Factions

The following borrows heavily from the Very Large Monsters supplement written by Mark Diaz Truman. You can view this document on Evil Hat's Downloads page, found here.

There's a wide variety of factions in the Dragonlance setting. Whatever your role, choosing to be a member of a faction can add a bit more scope and depth to your character. It may also be interesting if the entire party is a member of the same faction. By no means do you have to choose a faction, but if you do, it might be helpful to have an idea of the benefits they offer.

Joining a faction usually involves some sort of test. This could be a literal test, such as the Test of High Sorcery. But the test could also involve a quest of some sort, an act of service, or some other prolonged story arc. In such cases, the successful completion of the test should be counted as a major milestone, giving the players the opportunity to rephrase their high concepts.

Factions vary from small military units, to organizations, to political bodies like cities and nations. Therefore, depending on the scale of what you are doing, a faction’s statistics may vary greatly. Likewise, the well-being of a particular faction can fluctuate, depending on its place in the timeline. GMs should consider these things before making a faction a major player in their campaigns.

What follows are just examples of how to build a faction in your game.

Aspects

Just like with items of power, each faction should have a minimum of two aspects: an ideal and a hindrance. The ideal should describe the main purpose of the faction. It is that ultimate purpose which its members strive toward. The faction's hindrance works in a similar way to a character's trouble. It could be something that undermines the faction’s effectiveness, internal strife, a nemesis, or other such weakness. These aspects can be invoked by any characters who are members of the faction. The GM will determine if the situation justifies the invocation of an aspect. The GM may also, when it is appropriate, compel faction aspects, awarding a fate point to all those affected.

Approaches

In addition to aspects, factions may also have approaches and stunts if it is determined that the organizations in the game will be taking actions independently. It is also useful when one organization acts against another, such as in large-scale combat. Will the Knights of Solamnia and the Dragonarmies fight a battle? That’s when the organization’s approaches should come into play.

Faction approaches are rated in the same way as a characters approaches. Rate one at Good (+3), two at Fair (+2), two at Average (+1) and one at Mediocre (+0). There are six faction approaches:

Espionage

This is the measure of a faction’s ability to spy on other factions and gather intelligence. It functions for a faction in a similar way as the Guile approach does for characters.

Engineering

Engineering has to do with the level of technology employed by the faction. If the faction is making significant advances or has a team of gnome engineers, this is the approach that will represent that.

Magic

At the other end of the spectrum, the Magic approach determines how much the faction relies on the use of either Arcane or Divine magic. This can also determine the level of magical lore held within the faction or could inform how a particular faction views magic practitioners. If Magic has a high rating, it makes sense that the faction welcomes mages. A low rating could mean the faction treats spellcasters disdain.

Politics

Politics indicates several things, such as how one faction interacts with another, its internal stability, and the general effectiveness of its bureaucracy. Anytime a faction engages in bureaucracy or diplomacy to solve a problem, Politics comes into play.

Warfare

This approach is used when one faction becomes engaged in a physical conflict with another faction or tries to intimidate another faction with its superior show of force.

Wealth

Sometimes a faction needs to acquire something, fund an endeavor, or give tribute to another faction. Use the wealth approach when a faction tries to solve a problem with money.

Stunts

Just like characters, factions can have stunts. These function in exactly the same way as character stunts. Faction stunts offer a two shift bonus to certain actions under narrow conditions. These will tend to come into play in large-scale play, rarely on the character level.

Stress and Consequences

Factions suffer stress in the same way characters do except that the stress must be dealt by another faction. How this is translated in the game depends greatly upon the scale of the conflict. For instance, if you are playing out a battle between units of Steel Legionnaires and the Minotaur Empire, it may not have any lasting impact on the larger organizations if one is taken out. However, if the Minotaur Empire and the Kingdom of Silvanesti are at war, being taken out can have very serious repercussions.

A faction’s stress clears once the PCs have reached a significant milestone in the campaign representing the fact that they have made significant progress toward eliminating whatever has been threatening the faction for which they are working.

Rather than conditions, a faction will have a mild, moderate, and severe consequence slots that can absorb stress. These are treated as aspects, with one free invocation for the faction that created it. Consequences reduce down by one level when the PCs reach a major milestone and have eliminated the threat altogether. When a faction receives stress that it can't absorb, it is taken out.

Unique Conditions

Sometimes a faction will offer unique stunts and conditions that member PCs can purchase by spending refresh.

Examples

Below are some examples of some of the factions of which a character might be a member.

Legion of Steel

Aspects

Ideal: We fight for the good of the common people.

Hindrance: We are too scattered to directly confront the forces of evil.

Approaches

Good (+3): Espionage

Fair (+2): Magic, Politics

Average (+1): Wealth, Warfare

Mediocre (+0): Engineering

Stunts

One with the People. You get +2 to overcome actions made with Politics.

Information Gatherer. When creating an advantage with the Espionage skill to discover aspects about another organization, you get a +2 to the roll.

The Elven Kingdom of Silvanesti

Aspects

Ideal: Protecting the security and purity of our realm.

Hindrance: Pride and Arrogance lead to narrow-mindedness.

Approaches

Good (+3): Magic

Fair (+2): Warfare, Wealth

Average (+1): Politics, Espionage

Mediocre (+0): Engineering

Stunts

Defending the Homeland. When you succeed at creating an advantage with the Warfare skill when fighting against an invading army, you gain two free invokes of that aspect rather than one. In addition, if you succeed with style, you gain a boost on top of the two free invokes.