Make factions fast

Faction-blocks

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Factions are one of my favourite things to include in any RPG game. Some systems mechanise factions, others don’t. What I’m about to talk about works regardless. Here’s a faction format that’s easy to fill out and avoids bloat.

Once you’ve read this, check out my approach to having factions conflict with each other, and how to know how many members a faction has.

Let’s go.

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A Faction-block

I want the minimum viable info. I make a ‘faction-block’, writing down only what I really need. I don’t always fill out all of the fields, but this is the template I use:

Name/Type: I might put what the faction is before I come up with a name. ‘Wizard order’ becomes ‘The Circle of Alacaria, Order of Wizards’.

Leader: Archmage Hyriel. I’ll give them some loose details (behaviours and motivation being the most important thing) and a statblock if I really need it.

Aim(s): What do they want? I write 1-3 goals. Examples for this wizard order: find the grimoire of a lich, puppeteer the Countess of Ystramoor. If the game has mechanics for goals, I note what I need here.

Aesthetics: What’s the vibe? Colourful robes, drawn out speeches, too many books.

Resources: What’s at their command? Write down a few to begin with, expand later if needed. Library, teleportation network, arcane armoury.

Members: I go for 1-5 types of members, forming a loose faction structure. I write statblocks if I need them. I put rough numbers if its relevant:

• 6 apprentice wizards (the newbies)

• 20 field researchers (non-mages who help with research)

• 12 mages (the full members of the order)

• 4 council members (other powerful mages that lead with the Archmage)

A different organisation might need less information. For a merchants guild, I might need no statblocks at all. A small criminal gang might have no resources beyond their own people. Drop anything that isn’t essential for you.

Note: Much of this is inspired by Blades in the Dark, a game that makes factions core to it’s gameplay. Another game that does factions in this ‘clean’ way is Death in Space, and more recently the Cairn 2e Warden’s Guide. You can also see it in modules like Salvage Union’s module False Flag.

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Some tables

You can use these tables to get you started with broad idea for a Types, Aims, and Resources.

Types (d12):

1. Religious orders/cults

2. Merchant guilds/trade guilds/corporations

3. Academic groups (not necessarily magical)

4. Cultural groups (press/media, art collectives, writers)

5. Military/law enforcement (including freelance - a mercenary company is classic)

6. Royal houses (these can be small, like a barony)

7. Criminal organisations (they don’t need to be big, a nasty street gang is great)

8. Nomadic peoples

9. Exiles from another region of your world

10. Governments (monarchies, senates - pick your poison)

11. Supernatural/alien (a mind flayer colony, a deity)

12. Political groups (workers unions, activists)

Aims (d8):

1. Acquire/control a resource (can be physical or could be a person)

2. Defeat an opponent or disrupt their activities

3. Form an alliance, or make a deal, with another faction

4. Gain intelligence on a situation or opponent, or explore something

5. Complete an internal project (construction, ritual, research)

6. Cover up or obscure something they are linked to

7. Defend or build defences against expected problems

8. Recruit new members or get rid of members of their own faction

Resources (d12):

1. Money/wealth assets

2. Land and buildings

3. Employees/followers (might be generalists or specialists)

4. Knowledge/technology

5. Supernatural/alien assets (spell books, sacrificial dagger, pet xenomorph)

6. Armaments

7. Vehicles

8. Contacts

9. Production facilities (cartwrights, chemical factories)

10. Reputation

11. Legal powers/jurisdiction

12. Supply stockpiles (medical, food, water, materials, components, energy)

There you go. An easy system to generate/format factions with no bloat. Catch you next week.

If you’re lacking dice to roll on these tables, I’ve used these for years with this dice tray. Oh, and I write all my nonsense down in Muji notebooks (absolutely, 100% THE BEST notebooks) with a Lamy pen.

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Recommendations

Blog: Baron de Ropp has resurfaced with a blog on what he likes in adventure/module design. I think reading opinions on adventure design is helpful whether you are publishing, designing scenarios for a home game, or just trying to figure what to look out for in a good module. I don’t agree with everything the Baron said but there’s a lot of solid points in here.

Book: It’s Christmas in July on DriveThruRPG, and my gift to myself was Willow by LazyLitch. I love this zine already, it’s dense and full of neat ideas, perfect if you want a kind of whimsical yet dark setting for an OSR/NSR game.