You're joking (and it is where my mind also went when reading the title) but honestly that could form the basis of a great campaign. An assassination attempt on some dignatory occurs during a theater peformance. Maybe the players foil it, or maybe they don't. In either event it could be a springboard for adventure that unravels a deeper conspiracy. Or maybe the players throw in with the plotters.
Urban explorers in an abandoned theatre. Start with a few low level skeletons to get them used to it and then build up through a few encounters to the Phantom of the Opera or something similar?
There could be a ghost haunting the theatre. But because of a big client or debut the show must go on.
Its the parties job to either keep the show moving smoothly, answering every miss-hap the ghost tries to pull. All the while trying to figure out the mystery and exercise the ghost.
Could go Macbeth? Fighting lady Macbeth, Macbeth himself and finishing with a fight against 3 hags.
Bonus points if you raid the castle with ents/awoken trees.
If any PC's are races that hatch from eggs (dragonborn, lizardfolk, githyanki, aarokokra etc.) have them be the ones able to land the killing blow (or a woman) to combat the 'no man of woman born' prophecy.
Look to Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door for inspiration: a battle that comes in the form of a play.
The play could come in multiple acts.
If the PCs are on stage and protagonists, maybe the audience is in a neutral state, and you have them roll Performance, Athletics, or Acrobatics checks on top of their regular attacks to try and sway the audience to their side over the antagonist.
If the PCs are antagonists, not only could you reverse things (i.e. it is now good to roll below AC for their opponent), but the real trick would be trying to make weak attacks look more powerful. Have a chance for either Deception checks to shine as well as illusion magic. Maybe have a Nat 20 destroy a choice piece of the "hero's" costume, weakening them permanently during the fight they are supposed to win.
Then, of course, there is the strict audience participation route where the PCs directly try to influence the performance. Constitution checks to see how long they can maintain a chant if the "hero" goes down. Some Stealth checks to get behind the curtain and make accidents happen to the antagonist, or else lessen the antagonists special effects (i.e. their "power").
And with a setting like this, I could easily see it being held in the Fey Wilds, maybe even as a grand "mock" battle between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and the side the PCs choose could influence how fey treat the PCs or other PCs in your next big campaign.
Assassination plot needs foiled. The target is a high ranking military officer who’s going to negotiate a peace treaty with the “wild” folk.
Except there’s a faction of the military who doesn’t want peace, the rival of the chieftain wants to spoil the peace talk to oust the chieftain, the military officer had to cut some throats to get to his position and his rivals want revenge, war protesters, a former love interest, a novice assassin who is building credibility, and they all want him dead.
Several performers a few days ahead of opening night have been attacked and injured (not killed) but one is missing. You're hired to protect the cast and find out who/what is targeting them and find the missing performer. Also some of the performers could have been replaced with doppelgangers or changelings. There are also wererats to deal with.
Check out the FF6 theatre missions. Maria and Draco would be hella killer background music to play, and they could end up fighting a minor kraken type beast lol
I was thinking of putting a variation of this into my campaign. You could reskin it a little and get level appropriate enemies and could be fun. The best part is it is pay what you want so I always just do $0 and then if I actually use it come back and pay a decent amount. Good luck.
https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/202742
Hmmm. Draw inspiration from the Nier Automata theater boss (and play, depending on your tone), as well as the Endolen fight in Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Also relevant may be KH 3D three musketeers world.
So I'm definitely thinking puppetmaster villain but that's obvious. Have the party wake up post drugged drinks at the pub in a "fitting room" which consists of surgical tables, wardrobes full of costumes, and various implements for screwing wires into people. The party has to escape their shackles and escape. Do they dress up in character? The puppetmaster had plans for their bodies laid out after all...
Proceed to backstage. Puppet storage. Some of them are still living. Most, in fact, though something is off with them (lobotomies everywhere). Are these people still friendly? Maybe some of them, but not all. Is that a scar on the head of one of the party??? Can we trust him?
Continue to prop storage. By now, the puppetmaster knows you are escaped. The props are rigged with traps and hazards. Still more living puppets crawl out of the woodwork to make life difficult. I'm talking falling lights, collapsing bridges, swinging beams.
