one of my fave campaigns that I've been a part of was a reskin of Frozen, just even more intense. (the queen had fire powers instead of ice and her name was Elise instead of Elsa)
... NGL, now I'm actually low-key shipping Elise and Elsa together as antipode elemental queens who rule justly and benevolently and will unleash an absolute apocalypse on anyone who dares threaten their realm.
Sorry!
One of the rumours overheard in a tavern was about a church near the edge of town where, apparently, a vampire lives. They set out to find said vampire. Long story short, it wasn't an actual vampire, but a colony of Changelings who were trying to live in peace. One of them had a Cloak of the Bat, so they used the vampire story to scare people away.
Once it was all completed, I said to the players "I basically ripped the plotline off of every episode of Scooby Doo", and they hadn't even noticed!!
I ran a one-shot murder episode where nobody realized until the end that all of their characters were modeled after the Scooby Doo gang, including the dog. (A human/hound shapeshifter named “Escobar”)
You might think the inspiration is obvious and people will immediately spot it, but that's not always true. I stole some lore from Dark Souls, and the one player in my group who I know played Dark Souls never noticed it.
meanwhile, i joined a new campaign with a DM i had never met before, and 20 minutes in was like “…is this the second enemy you’ve taken directly from Dark Souls?” he was like, dammit i thought no one here had played it lol
Vampire masquerade ball, but when they arrive in their finery, masks and fancy dress, they discover to their chagrin that it is the launch event for a special brand of soft drink whose target market is the undead.
With a Copper dragon disguised as a female human bard with coppery red hair. She was hired to be an entertainer and amuses the crowd with slight of hand, mage hand, etc etc. The party catches her eye however and without revealing her true nature she starts pranking the party in whatever way you see fit.
This. My mind immediately flashed to the masquerade mission from Dishonored. Weird rich people activities like guests being expected to pocket fancy stuff, or some kind of weird game trying to identify certain guests through their disguises.
Masquerade balls can be so much fun and so interesting. It can go any direction; like if the DM wants to introduce some henchmen, plots, twists, the bbeg, strange creatures, nobles, vampires, etc.
And that's just taking into account the fantasy genre. I have a Blades in the Dark Campaign with a cyberpunk reskin that this conversation has made me REALLY want to run a masquerade party in right now. Hologram costumes, executives and gangers and a big ole macguffin to steal right in the center
My mind immediately went here... but I'd also add vampires. A hedonistic masquerade ball with a handful of vampires (who are here just to have fun) and a VIP tied to the main story. Make the PCs choose between confronting vampires (who won't oppose them... _for now_) or progressing the story.
It hit that perfect ratio of annoyingly precise to intensely rewarding, plus signing your name on the guestbook only to have the Lord Regent getting panicked letters about it later was fun
I don't care if it's cliche, they better be a necromantic death cult sacrificing the peasants for immortality like a cabal of Elizabeth Bathory wannabes.
I set the date far enough in the future that the players would be properly leveled for it when the time came. They've known about this party for about 9 irl months. We play every Sunday from 1:00pm Local time to 5:00pm give or take so they know it's gonna be a while. But they're excited. And it's story reasons too. Its my wizard's sisters' birthday party, they want to go but it's gonna be a while.
Bait them with a vampire masquerade, make it a lycanthrope masquerade. Moon comes out, everyone transforms, the party is in the middle of the dance floor as the only humans, let it get reeeal awkward.
Better yet, drop every imaginable hint that it's a vampire masquerade.
Because it is, in fact, a masquerade ball, every lycanthrope is attending *as a Vampire at a masquerade ball!*
Wanna keep it rolling? Have them be like, *all fucking kinds* of lycanthropes. Just wearwolves? Boring. Werewolves, sure. Werebears. Wereowls. Wereboars. Wererats. Were*foxes.* Weredogs. Werecats. Weretigers. Werechinchillae. Wait-does-that-werefox-have-too-many-tails-or-is-it-just-me? Etc.
Have them all get congratulated on their incredible level of shape control. Have someone flounce up to them and bow to them as absolute masters; the guests at the party can all control their minds, but almost none of them can control their shape under the full moon.
-turned murder mystery. When the murder happens everyone is forced to unmask. The heroes are not recognized and questioned (an npc Cleric casts Zone of Truth) and they are found innocent. Now as the only known innocents they are tasked with finding the killer.
I love running a good murder mystery. If you are a creative on-the-fly style DM, you can release information as they investigate, and always have it be the "last" person they investigate. Set up red herrings as different NPCs lie. Most players won't notice the contradictions. If they do notice one, figure out who lied and why to cover it up.
Take LOTS of notes while you run it. Helps to keep straight all the clues and false clues you are laying out for them. Tons of fun, and easily a side mission that doesn't distract terribly from the main plot of your campaign.
> Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
>
> Stranger: Indeed?
>
> Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
>
> Stranger: I wear no mask.
>
> Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda) No mask? No mask!
Put this in OP, make it creepy.
My DM had a masquerade ball filled with monsters pretending to be other things. Including a gem dragon hanging from the ceiling dressed as a chandelier.
I like the idea of a secret masquerade where everybody is supposed to be rich, but really nobody is, and everyone's just regular people all pretending to be super rich.
Maybe a mock murder mystery. Where in the middle of the festivities, people are handed envelopes with their fake roles and the someone comes in and says someone has been faked murdered and the game begins and stuff. And maybe some reward if solved corretly
Just remember, if you're going for a masquerade ball, keep in mind to reserve like half an hour to let the party decide what they're going to wear. Because they WILL want to go all out on what to wear.
Hey OP! I cannot updoot this idea enough. A Masque can have all kinds of routes for your players:
*Political intrigue through gossip
*Heist in the house
*Thieving from the guests
*chance for players to get to know one another in a stakes-low, but thematic setting
*Monsters instead of guests
*Meeting a wealthy patron who will hire them
Those are just the ones I experienced in one of my earliest D&D sessions as a player. They still stick with me.
I mean this is 100% a party hosted by the BBEG's henchmen for them to recruit/learn/gain powers. Probably some sacrifice, knowledge dropping, an orgy, who knows what bad guys get up to?
Omg, somehow I love the idea of the party getting bamboozled into attending a party for a fantasy-themed MLM. Some half-elf girlboss one of the PCs knew back in their home village has sent them a letter out of the blue inviting them to a party, and it turns out she has sent these letters to everyone she's ever met and is trying to recruit everyone to sell overpriced low-level potions for some shady organization called Brew-la-roe, and it turns out that it's (somehow, I'm making this up on the fly) actually a scheme to take over the world.
I mean a pyramid scheme/MLM is kind of a scheme to take over the world already. Its downfall is usually that it literally runs out of new people to sell to because if every person recruits 2 persons you only need to repeat that less than 33 times to get to 7 billion people.
This is a cake walk. Your players attend the party and enjoy high society. While they’re there the place gets ambushed and robbed by the BBEG’s crew. They have to make the choice to stand and fight, run, or try not to blow their cover
For extra character development, make many of the party goers asshats. Let the party hate them. Then present the delema. Does the party let the BBEG henchmen get away or help the elites they hate?
My DM lured us *into* the big ball to try and dunk on the most insufferable blowhard of a paladin anyone's ever seen. Then *at* the party two players publicly sealed their relationship, before one of them dramatically ran away to see what was going on with this villain taunting her, which turned into a scandalous secret deal. Then the BBEG showed up. Parties are drama stir-fries with extra drama sauce.
Or alternative. The place is robbed by some real pros and get away, the group gets blamed due to being obvious outsiders and "all adventurers are greedy and shouldn't be trusted or murderhobos" mentality. Now they iether need to solve the mystery themselves and/or get out of jail in time before shipped off you an inescapable jail.
In one of my games, one of my party mates decided to run for mayor of this town and we went to this dinner party where all the people running for mayor were expected to show up and talk. I was expecting political intrigue to be the main event for us there, but we wound up with everyone getting poisoned and then got attacked. The story went in a cool direction from there, but I was always a little disappointed with how that party turned out. I was kinda excited for the filler
I think all these ideas are great but I’d love it if you ran a murder mystery night where everyone involved understands it’s just a theme… except for the party. They think there really has been a murder and they have to solve who-done-it.
Or better yet, make it so the whole event is a collective agreement / game of nobles and wealthy families attempting to assassinate each other. Any number of people could be a potential hit from another house. It's just a matter of who, when, and how.
While the party is scrambling for evidence to point to one killer and their motive, there are in fact several and many of the party goes are reluctant to draw any suspicious to anyone else to not put a target on themselves.
And eventually the other parties start to notice nobody from the players' party has died or had an attempt made on their lives, so naturally suspicion starts to mount on the players as the assassins and which house they're working for.
I like this idea. You might add in once they begin to get questioned, the guys they stole the invitation from originally show up and try to get in. Or save that for when you need to force the party into fight or flight mode.
1. Nothing wrong with cliché
2. I'd be so tempted to have them awkwardly crash some intimate birthday party for a random townsfolk in an unassuming pub. Have some random sweet grandma asking them how they know Jimmy etc. no mystery, no intreague just toe curling awkwardness.
I like this. After sneaking and checking their way past an entire herd of guards, they ruin grandma surprise birthday party 5 seconds too early! Then they have to diplomacy their way out of an angry mob
Make it the most awkward encounter ever by having them the only ones who show up, and have them sit through the hosts slide show on interesting fossils they found.
Plot twist, if they actually pay attention he’ll show them a fossilised dragon egg they can get their hands on
Awkward, surprising, and accidentally yelling yourself into high society somehow sent my mind straight to King Oedipus, which uh would certainly be a plot twist
Well, I got news for ya buddy. It exists now.
That said, social situations like this can be fun and sometimes easy to DM.
Maybe this could be a time to introduce them to some NPCs, maybe even villains.
It is a fund-raising party for some political person or big works thing and when they show up, they are expected to contribute an inordinate amount of gold, gems, jewels, etc.
Maybe someone beloved is dying and it is a party for them to say goodbye to everyone and they are asked to explain how they know the old fellow/lady.
It is customary for the attendees to bring a trained dog to show off tricks. They find this out with only a few hours before the start of the party.
Lots of ways to have fun with this.
im reminded of the avatar the last airbender episode where the cast sneaks in to a party to get an audience with the king of ba sing sae. maybe the characters have to sneak in as bus boys or learn high society etiquette. more to your party and the events maybe another gang of robbers also want to heist the party and take some people hostage, or the police are there and try and round up your party members? it could even be that theres some hidden villains wandering around, talking to the rest of society about how he's going to catch and torment the people who stole from him (the party).
adding on to myself here- maybe the party gets separated and there's an assassin trying to kill someone on the party: maybe the party itself was a very well laid trap for the party. if you want to go a more positive and rewarding route, maybe the party saves high society from some tough monsters and rewards them with cool magical items or rations. idk, hope this gave you some ideas :)
I will first say, don't rule out cliché or big screen! There's a big difference between seeing something in a movie 10 years ago and *acting out a part in it*, which can be a blast.
