So, I am currently in the process of designing/storyboarding an introductory adventure for my group for a new campaign.

I wanted to run some basics through here, see what people think, if they have any ideas or suggestions, etc.

The current story: There is a Scorpion territory bordering near Crane lands that is known for bountiful rice paddies. Luckily for the province, there storms that wrecked other areas did only minor damage here. This has put them in a fortunate position, and the Daimyo has decided to use the excess as an opportunity to forge an alliance with another Clan and finally wed his obstinate son.

However, a few days before the wedding was to occur, the betrothed arrived. Actually... 3 arrived. 3 Different Clans. 3 Different Matchmakers. 3 Different Betrothal Contracts.
A Crab, A Crane, and a Unicorn.

Another twist... the prior month, the Daimyo has seemed somewhat erratic, perhaps falling to age and dementia. Just prior to their arrival, he had slipped into a coma, and has not yet been able to be roused, even by the local Shugenja.

The Scorpion Daimyo, worried about the shame this would bring, pulled a few favors in, and had the PCs brought in as Neutral Arbiters.

They will be from the 4 mentioned clans. Their goal is to determine the rightful marriage, and to soothe, if possible, the 'Losers.'

While each of the Betrothed are insulted, none enough to give up the opportunity for rice needed in the War, on the Wall, etc...

Twist: The father extended one betrothal contract. The other two were a confusion caused by his son. The son is poisoning his father, which is causing the dementia; He hired and wrote the letters for the other match makers, and he has control of the local Shugenja.

Each of the Matches will have good qualities and bad secrets to make each of them seem like both a good and bad match.

Thoughts? Ideas?

7 hours ago, KveldUlfr said:

The son is poisoning his father, which is causing the dementia; He hired and wrote the letters for the other match makers, and he has control of the local Shugenja.

Okay.... I get poisoning his father to speed along the inheritance, and I get maybe getting a second betrothal if he wasn't much of a fan of his father's first choice. Obviously if it's a case of 'finally getting him wed' then there'd been some angst on this point before.

But why the second one? What does the son gain out of it, besides making people look in the direction of the family lands? (which is exactly what he doesn't want if he wants his father to slip off to Heaven unremarked and let him take the lands).

Especially since, if he's been using a slow poison for a month, unless there's something very clever going on, he couldn't have planned the timing so precisely to ensure that his father went bananas but then passed out juuuust in time to prevent him being concious when the other betrothees arrived, because if he had been that could have sent things off the rails very quickly. Managing that would require someone very skilled in the art of poisoning.....maybe the shujenga?...and that fact could be a clue the PCs could use. If any characters are educated enough about drugs and poisons to work it out, obviously.

Also, if the betrothees are significant enough individuals, they wouldn't just 'turn up' - there would have been replies, letters of passage to be arranged, etc. This is important because the son couldn't allow his father to see any reply from invitees #2 and #3 since he didn't know they existed. Getting a non-specific "please put your seal on these letters of passage for the matchmaker, the lady, and their party" and getting him to seal three times as many letters of passage as any party actually needed is doable, especially with someone who's not all there, but receiveing a reply to a letter they never sent is a different kettle of fish entirely, and he'd somehow have to arrange to intercept those couriers before anyone mentioned them to his father or any high-ranking family vassals not in on the plan.

The way I see it, the son has three goals.

1. Succeed his father as Daimyo of the territory
2. Don't let anyone realise the Daimyo has been poisoned
3. If someone does realise the Daimyo has been poisoned, don't let anyone realise it's been caused by him. Ideally this means an obvious scapegoat.

5 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Okay.... I get poisoning his father to speed along the inheritance, and I get maybe getting a second betrothal if he wasn't much of a fan of his father's first choice. Obviously if it's a case of 'finally getting him wed' then there'd been some angst on this point before.

But why the second one? What does the son gain out of it, besides making people look in the direction of the family lands? (which is exactly what he doesn't want if he wants his father to slip off to Heaven unremarked and let him take the lands).

Especially since, if he's been using a slow poison for a month, unless there's something very clever going on, he couldn't have planned the timing so precisely to ensure that his father went bananas but then passed out juuuust in time to prevent him being concious when the other betrothees arrived, because if he had been that could have sent things off the rails very quickly. Managing that would require someone very skilled in the art of poisoning.....maybe the shujenga?...and that fact could be a clue the PCs could use. If any characters are educated enough about drugs and poisons to work it out, obviously.

Also, if the betrothees are significant enough individuals, they wouldn't just 'turn up' - there would have been replies, letters of passage to be arranged, etc. This is important because the son couldn't allow his father to see any reply from invitees #2 and #3 since he didn't know they existed. Getting a non-specific "please put your seal on these letters of passage for the matchmaker, the lady, and their party" and getting him to seal three times as many letters of passage as any party actually needed is doable, especially with someone who's not all there, but receiveing a reply to a letter they never sent is a different kettle of fish entirely, and he'd somehow have to arrange to intercept those couriers before anyone mentioned them to his father or any high-ranking family vassals not in on the plan.

The way I see it, the son has three goals.

1. Succeed his father as Daimyo of the territory
2. Don't let anyone realise the Daimyo has been poisoned
3. If someone does realise the Daimyo has been poisoned, don't let anyone realise it's been caused by him. Ideally this means an obvious scapegoat.

