Our 10th IRE has to do with the recent Academy Award Nominations. Glamour. Glitz. Stars. Awards. Campaigns for Awards. The usual madness.
This is great for low key games, where glitz and glitter rarely apply. (Say, D&D, Wheel of Time, and the like). The campaign can involve dungeon crawls; this makes a way to break out of the typical mould.
Begin by telling the PCs about a cool party, social gathering, or the like that the local baron’s going to throw. Just make it a random town square announcement, connected to nothing. Then do nothing with it while they go about their next adventure.
The spike is this– at the end of their adventure, they’ll find incriminating documents. Documents that point at the baron, or one of his guests. It should be clear– very clear– that ambushing the potentate won’t work; either the villain has a heavily armed escort, or, better– is a recluse who teleports (or is teleported) when he must leave home. So the group’s best chance to hit the big bad is at the party…
From there, you just provide avenues for the PCs to get in. Perhaps the baron wants illusory entertainment, so he has an illusion forming contest (judged by his seneschal), as free entertainment for the peasants in the town square. Or bards can spread rumors of “the famous warrior” X, of distantlandia, who happens to be a PC with a bluffed history. (Or even a disguise). This works well for PCs who make their own way; you don’t have to drop a clue as obvious as the illusion contest.