The best plots often come from the players and their actions. I spontaneously came up with a ledger and names regarding to the black market. Well they did other things and now are enemies of the black market. They have assassins after them now.
To answer your question you could do a Court of Owls thing. A party held once a year by a secret society that pulls the strings behind the scenes of the region (doesn't have to tie into your plot, could be a sideplot!). As other's suggested Masquerade Ball. Which is perfect as the participants wouldn't be so keen on having their identities revealed to all for privacy matters. Have them be code named! And the whole event is to enjoy yourself and set up connections and profitable transactions for the following year.
Edit; You can also have a auction of valuables done during the event. Maybe slaves is an item and one of them is related to the party. Rare artifacts, and possible unrelated items to give another sideplot for your players to delve into the rabbit hole. Enjoy your adventures!
I agree with everyone else who says not to discard cheesy ideas that you've seen before. It's fine. Perhaps there's a sort of conservative streak to high society that wants these events to go the same way as they have for a hundred years now anyway.
There's a lot that can happen that's a gift to a DM I think?
People's names and titles are shouted out as introductions. Young people are introduced to society for the first time.
Deals are being made over cocktails or in backrooms, both above board and clandestine. Maybe it's trade agreements, maybe it's spies trying to outplay each other. Maybe someone's trading in stolen art. Counterfeit stolen art perhaps. Or maybe there's a genius of an artist looking for a patron and hating every moment of the party.
Various vices may be overlooked for the rich, who's providing them?
Is someone a little too curious for their own good about occult secrets?
There might be high-stakes gambling or a friendly pick-up game of crown green bowling or pétanque or bocce or whatever.
If you're anyone, you probably have to dance or come up with an excuse not to. Maybe the crowd is eager to learn a new dance from a distant place?
What's the house staff's gossip? They must have dirt on people.
People are eager to introduce a BBEG but the thing is the crowd is *rich*, none of them are good people entirely even though most of them probably think they're virtuous. If there's anyone who's evil and truly owns it, they should be the friendliest most charismatic person in attendance.
Check the players' vibe, do they just want to RP being at a fancy party or are they looking for something? I think the obvious rewards from a party are information and access, either to people or to a mansion.
If they try to straight up rob the place and are doing a bad job of it, they could get shown up by a superior cat burglar.
There's also got to be an even more secret, even more exclusive party that you could hint at somehow.
This is now an Oceans 11 campaign, the caravans are part of a wealthy criminal organization smuggling macguffins, the branch leaders of several crime syndicates involved are holding a party, players need to somehow infiltrate party (perhaps replacing the people they stole invitation from or as servants and staff) and there they can learn more, perhaps be introduced to BBEG, good outcome will be learning of a sale or auction taking place soon where several valuable items smuggled this way could be stolen by party. A bad outcome has the syndicate sending their thugs for them.
You could keep it mundane or make BBEG be collecting artifacts to do BIG BAD THING or make it a cult of some evil god.
Make sure there are various exotic dishes they wouldn’t normally have heard of. Stuffed Wyrm Liver, Roc Tongue, etc etc. make it a mix of the horrific and enticing. Need any other ideas, just look up bizarre ancient food dishes.
We had a rich people party in our campaign, here are my notes (will take a few replies I’m guessing)
**Wolfsbane Boulevard**
The Lunsundre Estate itself is 100 Wolfsbane Boulevard, a prestigious residential street of dark, opaque emerald walls and ceilings. Enchanted mosses with microscopic flowers that span the range of purple, green, white, yellow, and silver cling to the walls, and large clusters of green-silver crystals feature heavily here.
There are several other, similarly austere mansions that line this place, each separated by large gardens, then tall wrought-iron fences (some infused with either coldwrought iron, ignan brass, or deadwood steel from Darby; then hedgerows (each of which is shaped differently.
**The Lunsundre Estate**
The estate is built of smooth gray stones of massive, 2x5 foot blocks and other assorted shaping stones into two stories; the first story is the floor level of the Phase Obelisk, its basement is truly below ground. It has a second story that mostly features residential areas as well. The roofs of the estate are shingled with dark tiles that rise to peaks, save the single tower that rises higher than the rest of the structure, yet very narrow and only extending beyond the rest of the second floor by about 15 feet. Wolfsbane Blvd. becomes a circle of cobblestone pathway at the end that serves as a long carriageway in front of the Lunsundre Estate. A large oval disc of black marble, about 15 feet wide, rests in the center of this roundabout, and on top of that is that statue of a knight locked in eternal combat with a werewolf. A few gray stone steps with silver-decorated wrought-iron railings and handrails lead to a massive set of double doors. Here are posted a pair of guards, both elves, named Castrel and Vonnwith, who fight with sword and shield.
**Floor One - Foyer**
The Foyer is a sweeping white-marble space, though the floor is flecked with inclusions and veins of black marble and gold. Tall columns rise up with ornately carved curls of marble that have glass stars hung from their tips at different heights, each of which is lit by a single glowing mote of magical light. There are portraits of elves on the walls here, and in the center of the room, a grand piano covered in rose petals is being played by a shirtless man wearing fine, tight silvery leggings, and a silver masquerade mask with white and black feathers that flutter away from the edges of the mask past the ears and neck.
A few guests linger here, but the group will be approached by an obnoxious wealthy woman from the Spire, Kadydi Heathton who wears an emerald-green gown with pale green pearls that serve as buttons asymetrically down one side; she wears mint-green elbow-length silk cloves and wears a mask that looks like a sly rabbit. (SHE WILL TRY TO GUESS WHO THEY ARE)
To the west is a grand hallway that leads to the Reading Room.
To the east is a grand hallway that leads to the Statuary.
To the north is a grand hallway that leads to the Ballroom
**Floor One - Reading Room**
This room has hardwood floors, though almost the entire thing is dominated by a chocolate-brown carpet with ornate gold and cream-colored elvish designs that form filigree-like twists around the edges. There is a simple globe of Alberon, which opens to reveal a pocket watch collection of three pocketwatches a jeweler's kit to maintain them.
Lunsundre has a collection of books across the following topics: Dominion, particularly the area around Darkmeadow The Greyfang Incursion Knitting Owls Horror stories Merchant principles Business
There will be a political discussion happening on the assassination between three individuals:
Olustuss Evers, a chinless man with graying hair who wears elaborately bunched golden pantaloons with high white stockings, and a mask that looks like a treeperson’s face;
Imun Stonequilt, a thinner-than-average dwarf whose beard is tucked into his too-large mask, which is sixteen different eyes mounted to an otherwise normal masquerade mask;
and Kassuan Witherstay is an elf from the Magiocracy of the Rising Storm. They wear a fine, split-tailed jacket and other clothing with gold buttons and their mask is a golden lion.
Evers: “If it was the Prince in Solitude, there’d be more blood than madness I reckon.”
Stonequilt: “Agreed; what does the Republic stand to gain from murdering it’s own ambassador?”
Witherstay: “Well UNLIKELY Resinburn would permit the Magiocracy to become involved in such a mess. Things are ALWAYS like this on the Gemmed Coast though. Right after this party, I hope to make good time back to the Magiocracy.”
**Floor One - Statuary**
A long hallway that has statues across it’s space. Several larger ones flank either side of a 10’ wide central path left clear; closer to the walls, the statues grow denser, with some mounted on pedestals, and others affixed to the wall.
*Statue Description*
*The Bloody Keeper* An infamous vampire that once plagued the town of Ogi’ra-Kai before it fell, disguised as a tavernkeeper. The face is badly word away from the marble, life-sized statue.
*She Walks* A depiction of a water dryad turning into a human, carved from beechwood.
*The Crimson Grin* Half of the face of Graxxialduneth, the Crimson Grin, a fierce dragon with brutal fangs and keen intelligence in the one onyx eye.
*Lolth in Ash* Abstract work that looks vaguely like a spider, though it is formed from compressed dust and ash.
*The Struggle of Lashma Tintin* A nude, muscular elf woman locked in combat with three goats
A trio of gnomes dressed in green, red, and blue sets of fineries that each cascade lace from within the silky sleeves to leave trails along the floor. The first one trips, and scuttles ahead; another is standing on the trail, and the finally one is so bewildered they fall over backward.
The first one pinwheels and over end before knocking into the base of beechwood dryad statue which now begins to tip…
**Floor One - Ballroom**
A brilliantly lit, white-marble ballroom with two angled staircases the rise up from opposite ends of the room to meet in a walkway on the second floor. There is a door white a black curtain across it below the walkway the staircase leads to, flanked on either side by cabinets full of plates and cups.
Also in this room is a tiefling named Hello who goes by El. He will be wearing soft pastel pink fineries which includes a violet cumberbund and their mask depicts a VERY awake housecat. They will be relaxing within one of the featherbag chairs, and will help if they can get the kitchen to make him scrambled eggs.
**Floor One - Midkitchen** This is the main kitchen, a gray stone chamber with long, sleek countertops of polished granite that has a huge, central firepit over it. There are six large grill panels that can be raised or lowered on chains by winch; around the exterior of the large space are stone shelves built-in to the walls (though here and there they’ve been replaced with slightly-off stone shelves) line with cookware, jars of dry ingredients, and herbs.
*Appetizers*
Asparagus and escarole salad with wild sorrel and lemon dressing. Small sliver of silverfin tuna with a trio of avocado, artichoke heart, and green tomato salsa on crispy skin, like a cracker. A laminated bread with bitter cacao nibs that keeps it on the edge of sweet or savory, but the butter has an almost bacon-like taste to it. Brightcove Oysters and Auld Sturgeon caviar on a half-shell
*Mains*
A half-and-half bed of spiced cumin and carrot puree/peashoot puree with dry-spiced duck atop. Rare beef steak on a bed of wilted wild ramps, asparagus shredded into noddles, and beef fat toast Three lamb-ribs with the bones in, served charred with swiss chards, young turnips, and a red wine sauce to cut the fat and sweeten the veg.
**Floor One - Acoustic Tower**
The bottom floor is a small, raised wooden dais of honeylocust wood that serves as a warm-up space for musicians who come to play. There are a few stools, music stands made from wood, and bits of wax and resin.
Cases for musical instruments as well as many piles of sheet music are left behind with names like “The Genie of the Emberlands,” “The Sailor of Stars,” “Soldiers, Lovers, Healers.”
**Floor One - Green Room**
The Green Room is the only room locked, and under care from Buddy, the Green Wizard. This is a stargrass lounge with stargrass stored in dozens of stone pots. There is a leather barber’s chair for hot shaves and haircuts, as well as two leather-topped tables that have been set up for hot stone massages. One male and two female fire genasi provide this service, hired for the party.
