So I proposed a "princesses at a party" rpg over on Ryan Dancy's Dogs in the Vineyard thread.  Now I'm going to write it.  I'll start with some overall design discussion.

Dance of Daggers is a focused design about high society girls attending parties.  The parties are analogous to Dungeons in D&D, you might play out the stuff in between a bit but the main thing is the party.  I'm thinking a party should play out in a two hour session and be increasingly tense with real character capability loss being a constant threat.  The tension is the thing.

The characters will be simple.  Background, appearance, and attitude are the main traits.  We'll stay away from using numbers just to be different.  Boys will also be playable but the game is mainly aimed at twelve year old girls.

Backgrounds are where your family comes from and modify everything else significantly.  The options are: New Money, Old Money, Noble, Political, and The Masses.

Appearance breaks down to a few types which can provide advantages in some situations.  Matching up looks gives one type of advantage while contrasting them gives another: The options are: Cute, Pretty, Glamourous, Gorgeous, Voluptuous, and Dumpy.  The male equivilants are: Cute, Handsome, Classy, Hunk, and Chubby.

Attitude determines what is a sacrifice or reward for a character.  They also determine vulnerability and resistance to the Appearance and Background of other characters.  The options are: Conservative, Wild, Ambitious, Desperate, Aloof, Needy, and Jealous.

Social relationships are a key element of the game.  Characters can be unattatched, dating, friends, enemies, or exes.

Before each party the players must jockey for access to the available dates.  Characters begin without an established relationship and arrive at their first party with a date with random traits determined by spinning a bottle.

The players also begin their first party as friends but this will not last because the main danger in Dance of Daggers comes from the other players.

Scandal is the one thing nobody wants.

The basic action is mingling.  This is a pretty safe option except that one's date is free to be asked to dance by others while doing so.  While mingling a character can try to undermine others with light gossip to increase their Scandal or try to convince others (npcs) to ask to dance with them or try to convince others to ask someone else to dance.

Dancing is fairly safe but songs end and spending too much time on the dance floor with one person builds up scandal at an exponential rate.

Dancing with someone else's date more than once per party automatically builds up Scandal for everyone involved.

Resolution is something I'll need to think about.  Essentially relationships progress or decline and can shift radically in the course of a game.  A player character's actions towards Others tend to create these shifts.

Players shift their relationships towards each other's characters by declaring them.  "You're not my friend anymore!" for instance shifts the relationship to unfriendly.  "I hate you!" automatically shifts it to enemy.

One thing that enters into it all is LOVE.  Now a player is never required to use the L word but it's a major risk / raise that can trump any other situation if the subject loves them in return but otherwise causes a decline in the relationship and a lasting stress.  Since the referee, who we'll call The Host is the only one who knows who the Others love and the players have significant goals that don't always line up with loving the other players and it doesn't have to be written down anywhere it's a really risky move.

I'm thinking relationship stress should be the way relationships improve and decline.  Kinda like relationship hitpoints.  Not that we want any math, we'll just assess the number of stresses that add up over time.  So if there's enough scandal to make a character uncomfortable and someone says the L word it might just push the relationship into a new category.  But stress is never good.

Okay let's see what we can do with this.

It all comes down to your attitude.

Conservative characters are stressed by changes, desire relationships that match up with their appearance and background, and are scandalized by improprity.

Wild characters are stressed by propriety, desire changes, and are scandalized by matching up.

Ambitious characters are stressed by positive relationships with characters of their own status level or lower, desire positive relationships with characters of higher status, and are scandalized by events that focus on their status.

Desperate characters are stressed by the absence of a steady relationship, desire a steady relationship, and are scandalized by their lack of a steady relationship.

Aloof characters are stressed by attention from characters with a lower status level, desire privacy, and are scandalized by any other character instigating interaction with them.

Needy characters are stressed by the absence of attention, desire attention, and are scandalized by attention directed at others.

Sounds like a similar system to Maid with the stress and other stuff so maybe you should check that game out maybe steal some ideas(and no its not just about maids)

Thanks but to be perfectly frank, I don't care that much about this project. It's just an idea that hit me forcefully and I'm prone to writing them down.  At the very least it extremely ironic in tone as I don't really believe this type of structured play has any appeal to its target market who already essentially cosplay / LARP it in their own petty lower status lives.

Anyhow, moving on with the design...

Matches occur when two characters have traits that are equivalent or other factors like the location of the party is equivalent to the character's atire.

As I currently see it only the player characters can act.  Others are only there to reflect and react to their actions.  That fits well with the narcissitic nature of our theme here right?

Attention is gained by having others take actions which relate to a character.  For some characters attention is a good thing and to others it's a bad thing but it needs to be clear when it occurs.

I envision the game being played out around the table with each player describing their action and The Host responding to it and adjudicating it in turn.  Length of the party itself is a fixed hour of real time play with some time before and after to play out anything being done before the next party.

Propriety and Impropriatry refer to a variety of things.  Kissing and making out would be big ones but physical fighting and making a scene are also common examples.

