This time we’re going close off the faction generation by doing a few touch ups and then seeing the final result.
Allies and Rivals
No faction exists in isolation. It will always have have ties with the outside world in some form or fashion. This also means that it will start making friends and enemies. In game-terms, this means that every faction will start off with at least one Allied Faction, and one Rival Faction. How far you want to go in detailing these factions is up to you. You can do this entire process for your Ally and Rival, and in turn do it for their Ally and Rival, and so on and so forth until your whole world is interconnected. Alternatively, if you want to leave it vague for the mean time, you can simply roll on the Faction Type table below to just get a general sense of who they are, so your faction’s relationship to them at least is clearer.
So roll once for an Allied Faction, and once for a Rival Faction.
01-10: Academics/Scholars
11-20: Adventurers/Mercenaries
21-30: Assassins/Contractors
31-40: Bureaucrats/Officials
41-50: Entertainers/Bards
51-60: Socialites/Bourgeois
61-70: Thieves/Smugglers
71-80: Traders/Craftsmen
81-90: Vigilantes/Lawmen
91- 100: Warriors/Soldiers
Faction Goals
The very last roll to make is to determine what your faction’s current goal is. This isn’t an overarching mission statement. This isn’t what the faction is all about. Instead this is very clear cut goal with a definite end point. It is something that the faction is trying to accomplish right now, and afterwards it will move on to something else.
01-10: Acquire more assets (eg land, property, goods).
11-20: Become better at what they specialise in.
21-30: Build up and expand their offensive power.
31-40: Defend themselves or something else from a faction.
41-50: Engage in a philanthropic endeavour.
51-60: Extend/increase their influence over an area/faction.
61-70: Gain more usable, spendable money.
71-80: Grow their number of members, contacts, specialists.
81-90: Increase their fame/infamy.
91-100: Take vengeance upon another faction.
Touch Ups
Now is the time for you to put it all together, and connect all the dots. Each roll you made provides you with a point, but it is up to you to join those points together to create a cohesive story that is your faction. Many of the options you’ve rolled will naturally tie in together, and will seem to seamlessly fit, but for others, it will take some imagination.
Exemplar
Before we see what our exemplar faction looks as a whole, let’s quickly see what their goal is and who their ally/rival is. Rolls were 95, 72, and 33. So the Righteous Prophets’ Ally is a group of Warriors/Soldiers, its rival is a bunch of Traders/Craftsmen and its current goal is to defend themselves or something else from a faction.
Now let’s put it all together and see what sort of faction we’ve discovered with this generator:
The Righteous Prophets are a smuggling ring operating inside a police force. They are deeply entrenched within this police force, having been created not long after the force itself was commissioned. It’s original creator was a villain of the highest order, a corrupt and degenerate policeman who wanted a little extra in his paycheck every month, and he set the tone for what the Righteous Prophets would become. Their racial supremacy is the nicest thing you can say about them.
Everything wasn’t moonshine and roses, however, and when the Prophets were at their peak, a catastrophe happened that nearly destroyed them. The police force in which they were hiding discovered them, and arrested nearly all of them. Only a small handful Prophets remained undetected, and they had to stay in hiding for years, waiting for the heat to die down. Eventually, they could start operating again, but the Prophets were a shadow of their former selves, and it was only the loyalty of the members (loyalty to each other, to the Prophets, and to the money they were making) that pulled the Prophets back from the brink of extinction.
Changes had to be made, though. Trust was in short supply, and they could not gamble on the loyalty of new members. A strict hierarchy was enforced, and a new means of acquiring members was developed. They wouldn’t bribe and cajole people to join them anymore. Instead, they would entrap them and blackmail them. They would force a bond of trust between every member and the Prophets, because if the Prophets goes down, so does every member inside. Everyone lives, or everyone dies.
The plans worked, and the Prophets have again become a force to be reckoned with. Recovering their strength and reputation hasn’t been easy, however, and many enemies have been made along the way. A trade union has become a particularly sharp thorn in their side, as the Prophets’ smuggling business has been undercutting the union’s. Even now, the Prophets are expecting an attack from the union, but they won’t stand alone. The police force isn’t the only organisation corrupt enough to house a smuggling ring. The Prophets have made contact with a group inside the army, and relations are going well. The Prophets hope that with the army’s smugglers’ help, they can survive this latest assault.
And that’s where the Righteous Prophets enter the story…
And that’s it for faction generation!
Next time we’ll start looking at giving your faction a home and a base to operate out of.
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Remember that you get to choose what we work on after the Faction System has been made, so CLICK HERE to vote!