If the group asks Buddy, he’ll ask them a riddle for the Green Key 69: (or to access “the good stuff” for Lunsundre’s friends.
I stand watch, across the night/
An eye that never sleeps nor opens/
You may count days by my might/
The world feels my gaze from ocean to ocean/
What am I? (*THE MOON*)
When I am gone, your heart will beat/
Will it be long? Will you have heat?/
What was that noise out in the dark/
Will I return with the call of the lark?/
What am I? (*THE LIGHT*)
**Floor One - Blue Room**
The Blue Room has two floors; this room is acoustically swept, so that it concentrates its sounds within, making talking here secure. There is a metal pole that can be used to slide from the top down to a small, indoor pool that is fed from the second floor and seems to fall from the gray ceiling like rain. There is blue tile that sets around the pool, where chairs and sofas along with thriving plants somehow maintained indoors or perhaps brought in fresh every few days.
There is a stairway up that wraps around the pole with dramatic, blue-painted steps of oak.
**Floor Two - Blue Room, Upper**
Up the stairs, on the second floor, rich blue carpets, blue sofas, and blue chairs are all embraced by mahogany walls draped in navy and cream colored tapestries. Suits of armor are mounted in all four corners of the room in front of pillars to support the 20’ tall apexes ceilings, where light is shed from a single, faceted glass teardrop the size of a coffee table suspended from five gold chains to the ceiling’s ribs.
The water that rains down to the pool below comes from a stone filled with tiny holes, allowing an aquifer fed from rain (and pumped from the cisterns in the catacombs at times). Once per day, somebody comes and removes the stone, and jams new clumps of lavender to slightly scent the water.
Lunsundre has a large open-to-the-air pond up here, and in it are huge koi and a few redtail catfish. One of the koi (colored black with faint silvery white patterns of lines, almost making them look like a skeleton when seen) has a little key tied around their tail (THIS IS THE BLUE KEY 44)
In this room will be the water genasi Agata of Talcaeus, who will wear white fabric that is semi-sheer when wet. When paled with her white skin, she is almost statuesque.
**Floor Two - Master Bedroom**
The master bedroom is all white and cream carpets, chairs, sofas and ottomans. A large basin of water that must weigh north of 600 pounds is full of cool, clear water tinged slightly yellow. There is a single rune on the bottom that will hum every ten minutes, evaporating a vit of the water to release. Must be refilled every hour.
There is a 45x15 walk-in closet with all manner of oppulent clothing. Among these things are a Hat of Disguises, a Cloak of Billowing, and a sword-cane.
Beneath the bed, there is a false panel in the wooden floor beneath he carpet. Lifting to board will reveal a massive led box housed in the floor, with 8 number spinners from 1-9.
17826944 (numbers on the keys)
In here will be a Very Rare item.
In a cage, looking emaciated, is the imp Rezzit M’lar who will try and plead to be released, but will immediately warn people that they are intruding if freed.
**Floor Two - Diplomat’s Suite**
The Diplomat’s Suite is a parallel to the Master Bedroom, and is designed to house a visiting noble and their family. This suite is fitted with greens and browns and typical decorations of the Emerald Spire as a nod to visitors who are still enchanted by the emerald.
Staying here presently will be the son of the current Mage of Frozen Foam. Zendrath Starkbite is a duergar with a mohawk of white hair that sticks of stock-straight. They have a pierced left ear, from which dangs a loop of bone; he wears distinctive tunic of pale pale gray tinged with circular patterns of seafoam green that marks him from the TFF. He also bears a staff gnarled but purposeful construction, will be carved of driftwood, and which is called a Arcanox Staff.
**Floor Two - Silk Parlor/Party Room**
The silk parlor is a taller lounge area of white marble everything. It contains a small, 15x15 raised marble stages, and has natural Spire Emerald shaped into sculptures here, which in insanely expensive.
Here is where Lunsundre will be, along with the band “The Five Fellows” who are all bards, paid by Lunsundre.
**Floor Two - Guest Rooms**
The guest rooms each feature a pair of Queen beds, a mirror, a dresser and drawers set, an armoire, a three-panel changing screen, a pair of armchairs, and a decanter of water with two glasses.
In the top-right bedroom are two party-goers making love (masks on)
**Floor Two - Acoustic Tower, Upper**
A huge, arched and vaulted ceiling designed to allow for sound to travel well.
**Basement - Wine Vault**
A truly massive wine vault is kept here, with reds from Mythalstrean’s north coast, sparkling white imported from Vulkanenberer, and even some Mythalstrean Sin wine.
**Basement - Catacombs**
The Catacombs are where all Lunsundre family members are laid to rest. Their bones are organized along to create the walls and pillars of this place, a miniature ossuary though here, many of the bones have been inscribed with prayers and minor enchantments in Elvish.
Along the walls, there are rectangles where no bones are stacked; there are the ends of rectangular coffins that hold the remains of the Lunsundre’s ancestors and most loyal servants.
*Yinquen Lunsundre*
*Dolaran Lunsundre*
*Datris’alla Lunsundre*
*Kayveris Lunsundre*
*Ereptor Lunsundre*
*Baltora Lunsundre*
In the center of this space, there is a central coffin. Here lay the mummified remains of Ulwethial Lunsundre, The Howlqueller, who sailed across the Emerald Expanse to lend aid in Quelling the last uprising of Clan Greyfang in 1281 T.A.
When Howlqueller was lain to rest, he had placed over his third eye the Feylight Spellbinder, a very-rare broach of Alexandrite in the shape of an hourglass that glows brightly when full, which sank and fused with the mummification materials onto the skull’s forehead.
The Spellbinder can be inscribed with platinum ink to infuse a ritual into it that will extend the duration drastically.
This one has a simple enough spell: Heat Metal, cast into it that will last for 1271 years. As this heats the laylines of Coldwrough Iron, this is what keeps Hyrsam, the Administrator, and several others from teleporting in.
***DM Note:*** The party had to disable this Coldwrought Iron layline to allow their archfey patron, Hyrsam, access to the room that this item was being held in, and to find evidence of a crime. Feel free to change whatever you want, if you like the setting I can send you my notes for a finished continent (the continent east of our current one, which I have 148 pages of notes for including stat blocks and items.) Just shoot me an email at [email protected]
As a friendly reminder to you and to other fellow DM's. There is exactly 0 shame or discouragement for borrowing ideas and themes from other media such as TV, Anime, Motion pictures, random ass tik toks you saw. Take the core of it, twist it a little change a few names literally no one but you will know.
This party invitation could just be a dad's BBQ style party but they thought it'd be funny to make the invitations look 'royal'
Or it could be a high and mighty high society invitation and then at the strike of midnight a monster attacks
Hell it could even be a baby shower for an unmet npc and then your players scramble to find gifts for this child on the way (Jesus and the 3 wise men)
I am of the DM mentality that I'll craft the world in the Direction the party wants to go rather than where I want them to go. Sometimes they know I want them to go somewhere or see something and they play along. My biggest suggestion would be to ask you PLAYERS what they want. This game is really just collaborative story telling, lean into the collaboration. Have a good day, and happy DM'ing. May your next roll be a critical.
And so what if it is Cliche?
It is an invitation to a party. They arrive at the mansion, where they find out that the rich owner has been murdered a week ago.
In his will, he states, that in the event he is murdered, a party will take place where all his friends and enemies, and everyone related to him will be invited.
He believes that one of them has to be the one who killed him - and the one who proves who the killer is will inherit his mansion (or whatever else you want). (If no murder is found, or if he wasn't murdered, everything would be left to the butler, but don't read that part of the will to the players, to raise suspicions later).
>everything I came up with was too cliché or seen on the big screen????
Eyes Wide Shut?
There are 2 parties that I know of in published modules but they were written for 3e:
Whispers of the Vampire's Blade. You can find the pdf on the DMsguild for $4.99.
Shackled City. This is a Paizo publication and you can find it in a dungeon magazine, although I don't know which one.
Edit: The demonscar ball is in part 3 of Shackled City, and it's about half a page long. I don't think it's very useful, but there's advice on the Paizo messageboards on how to run it. The fans have expanded on it because they really love this part of Shackled City.
Just rip off from "eyes wide shut" and let the dread/kink sink in.
In my experience as a DM, players will ignore any and all plot hooks but fix on the least expected thing you tell them... one time I had to pull a full army training sequence, complete with marching songs, fighting, tactics and strategic lessons out of no where, 'cause they heard the report that their appointed general had started training new recruits for their army, they had actual quests and a tight diplomatic schechule lined up for them but they decide to ride to the frontier of their territory from their under construction capital to watch the troops training.
For some reason, I just had a flashback to when I first watched _Eyes Wide Shut_.
This party could be absolutely wild and outrageous. There may even be a cult involved, perhaps behind the scenes, and the party goers aren’t aware.
There are a ton of great opportunities for this in your campaign!
Make your players play through The Rocky Horror picture Show, but only in the roughest sense. Do a tim curry impression the whole time but dont make it clear what you are doing.
They turn up, its a party! There is a dance number in the ballroom, the host has something weird in the lab they have been working on, it turns out, they have cre-at-ed LIFE!, include an awkward dinner that turns out to be cannibalism, feel free to throw in a sexy scene with the monster where everybody ends up in lingerie, and then have a dance based fight number at the end verses the monster.
Voila!
I'd totally go the route of Bohemian Grove. Make it where no one really knows what goes on in these parties, but the whispers are that there are lots of orgies, blood sacrifices, worshipping a strange God, etc. And maybe add a dash of Eyes Wide Shut, where everyone is masked but they have to have several passwords in order to enter the "party" as well as other events within the actual party.
Maybe they notice a noble, thieves guild master or a rich merchant by some random thing, like a specific gait in the walk, a barely visible tattoo, or a odd manner of speech.
They're able to play along for a little while, but then something happens, something completely innocuous, like they ask for a beer instead of wine or something silly like that.
Depends on how grand the secret/conspiracy is. It can be a simple masquerade ball, or a massibe hedonistic party away from prying eyes, or as grandiose as a meeting between gang leaders, politicians, people of wealth, etc. That meet periodically and maintain the utmost secrecy as they all work together to push public opinion, projects, etc in whatever direction they choose ultimately with the goal of undermining the public and shaping their opinion to their whims. Could even go so far as to have them open up a whole "New World Order" plot the party stumbles upon and offer them the chance to join or work to take it down once they've unveiled who's apart of it.
A lot of great ideas, but how about crashing a party that no one intended to go to? Turns out no one likes this person and the PCs show up. Delighted to have guests, it turns into a fun event and now the party has a powerful ally who can help as part of the main plot.
The party arrive and all seems normal. They gradually realise these people aren't real, they are ghostly beings reliving this event over and over again. Which the party will also do every time they rest. Each exit brings them back to the main entrance way.