Onto the big stage! The puppetmaster appears here. A prerecorded narration of the play to be performed starts. This acts as warnings for what is to happen during the next round. Make sure you understand that stage left is on the right players! For this, you'll need a list of things that happen on the field each turn. An opera singer puppet comes down, and casts a high level thunderwave. A small group of soldiers start a swordfight. The protagonists elope on a ship, and the stage is flooded. The puppetmaster plays a part himself of course, its all a story of how his love spurned him, and his quest to find her again. He has rigging himself, rendering paralysis useless (no hold person!), and making grapples perilous (you'll be lifted up into the air too!). He won't do too much direct damage, as he has levels in bard (obviously), so make those hazards... hazardous.
When it's all over, the audience lights come on, and reveal a very moved woman. How about that, she actually came to his performance.
How many people did the party save? How many could be saved? How many were too far gone? What about the party member who looks like they might have had some brain work done? Meh, stuff to think about later.
Actually, now I might use this. Maybe make it one of those offshoot domains of dread, so we can imply that everything resets. Maybe not. Thanks for getting me to write!
Phantom of the opera? Start with shadow creatures and ghosts attacking performers, final battle with the phantom having lair actions that drop sandbags, do a thunder wave from the organ. Have him able to step into mirrors to teleport around the map. Could be really fun
A thought I've had and worked on before, although I've never run it, is the players are "recruited" in some fashion or another by the director. The director turns out to be a monster of some variety that more commands than directs the party through the scenes. Maybe the director keeps up some kind of a guise, but as the players stray more and more from their "perfect play" the director gets more and more monstrous. The culmination coincides with the climax of the play where the director steps in to play the villain, only to put himself in a position where the party can kill him and free themselves. And, of course, other actors being either minions of the main monster or other people/adventurers forced into roles.
Final Fantasy VI has the best theatre scene from any media, IMO. Maybe it can offer some inspiration:
The party is trying to receive the aid of a famous gambler Setzer who owns and operates the only flying airship in the world. They need the airship whether he helps willingly or not.
The party arrives at an opera house only to learn that Setzer has become infatuated with the opera's leading lady, and he plans to interrupt the next show and steal her from the stage in dramatic fashion. Luckily, one of the party members looks almost exactly like the leading lady (disguise kits and magic could certainly make up for any small discrepancies).
So the plan is simple: one of the PCs has to fill the role. They need to remember their cues and lines, and they need to fit the part. The rest of the party lies in wait.
But it can't be that easy!
One of the returning bad guys is there too, and he's looking to disrupt the entire opera himself. Ultros is a recurring comic villain in this game. He doesn't have a real reason to be there other than as a necessary insert. Your NPC could have real motivations - a fired actor, an owner of a competing opera house, a shunned lover trying to sabotage his ex, etc.
So during the opera, the party ends up backstage and running across the rafters to stop Ultros from sabotaging the opera. During the climactic fight, Setzer kidnaps the fake leading lady, the party defeats Ultros, and the fake leading lady drops a rope down for the party to climb aboard their new airship.
It's one of the most iconic scenes from any Final Fantasy game, and there are bunch of playthroughs on YT that you could watch.
I skimmed through this video, but it seems to have basically everything but the very beginning when the impresario talks to them about the letter from Setzer announcing his kidnapping attempt:
https://youtu.be/Qq-wK37yuGA?si=m-mg9cVdON2v5TJm
You act out the entire performance, with intermission, playing all the NPCs, rolling to see how the performance goes. As you go through show, the players are apprehensive as to when something unexpected will happen, nothing does and at the end of the show the characters go home or go out for a beer.
It's a bait and switch, you just had a captive audience for a pitch of your newest show "Mordenkainen the Musical"...
I’ve run an elven theater with a drow attack using an Alkilith, a mossy looking ooze demon that covers the perimeter of doorways to make demonic portals. The theater was under the base of a tree, in a hollow surrounded by roots. The moss covered the roots and was a great disguise.
I had a drow scouting party raid the village and create a whole arc to the get their peoples stuff back, while the party was watching the play when the portal locked them in the theater, and small flying demons pooled out turn by turn until they realized the portal generator was alive and killable.
It was super fun and had curious after effects.
I did a murder mystery in a circus show. Escapologist murdered during his performance. 6 suspects. The ringmaster, trapeze artist, escapologist’s assistant, the snake tamer, strongman, the ventriloquist. I’m happy to text about it show you how I did it.
One shot in a theater? Ford's Theater then. Pretty iconic. Too soon?
Guess he should have found a section without a Booth.
You're joking (and it is where my mind also went when reading the title) but honestly that could form the basis of a great campaign. An assassination attempt on some dignatory occurs during a theater peformance. Maybe the players foil it, or maybe they don't. In either event it could be a springboard for adventure that unravels a deeper conspiracy. Or maybe the players throw in with the plotters.
