Political intrigue at a ball

[Nemenia]

Hey guys! I have a session coming up where the players (who recently became nobility) are being invited to participate in one of the seasonal balls that every noble house goes to. These events are for celebration, but they're also where much of the political maneuvering and intrigue between the houses happen. The thing is, I'm really bad at coming up with social encounters, given that I'm not very good at them myself. I was really hoping you guys could give some great ideas, suggestions, or minihooks to use during the ball.

Some information:

The nation is primarily human, and while they're fine with the other humanoid races, they greatly dislike any nonstandard races.
They are at war with a neighboring nation that broke off from their empire a few years ago
The Regent will be in attendance and leading the ball

The noble houses are:
1. Ravenson. Control the nation's spies and thieves' guild
2. Caliban. The house in control of the trained military. IE cavalry, artillery, special forces, etc.
3. Hyllia. House that controls national guard. In charge of homeland defense, courts, and laws
4. Thornwell. House that currently holds the throne. Diplomats, historians, educators
5. Steinryk. Mage house. Runs magic school, regulates use of magic, its research, defense, etc.

The players are level 20 and just founded a new town that contains monstrous races as well as human ones. They are sympathetic to the nation that broke off from the empire, though not outright supporting them yet. They've met some but not all of the nobles, including the Regent.

What are some cool events, topics, problems, etc. That could come up during the night that arent all solved by "hit it with a sword"?

[Cygnia]

1. Assassination attempt
2. Love affair between two rival houses (whose heads DO NOT WANT such an affair ever)
3. Wannabe businessperson looking for someone to invest in their new mine venture located in a Very Dangerous Place
4. Artist looking for a patron
5. Spy looking for info
6. Anarchist looking to cause chaos
7. Warmonger looking for fan tensions

[Nemenia]

1. Assassination attempt
2. Love affair between two rival houses (whose heads DO NOT WANT such an affair ever)
3. Wannabe businessperson looking for someone to invest in their new mine venture located in a Very Dangerous Place
4. Artist looking for a patron
5. Spy looking for info
6. Anarchist looking to cause chaos
7. Warmonger looking for fan tensions

These are all pretty cool suggestions! The ball is pretty much limited to the noble houses, though, so outside interference is unlikely. While an assassination attempt could happen, I don't want the ball to become a battlefield, either. Do you have any thoughts on how the houses might try and push or pull on the PC's to gain an advantage over each other?

[Cygnia]

Well, if any of the nobles claim to share the same faith or come from the same region, there's an in there.

Likewise, a noble comes to the aid to the PCs if the PCs appear to be losing in a social battle (think 17th-18th Century France ala "Dangerous Liasons" Or, think really catty high schools). If you want to really be a right bastard, said noble may have pulled the strings behind the scenes to get the PCs beholden to him/her -- someone who could "show them the ropes" of what being a noble entails in these parts.

Have guests use the PCs as clueless spreaders of malicious gossip.

[Tobtor]

My first suggestion is to imagine how big the event is. As you only have 5 houses, I imagine each house being fairly large extended families? More like clans or so?

SO: imagine how many people is there? Somewhere between 50 or 200 is a good size.

Secondly: as nobles, the families would likely be married to other nobles. As there are 5 families of "high nobility", they would very likely have married into each other fairly frequently. So some members will have "spilt" loyalties and allegiances. So if if the uncle of the current king Thornwell is married to the sister of the head of the Ravenson their children will have relations on boths sides. I suggest that you "map" these connections and have at leas 5 but preferably 10 connections in a confusing pattern. Such a map is good for: plot hooks, potential conflicts, and just as importantly potential ways of resolving conflicts.

This allows the players to trying to be as confused and lost as most people would be in a tightly knit group.

Thirdly: conflicts. Have many small and a fewer major. Smaller conflicts is stuff grudges, likes/dislikes of specific persons, perhaps a Ravenson is jealous of a Steinryk for some silly reason. Stuff like that. Have many such petty quarrels this makes the court more "alive". "Map" them in advance so your players can explore them or not at their own time (or the choice not to interfere). Small conflicts can be fun and also work as obstacles to resolve lager issues. In addition have 2-3 major conflicts (someone is having an affair with the queen, two families are in a dispute over land, or perhaps the Calibans and the Steinryks are plotting to take over the responsibilities and power of the Hyllia family).