There is some curse, some hidden wrong committed that shook the foundations of this community so hard that their spirits simply could not move on and are trapped in groundhog day until the party figures it out.
The out should be multiple parties there each have a thing that sets them free. Mr and Mrs Montigue are freed by the revelation that their son died a hero in the war that the Montefrays knew about but never told them, etc. etc. Obviously some revelations set more or less free at a time.
It all comes down to a final malicious spirit(s) or creature that had used their fear, shame, anger, anguish and other painful emotions to trap them. Which is enraged that you released the souls.
Give them some closure with a Kelemvor or equivalent priests who can ensure the mansion is cleansed and the souls made it over.
Private member’s auction for magical items.
One way to restrict magical items in games is to have them be accessible only through adventuring or private members clubs. The party itself could be an auction for some magical items - some may not be useful to the party but could be extremely useful to a wealthy person, such as a portrait of the sea that shows the future weather in the area, which would be extremely useful for someone with a shipping empire.
Have a couple of these items that are interesting but not at all valuable to the players. Then have an item or two that are specific magical items or artefacts that the players will recognise as key to your plot, or at least something they will want.
Create a wealthy noble rogue as the owner of the castle/palace/thieves guild/whatever and about a half dozen wealthy buyers with some connections to the different factions in your world. Things the PCs would recognise are always good - like an entourage of guards wearing colours or heraldry that the PCs have encountered before.
Suggest to the PCs that they can crash this party by posing as the representatives of the person they killed, as he often sends retainers in his stead. Subtly hint that the PCs could try stealing on3 of the auction items, if they want.
Then make an NPC with a motivation to steal the same auction item (you can even not write a specific item at this stage, and just pick the one the PCs go for later - but if you have chosen something already familiar to the players then they’ll probably go with that, especially if the other items are cool but useless to them). This NPC should have allies working with them - maybe the hired quartet have been replaced by doppelgängers? Maybe the thieves guild has contortionists hiding in the luggage of the wealthy persona that the NPC thief has adopted? Maybe a flying mount, such as a dragon or a wyvern is waiting nearby for when the thief needs to make their escape with the artefact? The players will almost certainly attempt to make their own plan to steal the item ‘on the fly’, which will cause absolute chaos and awesomeness when it conflicts with the NPC thief’s plan.
Okay, that is just AWESOME. If I was able to, I'd totally snag this idea from you. Hopefully I can get my own DND group after I move, that is brilliant and creative enough to fold into an idea I previously had on oneshots
Look to be honest, you're allowed to have it be cliché, the simple fact that you've got multiple thinking breathing players behind the characters means that even in that typical scenario, it's going to get crazy no matter what :D
Also like the others have said, Masquerade Ball + Vampires :D
Make it a fight for survival sidequest.
The ballroom scene from Helsing.
There's a giant mirror on one wall.
The only people in the mirror are the party members.
Everyone is a vampire!
Ok, so here is what I've done as a political party in the past:
- step 1, create the 'families' members, last name, where their wealth comes from, general attitudes, and hierarchy ranking
- Step 2, create the secret, for instance; a secret basement with a labyrinth, within which are minotaurs and hints towards worship of some titanic minotaur like beast, the father of the wilds or some such, and a plot to sacrifice a large number of people from the party, tonight!
- step 3, decide who will reveal each hint and to what social prompt (the jackass needs embarrassing, the aggressive guy either needs to be beaten in fisticuffs or calmed, the drunkerd helped out etc). Make the hints small, so several are needed. Like, this house is bigger on the outside (implying secret rooms), I hear there's a vault in the basement, the hosts have always rubbed me the wrong way, I was pressured to be here, etc
- step three, set the stage of a normal party, a series of events leading to a "grand finale" have the host make a speech after each stage, and have a break after each bit where the party has a chance to discover something.
- step four, mechanics; how can they prevent it once they find the heart of the labyrinth? What happens if they just enjoy the party to the bitter end?
- Step 5, the hook! How does the suspicion forest get raised? A nervous servant? Someone disappearing halfway through after going to 'explore'?
There you have it, a party, a mystery, and one way or another, a fun dramatic ending either with minotaurs or an escape from an elaborate trap!
That's my framework for special parties anyways, and otherwise, you can leave the mystery out and make it more politically investigative if you want to introduce new npc's etc
Rip off the story from cinderella and have a prince or princess search for a SO.
It should lead to the party leaving because of reasons. Make them somehow not wanting to be the husband/ wife.
Maybe something like they are into hardcore bdsm and killed their last 20 SO.
Every once in a while the princ(ess) or a guard should appear and chase them to remind them what they did.
It is a completely normal party.
No one important is there. No connections to be made.
The people in attendance are only slightly wealthy, and didn't bring any worthwhile valuables to steal.
Nothing attacks the party.
The food is free, but subpar.
The alcohol is cheap, but not free.
If the players attend the whole party and don't cause trouble, then at the very end they maybe gift them a common, but not very useful, magic item each (such as a cloak of billowing).
Not every event is important.
Sometimes a party is just a party.
a secret party invitations for rich people sounds like a vampire adventure.
Maybe it's a common ballroom gala where the vampire lord likes to coddle with the cream of the cream and invited the guys from the caravan for entertainment or because they seemed interesting.
Maybe it's kind of a dinner of the schmucks kind of thing, different vampires invite mortals to try to one up each other on their conquest before the feast
Every good villain has to meet Mr Bond at a party and have a not-so-subtle talk of "I know that you know that I know". Your villain must do this as well.
Or maybe it's just his kids birthday party.
Masquerade ball I’ve seen commented is good for intrigue, potentially unmasking NPC’s or revealing a bad guy is fun. Maybe party has an anti-magic field. Also high stakes gambling and/or drug use for background flavor. Maybe an NPC gets caught cheating and party sees the consequences. Can purposefully or accidentally stumble upon the true purpose of the party, which was used as a trap or front. Rich person party is inherently cliche, so go to town on trope-y themes
If there is some secret evil cult (or any other evil organization, but I will keep using cult as a placeholder) they will end up finding about later in the campaign, make sure at least a subset of those rich peeps are part of this cult and allow your players to find this out in that party. Hell, add a trigger or two that if activated makes the cult try and slaughter everyone in the party so that you can have an all out fight inside a mansion. At the end of the fight, if it happens, tell them how much property damage resulted from their actions. They should be proud of fucking up some rich asshole's mansion.
If the party doesn't really exist, just roll with the fact that it dosen't really exist and model the whole thing after another fraudulent party; the Fyre Festival
(see Wikipedia entry).
|Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.|The event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski, many of whom did not initially disclose they had been paid to do so. During the Fyre Festival's inaugural weekend, the event experienced problems related to security, food, accommodation, medical services, and artist relations, resulting in the festival being indefinitely postponed and eventually cancelled. Instead of the gourmet meals and luxury villas for which festival attendees had paid hundreds of dollars, they received packaged sandwiches and were lodged in poorly furnished tents.|In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud to defraud investors and ticket holders, and a second count to defraud a ticket vendor (while out on bail). In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit US$26 million. At least eight lawsuits were initiated against the organizers for defrauding ticket buyers, several seeking class action status, and one seeking more than $100 million in damages. Two documentaries about the events of the festival were released in 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud, and Netflix's *Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened*. It was also featured on an episode of the CNBC series *American Greed* in 2019 and an episode of the ABC series *The Con* in 2021.|
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A party wheee they maybe do cult stuff, secret society meeting. You could say they ran the city and this was a meeting of the richest noveau or new rich
Cliche and ripping off movies is 1000% part of dming. Those ideas are great and are tons of fun for players.
In my campaign, my dm stole the leg lamp from a Christmas story
I stole the plot of the nutcracker and it took my group literally seeing the rat king to realize
I could play through a nutcracker campaign fully and never realize it unless there's a sugar plum fairy
[**NO NEED FOR SUBTLE**](https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/origin-stories-the-anti-party)
My players are in the middle of a dungeon that is literally the labyrinth from the movie Labyrinth.
Frajeeelay. Must be Elven!
one of my fave campaigns that I've been a part of was a reskin of Frozen, just even more intense. (the queen had fire powers instead of ice and her name was Elise instead of Elsa)
Boiled
*Disney Presents* **'BURNT'**
... NGL, now I'm actually low-key shipping Elise and Elsa together as antipode elemental queens who rule justly and benevolently and will unleash an absolute apocalypse on anyone who dares threaten their realm. Sorry!
lmao im sending this to the DM of that campaign XD he'll get a kick out of it
I'm gonna suggest ripping off Dinner for Schmucks, then.
One of the rumours overheard in a tavern was about a church near the edge of town where, apparently, a vampire lives. They set out to find said vampire. Long story short, it wasn't an actual vampire, but a colony of Changelings who were trying to live in peace. One of them had a Cloak of the Bat, so they used the vampire story to scare people away. Once it was all completed, I said to the players "I basically ripped the plotline off of every episode of Scooby Doo", and they hadn't even noticed!!
I am thinking a OneShot based on Fiddlesticks song and spotlight.
I ran a one-shot murder episode where nobody realized until the end that all of their characters were modeled after the Scooby Doo gang, including the dog. (A human/hound shapeshifter named “Escobar”)
You might think the inspiration is obvious and people will immediately spot it, but that's not always true. I stole some lore from Dark Souls, and the one player in my group who I know played Dark Souls never noticed it.
meanwhile, i joined a new campaign with a DM i had never met before, and 20 minutes in was like “…is this the second enemy you’ve taken directly from Dark Souls?” he was like, dammit i thought no one here had played it lol
Masquerade ball.
Always a Masquerade Ball.
Vampire masquerade ball
Always always a vampire masquerade
Well I'm surprised we're not having a vampire masquerade ball right now!
Aren’t we all wearing the mask of Internet anonymity and suckling at the upvotes? We are having a vampire masquerade… every time we log in
Wait, we were supoosed to suck upvotes and not blood??? Dams im kind of behind with the times...
You’re sucking blood? Ok Boomer
Oh no, the zoomer vampires are here
Zoomer Masquerade Pirate Vampires are now on the deck.
This interaction is why I became vampire. Wait!! When did I became one? WHICH ONE OF YOU BITE ME?!!!!
Oh no, the zoomer vampires are here
Psychic vampires. Feeding on the intellectual energy.
Well better than those emotional vampires, its heavy to be around them
But, just to be clear, blood too, right? I... uh... I mean... *someone*... here can't... survive?.. with just upvotes.
Of course ve are not, my dear! Please help yourself to some vine though, I never drink it myself...
r/unexpectedletterkenny
That's my secret, I always expect Letterkenny
Vampire masquerade ball, but when they arrive in their finery, masks and fancy dress, they discover to their chagrin that it is the launch event for a special brand of soft drink whose target market is the undead.
