Intrigue

Intrigue is a skill primarily used to determine one's skill in managing acts of subterfuge; whereas the individual elements of executing a plot might require stealth, forgery, etc., intrigue reflects tapping networks of spy contacts, gathering and disseminating (often false) information, appraising leads and devising tactics to achieve strategic intelligence goals. It can be treated as a much more flexible variant of Gather Information that also abstracts away from potentially tedious low-stakes sense motive and other checks.
Where an operation hinges on successful execution of a specific detail, intrigue is not appropriate and should be subordinated to a more specific skill (for instance, an intrigue roll cannot determine the outcome of an assassination attempt, but if the right channels have been established ex ante, it can provide information on the target's movements).
It has seen use in Court settings (introduced in Mage Imperium II), with characters scheming with and against each other.
== Mechanics ==
When the DM asks for an Intrigue check, a d20 is rolled. The player then adds the character's Wisdom or Charisma bonus to that roll, whichever is higher, as well as ranks in the Intrigue skill and situational bonuses if appropriate (e.g. BP-worthy "institutional intrigue" bonuses when dealing with the Imperial Navy). If one attribute modifier is negative, its value is also taken into account.
Examples:
*A character has a Wisdom of (12) and a Charisma of (9). The player rolls a 10 on a d20. The roll gets 1 added to it from the Wisdom modifier and 1 subtracted from it from the Charisma modifier. The net roll is 10.
*A character has a Wisdom of (12) and a Charisma of (10). The player rolls a 10 on a d20. The roll gets 1 added to it from the Wisdom modifier, and the Charisma modifier is not taken into account because it is not negative. The net roll is 11.
Category:Skills