A group of like-minded beings will eventually form factions, to pursue common goals and gather more power. They are large forces, generally outside of the players control and contribute to a living world.
A faction is defined by the following characteristics:
- Name
- Type
- Tier
- Status
- Stability
- Traits
- Identity
- Goal
- Obstacle
Type
There are three different types of factions: Social, Organizational and Political.
Social factions are defined by their focus on relationships, cultural practices, shared values etc. Members mostly all share the same beliefs, and they pursue the common goal because of this. They often revolve promoting specific social causes and problems - equality, justice, cultural preservation.
Organizational factions are more defined by their strict structures and pursuit of efficiency, power or control through systems, laws and processes. They often have a hierarchical structure. These are your typical guilds, military units or groups whose primary concern is the management of people and resources. There are a stringent of rules that need to be followed, that help the faction’s smooth operation.
Political factions try to harness power and keeping it, mainly through influence, control over political systems and decisions. They shape laws to advocate particular ideologies or interests. Most often this is the playground of the rich and powerful, but also for small, radical movements that want to topple the very same. Members most often don’t even have the same beliefs or values but just share a common goal. Here we find Kingdoms and Empires as the most prominent representation of this kind of faction.
Tier
The Tier measures wealth, influence or general power of a faction. A small group will have a lower Tier, whereas global powers have a high Tier. Tiers are denoted by roman numerals from I to V.
Tiers can also inform you about potential rewards that can be gained from the faction, as well as what kind of obstacle it represents.
Status
The Status represents how a given faction feels about the player characters. Status typically starts at 0 (Neutral) and shifts up or down depending on player’s actions.
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| -3 | War |
| -2 | Hostile |
| -1 | Interfering |
| 0 | Neutral |
| 1 | Helpful |
| 2 | Friendly |
| 3 | Allies |
The higher the Status, the more favours and help you can generally expect from that faction. Conversely, you will feel the backlash from a faction that loathes you.
Stability
A faction can either have a stable (S) or unstable (U) hold on their current Tier. A faction always starts at stable.
Traits
Traits define how a faction is perceived in the world and how they act in different circumstances. They are denoted as simple descriptors. A faction has a number of Traits according to their current Tier.
As a faction is gaining or loosing Tiers, they will also gain or loose Traits accordingly.
Identity, Goal and Obstacle
The Identity defines on who their members are and how they can be recognized by others (either members or not). The members will work towards a common Goal and only be hindered by an Obstacle, that opposes the goal.
Not all of this information is available to the players from the start. Some information has to be first discovered by the players. Similar to Hexcrawling, this information can either be a landmark, hidden or secret.
You can either choose which information to withhold or determine randomly.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | L | S | H | S | H | L |
| Goal | H | L | S | H | L | S |
| Obstacle | S | H | L | L | S | H |
(L = Landmark, H = Hidden, S = Secret)
Faction Turn
The goal of a faction represents a Progress Track, its rank is dependant on the current Tier of the faction.
| Tier | Goal Rank |
|---|---|
| 0 | Trivial |
| I | Easy |
| II | Normal |
| III | Hard |
| IV | Extreme |
| V | - |
Between sessions, you will check for progress on faction goals.
For each faction, roll 2d6, then…
- … add 1 to the roll if Tier is greater or equal III
- … add 1 to the roll if someone acted on their behalf in advancing their goal in the last session
- … subtract 1 from the roll if Unstable
- … subtract 1 from the roll if they were affected by their Obstacle in the last session
If the total then is greater or equal 7 progress the goal.
On concluding a goal, do one of the following:
- If Stable: Increase Tier by 1 and gain a new trait
- If Unstable: become Stable
A faction can never exceed Tier V. This reflects the apex of power.
Tip
Keep the number of active factions in a region of the world to a minimum. There should ideally not be more than 3 factions active at a time. You can have additional factions, that take a passive role, not actively participating in the story and conflict. But also keep that number low.
Player Interference
Players can (and should) actively interfere with these factions. They can either help in achieving the faction’s goals or hinder them in achieving them. To do so players will have to create Threads. Similarly they can also try to gather more information about a faction. The rank should orient itself on the factions Tier.
On concluding such a thread, you can decide to either help or impede a faction.
Help
Progress the goal of the faction. Should the goal conclude this way, proceed as if the goal was concluded during the faction turn.
Impede
If the faction is stable, it becomes unstable. Otherwise decrease the Tier of the faction by one step and remove a Trait.
A faction that decreases its Tier to 0, will cease to exist.
Company
The players have their own faction: the Company. It starts at Tier 0 (representing, that the players are completely unknown by the world) and is Stable. In contrast to a full faction, you only need to track Goals, Tier and Stability of this faction. A company can have more than one goal, at least one of them should have rank appropriate to the current Tier.
The Tier of the company informs about benefits, the players can claim, as well as the level of loot and rewards.
| Tier | Benefits |
|---|---|
| 0 | |
| I | |
| II | Hirelings |
| III | Stronghold |
| IV | Warbands |
| V |