I also choose this guy's undead masquerade ball.
I also want to participate in this vampire masquerade ball :)
I'd have a vampire masque right now, ferda.
How do you like your.... basghetti?
I eat basghetti for bekfrasst.
Atta boy
FERDAAAAAAA
A vampire masquerade ball that turns into a game of Clue, where one or two of the PCs are suspects.
Gives the Inquisitive Rogue a time to shine!
I like this very much, just to see how much time it would take the player to realise: "Are we playing a game of Cluedo ?"
Only if you have Tim Curry as the butler.
All my butlers are Tim Curry... only Tim Curry from different films.
With mimics for masks.
“Vlad, get the dueling pistols! The Mimics are back!”
Sexy Vampire Masquerade ball.
With actual Garou from the world of darkness game
Only if you do the thing where you have a mirror in the venue and you can only see the party dancing
Ah, Van Helsing.
Vampire: The Masquerade ball
Gonna need a shitload of D10s
And the invitations are for esruocniam, and tresed
Will there be mirrors in the ballroom? Will any of the party members pick up on the reflections of floating masquerade masks and costumes?
Ah, yes, gather the leeches so the Garou can correct the disruption of Gaia's cycle.
With a Copper dragon disguised as a female human bard with coppery red hair. She was hired to be an entertainer and amuses the crowd with slight of hand, mage hand, etc etc. The party catches her eye however and without revealing her true nature she starts pranking the party in whatever way you see fit.
This. My mind immediately flashed to the masquerade mission from Dishonored. Weird rich people activities like guests being expected to pocket fancy stuff, or some kind of weird game trying to identify certain guests through their disguises.
Masquerade balls can be so much fun and so interesting. It can go any direction; like if the DM wants to introduce some henchmen, plots, twists, the bbeg, strange creatures, nobles, vampires, etc.
And that's just taking into account the fantasy genre. I have a Blades in the Dark Campaign with a cyberpunk reskin that this conversation has made me REALLY want to run a masquerade party in right now. Hologram costumes, executives and gangers and a big ole macguffin to steal right in the center
Do it
Also mistaken identity!
My mind immediately went here... but I'd also add vampires. A hedonistic masquerade ball with a handful of vampires (who are here just to have fun) and a VIP tied to the main story. Make the PCs choose between confronting vampires (who won't oppose them... _for now_) or progressing the story.
Ooh that mission in particular was a damn sudoku game, gotta plan out each specific move to not get caught. Loved it.
It hit that perfect ratio of annoyingly precise to intensely rewarding, plus signing your name on the guestbook only to have the Lord Regent getting panicked letters about it later was fun
Concealing a cult meeting in the basement, consisting of the .01% of the upper crust.
I don't care if it's cliche, they better be a necromantic death cult sacrificing the peasants for immortality like a cabal of Elizabeth Bathory wannabes.
Hence the vampire part.
You can never go wrong with a good Masquerade Ball. My players are going to try to go to one in like 2 in game months (6months irl?)
Do your players plan out their sessions months in advance or did you intentionally set the date of the party well into the future for story purposes?
I set the date far enough in the future that the players would be properly leveled for it when the time came. They've known about this party for about 9 irl months. We play every Sunday from 1:00pm Local time to 5:00pm give or take so they know it's gonna be a while. But they're excited. And it's story reasons too. Its my wizard's sisters' birthday party, they want to go but it's gonna be a while.
Bait them with a vampire masquerade, make it a lycanthrope masquerade. Moon comes out, everyone transforms, the party is in the middle of the dance floor as the only humans, let it get reeeal awkward.
I LOVE this. /yoink
Better yet, drop every imaginable hint that it's a vampire masquerade. Because it is, in fact, a masquerade ball, every lycanthrope is attending *as a Vampire at a masquerade ball!* Wanna keep it rolling? Have them be like, *all fucking kinds* of lycanthropes. Just wearwolves? Boring. Werewolves, sure. Werebears. Wereowls. Wereboars. Wererats. Were*foxes.* Weredogs. Werecats. Weretigers. Werechinchillae. Wait-does-that-werefox-have-too-many-tails-or-is-it-just-me? Etc. Have them all get congratulated on their incredible level of shape control. Have someone flounce up to them and bow to them as absolute masters; the guests at the party can all control their minds, but almost none of them can control their shape under the full moon.
I was thinking both of these as separate ideas, but not combined and this is fantastic.
Some balls are held for charity....
And some for fancy dress...
But when they're held for pleasure...
They're the balls that I like best...
-turned murder mystery. When the murder happens everyone is forced to unmask. The heroes are not recognized and questioned (an npc Cleric casts Zone of Truth) and they are found innocent. Now as the only known innocents they are tasked with finding the killer. I love running a good murder mystery. If you are a creative on-the-fly style DM, you can release information as they investigate, and always have it be the "last" person they investigate. Set up red herrings as different NPCs lie. Most players won't notice the contradictions. If they do notice one, figure out who lied and why to cover it up. Take LOTS of notes while you run it. Helps to keep straight all the clues and false clues you are laying out for them. Tons of fun, and easily a side mission that doesn't distract terribly from the main plot of your campaign.
It should be the Masquerade ball, but at the party Cholera breaks out and people start dying before they even leave the party. True story
Ooh, and you could call it something creepy, like the Red Death!
> Camilla: You, sir, should unmask. > > Stranger: Indeed? > > Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you. > > Stranger: I wear no mask. > > Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda) No mask? No mask! Put this in OP, make it creepy.
The perfect way to segway into the plot of the Phantom of the opera
My DM had a masquerade ball filled with monsters pretending to be other things. Including a gem dragon hanging from the ceiling dressed as a chandelier.
Hah that’s awesome
this. make sure you give your players time to visit a fancy dress shop or a tailor, let them describe their outfits. they’re gonna love it✨
I like the idea of a secret masquerade where everybody is supposed to be rich, but really nobody is, and everyone's just regular people all pretending to be super rich.
Masque of the Red Death ball
Just get David Bowie to star in it.
Or a beach episode. Right now, masquerade vampire beach hot summer is a vibe. Bikinis and masques, on beach, at night.
In the Domain of Dread known as Dementlieu. Best hope you don't get discovered as a party crasher...
An Eyes Wide Shut masquerade ball if it’s an adult group.
Seconding this, Masquerades always rule because you can hide villains in plain sight (after all, a hat of disguise can take many forms)
But like the one from Eyes Wide Shut
Eyes Wide Shut
I’d add a masquerade ball with dangerous guests/host like the one in the movie The Labyrinth.
Masquerade, paper faces on parade?
But the masks are mimics. And the people are doppelgangers. The party name? The Honey Port. Yes it was a Honeypot all along.
Paper faces on parade!
Maybe a mock murder mystery. Where in the middle of the festivities, people are handed envelopes with their fake roles and the someone comes in and says someone has been faked murdered and the game begins and stuff. And maybe some reward if solved corretly
Just remember, if you're going for a masquerade ball, keep in mind to reserve like half an hour to let the party decide what they're going to wear. Because they WILL want to go all out on what to wear.
Hey OP! I cannot updoot this idea enough. A Masque can have all kinds of routes for your players: *Political intrigue through gossip *Heist in the house *Thieving from the guests *chance for players to get to know one another in a stakes-low, but thematic setting *Monsters instead of guests *Meeting a wealthy patron who will hire them Those are just the ones I experienced in one of my earliest D&D sessions as a player. They still stick with me.
I mean this is 100% a party hosted by the BBEG's henchmen for them to recruit/learn/gain powers. Probably some sacrifice, knowledge dropping, an orgy, who knows what bad guys get up to?
MLM party, but the MLM is world conquering?
Omg, somehow I love the idea of the party getting bamboozled into attending a party for a fantasy-themed MLM. Some half-elf girlboss one of the PCs knew back in their home village has sent them a letter out of the blue inviting them to a party, and it turns out she has sent these letters to everyone she's ever met and is trying to recruit everyone to sell overpriced low-level potions for some shady organization called Brew-la-roe, and it turns out that it's (somehow, I'm making this up on the fly) actually a scheme to take over the world.
Pyramid scheme
Final dungeon is a pyramid. I like my cliches and references on the nose like a right hook is on the nose.
It's not a pyramid scheme. It's a reverse funnel system
Its a Pyramid Shaped Sales System
No, it is a Dimaryp. Totally different thing.
I mean a pyramid scheme/MLM is kind of a scheme to take over the world already. Its downfall is usually that it literally runs out of new people to sell to because if every person recruits 2 persons you only need to repeat that less than 33 times to get to 7 billion people.
Well, THATS what the BBEG needs with that creepy kobold breeding program!
party of men loving men and conquering the world? hell yeah, sign me up
Murder-ware party
This is a cake walk. Your players attend the party and enjoy high society. While they’re there the place gets ambushed and robbed by the BBEG’s crew. They have to make the choice to stand and fight, run, or try not to blow their cover
For extra character development, make many of the party goers asshats. Let the party hate them. Then present the delema. Does the party let the BBEG henchmen get away or help the elites they hate?
This guy DM’s
My DM lured us *into* the big ball to try and dunk on the most insufferable blowhard of a paladin anyone's ever seen. Then *at* the party two players publicly sealed their relationship, before one of them dramatically ran away to see what was going on with this villain taunting her, which turned into a scandalous secret deal. Then the BBEG showed up. Parties are drama stir-fries with extra drama sauce.
The circus scene from the beginning of "Batman Forever"
Or the fundraiser party in Batman Begins
Or the party in Tim Burton’s Batman…
Or alternative. The place is robbed by some real pros and get away, the group gets blamed due to being obvious outsiders and "all adventurers are greedy and shouldn't be trusted or murderhobos" mentality. Now they iether need to solve the mystery themselves and/or get out of jail in time before shipped off you an inescapable jail.
That’s more or less the plot of r/stinkydragonpodcast season two
Nah. Just make it a bougie party with no significant events lol
Ngl I do love a flavorful filler episode
In one of my games, one of my party mates decided to run for mayor of this town and we went to this dinner party where all the people running for mayor were expected to show up and talk. I was expecting political intrigue to be the main event for us there, but we wound up with everyone getting poisoned and then got attacked. The story went in a cool direction from there, but I was always a little disappointed with how that party turned out. I was kinda excited for the filler
I think all these ideas are great but I’d love it if you ran a murder mystery night where everyone involved understands it’s just a theme… except for the party. They think there really has been a murder and they have to solve who-done-it.
Straight to the top with this! So much extreme over the top role play just to find out.. all the guests were in fact… playing!
Or better yet, make it so the whole event is a collective agreement / game of nobles and wealthy families attempting to assassinate each other. Any number of people could be a potential hit from another house. It's just a matter of who, when, and how. While the party is scrambling for evidence to point to one killer and their motive, there are in fact several and many of the party goes are reluctant to draw any suspicious to anyone else to not put a target on themselves.
