Intrigue plotlines for low level chatacters...??

[Zarnam]

Greetings,

For some unknown reason I've always had problems creating interesting intrigue based scenarios for low (1-7) level characters. Every time i tried very hard, but ultimately failed, because something, in my opinion, wasn't good or clear enough. Recently my players finished the first part of their campaign, one of them will also be unavailable 'til july, so I thought: "Right, let's do some fun intrigue scenario !". And....wham !! Emptiness of the mind . They are to inexperienced (their characters that is ) to get involved in any typical plot involving aristocracy (they are drow mercenaries, and the adventure should take place in Menzoberranzan), I don't want to "send them exploring" as they just returned from something similiar...

Does anyone have that kind of problems or is it just me ?? How do you handle intrigue scenarios for low level characters ?? Can someone point me to a good low level adventure that is based around an interesting plotline or can be adjusted to that ??

 

[Herobizkit]

Intrigue scenarios for low levels are just like intrigue scenarios for high levels... level is rarely a factor. For example, A 7th level commoner could very easily be a King, just not necessarily a *good* one.

Since you've invoked the Drow clause, let it be known that level CAN and WILL be a factor. Are the mercenaries who are also Drow, or are they non-drow mercenaries working for Drow?

If the former, try and think of your game like a ninja movie. Each ninja "family" is working to better itself by eliminating, absorbing, or negotiating with other families. If the party members hail from different houses, some party members may be assigned secret missions by their respective families. If they're all working for the same house or end up attached to the same house, then allow for some in-fighting between two or more potential usurpers of the current house Matron (or Weaponmaster or Chief Mage or whatever). PC's can choose sides, and if they happen to take opposing sides (or secretly work for both sides), you have a helluva intrigue campaign on the go.

If the PC's are non-Drow working for Drow, there's nothing they can really do from the inside of Drow aristocracy... but they can sure make a mess of the lives of some Houses, perhaps even cause a power shift for a lesser house to suddenly gain a silly amount of power. Non-Drow are little to no better than slaves, so keep that in mind. The book/movie "Shogun" immediately comes to mind... Englishmen get trapped on a foreign land where no one speaks English and everyone is honor driven and has no respect for non-locals. Englishmen must find a way to not end up dead. In the same vein, perhaps the Drow keep the PC's around because they can go to the surface world without being persecuted, or perhaps they're kept as trophies, or slaves, or anything else you can do to jerk them around until they can prove their worth.

 

[LostSoul]

Take a look at this blog entry, and the previous one:

http://bankuei.blogspot.com/2006/02/conflict-web.html

It's only one way of doing it, but that might help.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Two classic intrigue plots from literature:

3 Musketeers: the party acts as messengers for a patron and are attacked en route and possibly believed killed (e.g. dropped in an underground river). The party survives and has to fend off assassins. For true intrigue, the assassins come from within the patron's organization so that attempts to ask for help result in new attacks.

Hamlet: a ruler's ghost haunts the castle. The ghost is continuously being banished by the new ruler's high priest but ghosts have that nasty ability to reform. He begins pleading his case to the party b/c they don't have the power to consistently turn him. His messages are incomplete or partially garbled (possibly by the high priest turning the ghost) but he is implicating the new ruler and/or high priest.

I'm sure there are more but I'm being summoned to get things done IRL.