Finally connect the major conflicts, the families and smaller grudges, and make sure that every conflict involves most families either trough grudges and smaller conflicts, or family ties (for instance, in the above suggested Caliban/Steinryk plot, one of the Ravensons has a rivalry with one of the Steinryks and thus don't want them to succeed, but cannot interfere directly as the person is secretly in love with one of the Calibans). This allow the playes to do favours and gain meaningful alliances and plots.

[Psyren]

Dragon Age Inquisition has a ball scene (The Winter Palace) that involves numerous combat and non-combat challenges, as well as an overall scoring system that determines the players' story outcome and degrees of success or failure. I would take a look there for inspiration.

[Duff]

Also, give the players a quick rundown of who's who and ask who they want to talk to or ask what they want to achieve and tell them who to talk to for those goals

[Jay R]

This will probably not help, but it's my best actual experience of running a high-society party. It was also, without a doubt, my best handling of a fumble roll.

The game was Flashing Blades, a musketeer game. The rogue in the party had decided to learn the Etiquette skill, which takes three months. He'd spent two weeks on it. To make a successful role, you have to roll your Charm or less on a d20. And he had a low Charm score of 8. Note that you are trying to roll low, not high.

The party went to a high-status party, and at one point, the rogue decided that he was going to go talk to the duke's daughter, who was surrounded by noble suitors. They tried to tell him that he cannot go introduce himself to her; he needs a proper introduction. But he decided that since he was learning Etiquette, he could do it anyway.

So he barged through a collection of high-level nobles and introduced himself to her, and said, "I want to make an Etiquette roll to impress her."

So, he is attempting to use a cross-class skill he has not in fact learned, in competition with several masters of the skill, having already misbehaved, in a high-stress environment, and would have had to roll an 8 or less (if he had the skill at all).

He rolled a 20. Critical fumble.

I said, "You compliment her beauty, look soulfully into her eyes, take her hand gently, bend over it, raise it to your lips ... and f*rt."

[Slipjig]

A SUCCESSFUL assassination where the identity of the assassin isn't immediately apparent. Poison, perhaps, or a body found slumped in an alcove where you might expect a tryst to occur? Or maybe the attempt goes wrong, and the poison kills a servant who had a nibble while bringing the food up from the kitchens?

I'd suggest inverting the Romeo and Juliet thing, and have two houses trying to forge an alliance by marrying their kids to each other, but the kids aren't having it. The PCs could be engaged by the parents to make the kids see reason, or by one or both kids to make the marriage not happen.

[snowblizz]

Not brought up yet, but if the PCs are recently ennobled the old aristocracy will hate their guts on general principle. They would all be more or less angling against the PCs according to their character all the whiel trying to get them into their pocket to try and sue them, preferably by using them up. If you are powerful and statusdriven you'd be sneering at them. The more cautious and cunning would be pretending to be smooching them.

With that multiracial town of their naturally the PCs are going to catch some flak. Again the more overtly aggressive would outright call them on being not-human lovers and such. The more circumspect would loudly declare how much they like the idea in a tone everyone in the room can tell means they do no such thing. "Nobles are you now? And goblin lovers too I bet? How quaint." Easily play off that. Chuck them dilemmas that pits the old nobility against their new town.

