In episodic stories, you only need the bare basics of the characters involved at first. As stories develop and they become recurrent, then you can apply the layers - or take the layers off like opening up a Matryoshka. You choose a name, a title, give them a description and a word about their nature maybe- old boot (grouch, curmudgeon, miser); young male social dilettante who's squandering his inheritance before his father's dead (vacuous, capricious, bit entitled, posh oik); canny man with more money than God who'll want to know what's in it for him before he commits so much as a brass farthing (scheming, pusillanimous, greedy - but generous if the rewards outweigh the risks).

It'd be good not to get attached to a recurring character, either, always bearing in mind what JMS used to do: give each character a ripcord to allow them an exit from the campaign. That way, one can keep one's list of NPCs moving, keep them fresh, make sure the characters don't rely on the recurring characters too much.

Besides, don't you draw up dozens of NPCs anyway, just to fight them? If you want to pit guards against the PC with a sword, use a character whose stats you've already used in a previous adventure. Guard 3 from the Affair of the Governor's Daughter can be dusted off and used as Courtier Four, who brings the bad news to the court about a skirmish that has erupted on the border, that could lead to war, in The Affair Of The Crimson Stranger this week.

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Hypnotist, Dreamer, Plainclothes Clown, Agitator, Author

Okay using my current Legend game as a guide;

So...

Lord James is being manipulated by his father to complete the quest to become a Baron of Raintree however...

Lady Penelope through openly wearing a gem laden headband has been recognised by a Meercat Knight to be in line to become the Duchess of Essex which would mean Lord James would have to swear fealty to her if she's officially recognised...

The Blacksmith is trying to rescue his new girlfriend who happens to be his village witch and priestess of his Norse Cult,

The Woodsman has a rival in a outcasted former woodsman who might have been telling the truth regarding the friend he was suspected of murdering of course by now that outcast lost his right leg to a bolt from Lord James and then murdered a couple of people at the Inn in an attempt to frame Lord James and his sister...

Their enemies include some kind of creature with cloven feet that belches fire and easily slaughtered a band of nomad raiders who look like the villainous thugs from Disney's Mulan movie, they apparently have some means of air travel that roughly resembles ebony black helicopters given the meta gaming remarks of the Blacksmith's player...

The anima based on historia rodentia have an army and zeppelins at their disposal and if the PCs wait they could go off to the mountain with an armed force numbering in battalions...

Fortunately for me they aren't waiting, unfortunately for them the anima aren't all good and the war chariot has a problem with mountainous travel...

I think I'm getting off the topic maybe one of you can say where I'm going way off course!

While intrigue stands among a number of setting ingredients that appear in our games I've never had the desire to make it the focus of a campaign.

However, I was involved in a D&D game in the late 80s set in The Principalities of Glantri that developed a heavy focus on intrigues, spy games and strange conspiracy. The campaign ran for several years. Which is odd since it was intended to be a one-shot misadventure among the apprentices of the Great School of Magic.

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I don`t play monsters. I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge. --Vincent Price

Intrigue is usually part of the games we play so at present in our Warhammer game:

PCs
Udo - a brutal assassin with a very odd birthmark who is taking his first contracts in big city - Altdorf - and presently has tasks from a Shadowy Chaos run brothel, a underworld fence and others. One of the other PCs- knows much of this but not all.

Sabine (me) - Noble born adventurer who is trying to do the right thing but was seduced by a Vampire Genevieve (yes that Genevieve!) and so is being embroiled in plots with the Sisterhood and also to try and take possession of a tract of land the players recently fought of Skaven. She is also now jealous of Rudi who just spent the night with her patron....normally friends with Meg and Udo (she has not really seen his brutal side but is beginning to.

Rudi: Archer/Assassin and increasingly tinged with insanity, previously had a crush on Sabine but this seems to have been lost as the strange experiences added up - been seduced by a Demon and used as its pawn, then a "long dead Elf " we don't know who or what that was and most recently Genevieve who is attracted by the unpredictability of his fractured mind.

Meg - A hedge wizard / apprentice who through various adventures has been accepted into the Amethyst College and has proved an immediate hit - especially at the recent performance of Dracenfels where she spent a long time chatting to the Heads of several other orders. Usually friends with Sabine - but is very unhappy about the whole Vampire thing (dead leech was the most polite words she has used) which she has just found out about. She herself is dabling with Necromancy...which she is trying to keep secret but Rudi she witnessed and told everyone else.

NPCs include the heads of several colleges, Genevieve herself and various city notables.

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Darkness Rising
Dark R II
Dilgar War