I don't think I've ever seen so many Likes in a single roleplay. Ha ha.
Anyway, the dinner will be a good place to allow some character interaction cross-party wise, before the roleplay shifts into war mode. What I'll try to do soon is have the occasional NPC pop up in places, leaving it up to the player to interact with them or not. The NPC might be in a greedy mood, ready to take your money in exchange for their services. Maybe they'll just drop of some info, or perhaps they'll be trying to spy on you to sell info to the other side. Basically you'll never quite know until it happens if an NPC will be a help or a hinderance.
Also random, well not exactly random, events will pop up outside and during battles which may change the narrative quite considerably.