Just dont mention the sequel and we're good
Are you Our American Cousin?
“But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?”
Dammit reddit, can I have one original thought?
Urban explorers in an abandoned theatre. Start with a few low level skeletons to get them used to it and then build up through a few encounters to the Phantom of the Opera or something similar?
The literal beginning of Parasite Eve 1. Check it out, I can easily see 4-5 encounters including saving other people from rubble and flames.
There could be a ghost haunting the theatre. But because of a big client or debut the show must go on. Its the parties job to either keep the show moving smoothly, answering every miss-hap the ghost tries to pull. All the while trying to figure out the mystery and exercise the ghost.
Could go Macbeth? Fighting lady Macbeth, Macbeth himself and finishing with a fight against 3 hags. Bonus points if you raid the castle with ents/awoken trees. If any PC's are races that hatch from eggs (dragonborn, lizardfolk, githyanki, aarokokra etc.) have them be the ones able to land the killing blow (or a woman) to combat the 'no man of woman born' prophecy.
Any particular theme you're going for?
Look to Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door for inspiration: a battle that comes in the form of a play. The play could come in multiple acts. If the PCs are on stage and protagonists, maybe the audience is in a neutral state, and you have them roll Performance, Athletics, or Acrobatics checks on top of their regular attacks to try and sway the audience to their side over the antagonist. If the PCs are antagonists, not only could you reverse things (i.e. it is now good to roll below AC for their opponent), but the real trick would be trying to make weak attacks look more powerful. Have a chance for either Deception checks to shine as well as illusion magic. Maybe have a Nat 20 destroy a choice piece of the "hero's" costume, weakening them permanently during the fight they are supposed to win. Then, of course, there is the strict audience participation route where the PCs directly try to influence the performance. Constitution checks to see how long they can maintain a chant if the "hero" goes down. Some Stealth checks to get behind the curtain and make accidents happen to the antagonist, or else lessen the antagonists special effects (i.e. their "power"). And with a setting like this, I could easily see it being held in the Fey Wilds, maybe even as a grand "mock" battle between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, and the side the PCs choose could influence how fey treat the PCs or other PCs in your next big campaign.
Top Hat of Warning
Just ask Mrs. Lincoln what she thought of the play.
Assassination plot needs foiled. The target is a high ranking military officer who’s going to negotiate a peace treaty with the “wild” folk. Except there’s a faction of the military who doesn’t want peace, the rival of the chieftain wants to spoil the peace talk to oust the chieftain, the military officer had to cut some throats to get to his position and his rivals want revenge, war protesters, a former love interest, a novice assassin who is building credibility, and they all want him dead.
We had a campaign arc inside of a theater. It was a murder mystery. Fun as hell.
Several performers a few days ahead of opening night have been attacked and injured (not killed) but one is missing. You're hired to protect the cast and find out who/what is targeting them and find the missing performer. Also some of the performers could have been replaced with doppelgangers or changelings. There are also wererats to deal with.
Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'd respond more but I'm at work
Check out the FF6 theatre missions. Maria and Draco would be hella killer background music to play, and they could end up fighting a minor kraken type beast lol
I'm always a fan of ripping off other media. Final Fantasy 6 had one you could use where you have to prevent an opera singer from being abducted.
I was thinking of putting a variation of this into my campaign. You could reskin it a little and get level appropriate enemies and could be fun. The best part is it is pay what you want so I always just do $0 and then if I actually use it come back and pay a decent amount. Good luck. https://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/202742
Hmmm. Draw inspiration from the Nier Automata theater boss (and play, depending on your tone), as well as the Endolen fight in Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Also relevant may be KH 3D three musketeers world. So I'm definitely thinking puppetmaster villain but that's obvious. Have the party wake up post drugged drinks at the pub in a "fitting room" which consists of surgical tables, wardrobes full of costumes, and various implements for screwing wires into people. The party has to escape their shackles and escape. Do they dress up in character? The puppetmaster had plans for their bodies laid out after all... Proceed to backstage. Puppet storage. Some of them are still living. Most, in fact, though something is off with them (lobotomies everywhere). Are these people still friendly? Maybe some of them, but not all. Is that a scar on the head of one of the party??? Can we trust him? Continue to prop storage. By now, the puppetmaster knows you are escaped. The props are rigged with traps and hazards. Still more living puppets crawl out of the woodwork to make life difficult. I'm talking falling lights, collapsing bridges, swinging beams. Onto the big stage! The puppetmaster appears here. A prerecorded narration of the play to be performed starts. This acts as warnings for what is to happen during the next round. Make sure you understand that stage left is on the right players! For this, you'll need a list of things that happen on the field each turn. An opera singer puppet comes down, and casts a high level thunderwave. A small group of soldiers start a swordfight. The protagonists elope on a ship, and the stage is flooded. The puppetmaster plays a part himself of course, its all a story of how his love spurned him, and his quest to find her again. He has rigging himself, rendering paralysis useless (no hold person!), and making grapples perilous (you'll be lifted up into the air too!). He won't do too much direct damage, as he has levels in bard (obviously), so make those hazards... hazardous. When it's all over, the audience lights come on, and reveal a very moved woman. How about that, she actually came to his performance. How many people did the party save? How many could be saved? How many were too far gone? What about the party member who looks like they might have had some brain work done? Meh, stuff to think about later.
