Shelter from the Storm: How to run war council?

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Next game session, my group will be attending the war council in Seaquen. It looks like it is going to be a lot of GM speaking on behalf of NPCs... I realize the reason behind it, both to introduce several important NPCs and to show that the PCs are in the middle of great events.

But... how to run it so my player's eyes don't glaze over?

I can try to mix it up, roleplay out some disagreements or Katrina's remarks, but that still leaves for a bunch of me talking to myself.

I was hoping that others who have been through this section might be able to give advice, and/or post how it went in their groups?

 

[Colmarr]

I haven't played or DMed WotBS, but maybe you could try out the suggestion from 4e's DMG 2 and have the players roleplay one each of the councilmembers? If the PCs aren't terribly active in the debate, giving them control of a councilmember (with stated goals and opinions) can keep the players interested in the scene.

Alternatively, borrow from Chris Perkins and bring in some 'guest stars' to be the councilmembers.

Unfortunately, if neither of those are possible, then you're stuck with multiple personality disorder.

 

[RangerWickett]

Alternately, have the PCs sit outside the meeting. Katrina goes inside and occasionally pops out to provide info on what people are talking about. Then the party gets called in to say their piece, and soon thereafter the Shahalesti show up.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. Has anyone attempted any of these in their game for a similar situation? How did the players react/like it?

 

[OnlineDM]

I ran it more or less as written in the module, offering the PCs the chance to speak up whenever they wanted. There were a few times where one or the other of them wanted to get up and say something in response to something a member of the War Council said, so I went with it. And there was a fair amount of talking among the players in response to what the Council members were saying: "Oh, I hate that guy." "Ooh, the Torch of the Burning Sky - I want to go get that!" and so on. They were definitely still engaged.

I also didn't draw it out at all. I described each speaker, let them make some History checks to see what they might already know about the speaker and/or their faction, had the speaker say their piece, let the players react, and then moved on to the next one. It probably took no more than 10 minutes of real-world time, which was not a problem for my group.

 

[Marius Delphus]

As I said in a (much) earlier thread along these lines, if you do hand out parts for the players, make sure to reserve Giorgio for yourself as DM. He's too much fun.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Thanks guys... I'm going to take a couple of these suggestions and see how it goes tonight!