[calam]

Since the characters are level 20 and seem to be new to the political sphere they'll probably get contacted by solicitors trying to get deals in the new town, bachelors looking for strategic marriage, nobles trying to get them as assets to their schemes or even just fans of their previous adventures. These can be played both as a distraction from the main plot that they have to maneuver around (The lord of the neighboring village wants a member of the party to marry his daughter, this conversation is wasting time better spent foiling the assassination plot!) or as the main concern (the main source of stone for the town is trying to get the party as muscle to take land, hinting he'll cut off trade if you don't)

[Calthropstu]

First you want to set up 5 super factions, one of which will be led by the king. A second, less obvious faction but just as numerous, will be led by the queen. Then 3 others led by dukes and duchesses. Come up with these 3 faction heads and what all 5 will be aiming for. In most kingdoms, nobles have to compete over very limited resources. The biggest reason for court intrigue was to belittle the concerns of others and promote your own.
For example:
There are 7 cadre of royal knights, 8 divisions of royal soldiers and 3 divisions of cavalry. Most of these man forts essential to the defense of the kingdom as a whole. But there are 2 knight cadres, 1 cavalry division and 2 infantry divisions on hand.

Duke Harin wants a knight cadre and the cavalry division to flush out and run down a well organised bandit group that keeps fleeing into the woods in a neighboring territory where his own men are not allowed to follow.

Duke Farnsworth wants a cadre and an infantry division to help put down a rebellion in his territory.

And Duchess Merilla needs a cadre, an infantry division and a cavalry division to help eliminate a nasty scourge of undead created by a group of lizardmen who reside within a nearby swamp.

After the 5 super factions, there will be around 10 - 20 major factions. These will be your marquis, counts, princes and princesses. The super factions use and manipulate these major factions most of whom report to one of the 5 super factions.

Then you have dozens of minor factions. They will be led by viscounts, barons and the like. These are the most likely to try to actively recruit the pcs who would be granted the title of Knight or Baronet.

It is a HUGE breach of protocol for a knight to go seeking to speak directly to someone from a super faction. And a major one would likely politely send them away.

But, if the pcs have a good enough rep, they can be approached by as many as a dozen minor faction heads trying to recruit their services and alliegance.

[Mutazoia]

You may want to visit your local second-hand bookstore and see if you can pick up a copy of Machiavellis "The Prince." There is a reason that well-planned and executed political intrigues are described as Machiavellian...the man quite literally wrote the book on the subject.

[farothel]

The king (or regent) has a daughter of marriable age. As that's a sure way to move up in the noble line, there's a lot of contenders (including maybe one or two of the PCs if you can get them to take an interest). A lot of intrigue will ensue, both pushing themselves forward as pulling other candidates back. Figuring out what the daughter likes (poetry is always a good one) and having an impromptu contest in it can be very much fun.

[kyoryu]

The core of conflict is people wanting things.

Intrigue and politics are just conflicts with different forms of resolution.

So, figure out who the people are. Figure out what they want. Their goals should sorta align with their house, but not necessarily completely align, or align with other house members.

I'd look at like three people per house, in various ranks, with various goals.

Here's an example:

House Hyllia

Anseph Hyllia is the current head of House Hyllia. His primary goal is to increase the power of the National Guard - he thinks that the regular army should be brought under their control, after all, what is the army but an extension of national security? But the military is strong, and won't take this well, so his goal is to make them appear weak. He's looking for allies that can help put the military in a bad place, through bad intel, withdrawal of support, or other means, so that the National Guard can come in and save the day. He also thinks that an alliance with Ravenson would be useful, though he's got an old feud with the head of their House. He's happy to help them to repair that damage if possible, but if not, he's also happy to help create disturbances to depose their head.

Sillin Answell is an up-and-coming Captain in the National Guard. Her primary goal is her own advancement - and she's reached the point where for her to advance, someone has to either fall or retire, and she doesn't plan on waiting for people to retire. Her primary goal is to create a vacancy above her. She's not entirely sure where that might be, and attaching herself to one of her superiors and getting pulled up is definitely an option. She also has a friend in Steinryk that could use some support with a problem she's having, and wants to try to help get her that support.

Tannith Marek is a Major in the Guard. He's grown tired of the infighting and bickering, and frankly wants to make some money before he retires. As such, he leads a circle of, effectively, smugglers within the Guard using their orders to ferry goods around without needing to be inspected. He believes someone in Ravenson is onto him and would like to figure out who. He's looking for new recruits into his scheme - possibly even outside his house - as well as someone to recruit into the officer levels of his scheme, so that he can retire and just skim off the top to make sure he has a comfortable retirement.

