In the devlog yesterday the details of villainous plots were discussed, as well as how they would fail. Toady suggested having some sort of counterespionage in place around important position holders, to keep them from being flipped too easily.
I feel that solution would be limiting the potential of plots, as well as being quite "game-y", since it essentially treats being turned towards a plot like brainwashing: you either resist turning or you become a pawn. And after all, how many people actually have any counterespionage?
Instead, since implementing plots and agendas is already a goal of the villain arc, it would be better to give everyone (or at least anyone important) their own private, benign agendas to achieve their goals, which would interact with the agendas of others to make them more or less likely to align themselves with another's plot. People already have goals and dreams, so tying this into a system could provide the necessary dynamics.
Since people in powerful positions would already be pursuing their own agendas, which likely wouldn't fit into the plans of some upstart villain, they would be less likely to be turned.
For example, a pencil-pushing bookkeeper who dreams of becoming a fighter, or has a violent nature, would be receptive to a plot by a foreign power to cause a war because this fits with his personal goals, but a count who wants to become a duke wouldn't work for someone else unless their plans benefit that goal.
A system like this would allow for a lot of flavor and depth while keeping allowance for proper villain plots.
Of course, for entity level intrigue counterintelligence is entirely appropriate, and since I've made a bunch of assumptions about how what is planned from the blog post, feel free to disregard stuff that wasn't intended as I understood it.
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Topic: Counterespionage or benign agendas (Read 609 times)