If you know me, it’s no secret that I’m a fan of musical theater. And I especially love being able to pull plot ideas from these shows for use in your games. And this week we’re going to take a look at a musical about a bard. And not just any bard – we’re talking about THE bard, William Shakespeare.
Or, at least a musical where he’s a major character in the plot. Welcome to Something Rotten! the 2015 show by John O’Farrell and Wayne and Karey Kirkpatrick, a comedic romp through the Renaissance about two brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom who are struggling to make it as playwrights when faced with the competition that is Shakespeare, presented as a literal rock star of the times. In order to get one over on Shakespeare, Nick visits a soothsayer and pays him to look into the future and see what Shakespeare’s next big hit will be so that he can write it first. The rest of the play is a veritable Comedy of Errors as Nick attempts to use faulty information obtained in this process to write the world’s first musical called “Omelette.” Will eventually catches wise to Nick’s plan and decides to infiltrate the rehearsal to hoist Nick by his own petard after lamenting how hard it is to be such a success in a very catchy number. The show is a lot of fun, and if you’re a fan of Shakespeare and musical theater, you should definitely do yourself a favor and give this show a listen.
But you’re not here for my recommendations on shows. (Unless you are, in which case, drop me a line. I’ve got plenty.) You’re here for an adventure that’s somehow based on this madcap musical comedy. And I’m going to give you one, from that small plot point of Shakespeare infiltrating rehearsals to steal his own play that he hasn’t written yet. And while this adventure could be suitable for any genre really, it probably shines best in the trappings of a medieval fantasy setting such as any of the implied settings of Dungeons and Dragons.
This adventure begins with the PCs celebrating a recent victory at the local tavern, having just performed a service for the city. While they are enjoying the free rounds of drinks, they are approached by a local playwright who is absolutely fraught with concern. It turns out that the stars of his upcoming production have gone missing and he suspects foul play from a jealous rival. To make matters worse, he suspects that these rivals are also in the production of the show! But he has no proof of any of these. He pleads with the PCs to help him out by joining the production and doing an investigation from the inside to find out what happened to his actors and who did it. (And if worse comes to worst, he can just capitalize on the PCs recent celebrity to draw in a crowd anyway.)
Now, the actual “whodunnit” portion of the plot really doesn’t matter too much to the fun from this adventure idea. The fun comes from subverting the player’s expectations of what their PCs are going to do during the show. The bard isn’t going to get brought in as a replacement for the leading man. No – he’s the only one who understands theater and the logistics behind it. He’s going to be asked to take on the role of stage manager to ensure that the production still has its needs met while they conduct their investigation. Instead, the lead role is going to the barbarian who can’t read because the role calls for strong physicality (and he believes the barbarian’s physique will sell more tickets). The wizard might have some time to cast some divination magic and gather some clues that way, but only when they can find some free time when they’re not using mending to repair costumes and props. Perhaps the fighter is asked to teach a group of actors who have never held a weapon before how to perform stage combat. The normally stealthy and inconspicuous rogue is asked to handle the marketing and advertising for the show. Really, there’s a lot of fun that you can have here tailoring some roles for the PCs that they are NOT built for during the course of their investigation.
Eventually, they should be able to find out what is going on with the actors. Again, the resolution here is probably the least important thing. Maybe there are some jealous rivals that wanted their competition gone and were willing to sabotage their own show to do so. Maybe they just grew tired of the director and skipped town. Maybe there are no missing actors and the director was just desperate for some more talent and decided that the PCs’ new celebrity was better than nothing and spun a story for them about the missing actors to get them on board. The real adventure is putting the PCs into amusing scenarios that they don’t normally find themselves in and watching them figure out how they’re going to deal with them.
This kind of adventure could be an absolute riot for any group as a tension breaker between more serious campaign arcs. And it could be a lot of fun as a convention style one-shot where you as the DM can tailor the pregenerated characters towards the roles you want them to
fill within the production. Have some fun with this, and if you ever get your version of this production on stage, please let me know how it goes!
Ben Erickson