So, there we've got three NPCs with several goals each, that can play off of each other and the other houses as well. From there, I'd go ahead and come up with the other houses. Then (and you might not be able to do this until you've finished the NPCs), figure out the agendas for each character - what do they plan on doing once they're at the ball? Sillin, for instance, might be talking to Ravenson people for dirt they have on anyone above her in the food chain. Tannith might see Sillin as a recruit (and his retirement would nicely fulfill her desire for advancement). Anseph would probably have designs on some of the other folks, so his agenda is harder to figure out without the other NPCs.

[JadedDM]

Coincidentally, I've got big political intrigue balls coming up in two of my games, so I've been researching this matter, as well. I came across this article (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37995/roleplaying-games/game-structure-party-planning) that was immensely helpful for me, and hopefully will be helpful for you, as well.

[Jay R]

The king (or regent) has a daughter of marriable age. As that's a sure way to move up in the noble line, there's a lot of contenders (including maybe one or two of the PCs if you can get them to take an interest). A lot of intrigue will ensue, both pushing themselves forward as pulling other candidates back. Figuring out what the daughter likes (poetry is always a good one) and having an impromptu contest in it can be very much fun.

The daughter flirted with one of the PCs. No, she is not the least bit interested; she merely wanted to make things interesting for the real suitors. The PC does not know that.

[Nemenia]

My first suggestion is to imagine how big the event is. As you only have 5 houses, I imagine each house being fairly large extended families? More like clans or so?

SO: imagine how many people is there? Somewhere between 50 or 200 is a good size.

Secondly: as nobles, the families would likely be married to other nobles. As there are 5 families of "high nobility", they would very likely have married into each other fairly frequently. So some members will have "spilt" loyalties and allegiances. So if if the uncle of the current king Thornwell is married to the sister of the head of the Ravenson their children will have relations on boths sides. I suggest that you "map" these connections and have at leas 5 but preferably 10 connections in a confusing pattern. Such a map is good for: plot hooks, potential conflicts, and just as importantly potential ways of resolving conflicts.

This allows the players to trying to be as confused and lost as most people would be in a tightly knit group.

Thirdly: conflicts. Have many small and a fewer major. Smaller conflicts is stuff grudges, likes/dislikes of specific persons, perhaps a Ravenson is jealous of a Steinryk for some silly reason. Stuff like that. Have many such petty quarrels this makes the court more "alive". "Map" them in advance so your players can explore them or not at their own time (or the choice not to interfere). Small conflicts can be fun and also work as obstacles to resolve lager issues. In addition have 2-3 major conflicts (someone is having an affair with the queen, two families are in a dispute over land, or perhaps the Calibans and the Steinryks are plotting to take over the responsibilities and power of the Hyllia family).

Finally connect the major conflicts, the families and smaller grudges, and make sure that every conflict involves most families either trough grudges and smaller conflicts, or family ties (for instance, in the above suggested Caliban/Steinryk plot, one of the Ravensons has a rivalry with one of the Steinryks and thus don't want them to succeed, but cannot interfere directly as the person is secretly in love with one of the Calibans). This allow the playes to do favours and gain meaningful alliances and plots.

I dont know how to split the quote into multiple smaller quotes, so just to go over your points

1. The event isn't actually terribly large. Each noble may bring 1 family member and a +1. This is still a decent number of people but it's not a huge celebration

2. This is a great idea and didnt really occur to me at all. I will definitely try and draw some of these connections out.

3. This is my issue and the main reason I made this post. I just cannot think of any. Whatever part of my brain that's supposed to be creative just falls over and dies when I try to make interesting social situations.

4. The major conflicts I have already. Those are setup and ongoing, and the PCs are aware of them. They just arent that involved on a moment to moment basis.

[Mutazoia]

Coincidentally, I've got big political intrigue balls coming up in two of my games, so I've been researching this matter, as well. I came across this article (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37995/roleplaying-games/game-structure-party-planning) that was immensely helpful for me, and hopefully will be helpful for you, as well.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlqLHcphyw

[farothel]

I also had a text file that I probably ripped off the internet years ago (the last save date is in 2003), but it probably still works.



