Eben said:
Does anything in the vast library of d20 material meet my needs?
Nothing leaps to mind. That said, my knowledge of d20 materials is far from exhaustive.
Anyway, perhaps I can offer some advice on how to homebrew it?
I'm working on a campaign that will be kicking off with a diplomatic conference. The setting is an isolated federation of states, in a personal union under a king. The players will be junior representatives (a sort of "promising youth" function) for different states.
Right, I have some experience here. I ran a Vampire chronicle that ran for 5 years (real time), which started in ancient Rome. So, I know a bit about factions and politicking.
What I recommend is the following: First, determine the size of the court in general terms. Are we talking 20 delegates? 100? 5? Don't fix the number too tightly just now, in case you decide you need more characters later.
Now, determine the major factions, and the goals of those factions (again, in general terms). Perhaps the outlying regions are aggreived at their taxes being spent on rebuilding the capital, and are agitating for independence. Perhaps one faction represents the state religion, who wish to have a rival faith outlawed. Or whatever.
Then, detail a few smaller, unaligned factions. These are where the real power in the court lies - the major factions generally balance each other out, and the balance therefore depends on how they curry favour with the minor powers. (This is an exaggeration. The situation is more akin to the 'swing States' in US elections.) Oh, and having the PCs faction(s) amongst these minor factions is a really good idea.
Now that you've got the broad factions drawn up, draw up the key figures within each faction. You're going to need a lot of characters here, but you don't need statistics for most of them. Instead, describe what they look like, their personalities, and notable quirks ("Meester Garibaldi!"). You need an index card for each character, and should colour-code them by faction if possible.
You need at least two characters for each faction - essentially an ambassador and an aide. However, it's better to have several, so you get plenty of conflicting agendas even within the factions. Oh, and don't just include the public faces of the factions - it's entirely possible that the ambassador's mistress has more power than any number of minor aides and flunkies.
For each character you need to detail what he wants (which will generally be aligned with, but slightly different from, the agenda of his faction), and how far he's willing to go to get it. And, for each character, generate at least one secret, and a threshold at which they can be bought. The secret doesn't need to be earth-shaking stuff (not all the ambassadors are going to secretly be evil cultists, but some might well have hidden bastards running around that they don't want revealed). And the thresholds at which they can be bought shouldn't necessarily be public, and neither should they all be absurdly high - if everyone's incorruptable then the court's going to be really dull.
Finally (as far as characters are concerned), add some 'wild cards'. These are characters who have a stake in the court, but no official place within it. This includes the courtesans and the crime lords, the spy masters, the drifters, and the desperate. Every wild card should be tied to at least one, and preferably two or more, factions in some way. (Added bonus - the wild cards can really be at odds with the factions they support. Perhaps that LG state religion has a wild-card assassin floating around, a dangerous fanatic who truly believes that he's doing his god's work by slaying those who vote against his purported 'master'.)
Now, draw up lots of diagrams showing the inter-relations between characters, factions, and so forth. Don't bother with minor relationships - that Lennier and Vir meet up daily to moan about their lot in life probably isn't worth noting, but if they swapped state secrets in their meetings then it definately would be.
Resist any temptation to label any character obviously 'good' or obviously 'evil'. Remember that G'Kar started off as a clear villain, and ended as one of the strongest allies of good; Londo started as comic relief and ended as anything but. A more pragmatic view of morality, even amongst the agents of a LG church, will serve you better here.
Now, why am I advocating all this work? What's the point? Well...
The conference will be the background event that brings the group together. I'm looking for a nice, low level, intrigue at court scenario in which the players get to foil a plot (espionage, murder, theft, whatever), preferably from an unknown exterior power.
Having a detailed court should generate loads of intrigue all by itself, and will set you up with an entire campaign's worth of adventures.
For a concrete plot hook, how about the following:
A famine has hit the outlying regions of the kingdom. The people simply cannot afford to buy food due to the taxes they have paid. Therefore, the Outer Regions faction put forward a motion requesting that taxes be waived this year, to allow grain to be bought. However, the dominant religion in this region is the worship of Pelor. The church of St Cuthbert, the state religion, have made it known that they will support this motion only if the OR convert half of their churches to the worship of StC, or else they will oppose it. The OR faction, naturally, won't accede to this.
So, power devolves to the minor factions and, notably, the vote of ambassador Timon. Unfortunately, that's where things get messy.
The Neighbouring Nation wants the kingdom weak and divided, and especially the outer regions. Ideally, they want the motion defeated, so they can sell grain to the OR at a reduced cost, and later annex them, saving them from the 'tyranny' of the church of StC. But they know that Timon is a moral man - he will vote for the motion unless swayed.
By Timon has a mistress he loves very much. And she has an unfortunate addiction to a Drug of Choice. And there are three DoC dealers around the court, two of whom are in the pocket of the NN. Alas, the third just got killed by that assassin working for StC...
The plot hook comes when the PCs (who, for the sake of example, are pro-OR) discover that Timon is intending to vote against the motion. The ambassador is clearly ill-at-ease about this, but won't say why. However, a short investigation turns up odd and desperate behaviour on the part of the mistress, and the game's afoot...
The PCs should then follow the trail back, finding out about the addiction, the murder of the dealer (and, possibly, back to the church of StC - a red herring in this case), and to the two 'bought' dealers. The money with which the dealers were paid, of course, was from the treasury of NN, providing your 'hint' (although, if that's not obvious enough, have a masked agent be seen slipping away when the PCs raid the place).
The goal would be to: 1. introduce the players, 2. give them an opportunity to distinguish themselves (so that the conference reward them by entrusting them an important task), 3. introduce some hints about an external power plotting against their country.
Hmm. The example I've given sets you up with 1 & 3. #2 is a problem, since this would all be handled very quietly. However, they've clearly been of great use to Timon and the OR, so perhaps they would recommend them for this task?
Anyway, does any of that help?
