How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
It’s crucial to understand your game’s scale. In a compact campaign of about 10 sessions, setting long-term goals for factions may not make sense if achieving those goals would take years
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
In shorter campaigns, I prefer to advance factions between sessions. For longer campaigns, updating them weekly, according to in-game time or during character downtime, works better
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
I categorize the strategic components of a faction into four interconnected elements: Resources, Goals, Missions, and Tasks.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Resources are the unique strengths and capabilities of a faction. These could be specialized forces or magical artifacts, underpinning its ability to pursue objectives
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Goals outline the long-term ambitions a faction seeks to achieve, providing a strategic direction for its efforts. These broad outcomes shape the faction’s narrative within the game.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Missions are the actionable steps towards achieving these goals, focusing on specific, short-term objectives. They offer a closer look at a faction’s operational tactics, facilitating dynamic interactions within the campaign
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Tasks are the most immediate actions taken to complete missions. These are detailed as direct, tangible activities within the game world, reflecting the on-the-ground efforts of a faction to advance its mission and, by extension, its overarching goals.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
At the start, I aim to give each faction three unique resources. As the story unfolds, a faction may gain more resources, boosting its power, or lose them, which could lead to its decline or even removal from the game if it runs out of resources completely.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Creating conflicts between factions with overlapping or opposing goals is a great way to build tension in the narrative
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
Types of goals might include:
Offensive Goals: Like defeating rivals, seizing important resources, or expanding territory. Defensive Goals: Such as improving defenses, gaining new allies, or acquiring more power. Special/Personal Goals: Aimed at earning fame or infamy, promoting a specific ideology, or avoiding battles.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
I also assign a progress bar to each action. The action’s complexity and nature determine the number of segments in its progress bar. Generally, I suggest:
For tasks, 1-2 segments. For missions, at least 4 segments. For goals, 12 or more segments
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
I randomly choose one of the three actions that the faction will try to advance during this turn.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
I roll a six-sided die (d6) for the action I’ve selected. If a faction’s resource benefits the action, I add +1 to the roll. If there’s interference or an opposing faction’s resource negatively impacts the action, I subtract -1 from the roll. However, this adjustment is capped at +1 or -1.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
If I roll a 4 or 5, the action’s progress bar moves forward by one segment. A roll of 6 or higher pushes it ahead by two segments.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
After an action is finished, I cross it out and introduce a new one, considering how to present this change in the game
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
For each faction turn, I make a log entry that includes: The turn’s date The chosen action The dice roll result Whether the action was completed
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
I often jot down brief notes next to a log entry for potential future actions to keep track of my planning.
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
For example, if the story calls for it, a faction might concentrate on a specific action instead of picking one at random
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
First, I assess whether an action directly impacts the players’ current situation. For example, if the players are in a town that a faction is attacking, the consequences are immediate
See in context at How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns
Created: 2025-01-31
For instance, I might adjust encounter tables to mirror the new situation.