I'm sure you're wondering what on earth I'm going off about this time.
Parties? Roleplaying games? Parties *in* roleplaying games? Just hear me
out for a little while, and I think you'll find this useful!

Most gaming groups forget about and ignore party occasions. How often do
player characters (PCs) have in-game birthdays? What about New Year's
parties? How often does a character get married (PC or NPC) and throw a
reception? And why should you care, anyway?

Some of you might remember our "instant plot hook" issues (they're still
some of our most popular issues). Instant plot hooks are brief things
that you can drop into your game at a moment's notice. They're designed
to use up a spare half-hour or so when your players totally
short-circuit what you had planned and leave you stranded, but they also
tend to make very good fodder for longer-term plots. At times they can
inspire some pretty weird stuff - since you didn't plan the plot out,
you often have no idea where your players will take your instant plot
hook.

In-game parties and celebrations are gift-baskets of instant plot hooks!
Such an occasion can be a bit like tossing a handful of plot hooks up in
the air and watching your players scramble to catch the falling pieces.
Parties can have repercussions for game-months afterwards. Here are just
a few of the ways in which you can use celebrations in your games.


Parties are fantastic places to kick off unusually high-epic or
high-intensity plots. Who hasn't read a book where the big event that
starts off the adventure happens at a party? Everyone remember Bilbo's
disappearing trick at his birthday party in "Lord of the Rings"? What
about your average dinner party murder mystery? I guess you could say
that weird things like an audience!

I believe this approach is so popular because the switch in tone is so
remarkably effective. You're going from an atmosphere of celebration and
joy to one of shock and surprise with hardly a moment's notice. It also
makes a certain sense - some characters *like* a flashy entrance or
exit. They enjoy showing off and surprising lots of people. This premise
lets you set up a scene that's as dramatic as you desire!


One of the categories of instant plot hook in the original article was
the gift. You can use presents as an excuse to slip all sorts of weird
and wild things to people. These don't have to be terribly powerful
items (see next month's article for more hints on creating cool things
that aren't super-powerful). They can appear simple but have unusual
properties. They could be totally normal yet come with unusual
histories. They might be stolen items, with former owners hot on their
trail. They could be magnets for trouble of one sort or another. They
could have emotional import to the PCs.

All of these are possible even if the giver has the best of intentions.
But what if he doesn't? What if an enemy of the party wishes to take
advantage of the situation to slip in something dangerous? He could sell
something that seems initially harmless to one of the gift-givers. He
could switch a dangerous item in for a real gift. He could send the gift
anonymously, or the gift might not appear to be gift at all, but for the
timing.

The great thing about this latter possibility is that you have the
perfect opportunity to hand the party something dangerous that will make
their lives interesting rather than smush them. After all, in order for
that enemy to pawn something off as the perfect gift, he has to make it
appear harmless, or even beneficial. The dangerous effects have to be
subtle or slow in order to avoid initial detection. Besides, what
long-time enemy could resist the temptation of a party? What bitter
rival could see the PCs having a joyous celebration and not try to ruin
it?

So bring out your bundle of instant gift hooks. Spend a little time
coming up with interesting things that have some fun background to them.
See what the party does with them, and where things go. Plan some of the
things to come into play weeks or even months on down the road, so your
gifts will last you a long time to come. Throw some completely normal,
mundane items in there just to make things seem halfway normal (or at
least to confuse the PCs). Throw a couple of really nice things in to
give them a little bonus (and to keep them from swearing off parties
forever after ;). Heck, send some gifts from people the PCs have never
met before as a way of introducing them to a new & different part of
your world.

You can also turn the entire gift idea around. What if your PCs have to
find an appropriate gift for an important person before attending *her*
party? Perhaps getting her the right gift could get them later favors or
alliances, or getting the wrong gift could be disastrous to some plan.
You could get weeks of plots out of the PCs' attempts to find and
procure the right gift!