The venue for the party and Other attendees also require some thought.  Obviously some parties are more important than others from a social perspective.  There are house parties which vary in importance by the background of the host.  Characters can even throw their own house parties which might lead to a rotating GM, troupe style situation.  School and church parties can be very important but never as important as a high status house party organized by an Other host.  Seasonal Club parties are important, the yacht club or the golf club and so forth.

The type of party sets the type of minor Others, the stress level for any embarassment or impropiety, and the general level of atire.

Atire is, of course everything.  For each party there is an appropriate level of atire and deviating from it is risky business.  Just doing so automatically adds a level of stress but it also draws attention.

The levels of Atire are Formal, Classy, Informal, and Outrageous.  Atire can also be Expensive or Cheap which ties to background.  Common characters can only afford Cheap atire unless a wealthy character choses to outfit them to a higher standard before the party.  Atire that does not match the party's venue causes stress.

Here's a rough draft.  If I don't get any responses the madness will probably stop with this

http://www3.telus.net/public/uncouths/Dance.pdf

It might be interesting to incorporate fantastical elements into the game, though maybe optionally. I think of the Grimm's tale where the princesses mysteriously wear out their new shoes before each morning, and eventually they're followed underground where they're dancing in secret with the princes who live underneath the castle.

Possibly from the perspective of actual gamers but my intent is for the game's subject matter to be as far from D&D as possible.  As mainstream as possible.  And for that matter aimed at eleven year old girls as directly as possible.  It's The Princess Diaries rpg see?

I've added a bit on party activities.  I was leaning towards free form but I thought this might help our hypothetical preteen princess wannabes.  I'll update the pdf but here's what was added.

Rubbing Shoulders
   Your socialite doesn’t have to hide in a corner all night, she can get out there and talk to people.  You can just chat or you can try to incite someone else to do something or you can gossip about someone.

   Just chatting’s nice and safe, it’s a good way to lead into a relationship and find out about people.  When it’s your turn you can ask the person you’re chatting with one significant question about themselves or someone else.  The hostess takes on their role and responds in character but they don’t have to tell the truth.

   Inciting people means trying to talk them into doing something, whether it’s picking a fight or asking someone to dance or just walking away from a bad situation.  When you do this you put them under stress until you stop or they walk away.  If you bump them up to the third point of stress they will do what you told them to.  The hostess will take on their role and tell you how that goes.

   Gossiping can cause lots of trouble.  If it comes back to you the subject isn’t likely to want to be your friend any more.  For the friends you’re playing with that’s a decision they get to make for themselves but for the other people at the party their responses are up to the hostess.  The great thing about gossip is that it can move other people to an unfriendly relationship with the subject or the person gossiping.  Gossiping about somebody’s friend will automatically make them unfriendly to the gossip.  But gossiping about them to their enemies or people who are unfriendly to them will cause the gossip to spread.  Finding out that everyone is talking about you causes stress.  Finding out that everyone knows your horrible secret?  Well, that’s scandalous.
   
Cutting the Rug
   Asking someone to dance is stressful but if they say yes, you can forget about it and another stress entirely.  If you ask someone else’s date to dance and they accept more than once at the same party it causes them stress.  As with mingling, dancing lets you ask the person one question which the hostess will answer in character.  Each dance is assumed to last from the turn it is accepted on to the turn after you get to ask your question.  Cutting in increases the stress level of everyone involved and can be a great way to cause a scene.

Relationships
   Life and parties are all about relationships.  The socialites played by your friends all start out as friends.  Chances are that won’t last past the first party.  Relationships can be steady, friendly, unfriendly, or hostile.  It’s also possible to be in LOVE but you don’t have to tell anyone and you shouldn’t until you’re absolutely ready, because you could be rejected and ridiculed if you do.  If you’ve decided your socialite Loves someone you shouldn’t tell anyone because they can use it against you.  You can declare your love to them but if they don’t reciprocate you both gain a level of stress whenever the two of you are part of the same conversation.  If you do it in public, rejection will scandalize you but acceptance will eliminate every stress in the world.  It’s okay to kiss at this point.
   The hostess needs to be very careful with Love.  There are no specific rules to set it up.  You don’t need to know if they actually Love the other person, but should look at if returning the affection is appropriate to their needs.  After all the gorgeous, ambitious, princess might love the rough mannered football player but admitting and accepting it might be another mater entirely.

Oh yeah!  Needy people actually lose stress when they learn they're being gossiped about.  They're more worried that people aren't talking about them.  I ought to get that in there.

QuoteMURPHY(off-hand, for Kaylee's benefit):
Why Banning Miller, what a vision you are in that fine dress.  Must have taken a dozen slaves a dozen days just to get you into that get-up. 'Course your daddy tells me it takes the space of a schoolboy's wink to get you out of it again.

Shindig, Firefly episode 106

Everything you need to know about writing your game can be found in this episode.  
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That was a great episode