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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Herremann the Wise" data-source="post: 4394509" data-attributes="member: 11300">A lot of this depends upon how much honour is being given to the group and what the ball is in aid of. The Queen's birthday ball would seem a good starter if you wished a neutral affair to allow a variety of possible events. As for the PCs, a direct message from the King is obviously the highest honour (and will get a whole raft of noble's noses out of joint). The Bard approach allows the nobles to either positively engage the PCs afterwards or ignore them as suits the noble's stature. Again, I think you need to thread this in to what you have planned in the future for the PCs and what options you wish to present to them. The ball is obviously a fantastic catalyst.Yes. However, there is no reason why other honoured guests aside from the PCs could not attend. If you wished a competition of sorts between the PCs and these other honoured guests (be it diplomatic or combat orientated), then again, this gives you plenty of leverage to suit all party member's talents.Again, it depends upon how much honour you wish to accord the PCs. Really, the purpose of the ball (be it the Queen's birthday or otherwise) should be the signature of the event (and thus accorded prime position). The closer the PCs are timed to this, the greater perhaps the honour. However, I would perhaps think of doing a bard's tale early on regardless, so that the PCs are centre stage of the ball from the outset. This will propel the action of the ball and give everyone (be it PC or NPC) motivation for action (be it good or bad or preferably both).Eating strange delicacies, bard's tales, competitions of strength or accuracy, performances of a variety of types... it really depends on the tenor you are trying to set (exclusive, boisterous, restrained or perhaps just a cavalcade of weirdness and all of the above). I strongly suggest you have a look at the Prince of Redhand from Dungeon 131 (8th module in the Age of Worms adventure path). Whilst not entirely appropriate, it will show you how to run a "ball/festivity" encounter that works and works really well! This is more a ball for a "Mad King", which may or may not suit. However, if you can also get the web attachment on Paizo's website, you will have a lot of "guest" images that are fantastic for your NPCs of note. In fact if you download all the web enhancements for the Age of Worms path, you will have a horde of good images to use for different people at the ball.Focus on the PCs as really, it is all about them. Make sure there's conflict of one sort or another - but try to resist the trite or simple. Make the actions of the PCs at the ball seem important. Make sure there are plenty of agendas at the ball and make them obvious to the PCs (even if they are not obvious to all at the ball).If you can fill in some more details, I'd be more than happy to offer further suggestions. It's nice to feel motivated to respond to a thread on EN World at the moment. I'm truly sick of people rushing to attack or defend some version of the game. Your thread here is the type of thread that EN World needs at the moment!Best RegardsHerremann the Wise</blockquote>

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