Really want to have a wild night? Maybe the party in question attracts
all the wrong sorts of attention! A cabal of evil wizards shows up,
thinking it's the perfect place to hold dark rituals. A gang crashes the
festivities. Vampires decide the party looks like an all-you-can-eat
buffet. Someone uses the party as the perfect place to ambush their
enemies (who, of course, nicely put themselves in one place by coming to
the party). Your PCs could spend most of the night running from crisis
to crisis, trying desperately to keep the whole thing from tumbling down
around their ears. If they keep enough people alive, they could also
forge some great new bonds and alliances out of the night's festivities,
or at least rack up some future favors.

An additional source of concern when you have a wild party is - the
neighbors! Who lives nearby? How loud does the party get? Will anyone
call the police? This can be yet another source of plots and plot hooks.
Who takes an interest in the PCs because of the party? Whose ruffled
feathers do the PCs have to soothe? Who do they have to pay off or do a
favor for in order to avoid trouble with the law?


Have your PCs been making friends on both sides of the fence? Have they
been trying to keep their darker friendships secret from their nicer
allies? Have they been hiding a few too many skeletons in their closets?
Have you been dying to find a way to shake things up a bit?

Maybe the PCs go to someone else's party (New Year's party? Birthday?
Grand re-opening at their favorite night club?) and find that a few too
many of the people they know are there. Maybe they throw their own party
and some of their less savory friends find out and decide to crash. How
do they keep their differing friends apart? How do they choose who to
make happy and who to anger? What lies do they tell? Which secrets come
out? How many weeks of game-play does it take them to patch things up
afterward by running around, explaining everything, and doing favors for
people?

Be a little careful with this one - it *will* shake up the PCs'
alliances and friendships. If they've put a lot of work into those
alliances your players might not be so happy about this - and
understandably so. Try to make sure they're okay with this sort of thing
first (ask them point-blank if they mind you shaking up the game), and
particularly try to make sure that there are ways for them to repair the
damage afterwards. You should be able to get half a dozen great plots
out of the favors they have to do and contortions they have to go
through in order to win their friends back.


What about your villains' celebrations? What about their birthdays and
triumphs? Even bad guys have friends and allies who want to be wined and
dined, after all. A party could be the perfect chance for the PCs to get
creative about destroying their enemy. A party could be the perfect
chance to slip in with a disguise. Or to waltz in openly and trade
thinly-veiled threats in a situation where open violence would be a bad
idea. Or to sneak in the back door while the normally effective guards
are distracted by party problems.


If you're going to play with parties now and then, vary the kind of
party. There's your loud, raucous, destructive party. There's your fancy
dinner party, or your big, pompous affair of state. There's your
intimate gathering of family and friends. There's your strained
reception with family you don't like. There are costume parties, theme
parties, club parties, and more. Do something a little bit different
every time!


Okay, this one's a little tough: if you really want to do that whole
atmospheric about-face we talked about earlier, then how do you build up
a party atmosphere? It can be tough to get your players into the mood
just by telling them that they're at a party, and not everyone enjoys
roleplaying small-talk, which is how these things usually start out.
What, then, can you do to help?

To start with, if you're up for it, try to make the game-night itself a
little out of the ordinary. Serve a nice dinner to start off with
(home-cooked if you're into that; delivered if you aren't); begin the
roleplaying at the dinner table if people are up for it. Pull out the
table-cloth and the nice glasses if you have them. If you don't want to
go that far, at least bring something a little nice (a cake? Some
sparkling cider?), light the candles, and clean up the gaming room a
bit.

Put some quiet-but-upbeat music on in the background. Remember to smile
a lot as you roleplay the guests at the party. Think of a few fun and
interesting things to chat about as you set the stage (keep notes around
- maybe a list of guests with a potential topic or two for each). Talk
about past successes the PCs have had and amusing anecdotes from their
history - making it personal should help to draw them in. As always,
remember your details. Describe the room, the decorations, and what
people are wearing, and make it sparkle. If you have any friends who've
been wanting to play an NPC for a night, invite them to come play party
guests.

