Celebration party gone bad ....ideas?

[Superking]

In my 4e campaign the PC's are level 10 or so. They have been invited to a party (birthday or some such major celebration) of an NPC wizard they have interacted with for some time. This Wizard is now teaching at the White Lotus Acedemy, he has grown to view the party as rivals, but is grudgingly cordial at times. Anyway...

I want to run an adventure where the PC's are invited to partake in a celebration, along with several other influential NPC's. Some thing goes wrong and they must clean up the mess so to speak.

What I am looking for is just some basic ideas of a short adventure with 3-5 encounters for one shot session.

Some ideas:

-Costume Ball

-Dignitary at the party needs help with his 'gift', which turns out to be dangerous.

-Somehow the PC's get involved with helping with meal preperation and a skill challenge results.

-Dopelganger

-Wizard experiment goes awty.

Any thoughts out there on fun, light hearted party/celbration type adventure or encounter ideas?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Center of attention - VIP is giving more time to the adventures than to their host. This can cause feelings of resentment but also be a third party trying to set the players against the NPC. This can even be to the point of planning ahead of time, so the party shows up in or with something offensive; a gift or what they wear.

 

[Vanifae]

Some more examples when I think of a party:

- Romance is in the air, someone has either caught the PCs eye, or more likely one or more of the PC's have caught the eyes of someone who pursues them throughout the evening. It can be benign or sinister, normal or supernatural. Basically it adds a complication.

- Assuming high society party, how adept are the PCs at dealing with sophisticated, social conscious, and petty elites? Will they make unwitting enemies by making bad impressions? Will they win new allies? Or will they just be the butt of all the high society jokes?

- Drunken antics, this pretty much writes itself.

- Maybe the party is asked to perform or entertain the social elites with tales of their adventures?

- Speaking of cooking maybe the cook is trying a new recipe and things get really bad... like a golem made of meatloaf and mashed potatoes bad... a little silly but could be fun.

- A little more sinister, someone is poisoned and dies right on the dance floor. Murder mystery is go... a nice twist is that it may not even be one of the guests maybe it's some incredibly intelligent rats who are tired of dying to poison and want to turn the tables.

Hope these help.

 

[DaveW]

Doppelganger is a bit of a cliche, I'd prob avoid that one personally.

- Property Damage: A player accidentally breaks something important, skill challenge to hide/fix it before the host notices

- Rivals: Two of the guests are old rivals, and things turn sour. How to pacify them both?

- Picked up the wrong girl: PC gets hit on by/hits on the wife/daugher of the host/a VIP guest.

- Pickpocket: VIP guest notices something is missing, who has stolen it?

^^^ these aren't very original or entertaining. Frankly the best suggestion so far is "Drunken Antics". Vanifae is half right about it writing itself; make that up as you go along and let the players lead the story. Get a PC to drink too much, then make him/her roll to do arbitrary things like walk, talk to people without drooling, stay awake. Make him roll saving throws against deciding to spontaneously start dancing, or take off his clothes, whatever. Basically go nuts teasing your player.

-Dave

 

[Superking]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. My group loves to RP. So this should be good. I like the idea of rivals. Maybe a sporting competetion of sorts. PC's can participate with a skills type challenge, then things get taken up a notch. Now to do this in the confines of the rules and powers set up in 4e.

Throw in some social intrigue and story telling along the way, maybe some inebreation effects for good measure to add to the difficulty or chance of an accident. It should make for a good session.

 

[Andramelech]

Murder Mistery

I like the idea of a murder mistery someone mentioned earlier. But I picture it kind of like "clue", the game. Was it captain mustard with the wrench in the kitchen, or miss scarlet with poison in the bathroom? Or maybe they know a murder might take place and have to piece together clues to stop it from happening.

 

[aco175]

The wizard has hired a thug from out of town to come to the party and challenge one of the pcs to a duel for some slight, maybe make it more obvious that he is picking a fight. Now the combat heavy player can have a fight while the role player can try and sore out some clues on who hires him and for what. If the pc kills him then there can be some sort of clue- a note or money from another mint.

The whole party can stop for the duel while everyone travels down to the courtyard/ thunderdome/ secret fettish dungeon. On the way down enchantments can be placed on either group and this time allows for the thief to sneak out and get something from the desk of the wizard or sneak onto the coach, past the guards, of one of the visitors, or even the hired thug.

Try and give everyone a bit of time to have an important part in the story.

 

[anest1s]

The wizards Quasit/imp/pseudodragon familiar is playing pranks on him...The party is organized and running, the wizard is locked in his basement, high-class nobility are having the fun of their lives...and half the local assassins guild are blend in, determined to kill the wizard (for their own reasons).

Will the PC's help the familiar carry out his plot?
Will they try to help the wizard?
Will they actually help the assassins?
Will they manage to avoid the trouble? Well I don't think so .