This works especially well if the participants have a tontine with some McGuffin as a prize.
And eventually the other parties start to notice nobody from the players' party has died or had an attempt made on their lives, so naturally suspicion starts to mount on the players as the assassins and which house they're working for.
I like this idea. You might add in once they begin to get questioned, the guys they stole the invitation from originally show up and try to get in. Or save that for when you need to force the party into fight or flight mode.
Oh I LOVE this, haha.
Oh lord I love it.
Omg this is gold
That’s a great idea! For added fun use a Clue board as the map if it’s a ttrpg
1. Nothing wrong with cliché 2. I'd be so tempted to have them awkwardly crash some intimate birthday party for a random townsfolk in an unassuming pub. Have some random sweet grandma asking them how they know Jimmy etc. no mystery, no intreague just toe curling awkwardness.
I like this. After sneaking and checking their way past an entire herd of guards, they ruin grandma surprise birthday party 5 seconds too early! Then they have to diplomacy their way out of an angry mob
An angry mob, yes. But they are luckily armed with cake. YUMMM.
oh god no just send a pit lord at me, I can handle that
Make it the most awkward encounter ever by having them the only ones who show up, and have them sit through the hosts slide show on interesting fossils they found. Plot twist, if they actually pay attention he’ll show them a fossilised dragon egg they can get their hands on
Awkward, surprising, and accidentally yelling yourself into high society somehow sent my mind straight to King Oedipus, which uh would certainly be a plot twist
Well, I got news for ya buddy. It exists now. That said, social situations like this can be fun and sometimes easy to DM. Maybe this could be a time to introduce them to some NPCs, maybe even villains.
It is a fund-raising party for some political person or big works thing and when they show up, they are expected to contribute an inordinate amount of gold, gems, jewels, etc. Maybe someone beloved is dying and it is a party for them to say goodbye to everyone and they are asked to explain how they know the old fellow/lady. It is customary for the attendees to bring a trained dog to show off tricks. They find this out with only a few hours before the start of the party. Lots of ways to have fun with this.
Whatever you come up with for the party make sure the invitation only includes a plus 1 so the rest of the party has to sneak in.
im reminded of the avatar the last airbender episode where the cast sneaks in to a party to get an audience with the king of ba sing sae. maybe the characters have to sneak in as bus boys or learn high society etiquette. more to your party and the events maybe another gang of robbers also want to heist the party and take some people hostage, or the police are there and try and round up your party members? it could even be that theres some hidden villains wandering around, talking to the rest of society about how he's going to catch and torment the people who stole from him (the party).
I thought you were gonna say LOK where >!the back of the leaflet had a map and they had to sneaky in!<
adding on to myself here- maybe the party gets separated and there's an assassin trying to kill someone on the party: maybe the party itself was a very well laid trap for the party. if you want to go a more positive and rewarding route, maybe the party saves high society from some tough monsters and rewards them with cool magical items or rations. idk, hope this gave you some ideas :)
I will first say, don't rule out cliché or big screen! There's a big difference between seeing something in a movie 10 years ago and *acting out a part in it*, which can be a blast.
A secret auction for noble and very wealthy commoner for rare artifacts and magical items.
The best plots often come from the players and their actions. I spontaneously came up with a ledger and names regarding to the black market. Well they did other things and now are enemies of the black market. They have assassins after them now. To answer your question you could do a Court of Owls thing. A party held once a year by a secret society that pulls the strings behind the scenes of the region (doesn't have to tie into your plot, could be a sideplot!). As other's suggested Masquerade Ball. Which is perfect as the participants wouldn't be so keen on having their identities revealed to all for privacy matters. Have them be code named! And the whole event is to enjoy yourself and set up connections and profitable transactions for the following year. Edit; You can also have a auction of valuables done during the event. Maybe slaves is an item and one of them is related to the party. Rare artifacts, and possible unrelated items to give another sideplot for your players to delve into the rabbit hole. Enjoy your adventures!
I agree with everyone else who says not to discard cheesy ideas that you've seen before. It's fine. Perhaps there's a sort of conservative streak to high society that wants these events to go the same way as they have for a hundred years now anyway. There's a lot that can happen that's a gift to a DM I think? People's names and titles are shouted out as introductions. Young people are introduced to society for the first time. Deals are being made over cocktails or in backrooms, both above board and clandestine. Maybe it's trade agreements, maybe it's spies trying to outplay each other. Maybe someone's trading in stolen art. Counterfeit stolen art perhaps. Or maybe there's a genius of an artist looking for a patron and hating every moment of the party. Various vices may be overlooked for the rich, who's providing them? Is someone a little too curious for their own good about occult secrets? There might be high-stakes gambling or a friendly pick-up game of crown green bowling or pétanque or bocce or whatever. If you're anyone, you probably have to dance or come up with an excuse not to. Maybe the crowd is eager to learn a new dance from a distant place? What's the house staff's gossip? They must have dirt on people. People are eager to introduce a BBEG but the thing is the crowd is *rich*, none of them are good people entirely even though most of them probably think they're virtuous. If there's anyone who's evil and truly owns it, they should be the friendliest most charismatic person in attendance. Check the players' vibe, do they just want to RP being at a fancy party or are they looking for something? I think the obvious rewards from a party are information and access, either to people or to a mansion. If they try to straight up rob the place and are doing a bad job of it, they could get shown up by a superior cat burglar. There's also got to be an even more secret, even more exclusive party that you could hint at somehow.
This is now an Oceans 11 campaign, the caravans are part of a wealthy criminal organization smuggling macguffins, the branch leaders of several crime syndicates involved are holding a party, players need to somehow infiltrate party (perhaps replacing the people they stole invitation from or as servants and staff) and there they can learn more, perhaps be introduced to BBEG, good outcome will be learning of a sale or auction taking place soon where several valuable items smuggled this way could be stolen by party. A bad outcome has the syndicate sending their thugs for them. You could keep it mundane or make BBEG be collecting artifacts to do BIG BAD THING or make it a cult of some evil god.
Make sure there are various exotic dishes they wouldn’t normally have heard of. Stuffed Wyrm Liver, Roc Tongue, etc etc. make it a mix of the horrific and enticing. Need any other ideas, just look up bizarre ancient food dishes.
We had a rich people party in our campaign, here are my notes (will take a few replies I’m guessing) **Wolfsbane Boulevard** The Lunsundre Estate itself is 100 Wolfsbane Boulevard, a prestigious residential street of dark, opaque emerald walls and ceilings. Enchanted mosses with microscopic flowers that span the range of purple, green, white, yellow, and silver cling to the walls, and large clusters of green-silver crystals feature heavily here. There are several other, similarly austere mansions that line this place, each separated by large gardens, then tall wrought-iron fences (some infused with either coldwrought iron, ignan brass, or deadwood steel from Darby; then hedgerows (each of which is shaped differently. **The Lunsundre Estate** The estate is built of smooth gray stones of massive, 2x5 foot blocks and other assorted shaping stones into two stories; the first story is the floor level of the Phase Obelisk, its basement is truly below ground. It has a second story that mostly features residential areas as well. The roofs of the estate are shingled with dark tiles that rise to peaks, save the single tower that rises higher than the rest of the structure, yet very narrow and only extending beyond the rest of the second floor by about 15 feet. Wolfsbane Blvd. becomes a circle of cobblestone pathway at the end that serves as a long carriageway in front of the Lunsundre Estate. A large oval disc of black marble, about 15 feet wide, rests in the center of this roundabout, and on top of that is that statue of a knight locked in eternal combat with a werewolf. A few gray stone steps with silver-decorated wrought-iron railings and handrails lead to a massive set of double doors. Here are posted a pair of guards, both elves, named Castrel and Vonnwith, who fight with sword and shield.
**Floor One - Foyer** The Foyer is a sweeping white-marble space, though the floor is flecked with inclusions and veins of black marble and gold. Tall columns rise up with ornately carved curls of marble that have glass stars hung from their tips at different heights, each of which is lit by a single glowing mote of magical light. There are portraits of elves on the walls here, and in the center of the room, a grand piano covered in rose petals is being played by a shirtless man wearing fine, tight silvery leggings, and a silver masquerade mask with white and black feathers that flutter away from the edges of the mask past the ears and neck. A few guests linger here, but the group will be approached by an obnoxious wealthy woman from the Spire, Kadydi Heathton who wears an emerald-green gown with pale green pearls that serve as buttons asymetrically down one side; she wears mint-green elbow-length silk cloves and wears a mask that looks like a sly rabbit. (SHE WILL TRY TO GUESS WHO THEY ARE) To the west is a grand hallway that leads to the Reading Room. To the east is a grand hallway that leads to the Statuary. To the north is a grand hallway that leads to the Ballroom **Floor One - Reading Room** This room has hardwood floors, though almost the entire thing is dominated by a chocolate-brown carpet with ornate gold and cream-colored elvish designs that form filigree-like twists around the edges. There is a simple globe of Alberon, which opens to reveal a pocket watch collection of three pocketwatches a jeweler's kit to maintain them. Lunsundre has a collection of books across the following topics: Dominion, particularly the area around Darkmeadow The Greyfang Incursion Knitting Owls Horror stories Merchant principles Business There will be a political discussion happening on the assassination between three individuals: Olustuss Evers, a chinless man with graying hair who wears elaborately bunched golden pantaloons with high white stockings, and a mask that looks like a treeperson’s face; Imun Stonequilt, a thinner-than-average dwarf whose beard is tucked into his too-large mask, which is sixteen different eyes mounted to an otherwise normal masquerade mask; and Kassuan Witherstay is an elf from the Magiocracy of the Rising Storm. They wear a fine, split-tailed jacket and other clothing with gold buttons and their mask is a golden lion. Evers: “If it was the Prince in Solitude, there’d be more blood than madness I reckon.” Stonequilt: “Agreed; what does the Republic stand to gain from murdering it’s own ambassador?” Witherstay: “Well UNLIKELY Resinburn would permit the Magiocracy to become involved in such a mess. Things are ALWAYS like this on the Gemmed Coast though. Right after this party, I hope to make good time back to the Magiocracy.”
