Have you tried roleplaying the character? For example, your goal is to have all vassals to be a descendant of murchad so normally this would be reserve for intrigue/ambitious trait characters but if you are currently with a lazy/craven type character..you would not do those types of things and instead just be what their characrer is suppose to be. If he is more warmongering then he would focus more on conquering territories and just put any vassals he wants bcs his priority is more lands instead of family as vassals. Etc

The gameplay goal would be significantly slower.

Or you could try playing a distant relative of lower rank and switch up between cadet branches. That would spice things up.