Encounter Idea 23 – The Diplomat

In most role-playing games the object is to have the characters in the game travel from place to place, overcome obstacles, get the treasure and increase their power level. That’s all well and good but what happens when you need to introduce something other than a simple “dungeon crawl?” One suggestion would be to move campaign to a worldly scale and introduce conflict between countries (provinces, territories, or whatever you would like to call them in your campaign). If you decide to go that route I suggest introducing the characters to a diplomat.

The diplomat is simply an individual that is acting on behalf of someone else, in this case a country. They are responsible for negotiations between the two countries, establishing relationships, smoothing over issues between the two nations and possibly espionage. They offer a great opportunity to role-play as well.

A few ideas you could use:

– The dipolmat is just starting out on his travels and needs an armed escort, “Anyone interested in a job?”
– The characters are at “court” when a dipolmat is introduced and they think that he’s an imposter. They’ve seen him earlier in the campaign at are unaware of his rise in stature.
– The characters encouter a diplomat during a stay in at an inn and share a few drinks with him. This give you as the GM a great chance to pass along world events and informational items to the characters.

Of course you could also put the shoes on the other foot and have the local government appoint the characters as ambassadors to another country. This could turn into a rather interesting adventure depending on how relations are between the two countries.

Got an idea you’d like to pass along? I’d love to hear about it.

May your dice roll well.

Be sure to check out these additional encounter ideas