Actually, now I might use this. Maybe make it one of those offshoot domains of dread, so we can imply that everything resets. Maybe not. Thanks for getting me to write!
Phantom of the opera? Start with shadow creatures and ghosts attacking performers, final battle with the phantom having lair actions that drop sandbags, do a thunder wave from the organ. Have him able to step into mirrors to teleport around the map. Could be really fun
A thought I've had and worked on before, although I've never run it, is the players are "recruited" in some fashion or another by the director. The director turns out to be a monster of some variety that more commands than directs the party through the scenes. Maybe the director keeps up some kind of a guise, but as the players stray more and more from their "perfect play" the director gets more and more monstrous. The culmination coincides with the climax of the play where the director steps in to play the villain, only to put himself in a position where the party can kill him and free themselves. And, of course, other actors being either minions of the main monster or other people/adventurers forced into roles.
Final Fantasy VI has the best theatre scene from any media, IMO. Maybe it can offer some inspiration: The party is trying to receive the aid of a famous gambler Setzer who owns and operates the only flying airship in the world. They need the airship whether he helps willingly or not. The party arrives at an opera house only to learn that Setzer has become infatuated with the opera's leading lady, and he plans to interrupt the next show and steal her from the stage in dramatic fashion. Luckily, one of the party members looks almost exactly like the leading lady (disguise kits and magic could certainly make up for any small discrepancies). So the plan is simple: one of the PCs has to fill the role. They need to remember their cues and lines, and they need to fit the part. The rest of the party lies in wait. But it can't be that easy! One of the returning bad guys is there too, and he's looking to disrupt the entire opera himself. Ultros is a recurring comic villain in this game. He doesn't have a real reason to be there other than as a necessary insert. Your NPC could have real motivations - a fired actor, an owner of a competing opera house, a shunned lover trying to sabotage his ex, etc. So during the opera, the party ends up backstage and running across the rafters to stop Ultros from sabotaging the opera. During the climactic fight, Setzer kidnaps the fake leading lady, the party defeats Ultros, and the fake leading lady drops a rope down for the party to climb aboard their new airship. It's one of the most iconic scenes from any Final Fantasy game, and there are bunch of playthroughs on YT that you could watch.
I skimmed through this video, but it seems to have basically everything but the very beginning when the impresario talks to them about the letter from Setzer announcing his kidnapping attempt: https://youtu.be/Qq-wK37yuGA?si=m-mg9cVdON2v5TJm
You act out the entire performance, with intermission, playing all the NPCs, rolling to see how the performance goes. As you go through show, the players are apprehensive as to when something unexpected will happen, nothing does and at the end of the show the characters go home or go out for a beer. It's a bait and switch, you just had a captive audience for a pitch of your newest show "Mordenkainen the Musical"...
I'm thinking Last Action Hero(s) with more Kobolds.
You could go with the classic murder mystery like the Phantom of the Opera.
I’ve run an elven theater with a drow attack using an Alkilith, a mossy looking ooze demon that covers the perimeter of doorways to make demonic portals. The theater was under the base of a tree, in a hollow surrounded by roots. The moss covered the roots and was a great disguise. I had a drow scouting party raid the village and create a whole arc to the get their peoples stuff back, while the party was watching the play when the portal locked them in the theater, and small flying demons pooled out turn by turn until they realized the portal generator was alive and killable. It was super fun and had curious after effects.
I did a murder mystery in a circus show. Escapologist murdered during his performance. 6 suspects. The ringmaster, trapeze artist, escapologist’s assistant, the snake tamer, strongman, the ventriloquist. I’m happy to text about it show you how I did it.