Factions
Establish d4+2 factions. For each faction, roll once on each column below to describe them.
1 | Guild | Expansionistic |
2 | Tribe | Backwards |
3 | Commune | Money-hungry |
4 | Empire | Egalitarian |
5 | Monarchy | Ancient |
6 | Feudal Pact | Progressive |
7 | Religion | Macho |
8 | Army | Exclusive |
9 | Religious Order | Decadent |
10 | Democracy | Vengeful |
11 | Farmers Union | Militaristic |
12 | Historian Group | Image-Focused |
13 | Khaganate | Conniving |
14 | Company | Anti-Intellectual |
15 | Family | Intellectual |
16 | Duchy | Reactionary |
17 | