Building Strong Factions for DnD Campaigns

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

I like representing faction goals with clocks and using dice oracles every now and then to see if any faction made a big move when I wasn't looking. Players succeed of fail a quest and the factions who had clocks relevant to that quest either advance, stay where they are, or regress depending on how well the players did and who they sided with, helped, or hindered. For oracles I make a dice pool. I take each faction in my setting and I assign them their own dice. Bigger factions get bigger dice. Small factions get smaller dice. The small gang of street urchins may get a d4 while the High King and his vast armies get a d20. Take all the faction dice and roll them together. Look for ones, doubles, and touching dice. Two factions rolling the same number means they're either working together or against each other on the same goal/clock. Ones mean that faction is directly going to get involved with the PCs almost immediately. Touching dice, or just oddly positioned dice may be any number of things. Why are the heads of the 3 thieves guilds meeting at the mage academy? Oh, its graduation season and to celebrate their kids or nieces/nephews graduating in the same class they all called a truce. What is the army doing to the street urchin gang? Either one of the colonels grew up a poor orphan in the same neighborhood and is looking to build an orphanage or at least a half way house, or the unscrupulous recruiter is black bagging and drafting steet rats. Why are all the mage academy factions suddenly paying attention to Jerry, the guy who conducts "pigeon orchestras" in the park and sometimes forgets to wear pants? I don't know but those five dice all rolled ones and landed in the same corner so it's gonna be something that impacts the party. They've covered dice oracles a few times on the channel Web DM in their faction politics and sandbox videos. It's a useful tool. The other thing I do with factions is simple. I take one of the guilds in the Ravnica book or one of the gods in the Theros book, and I swap out the names. Those two books are goldmines for running factions. Ten guilds and fifteen gods/churches. All with tables detailing faction goals, outlooks and interactions, antagonist and ally generation, and plenty of character rewards for signing up with any of them. The 5 colleges of Strixhaven are also pretty useful, but that book has much less of a focus on being an all around useful DM toolbox. People complained about the MtG peanut butter mixing with the D&D chocolate, but from those three books we got 30 factions that are better designed and easier to implement than any of the Sigil Factions. Ravnica and Theros are the best 5e books WotC has put out.

[@familykletch5156]

This channel is criminally undersubscribed.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you that's very kind!

[@CFJNilsson]

Yes! I thought there would be more people here based on how much I've seen and used!

[@pogodonuts]

I recently learned about the Braunstein method, which I've started to put into practice. Give each player control over a faction. I haven't expressly told them they are in control, I just ask for their advice on what the faction would do in this situation. They also don't know the other players are controlling factions either, but they will probably figure out sooner or later. They can even send a message via diplomat to a faction, and I'll wait a few days before I give the message to the player they sent it too. This is fun to do some dnd stuff during the week outside of the game. Other important note: the information I give each player is the biased information that the corresponding ruler would hear. The leader of the wandering goblin tribe looking for a home might send a small group to the forest looking for a place to stay, but the leader of the wood elves might hear that goblin scouting parties have been found raiding the edges of the forest, and have been swiftly dealt with.

[@BW022]

My advice on factions. 1. Don't be afraid to use published worlds. These often spell out groups (nations, cities, groups, societies, etc.) which is easy background. You can still use them or introduce your own, but it is often easier if players have written materials and/or past experience with those factions. 2. Don't give faction information as info dumps. Players won't read paragraphs of stuff and it comes across as railroading if you do happen to give them info dumps of groups they just happen to run into. 3. If you must give out common information, doing in game as players need it with "Your character knows X and Y." and base this on class, background, or knowledge rolls. 4. Introduces factions through individuals. If players meet a group of wood elves in the forest, who are helpful, let them think all elves in the forest are like that. Use them as a way of showing the larger world. 5. Don't write or think too much about any factions initially. Allow players to form their own connections with individuals... or not. If they don't, don't force it. If players do form attachments, go with it and write more and more under the assumption. If not, move one to the next. With this in mind, don't write timeline charts and encounters until players buy into something. It's too much work and it risks railroading them into things they don't want. 6. You can introduce factions via other -- either effected, observing, or affected by it. These are often neat motivations. For example, the bar maid's abusive suitor is a member of the assassins, or a good wizard is scrying on one of the assassins. i.e. players have a reason to know about things happening behind the scenes in the assassin's guild. 7. Small-scale encounters are often better. Factions can be backdrop or affect others which are the primary story. You may never deal with the warlord ravaging the countryside, but maybe you help some displaced refuges, fight in a specific battle, etc. Not every group of PCs have to directly fact the leaders of the factions in some 'chosen one' outcome.

[@Earthmote]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing

[@tombraider862]

The information given out in these videos is pure gold for anyone that wants to get better at running a game, or even writing a story, book, or adventure. Its such good content.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you that's very kind!

[@loadedstapler1459]

This video is pure gold. Factions are to a GM what a character is to a player: you develop them, try to fulfill their arc, and unlock new abilities and features. Just don't be upset when the players end your faction, just like they shouldn't be upset when one of their characters die 😂

[@Earthmote]

Yeah, most factions are opposition to the players, so there is a good chance the players will try to neutralize them at some point!

[@bonzwah1]

This is very similar to adventure fronts from dungeon world. But there are additional bits that i like (like having dice rolls determine faction progress, rather than simply incrementing them each time the players make progress somewhere else). Also love the recommendation to check out the tables from worlds without number. Ill be sure to do that.

[@Doncergio]

I have a somewhat similar system, but I have factions roll dice equal to how many units of "movers" each faction has, generally d6's but powerful units will roll d8's. On a 5-6 their goal tally is incremented. This means that it is more of a race when different factions are aiming for the same goal, plus this system directly feeds into the rumor system, meaning more tasks = more up to date rumors = more realistic world.

[@Earthmote]

Sounds like a good system!

[@kdolanjr]

Dig the content, please consider also throwing the audio up as a podcast!

[@Earthmote]

Thank you!

[@SNDurgon]

Gonna be looking to run my first osr campaign in a few weeks, this helps immensely!

[@Earthmote]

Glad you find it helpful!

[@kevinm3428]

Great info here!

[@Earthmote]

Glad it was helpful!

[@aidendon4127]

Awesome work!

[@Earthmote]

Thanks!

[@Mr.Despair.]

I feel like I would prefer to use this kind of system for pretty much everything. I definitely prefer a living world that is always moving in a sandbox as opposed to some kind of structured story or sequence of events. I'm not trying to tell a story, I'm trying to present a series of events that the players can interact with in real time, thus creating a story.

[@Earthmote]

Yeah, I'm the same way. Plus I like to be surprised by the results too! And then figure out what's happening in the world based on the current context + new information from the dice rolls.

[@Mr.Despair.]

@@Earthmote Absolutely! It makes it more fun when you're collectively building a narrative instead of basically trying to write a book.

Hi! Great video! I've been using Dungeon World fronts in several other games, but I've been thinking of creating a more procedural system for factions and your ideas are great!

[@Earthmote]

Dungeon world fronts are great, I've used the same ideas in my games!

[@HuntersCanFly]

Another game system that has some surprisingly good faction mechanics is Mausritter. I made and modified mine off of their system

[@Earthmote]

Yeah Mausritter is great!

[@archersfriend5900]

Awesome video.

[@Earthmote]

Thanks!

[@whatevil]

Great vid. Your guides are really helping with my worldbuilding for an upcoming sandbox game I'm going to run. Definitely planning to use this system! Small note though - you have a fair bit of low-frequency clunking or something in your sound which is a bit distracting.

[@Earthmote]

Thanks for the kind words! I'll look into the audio, I'm no expert but I'll see what I can do.

[@whatevil]

@@Earthmote Yeah I'm not sure if you're jogging the table the mic is on or something? You might be able to fix it by putting the audio through a high-pass filter.

[@wahlinkwah902]

I love this channel so much on gawd. Funnily enough always releases the video topic I need for my upcoming sessions

[@Earthmote]

Glad they are helpful!

[@johnmagowan6393]

I just need to figure out how to apply this to Goblin Dr. Doom

[@BeckettWarren]

Riverbottom was burned?!?! Is the Nightmare Band ok? Frogtown Hollow still standing?

[@PhilipDudley3]

Please tell me I can get that rad shirt! I hope it wasn't just a Kickstarter reward, I want one too

[@Earthmote]

I got mine as a Kickstarter reward, but you could check Exalted Funeral to see if they are selling OSE shirts.

[@CountryBwoy]

Subscribed! ✊🏾🟥🟨🟩 I've only just found this channel, maybe in the last month or so? I've found myself seeking out your videos for your ideas on world building. Was excited when I looked and saw you had a new one posted.

[@Earthmote]

Awesome! Thank you!