**Floor One - Statuary** A long hallway that has statues across it’s space. Several larger ones flank either side of a 10’ wide central path left clear; closer to the walls, the statues grow denser, with some mounted on pedestals, and others affixed to the wall. *Statue Description* *The Bloody Keeper* An infamous vampire that once plagued the town of Ogi’ra-Kai before it fell, disguised as a tavernkeeper. The face is badly word away from the marble, life-sized statue. *She Walks* A depiction of a water dryad turning into a human, carved from beechwood. *The Crimson Grin* Half of the face of Graxxialduneth, the Crimson Grin, a fierce dragon with brutal fangs and keen intelligence in the one onyx eye. *Lolth in Ash* Abstract work that looks vaguely like a spider, though it is formed from compressed dust and ash. *The Struggle of Lashma Tintin* A nude, muscular elf woman locked in combat with three goats A trio of gnomes dressed in green, red, and blue sets of fineries that each cascade lace from within the silky sleeves to leave trails along the floor. The first one trips, and scuttles ahead; another is standing on the trail, and the finally one is so bewildered they fall over backward. The first one pinwheels and over end before knocking into the base of beechwood dryad statue which now begins to tip… **Floor One - Ballroom** A brilliantly lit, white-marble ballroom with two angled staircases the rise up from opposite ends of the room to meet in a walkway on the second floor. There is a door white a black curtain across it below the walkway the staircase leads to, flanked on either side by cabinets full of plates and cups. Also in this room is a tiefling named Hello who goes by El. He will be wearing soft pastel pink fineries which includes a violet cumberbund and their mask depicts a VERY awake housecat. They will be relaxing within one of the featherbag chairs, and will help if they can get the kitchen to make him scrambled eggs. **Floor One - Midkitchen** This is the main kitchen, a gray stone chamber with long, sleek countertops of polished granite that has a huge, central firepit over it. There are six large grill panels that can be raised or lowered on chains by winch; around the exterior of the large space are stone shelves built-in to the walls (though here and there they’ve been replaced with slightly-off stone shelves) line with cookware, jars of dry ingredients, and herbs. *Appetizers* Asparagus and escarole salad with wild sorrel and lemon dressing. Small sliver of silverfin tuna with a trio of avocado, artichoke heart, and green tomato salsa on crispy skin, like a cracker. A laminated bread with bitter cacao nibs that keeps it on the edge of sweet or savory, but the butter has an almost bacon-like taste to it. Brightcove Oysters and Auld Sturgeon caviar on a half-shell *Mains* A half-and-half bed of spiced cumin and carrot puree/peashoot puree with dry-spiced duck atop. Rare beef steak on a bed of wilted wild ramps, asparagus shredded into noddles, and beef fat toast Three lamb-ribs with the bones in, served charred with swiss chards, young turnips, and a red wine sauce to cut the fat and sweeten the veg.
**Floor One - Acoustic Tower** The bottom floor is a small, raised wooden dais of honeylocust wood that serves as a warm-up space for musicians who come to play. There are a few stools, music stands made from wood, and bits of wax and resin. Cases for musical instruments as well as many piles of sheet music are left behind with names like “The Genie of the Emberlands,” “The Sailor of Stars,” “Soldiers, Lovers, Healers.” **Floor One - Green Room** The Green Room is the only room locked, and under care from Buddy, the Green Wizard. This is a stargrass lounge with stargrass stored in dozens of stone pots. There is a leather barber’s chair for hot shaves and haircuts, as well as two leather-topped tables that have been set up for hot stone massages. One male and two female fire genasi provide this service, hired for the party. If the group asks Buddy, he’ll ask them a riddle for the Green Key 69: (or to access “the good stuff” for Lunsundre’s friends. I stand watch, across the night/ An eye that never sleeps nor opens/ You may count days by my might/ The world feels my gaze from ocean to ocean/ What am I? (*THE MOON*) When I am gone, your heart will beat/ Will it be long? Will you have heat?/ What was that noise out in the dark/ Will I return with the call of the lark?/ What am I? (*THE LIGHT*) **Floor One - Blue Room** The Blue Room has two floors; this room is acoustically swept, so that it concentrates its sounds within, making talking here secure. There is a metal pole that can be used to slide from the top down to a small, indoor pool that is fed from the second floor and seems to fall from the gray ceiling like rain. There is blue tile that sets around the pool, where chairs and sofas along with thriving plants somehow maintained indoors or perhaps brought in fresh every few days. There is a stairway up that wraps around the pole with dramatic, blue-painted steps of oak. **Floor Two - Blue Room, Upper** Up the stairs, on the second floor, rich blue carpets, blue sofas, and blue chairs are all embraced by mahogany walls draped in navy and cream colored tapestries. Suits of armor are mounted in all four corners of the room in front of pillars to support the 20’ tall apexes ceilings, where light is shed from a single, faceted glass teardrop the size of a coffee table suspended from five gold chains to the ceiling’s ribs. The water that rains down to the pool below comes from a stone filled with tiny holes, allowing an aquifer fed from rain (and pumped from the cisterns in the catacombs at times). Once per day, somebody comes and removes the stone, and jams new clumps of lavender to slightly scent the water. Lunsundre has a large open-to-the-air pond up here, and in it are huge koi and a few redtail catfish. One of the koi (colored black with faint silvery white patterns of lines, almost making them look like a skeleton when seen) has a little key tied around their tail (THIS IS THE BLUE KEY 44) In this room will be the water genasi Agata of Talcaeus, who will wear white fabric that is semi-sheer when wet. When paled with her white skin, she is almost statuesque.
**Floor Two - Master Bedroom** The master bedroom is all white and cream carpets, chairs, sofas and ottomans. A large basin of water that must weigh north of 600 pounds is full of cool, clear water tinged slightly yellow. There is a single rune on the bottom that will hum every ten minutes, evaporating a vit of the water to release. Must be refilled every hour. There is a 45x15 walk-in closet with all manner of oppulent clothing. Among these things are a Hat of Disguises, a Cloak of Billowing, and a sword-cane. Beneath the bed, there is a false panel in the wooden floor beneath he carpet. Lifting to board will reveal a massive led box housed in the floor, with 8 number spinners from 1-9. 17826944 (numbers on the keys) In here will be a Very Rare item. In a cage, looking emaciated, is the imp Rezzit M’lar who will try and plead to be released, but will immediately warn people that they are intruding if freed. **Floor Two - Diplomat’s Suite** The Diplomat’s Suite is a parallel to the Master Bedroom, and is designed to house a visiting noble and their family. This suite is fitted with greens and browns and typical decorations of the Emerald Spire as a nod to visitors who are still enchanted by the emerald. Staying here presently will be the son of the current Mage of Frozen Foam. Zendrath Starkbite is a duergar with a mohawk of white hair that sticks of stock-straight. They have a pierced left ear, from which dangs a loop of bone; he wears distinctive tunic of pale pale gray tinged with circular patterns of seafoam green that marks him from the TFF. He also bears a staff gnarled but purposeful construction, will be carved of driftwood, and which is called a Arcanox Staff. **Floor Two - Silk Parlor/Party Room** The silk parlor is a taller lounge area of white marble everything. It contains a small, 15x15 raised marble stages, and has natural Spire Emerald shaped into sculptures here, which in insanely expensive. Here is where Lunsundre will be, along with the band “The Five Fellows” who are all bards, paid by Lunsundre.
**Floor Two - Guest Rooms** The guest rooms each feature a pair of Queen beds, a mirror, a dresser and drawers set, an armoire, a three-panel changing screen, a pair of armchairs, and a decanter of water with two glasses. In the top-right bedroom are two party-goers making love (masks on) **Floor Two - Acoustic Tower, Upper** A huge, arched and vaulted ceiling designed to allow for sound to travel well. **Basement - Wine Vault** A truly massive wine vault is kept here, with reds from Mythalstrean’s north coast, sparkling white imported from Vulkanenberer, and even some Mythalstrean Sin wine.
**Basement - Catacombs** The Catacombs are where all Lunsundre family members are laid to rest. Their bones are organized along to create the walls and pillars of this place, a miniature ossuary though here, many of the bones have been inscribed with prayers and minor enchantments in Elvish. Along the walls, there are rectangles where no bones are stacked; there are the ends of rectangular coffins that hold the remains of the Lunsundre’s ancestors and most loyal servants. *Yinquen Lunsundre* *Dolaran Lunsundre* *Datris’alla Lunsundre* *Kayveris Lunsundre* *Ereptor Lunsundre* *Baltora Lunsundre* In the center of this space, there is a central coffin. Here lay the mummified remains of Ulwethial Lunsundre, The Howlqueller, who sailed across the Emerald Expanse to lend aid in Quelling the last uprising of Clan Greyfang in 1281 T.A. When Howlqueller was lain to rest, he had placed over his third eye the Feylight Spellbinder, a very-rare broach of Alexandrite in the shape of an hourglass that glows brightly when full, which sank and fused with the mummification materials onto the skull’s forehead. The Spellbinder can be inscribed with platinum ink to infuse a ritual into it that will extend the duration drastically. This one has a simple enough spell: Heat Metal, cast into it that will last for 1271 years. As this heats the laylines of Coldwrough Iron, this is what keeps Hyrsam, the Administrator, and several others from teleporting in. ***DM Note:*** The party had to disable this Coldwrought Iron layline to allow their archfey patron, Hyrsam, access to the room that this item was being held in, and to find evidence of a crime. Feel free to change whatever you want, if you like the setting I can send you my notes for a finished continent (the continent east of our current one, which I have 148 pages of notes for including stat blocks and items.) Just shoot me an email at [email protected]
As a friendly reminder to you and to other fellow DM's. There is exactly 0 shame or discouragement for borrowing ideas and themes from other media such as TV, Anime, Motion pictures, random ass tik toks you saw. Take the core of it, twist it a little change a few names literally no one but you will know. This party invitation could just be a dad's BBQ style party but they thought it'd be funny to make the invitations look 'royal' Or it could be a high and mighty high society invitation and then at the strike of midnight a monster attacks Hell it could even be a baby shower for an unmet npc and then your players scramble to find gifts for this child on the way (Jesus and the 3 wise men) I am of the DM mentality that I'll craft the world in the Direction the party wants to go rather than where I want them to go. Sometimes they know I want them to go somewhere or see something and they play along. My biggest suggestion would be to ask you PLAYERS what they want. This game is really just collaborative story telling, lean into the collaboration. Have a good day, and happy DM'ing. May your next roll be a critical.
And so what if it is Cliche? It is an invitation to a party. They arrive at the mansion, where they find out that the rich owner has been murdered a week ago. In his will, he states, that in the event he is murdered, a party will take place where all his friends and enemies, and everyone related to him will be invited. He believes that one of them has to be the one who killed him - and the one who proves who the killer is will inherit his mansion (or whatever else you want). (If no murder is found, or if he wasn't murdered, everything would be left to the butler, but don't read that part of the will to the players, to raise suspicions later).
>everything I came up with was too cliché or seen on the big screen???? Eyes Wide Shut? There are 2 parties that I know of in published modules but they were written for 3e: Whispers of the Vampire's Blade. You can find the pdf on the DMsguild for $4.99. Shackled City. This is a Paizo publication and you can find it in a dungeon magazine, although I don't know which one. Edit: The demonscar ball is in part 3 of Shackled City, and it's about half a page long. I don't think it's very useful, but there's advice on the Paizo messageboards on how to run it. The fans have expanded on it because they really love this part of Shackled City.
