As I mentioned before, I've been working on some stuff as a consequence of finishing the Musketeers Saga by Dumas. One of these still isn't ready, and may never be, but in the meantime I thought I'd talk a bit about courtly intrigue. This post is actually made up from a lot of stuff I learned while running Vampire for many years, but it's no less true for all that.
A huge amount of the 'action' in the three volumes of "La Vicompte de Bragelonne" (LVdB) actually centres around the intrigues in the court of Louis XIV. This is actually no less true of "The Three Musketeers" (TTM) and "Twenty Years After" (TYA), though it was particularly noticable here. But how does one set up courtly intrigues in an RPG?
Step One: Identify the Power-bases
In LVdB there are two clear power-bases and a third, hidden, base.
The centre of the first power-base is the King, Louis XIV. As an absolute monarch appointed by Divine Right, Louis is untouchable. But he's also a young man, much given to pride, fits of pique... and not entirely in control of his realm (at least at the start). Until just after the start of the book, he's been living under the guidance of the powerful Cardinal Mazarin, he's survived the Fronde (a peasants' revolt that had a huge impact on him), and he's thus just starting out on his personal reign. Naturally, as the nascent Sun King, he is surrounded by all manner of flatterers, ministers, and other agents.
The second power-base assembles around Louis' sister-in-law, "Madame" (actually Princess Henrietta, but she's usually referred to simply as Madame). She's a vain, beautiful woman who mostly entertains herself by stringing along a series of admirers, whom she plays off one another.
And the third power-base is assembled in secret by Aramis. This one is based on the secret order of the Jesuits and involves a plot around a prisoner being held in secret in the Bastille...
Step Two (A): Build the Networks
Once the power-bases are established, the next step is to populate the networks. Around the centre of each power-base there needs to be a number of people, each with their own interactions and agendas. In particular, there will necessarily be several people who are in the orbit of multiple power-bases, thus providing conflicts for the PCs to fall in to.
In LVdB, the key figures around the King are his ministers Colbert and Fouquet, the captain of his Musketeers, d'Argtanian, the Queen and Queen Mother, his current mistress Louise de la Valliere, and a number of others.
I'm not going to populate the other factions, except to note that Fouquet is being bankrolled by Aramis, while d'Argtanian is bound to his old comrade by friendship. The Queen and Queen Mother are obviously connected to Madame by bonds of family, while Louise is one of Madame's Ladies in Waiting.
(It's likely that you'll want to populate things one more level out - in addition to providing the network of people around the King, you'd want a small network around each of those people. So Louise is linked to her fiancee Raoul (Athos' son), and her friends and rivals.)
Step Two (B): Springs and Levers
While populating the networks, you will also want to give some thought to the connections between the people in those networks. This is key to building a workable courtly intrigue - everyone has their own agenda, and those agendas never run entirely together.
So, for each network, and for each pair of characters in that network, determine how each character feels about the other. Note that these relationships may or may not be symetrical - Colbert and Fouquet hate one another; Raoul loves Louise while she friend-zones him.
Additionally, for each character you'll want to determine what drives them and what can turn them. For instance, Fouquet has a servant who is loyal... unless you offer him just enough money.
This stage is probably the key part of building the intrigue. Very often, the temptation is to make organisations just a bit too monolithic, or making characters just a bit too loyal, or otherwise setting things up so that they're essentially 'fixed'. But for an RPG you want the PCs to be making changes, and that means giving them levers to work with... and springs coiled so that when they move some stuff it has consequences they don't entirely expect!
Step Three: Instigate Some Plots
Once the court is mostly established, it's time to start thinking about the intrigues that are going on, and also the ones that are going to form the basis of your adventures. This is the point where you move from general relationships to specific schemes.
For this one, I'm going to drop back to "The Three Musketeers". As we know, Richelieu hates the Queen and wants to disgrace her. The Queen, for her part, is engaged in an affair with the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Buckingham. And now we move from those general relationships to the specific: Richelieu learns that the Queen has given the Duke her diamond choker, and so he encourages the King to hold a ball and to require his wife to wear those studs. Naturally, there is no way she can get them back in time, unless...
Ideally, you probably want three or four plots running at a time. Which probably means you want to start your game with one nearing completion, one in mid-progress, and one that has just started. This is the one that the PCs probably want to stumble on and stop... or not.
Once the PCs are involved, and one of the plots resolves, you should kick off another plot, and another, and another... until the PCs start their own schemes and then you just need to track the progress of the machine.
(Oh, and be sure to introduce new characters if old ones start to fall away. Otherwise, your network will start to look rather small after a while!)
Step Four: Build Some Ways In
Crucially, your networks of courtly intrigue need to have routes in for the PCs, or you'll find you've got no adventure! Generally speaking, you'll want to start your PCs at the periphery of one or more of the networks, and as they complete each adventure they should move a step closer to the centre. Eventually, they'll either be dealing directly with the power-bases or, even better, they'll have become powers in their own right. But one thing at a time.
There are, broadly speaking, two ways to bring the PCs into the fray. Either they stumble on one of the ongoing plots, or they become involved in a character in one of the networks. Or, better still, both of these happen.
And so, in TTM, d'Argtanian becomes embroiled in the adventure first by running afoul of Rochefort (who works for Richelieu), then by getting involved with the titular three Musketeers (who are in the King's network), then by killing de Wardes (who is one of Milady's lovers, again connecting him to Richelieu's network), and then he stumbles onto the kidnapping of Constance (bringing him directly into action, and also connecting him to the Queen's network). Once those connections are all in place, the poor guy doesn't have a chance - he's thoroughly enmeshed in the adventure whether he likes it or not!
Step Five: Go!
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