When I MC this time around, I want to improve at establishing, leveraging, evaluating, and re-establishing PC+NPC+PC triangles. I've reviewed the advice and examples on pages 112 and 129 of the book.

Can someone give me advice on developing and maintaining the mindset for doing this well? How can I best remind myself when we're at the table and I'm juggling things? How will I recognize when I'm overdoing it?

Also, I'm interested in any dirty tricks and shortcuts I can use. For example, I can mine the Hardholder's choices about his holding by explaining some or all of them with NPCs, like "your gang is well-disciplined" is true because Spong has a knack for keeping them in line, or both "your population is decadent and perverse" and "add a bustling, widely-known market commons" are true because Dustwich is a manipulative bastard who knows how to shuffle people's wants around. Know of any other handy fixtures to hang NPCs on?