So, several of the points you bring up were points I ended up mulling over last night.

Why a second false betrothed?
From the son's point of view: It is more likely that the betrothees call off the wedding entirely rather than insisting a choice be made between two clans. Maybe it would be smarter to move it to two clans, though. I might just stick with Crane and Crab.
I had the idea that he enjoyed the pleasure of a Geisha, so much so that he loved her and had the mistaken thought that if he were Daimyo, he could marry her.

Intercepting correspondence. I plan on this being a big clue.
I had already thought of a false seal, with an imperfection if letters are inspected.
Thanks to your addition, I will add a missing loyal retainer who figured out something was amiss and was murdered.

In regards to the poisoner:
Yes, I was thinking the Shugenja would be the actual poisoner, but acting on behalf of the son. A Yogo who betrays her master for the son, because the son has blackmail on her. I'll make sure to have several clues there as well.
The son would have known and arranged the impending arrivals through letters sent near the end.
I will probably add a younger sister and or brother as potential scapegoats.

Thanks for the questions and the analysis.

16 hours ago, KveldUlfr said:

From the son's point of view: It is more likely that the betrothees call off the wedding entirely rather than insisting a choice be made between two clans. Maybe it would be smarter to move it to two clans, though. I might just stick with Crane and Crab. 
I had the idea that he enjoyed the pleasure of a Geisha, so much so that he loved her and had the mistaken thought that if he were Daimyo, he could marry her.

Okay....I sort of get that. If the idea is to cause enough of a stink to call the whole thing off, then going for "maximum screwup" makes a certain amount of sense. Since the non-incriminating background makes it fairly clear that he didn't want to be married anyway, it's not especially suspicious that he'd be advocating to the PCs for a decision of " you know what, screw it, have the family pay some reparations to all three, send all of them home, and start again from scratch ."

Obviously, if that was the plan, the PCs turning up was no part of it. Which means his father's lord (whether thats a clan family daimyo like Shosuro Hametsu, or some intervening provincial daimyo) probably wasn't supposed to intervene. Since the unnamed scorpion noble has sent the PCs along with the instruction " figure out which one he's supposed to marry ", it makes " none of the above " a politically awkward answer. Which makes me wonder if his getting involved is someone else's work - not because they were suspicious but because they were trying to do their honest best for an heir who they weren't aware was involved in something nefarious.

If you wanted to include the awkwardly loyal retainer, then this might be another opportunity to work them into the story; having them be the one to inform the scorpion hierarchy. Arguably that's going over the Heir's head, but his status as effectve-acting-lord-in-the-last-month-but-not-officially-so-because-the-current-lord-is-still-alive-but-bananas must have been ill-defined at best compared to his father's senior vassals, and it could easily have been an honest mistake of " given the possible scandal, why wouldn't we want the provincial daimyo involved? " and being done before asking him.

(especially since that's a question the heir can't give a true answer to)

16 hours ago, KveldUlfr said:

I will probably add a younger sister and or brother as potential scapegoats.

It's not impossible that he might be able to point fingers at either one of the matchmakers or one of the potential brides (or their families or retainers, anyway), especially if one of them is from a family positioned to take advantage of weakness - having lands immediately bordering his fathers and/or a history of clashes.

If you must have younger siblings, I would consider if the PCs are likely to take the solution of "marry one prospective to each sibling, job done" - you might want to ensure either a mis-match of numbers or genders to take the easy option out of the equation.

What if the father had angered some kind of fox/trickster spirit (former lover or he defeated its plans it in his youth) and now it is taking its revenge before the samurai dies by humiliating his family with the multiple betrothals? That seems more in the "spirit" of an adventure based on too many suitors, rather than a son's property grab. The spirit may also be trying to frame the son, which might explain why the shugenja hasn't stepped in (s/he is busy investigation the son...or perhaps the fox spirit has managed to drive a wedge between the retainer and the lord).

The son calls in the PCs because he doesn't know what to do. Only that he's sitting on a powder keg. This could involve (a) negotiation with the suitors. (b) investigating the father both medically and historically, (c) reconciling the shugenja and finally defeating or negotiating with the fox spirit.

I like the premise!

On 4/15/2019 at 5:08 PM, Void Crane said:

What if the father had angered some kind of fox/trickster spirit (former lover or he defeated its plans it in his youth) and now it is taking its revenge before the samurai dies by humiliating his family with the multiple betrothals? That seems more in the "spirit" of an adventure based on too many suitors, rather than a son's property grab. The spirit may also be trying to frame the son, which might explain why the shugenja hasn't stepped in (s/he is busy investigation the son...or perhaps the fox spirit has managed to drive a wedge between the retainer and the lord). 

 The son calls in the PCs because he doesn't know what to do. Only that he's sitting on a powder keg. This could involve (a) negotiation with the suitors. (b) investigating the father both medically and historically, (c) reconciling the shugenja and finally defeating or negotiating with the fox spirit.

I like the premise!

I really liked this, and I am making some major changes thanks to this.

Glad you liked it and found it helpful! Too many suitors has a certain comedy element to it that is often rare in L5R adventures ... but its a nervous sort of laughter! The potential insults to various parties could definitely result in duels and deaths.