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Mastering Intrigue / Intrigue Systems / Intrigue Elements

Relationships and Loyalty

Source Ultimate Intrigue pg. 98
In an intrigue-based game, interpersonal relationships are spotlighted, and serve a variety of different roles and purposes. The way that people’s reactions and feelings change with time and interaction is central to the plot in such a game, rather than something to ignore or skip through with a single roll. Relationships and loyalty can make their marks in a campaign in many ways.

Nonmonetary Rewards: Relationships with other characters and the perks and privileges granted by those relationships are fundamental rewards, equally or even more valuable than simple coin. The right friends can grant access to social events, give gifts, provide information, make problems go away, or perform various other favors on a character’s behalf. Sometimes, a friendship can blossom into something more, and that can be its own reward.

Loyalties and Tension: All characters have their own agenda and loyalties, even those allied with the PCs. Characters act and respond to the events in the world around them in ways that serve their interests and match their worldviews. Some of the tension in such games comes from the uncertainty of how others will act, particularly at a decisive moment when conflicting loyalties clash. Can the PC thieves trust their friend in the guard not to crack when her commanding officer puts pressure on her, or will she reveal what she knows? Will the princess the PCs assisted in gaining the throne keep her promise to the PCs to grant asylum to witches now that she’s queen, or will she backpedal to the more popular stance when the dukes threaten to secede? Will a PC’s steward cave to the crime boss’s threats against his kidnapped family and secretly embezzle from the PCs, or will he inform them and risk his family?

How NPCs react in these high-pressure situations also serves to characterize and humanize them. If an NPC sides with the PCs in any of these example situations, that NPC has made a powerful demonstration of loyalty to the PCs. If the PCs have been earning that loyalty as a reward, it will serve as reinforcement of the PCs’ accomplishments. Either way, it’s likely to impress the PCs and bring them closer to the NPC. Even if the NPC buckles, it doesn’t make her a villain, and it could catapult her role into that of a reluctant adversary to the PCs with significant pathos.

Betrayal: In contrast to a former ally being forced by circumstances and conflicting loyalties to act against the PCs’ interests, nothing inspires hatred for an NPC quite like a good old-fashioned betrayal. Whether it’s an NPC who hires the PCs under false pretenses as a means of setting them up or a seeming ally who is providing information to the enemy, a traitor ups the stakes and provides a powerful emotional response.

Of course, betrayal is much more interesting if it’s the exception, rather than the rule. If NPCs betray the PCs too often, you undermine the campaign’s focus on relationships by making the PCs regret the efforts they took to build up alliances with NPCs and earn their loyalty. The exception to this guideline is in a grittier, more cynical game where alliances are necessary to even survive but betrayal is the status quo. When you’re running such a game, it is critical that the players know this in advance, or at least shortly after the first time they deal with the cynical and treacherous aspects of society. Even in such games, though the possibility of betrayal is ubiquitous and constantly on both the players’ and characters’ minds, not every relationship should end in betrayal, or it quickly loses its impact.

Hierarchies: Hierarchies are a structured system of loyalties, whether political, social, military, or another sort entirely. Progression up a hierarchy is a great way to track the nonmonetary rewards in an intriguebased game. Hierarchies are also an excellent source of interesting plotlines and conflicting loyalties, from either direction on the hierarchy. Becoming a member of a hierarchy gives PCs a strong sense of belonging and reason to take actions and pursue an intrigue adventure. Enemies operating within a hierarchy make great opponents, as their membership in the hierarchy can be alternately a source of strength and a vulnerability. If the enemy and a PC are both members of the same hierarchy, things can become particularly interesting, as both characters are empowered and constrained by their places in the system.