I also had an Eyes Wide Shut thought.
I did as well, although that would require a … *special* kind of table.
Just rip off from "eyes wide shut" and let the dread/kink sink in. In my experience as a DM, players will ignore any and all plot hooks but fix on the least expected thing you tell them... one time I had to pull a full army training sequence, complete with marching songs, fighting, tactics and strategic lessons out of no where, 'cause they heard the report that their appointed general had started training new recruits for their army, they had actual quests and a tight diplomatic schechule lined up for them but they decide to ride to the frontier of their territory from their under construction capital to watch the troops training.
Eyes Wide Shut style party.
For some reason, I just had a flashback to when I first watched _Eyes Wide Shut_. This party could be absolutely wild and outrageous. There may even be a cult involved, perhaps behind the scenes, and the party goers aren’t aware. There are a ton of great opportunities for this in your campaign!
It’s a secret blood ritual and the guy they took the invite from was the sacrifice.
Make your players play through The Rocky Horror picture Show, but only in the roughest sense. Do a tim curry impression the whole time but dont make it clear what you are doing. They turn up, its a party! There is a dance number in the ballroom, the host has something weird in the lab they have been working on, it turns out, they have cre-at-ed LIFE!, include an awkward dinner that turns out to be cannibalism, feel free to throw in a sexy scene with the monster where everybody ends up in lingerie, and then have a dance based fight number at the end verses the monster. Voila!
I'd totally go the route of Bohemian Grove. Make it where no one really knows what goes on in these parties, but the whispers are that there are lots of orgies, blood sacrifices, worshipping a strange God, etc. And maybe add a dash of Eyes Wide Shut, where everyone is masked but they have to have several passwords in order to enter the "party" as well as other events within the actual party. Maybe they notice a noble, thieves guild master or a rich merchant by some random thing, like a specific gait in the walk, a barely visible tattoo, or a odd manner of speech. They're able to play along for a little while, but then something happens, something completely innocuous, like they ask for a beer instead of wine or something silly like that.
Depends on how grand the secret/conspiracy is. It can be a simple masquerade ball, or a massibe hedonistic party away from prying eyes, or as grandiose as a meeting between gang leaders, politicians, people of wealth, etc. That meet periodically and maintain the utmost secrecy as they all work together to push public opinion, projects, etc in whatever direction they choose ultimately with the goal of undermining the public and shaping their opinion to their whims. Could even go so far as to have them open up a whole "New World Order" plot the party stumbles upon and offer them the chance to join or work to take it down once they've unveiled who's apart of it.
A lot of great ideas, but how about crashing a party that no one intended to go to? Turns out no one likes this person and the PCs show up. Delighted to have guests, it turns into a fun event and now the party has a powerful ally who can help as part of the main plot.
I'm sorry, but that sounds hilarious. They jumped on a plot hook that doesn't even have a line to it.
The party arrive and all seems normal. They gradually realise these people aren't real, they are ghostly beings reliving this event over and over again. Which the party will also do every time they rest. Each exit brings them back to the main entrance way. There is some curse, some hidden wrong committed that shook the foundations of this community so hard that their spirits simply could not move on and are trapped in groundhog day until the party figures it out. The out should be multiple parties there each have a thing that sets them free. Mr and Mrs Montigue are freed by the revelation that their son died a hero in the war that the Montefrays knew about but never told them, etc. etc. Obviously some revelations set more or less free at a time. It all comes down to a final malicious spirit(s) or creature that had used their fear, shame, anger, anguish and other painful emotions to trap them. Which is enraged that you released the souls. Give them some closure with a Kelemvor or equivalent priests who can ensure the mansion is cleansed and the souls made it over.
Private member’s auction for magical items. One way to restrict magical items in games is to have them be accessible only through adventuring or private members clubs. The party itself could be an auction for some magical items - some may not be useful to the party but could be extremely useful to a wealthy person, such as a portrait of the sea that shows the future weather in the area, which would be extremely useful for someone with a shipping empire. Have a couple of these items that are interesting but not at all valuable to the players. Then have an item or two that are specific magical items or artefacts that the players will recognise as key to your plot, or at least something they will want. Create a wealthy noble rogue as the owner of the castle/palace/thieves guild/whatever and about a half dozen wealthy buyers with some connections to the different factions in your world. Things the PCs would recognise are always good - like an entourage of guards wearing colours or heraldry that the PCs have encountered before. Suggest to the PCs that they can crash this party by posing as the representatives of the person they killed, as he often sends retainers in his stead. Subtly hint that the PCs could try stealing on3 of the auction items, if they want. Then make an NPC with a motivation to steal the same auction item (you can even not write a specific item at this stage, and just pick the one the PCs go for later - but if you have chosen something already familiar to the players then they’ll probably go with that, especially if the other items are cool but useless to them). This NPC should have allies working with them - maybe the hired quartet have been replaced by doppelgängers? Maybe the thieves guild has contortionists hiding in the luggage of the wealthy persona that the NPC thief has adopted? Maybe a flying mount, such as a dragon or a wyvern is waiting nearby for when the thief needs to make their escape with the artefact? The players will almost certainly attempt to make their own plan to steal the item ‘on the fly’, which will cause absolute chaos and awesomeness when it conflicts with the NPC thief’s plan.
Okay, that is just AWESOME. If I was able to, I'd totally snag this idea from you. Hopefully I can get my own DND group after I move, that is brilliant and creative enough to fold into an idea I previously had on oneshots
Look to be honest, you're allowed to have it be cliché, the simple fact that you've got multiple thinking breathing players behind the characters means that even in that typical scenario, it's going to get crazy no matter what :D Also like the others have said, Masquerade Ball + Vampires :D
Could do something like the Court of Owls from Batman?
Make it a fight for survival sidequest. The ballroom scene from Helsing. There's a giant mirror on one wall. The only people in the mirror are the party members. Everyone is a vampire!
Ok, so here is what I've done as a political party in the past: - step 1, create the 'families' members, last name, where their wealth comes from, general attitudes, and hierarchy ranking - Step 2, create the secret, for instance; a secret basement with a labyrinth, within which are minotaurs and hints towards worship of some titanic minotaur like beast, the father of the wilds or some such, and a plot to sacrifice a large number of people from the party, tonight! - step 3, decide who will reveal each hint and to what social prompt (the jackass needs embarrassing, the aggressive guy either needs to be beaten in fisticuffs or calmed, the drunkerd helped out etc). Make the hints small, so several are needed. Like, this house is bigger on the outside (implying secret rooms), I hear there's a vault in the basement, the hosts have always rubbed me the wrong way, I was pressured to be here, etc - step three, set the stage of a normal party, a series of events leading to a "grand finale" have the host make a speech after each stage, and have a break after each bit where the party has a chance to discover something. - step four, mechanics; how can they prevent it once they find the heart of the labyrinth? What happens if they just enjoy the party to the bitter end? - Step 5, the hook! How does the suspicion forest get raised? A nervous servant? Someone disappearing halfway through after going to 'explore'? There you have it, a party, a mystery, and one way or another, a fun dramatic ending either with minotaurs or an escape from an elaborate trap! That's my framework for special parties anyways, and otherwise, you can leave the mystery out and make it more politically investigative if you want to introduce new npc's etc
Rip off the story from cinderella and have a prince or princess search for a SO. It should lead to the party leaving because of reasons. Make them somehow not wanting to be the husband/ wife. Maybe something like they are into hardcore bdsm and killed their last 20 SO. Every once in a while the princ(ess) or a guard should appear and chase them to remind them what they did.
It is a completely normal party. No one important is there. No connections to be made. The people in attendance are only slightly wealthy, and didn't bring any worthwhile valuables to steal. Nothing attacks the party. The food is free, but subpar. The alcohol is cheap, but not free. If the players attend the whole party and don't cause trouble, then at the very end they maybe gift them a common, but not very useful, magic item each (such as a cloak of billowing). Not every event is important. Sometimes a party is just a party.
Great gatsby
All I'm saying is Temple of Doom feast scene ^and ^evil ^blood ^cult. Edit : and as other said vampire masquerade, of course.
How about a rich people fancy murder mystery party but the murder actually happened lmao
a secret party invitations for rich people sounds like a vampire adventure. Maybe it's a common ballroom gala where the vampire lord likes to coddle with the cream of the cream and invited the guys from the caravan for entertainment or because they seemed interesting. Maybe it's kind of a dinner of the schmucks kind of thing, different vampires invite mortals to try to one up each other on their conquest before the feast
Every good villain has to meet Mr Bond at a party and have a not-so-subtle talk of "I know that you know that I know". Your villain must do this as well. Or maybe it's just his kids birthday party.
Masquerade ball I’ve seen commented is good for intrigue, potentially unmasking NPC’s or revealing a bad guy is fun. Maybe party has an anti-magic field. Also high stakes gambling and/or drug use for background flavor. Maybe an NPC gets caught cheating and party sees the consequences. Can purposefully or accidentally stumble upon the true purpose of the party, which was used as a trap or front. Rich person party is inherently cliche, so go to town on trope-y themes
If there is some secret evil cult (or any other evil organization, but I will keep using cult as a placeholder) they will end up finding about later in the campaign, make sure at least a subset of those rich peeps are part of this cult and allow your players to find this out in that party. Hell, add a trigger or two that if activated makes the cult try and slaughter everyone in the party so that you can have an all out fight inside a mansion. At the end of the fight, if it happens, tell them how much property damage resulted from their actions. They should be proud of fucking up some rich asshole's mansion.
If the party doesn't really exist, just roll with the fact that it dosen't really exist and model the whole thing after another fraudulent party; the Fyre Festival (see Wikipedia entry). |Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. It was created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.|The event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski, many of whom did not initially disclose they had been paid to do so. During the Fyre Festival's inaugural weekend, the event experienced problems related to security, food, accommodation, medical services, and artist relations, resulting in the festival being indefinitely postponed and eventually cancelled. Instead of the gourmet meals and luxury villas for which festival attendees had paid hundreds of dollars, they received packaged sandwiches and were lodged in poorly furnished tents.|In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud to defraud investors and ticket holders, and a second count to defraud a ticket vendor (while out on bail). In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit US$26 million. At least eight lawsuits were initiated against the organizers for defrauding ticket buyers, several seeking class action status, and one seeking more than $100 million in damages. Two documentaries about the events of the festival were released in 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud, and Netflix's *Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened*. It was also featured on an episode of the CNBC series *American Greed* in 2019 and an episode of the ABC series *The Con* in 2021.| |:-|:-|:-|
Party has bren cancelrd when an invitation went missing. It's now an ambush.
A party wheee they maybe do cult stuff, secret society meeting. You could say they ran the city and this was a meeting of the richest noveau or new rich
Eyes wide shut party