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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mark" data-source="post: 4678444" data-attributes="member: 5">The PCs must win, so screw the mechanics.  Rolling dice to decide an RPing moment is ultimately unsatisfying, anyway, and encourages the players to simply phone it in.  Exactly the opposite result you would want for a stage play, ironically.  Anyway, on to the show!It might be fun to have the PCs actually construct a drama of some kind, if they are up to the task.  Otherwise, you could just ask them during your lead in time to supply elements that you then turn into the final product.  It doesn't have to be Tony-worthy, just solid enough to beat the fiasco you construct for the good Captain.  For that I suggest something along the lines of the following . . .Since he is, in his mind, I assume, as good as any aristocrat, I suggest you create a play along the lines of either a comedy of manners performed by obvious low-lifes or something that so strictly follow the rules of neoclassicism that it can't help but fail.  For the former, he might cast the production from among his friends and people to whom he owes favors.  This allows you to create a bunch of inside jokes and for the various "actors" to reveal a bit too much about themselves during the play, perhaps inclusive of future plot hooks.Some fun little things to throw in for either of the choices of the Captain might be for one character to never leave the stage because the playwright forgot to have him exit.  Have characters speaking way too much exposition, explaining their every motive and plan, heavily foreshadowing to the point of ruining any surprise the play may have been hoped to hold.  Have characters introduced early on that never reappear and others get mentioned that are never around at all, far too many names for the audience to remember.  Have the setting inexplicably shift with no explaination, perhaps because the production will be using stock sets so the cheapskate can save a few coppers. Costumes should be outlandish and have consistent malfunctions, such as a plume on a lead actor's hat always getting into his face and mouth during his lines.Hopefully there are some useful gems in there. If I happen to come up with more, I'll try to post them before your eight days are up.  Break a leg! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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