Try to keep the pace moving. Every time things slow down too much, bring
in a new guest. Have one guest insult another's taste in clothing and
almost start a fight. Describe a late arrival's weird taste in clothing,
unusual bodyguard, or ostentatious gift.

Most importantly - have fun! Enjoy yourself. An in-game party should be
fun for the players and the GM, even if it drives the PCs crazy!

[Vknight]

Give the players the ability to meet with and speak with faction leaders.

Force them to interact with people who are hoping to use them because of their skills or talents.
Examples;
-Whats that fighter you are hiding by the punch well baroness Catarina needs someone to guard her daughter for the night as she is a notorious flirt.
-Wizard you notice the head of a guild that is against mages using spells to aid in construction he's talking with one of the parties patrons.
-Rogue well you are scoping out the party for things to steal you hear that Lord Duskveil will be attending tonight despite his condition and the risk to his wealth.
-Warlock another person serving your patron is here... and s/he is a baron/ess how are you going to speak with them?
-You notice Zog the mutant a wild mage mutated heavily to look more like a beastman, he's talking about a dangerous job that pays well but approaching him would be bad for rep.
-In a country with slavers you could throw in well slavers casually discussing such a topic to further confirm the terrible way they are treating other humans.

Give them sticky situations that need resolving.
-Lord Beckett is beating his squire again. He makes the knights of X look bad.
-Douglas Dogood is here tonight but that is terrible because he has permanent true sight and/or a zone of truth around him at all times and he's standing next to the players mark.
-Damien Darkwing of house darkwing a probable vampire is here and he's got no reflection... and several of the nobles have been complaining about bites and attacks from bats... (Give them dc5 intelligence check); OHH crap he is gonna do a mass conversion of the nobility at the party into vampires.
-The waterclosests gelatinous cube used for disposal has gotten out. It must be found before it starts eating nobles. You can throw in trails of slimed clothes have a noble escape the cube or have them find a noble save them or beat the ooze and have to help them get new clothes since the ooze ate those first. Added twist it is all to lead the party along only then reveal it was all a distraction!!
-The foreign dignitary of Carthage is here for the first time help them navigate the politics or embarrass him heavily to ruin his reputation.

[Stonehead]

I dont know how to split the quote into multiple smaller quotes, so just to go over your points

3. This is my issue and the main reason I made this post. I just cannot think of any. Whatever part of my brain that's supposed to be creative just falls over and dies when I try to make interesting social situations.

4. The major conflicts I have already. Those are setup and ongoing, and the PCs are aware of them. They just arent that involved on a moment to moment basis.

I'm not sure what counts as small, but here's a few ideas I came up with off the top of my head.

Succession: A noble (maybe big, maybe relatively minor) is going to be leaving office soon, and all of the nobles one step less important are vying to fill the vacancy. You can mix it up pretty severely by shifting around the nature of the vacancy, and who decides the replacement. Maybe the noble has a terminal illness, maybe they're old and just feel like retiring, or maybe they've decided to step down to become an adventurer. Also, a council voting to decide the replacement has a very different feel to one important person (maybe the retiring noble themself) choosing a replacement.

Marriage: It's been said before but a young noble coming of age can cause a lot of competition to decide who they marry. Very similar to succession. You could mix it up a little by having the young noble be the pursuer, instead of the pursued. After coming of age, the young noble wants to get married, and the PCs help find suitable candidates who have to be impressed; instead of the other way around.

Poisoning: You've said elsewhere that assassination attempts would be unrealistic due to the exclusive nature of the party, but parties have food and drink, and getting access to the refreshments is a lot easier than getting access to the ball itself.

Food Poisoning: If you want some comic relief, maybe the food wasn't poisoned intentionally, it was just prepared incompetently, and gives you horrible indigestion. Whichever house was responsible for the meal prep wants to cover up any failure, anyone who ate the bad food wants to avoid losing face, and maybe some insidious actor wants to discredit a rival by tricking them into eating lots of the bad food.

