Hello all! Since I'm poking my head back into the WTFRPG forums again anyway, I've been itching to discuss how to RP out/write intrigue and figure I may as well see if anyone has any thoughts on the matter!

First off: by intrigue, I am referring to things like palace intrigue, or intrigue within workplaces/etc, the sort of thing conjured to mind by Game of Thrones/ A Song of Ice and Fire, but theoretically in any setting.

I've always wanted to be in or run a game with plenty of intrigue in it, but it occurs to me that there are so many problems inherent in getting any good intrigue out of forum RP:
  1. If the game is explicitly geared towards intrigue, it's easy to metagame even unconsciously and assume that everyone is your enemy. The player might read more into every sentence than is reasonable for their character. There might be little room for characters who aren't part of the intrigue game.
  2. Unless there's a large cast in a wide variety of roles, intrigue generally involves minor characters like staff/servants, random people paid to do things, etc. If you've got an intrigue-focused game where everyone's a fancy pants noble, who's going to do the dirty work?
  3. Not just for metagaming reasons, but to keep the game fun and interesting, secrecy in what characters are doing really has to be maintained. Otherwise everyone knows what everyone else is doing. Perhaps secret interactions could be conducted in PMs, or private "rooms" like WTFRPG has. But then you're losing a lot of the text that everyone could be reading, and this really gets quite complicated.
  4. Any real action really requires a clear decision by a gamemaster, and much more active participation than most forum games involve. There are plenty of games/players where the players trust each other to decide what happens to them, but the more that's kept secret the more difficult this gets. And it means losing a lot of the tension and mystery. Dice rolls could account for success rates, but...it would be more interesting if an outsider conjures up the wildcard characters who players use and interact with, maybe.
I'm wondering--has anyone had any success or experiences with intrigue in RP? Forum-based or chat-based? What works? What has your experience been? Do you have any thoughts on the matter?

I'm bored and could use a good discussion! (: