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View Full Version : DM Help Mechanics of a riot?



Bluepaw
2017-02-19, 11:30 PM
Starting a new campaign this week (running D&D 5e for the first time, will see how it goes...) and I'm planning an opening session set at a Midsummer Day Festival. Long story short, after some lighthearted fun, an important ritual that is supposed to happen every year will go awry and the boisterous (and generally drunk) crowd will turn angry and wild, beginning a riot in the middle of which the PCs will be caught.

Question is: what are a couple of different ways I might establish both the mechanics and the flavor of a riot in a densely-packed town (Lake-Town, in fact; we're set in 4th Age Middle Earth)? I'd like to build a couple of encounters that may not be combat per se, but require quick thinking from the PCs to escape safely, make peace in the town, or achieve other objectives of their own in the midst of a town gone topsy-turvy.

Some possibilities I'm mulling:
-One or more of the PCs is blamed for the ritual going awry;
-The PCs have to protect a politician or figures of note who are being blamed;
-A fire breaks out in the wooden town;
-Racial tension devolves into antagonistic groups fighting one another;
-An artifact must be safely smuggled out of town without being broken or stolen;
-The guards deputize one or more PCs to help keep order;
-The town crier is corrupt and is deliberately inciting unrest for reasons of his own.

What do folks think? What are some effective strategies for staging a riot and making it exciting/anxious/high stakes for the PCs?