Factions play a big part in my current campaign and no supplement I have come across has handled factions in an entirely satisfying way, so naturally, I attempted to make a system to fit my needs. Here is what I have come up with. It is important to note that my campaign only has 2-4 players, depending on the night, so they frequently have an NPC tag along to fill out whatever the party is missing.
Favor - Each NPC has a Favor score that increases as the characters do things that they like, or decreases as the characters do things they dislike. The party's actions must directly affect/interact with the NPC to alter their Favor. If the party does something that the entire faction that the NPC belongs to would like, it doesn't change every NPC that belongs to that faction's Favor score, this would be inflationary. Also, if the NPC isn't around or isn't aware of their actions, the NPC's Favor score doesn't change. Every NPC's Favor score starts at 0.
Renown - Each faction has a Renown score equal to the sum of the Favor scores of each NPC that belongs to that faction. If the party does things that do not directly involve a member of a faction, this could still alter the faction's Renown score, if any only if members of that faction catch word of the party's actions. Remember that these factions consist of real people who exist in these fantasy worlds and are not all-knowing.
Both Favor and Renown could be used to adjust Morale or Reaction rolls, if your system uses them.
Example: If the party is questing with Joe, a member of the King's Guard, and they help a lowly citizen handle some goblins that are harassing their farm, then Bob's Favor would increase by 1, thus increasing the Renown score of the King's Guard by 1. However, just about every member of the King's Guard would appreciate this. Even though that is the case, don't increase every NPC the party knows's Favor by 1.
However, let's say later in the party's adventures they need to smuggle in some goods under the noses of the King's Guard. If the party doesn't get caught, their Renown does not decrease. If they do, then you would keep track of a modifier for the Renown score separate from the sum of the individual NPC's Favor scores, unless you think that it would adjust the Favor of one of the NPCs. Maybe in this case it decreases the Favor of the captain of the guard because word got back to them.
You can tie rewards to levels of Favor/Renown as well. Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica does this. This is entirely up to the discretion of the Game Master. Here is a suggestion.
Renown 1: Faction members are generally amenable to you. They are also more likely to tell you secrets/rumors.
Renown 3: You get a faction insignia that comes with benefits and drawbacks depending on who you are dealing with. People outside the faction begin to recognize you as allying with them.
Renown 5: You gain access to information channels/quests/rumors/NPCs that you would otherwise not. Maybe this is weapon stores, spell scrolls, and important favors you can cash in.
I have made a spreadsheet to help track all of the factions for a campaign and included an example faction. Make sure to copy the spreadsheet into your own Drive so you can edit it and make it your own! The Faction names at the top of each of the six charts will auto-populate with whatever you type in each cell in the Faction List column. Also, the Renown scores are auto-calculating. Make sure to include a negative if a general party action decreases a faction's Renown.
No comments:
Post a Comment