and the homeless. At any given time there could be 5 people there, or 100.Goris was there, along with many others, though it was hard to say who worked for him and who was there to gamble/drink/plan some other mischief. It turns out Goris had brought a lot of people and promised them entertainment so he could show the influence he had by bringing the troupe up to the keep.Goris did not force, but persuaded Sy to run a show or two. (Fortunately!) The troupe was short on people as some stayed in the last town meaning to meet up with them later... so they would need the PC's help.What I did was come up with 6 roles that needed to be filled. The (3) PC's would fill 3 roles and the rest would be 'glossed over somehow'. These roles were geared towards specific skills. The roles were...Narrator (I Forget, hehe)Hero (Athletics)Villain (Intimidate)Sage (Insight)Singer (Endurance)Dancer (Acrobatics)- Dwarf Warden chose "Singer"- Human Artificer chose "Sage"- Elf Ranger chose "Hero"Next, I had broken the show up into 3 Acts, each act comprised of 2 'parts' (so 6 parts total)I then took difficulties for Easy, Medium, and Difficult (10/14/18 respectably) as an array... 18, 14, 14, 10, 10, 10 and spread them through the parts so each role had it's "Hard" part of the show at a different time, etc. Each role had 3 parts that were "Easy" and 2 that were moderate ("Medium") etc.I did not have a story for the show so, for each part I looked at what was happening as far as difficulty and described it like "This is a big (Hard) scene for the singer - you have to sing the lines handed to you and it's complex and long. The Hero plays a small role (Easy) as does the Sage so you two are meeting for the first time and beginning a journey while the song tells the tale".So for each part like this, they rolled their skill vs the DC for their role. I used a point system to track success as well. A success was worth 1, but if you succeeded by four or more, it was worth 2. Failure by 4 or more was worth -1.<edit>Forgot to mention that for one of any of the 6 parts, they could 'call for a line' from the side and get a +2 to their role. They were told before each scene either "This is your big (Hard) scene", this one "Isn't too bad (Medium)", or "This scene is easy and doesn't require much from you" - so they might have a good idea of when they needed to do well (aka, call for the bonus).</edit>It went very well, was a lot of fun and the outcome was that they put on an "average" show.Following that, Goris insisted on a second show, but Sy also found out that apparently Goris was not going to repay the debt he owed. So Sy setup a plan to have the second show be a destraction, allowing the PC's to sneak away from the show and make their way up into the keep to his (Goris's) room and take from him what was owed.Sy asked this of them but told them he understood if they would rather not - but they jumped on it wanting to help him out.They encountered some bandits and other hooligans on the way up. Some they could bribe, others they could talk their way through. The idea on my end was they need to get up there quick, but that fighting was not necessarily required. The people they encountered could be bribed, or bluffed, etc.They ended up triggering a fight at one point halfway up, killing some and capturing the rest (tying them up). We had to end the game in a staircase between 2nd and 3rd floors as it was late. So we'll pick it up next time from there.Thanks again everyone, the ideas were much appreciated - and those of you with various Fey-based suggestions gave me ideas for some stuff to come!I liked this idea, but instead of forcing them I went the route that Sy and Goris knew each other. As Sy put it at one point, "We have used each other over time, but he owes me big right now". So instead of forcing them, he applies pressure of needing Sy's services and played to his "these people need a good show" heart-strings. Sy reluctantly gave in.I definitely used bad weather (hail and rain) as it was fitting based on their location. It didn't cause wagon damage, but they setup camp early one night putting together an elaborate tent and enjoying the time off the road - it provided for the social encounter I mentioned above.I did get the players involved in the show/play which was fun. I had considered this (them as actors) before hand and decided yea, why not - I've never done it before - and it was a blast <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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