Howdy All,
I was reading over Ultimate Intrigue again this week and I have been planning to put together a short campaign using those rules as a way of running a Blades in the Dark meets Pathfinder kind of game.
As I was preparing, I started poking around online to see if I could find some "actual play" session with people using the UI rules, but my searches have come up mostly empty, so I thought I would post here to see if some folks in the community who have used the Intrigue rules would be willing to share their experiences with it (either challenges they found with them or war stories of the fun they had).
Thanks in advance for those who respond!
I've used a slightly modified version of the verbal duel rules to represent the PCs testifying before a governmental council to ask them to support their country's rebellion. (It was something I added to Hell's Rebels; they went to Magnimar to ask the city to lend their aid, a la France and the U.S. during the American Revolution.)
It was fun. I had to adjust things slightly based on the format (persuasive testimony to a group rather than two characters dueling). I created a set of several NPCs that would bring up various concerns during the process, at which point the PCs could try to refute or address those arguments. The sorcerer completely crushed it (she was designed to be a very talky, party-face character), which the player had a lot of fun with.
Potential pitfalls: This was a game with one player, s you'd have to be careful to provide a more revolving spotlight in a game with a standard party. The nice thing is that it uses multiple skills rather than just Diplomacy, so even characters who aren't good at Diplomacy can still find ways to make their point well.
I also ran the Influence rules in a murder mystery session (different game), like the example mentioned in UI. The players seemed to have a lot of fun with that, and it went pretty smoothly.
And I've used the research rules a couple times. We also enjoyed those, though you'll probably want to make sure at least one character has the skills required to research that particular library well, otherwise it can drag on a bit.
(As you can probably tell, I liked Ultimate Intrigue a lot.)
I've been playing in Shattered Star with a Vigilante, but that's about as far as I've gotten. Using the renown ability mostly and fighting the Sczarni gangs, but that's not really applying social duels or nemesis' at all.
Modified Council of Thieves AP outline.
This is all great stuff, guys, thanks very much!