How to play a game on court intrigues?

[Thrawn4]

Hello everyone.
I have given it a thought, but I am not sure how I could prepare a campaign on court intrigues, and I wondered whether you could give me some insights.
I figure it would be necessary to introduce a lot of NPCs with individual goals and relationships, but what should I do then? How can things like politcal prowess, financial knowledge or the art of manipulation be useful except for "roll your dice"?

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is Risus RPG. The rules for combat are the same as the rules for social encounters.

Legend RPG has a token-based progressing skill encounter system. It encourages players to use lots of different skills.

I haven't played it, but the L5R RPG has solid rules for honor, courtly intrigue, etc.

[Kaun]

Burning wheel has some good mechanics for this kind of stuff.

The only issue is, can you stomach Luke Crane's style of writing.

[Mutazoia]

Hello everyone.
I have given it a thought, but I am not sure how I could prepare a campaign on court intrigues, and I wondered whether you could give me some insights.
I figure it would be necessary to introduce a lot of NPCs with individual goals and relationships, but what should I do then? How can things like politcal prowess, financial knowledge or the art of manipulation be useful except for "roll your dice"?

I would highly recommend reading Zalazney's "Amber" books, as well as "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli (if your short on time start with "The Prince") for a primer in court intrigue.

Keep in mind that running a game dealing heavily in court intrigue is kind of like juggling 10 balls and a couple of knives. You are not only going to have to come up with your NPC's and their goals, but the strategies they are using to achieve said goals, keeping track of the effects they are having on their opponent's goals, as well as their opponent's efforts on their goals.... Your going to need one helluva flow chart. To (lightly) touch on a couple of basics...

Political prowess and manipulation can be covered under the same heading (basically). Political prowess is the ability to sway other legislators to your way of thinking (either by actually changing/influencing their opinion or by some form of bribe, be it political favors or outright cash "donations") "The Prince" is all about this subject.

Financial knowledge comes in out of the courts/legislature. If you've read/watched "Game of Thrones" you can see how house Lanister makes good use of their wealth, politically and other wise. He who controls the purse strings controls the crown. Being able to make money will allow you to raise armies or fund loans against future goods/services/favors. Threatening to call in your loans can have a big influence on your debtors....even if that debtor is the kingdom. But much more subtle than the overt use of money is what a financial expert can learn by watching the movement of money via forensic accounting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensic_accounting).

One can learn, for example that Lord Knickerbottoms is secretly building up his army by noting the increased purchase of coal. (carbon being necessary to convert wrought-iron into steel) or that Lady Bohnybotum's wine producing estates were especially hard hit by the late frost (thus severely impacting her usual revenue stream) by noting several large purchases of grain following a harvest season.

With this knowledge an able Politician can manipulate allies and opponents alike to achieve his own ends.

[BWR]

Go to the Alderac Entertainment Group forum and ask the many L5R PBP GMs there how they prepare for their court games.

In short: NPCs.

Make sure you have NPCs coming out the wazoo. They need names, positions, jobs, titles, and most importantly, personality. They have goals, both personal and professional, they have alliances with some members in court, enmities with others. They will be on the lookout for new pawns friends, and have a job to do.

So, make a lot of people. Steal shamelssly from other sources (ASoIaF has many good court characters), rename them and shove them in. Players will often excuse a little larceny if it means they have a vibrant and interesting NPC to relate to. If creating your own, give them a name, give them an appearance (at least three adjectives) give them some mannerisms.

NPCs are people too.
Prick them, do they not bleed? Wrong them, shall they not be avenged? And there are many ways to annoy powerful people in court. They have their likes, their dislikes and secrets. Finding out and using these elements is the core of courtly intrigue. Use Sense Motive* (*or whatever equivalent in the system you're using) to determine what subjects a target likes or dislikes when the matter comes up.
Use Gather Information* for learn juicy gossip which may or may not be true.
Use Intimidate* to bully some servant in to leaking sensitive information about their master. Use Bluff* to seduce a bored noble and use that leverage. Use Diplomacy to convince the right person to place you next to a target at dinner so you can show off your stuff. Use various acrobatic skills or martial skills in tournaments to show off your prowess and win acclaim.

In short, make things skill challenges, not just a single roll. Encourage your players to think about how they would do this in real life, not just be dependant on a die roll.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Houses of the Blooded and Blood & Honor (both by John Wick) are good starting points for this; I find the latter to be much easier to grok, but the former is far more of a "courtly intrigue" game with weird culture customs and the like.

There's an official Amber RPG, too.

You could use Fate Core to give an intrigue setup.

The key to intrigue is to make the assets and conflict of intrigue concrete. What kills you isn't somebody running you through with a sword, but a failure in making yourself an indispensable part of the Court. Power, having assassins at your beck and call, blackmail and other secrets--these all have to be modeled as concrete assets, treated as D&D would treat spells, various weapons, and special abilities.

It's a complete reversal in some ways. (In fact, John Wick's game Blood & Honor boils combat damage down to "if you get hit with a katana, you die", with the aim of making players very carefully consider getting into fights, since there's not a lot of ways to ensure a victory.)