Sponsorship: You mentioned that the PCs recently became nobles, I don't know the details of your world, but if they recently gained the titles, they probably aren't aligned with any of the main families yet. Each of them could try to bribe the PCs into taking their side, leaving the ultimate choice up to the PCs. Alternatively, if the PCs are still full time adventurers, maybe the noble families want to get some advertising by sponsoring the PCs. Giving them some gold, or a magic sword, in exchange for covering their gear with the branding and insignias of that family, just like a NASCAR car.

Entertainment: Most balls have music, if any of your PCs are musically talented, there could always be an issue with some of the performers. They couldn't show, there's an intra-band argument, an instrument breaks, you get the idea. Similarly, the nobles could start some competitions to entertain eachother. Maybe they break out into debates, maybe they recite poetry, maybe they perform feats of strength, any of these things could give the PCs a good reputation if they perform well enough.

You said you had a plan already for the overarching story, so I tried to stick more to small one-off events. Hope any of that was useful.

[KineticDiplomat]

As an aside, it’s worth remembering that these are level 20 players in D&D. They have few if any character skills capable of handling intrigue an diplomacy, but are nigh unto gods when it comes to violence and manipulating reality. And your players are also…well…playing D&D. You might want a back up plan, cause there’s a lot of likelihood this won’t just go off the rails, it might just jump the shark.

[Calthropstu]

As an aside, it’s worth remembering that these are level 20 players in D&D. They have few if any character skills capable of handling intrigue an diplomacy, but are nigh unto gods when it comes to violence and manipulating reality. And your players are also…well…playing D&D. You might want a back up plan, cause there’s a lot of likelihood this won’t just go off the rails, it might just jump the shark.

I am just imagining this.

"So, PCs, how did your fancy party go?"

"Great! We started a war and ended it in a single night. The fighter got so drunk he was found naked cuddling a shark the next morning. We're pretty sure the shark didn't die from asphyxiation. Quite a mess. The bard called off early with several people in tow and the rogue seemed to disappear early as well. The wizard got drunk too and halfway through did a mirror image can-can dance and I, the ever dependable cleric, got thrown out. Apparently, using temove poison is decidedly against the rules in a dwarven drinking contest."

"What? I thought this was supposed to be a bunch of nobles!"

"It was supposed to be, but we decided to planeshift the entire lot of them after it became clear they thought they were better than us. We're gonna let them stew in the Astral plane for a few days."

[Sapphire Guard]

What do the attendees know about your players, and how does that affect their interests? Level 20 characters are scary scary people. Looking at your party from outside what impressions will they have?

If they're new nobility, do they have lands, and do they care about what happens to their lands. Whoever the neighbouring lands are owned by will want to negotiate trade routes, grazing rights, and so on.

[DwarfFighter]

Perhaps make the PCs individually invested in different houses?

1. The Ravenson heir/heiress takes a romantic interest in a PC. This can lead to the house publicly supporting the PC, but conservative forces within the house to work against them.

2. The Caliban representative invites one or two of the PCs (certainly not all of them!) to a private session to discuss the current military situation, in confidence. This can lead to the PCs being asked to go on missions with objectives they need to keep secret from the rest of

3. Hyllia. The Hyllia representative discusses with a PC in private the fear that the break-away nation has sympathizers in the PC's region, that there is no knowing how far dissent has spread. He asks that the PC keep an open eye, for the good of the empire.

4. A Thornwell elder asks one of the PCs for help in a delicate matter: There is a potential contender to the throne, an unknown heir with a stronger legitmate claim than the current crown prince. Secrecy is paramount, the stability of the empire is at stake!

5. A Steinryk mage singles out a PC and strikes up a conversation, trying to persuade him to field-test powerful magical items (how safe they are is up to the PC to find out!). The mage's attentions are fickle and he will work with any one (and only one!) PC at a time.

-DF

[Ettina]

You may want to visit your local second-hand bookstore and see if you can pick up a copy of Machiavellis "The Prince." There is a reason that well-planned and executed political intrigues are described as Machiavellian...the man quite literally wrote the book on the subject.

Pretty much anything by Jane Austen would also be a good reference.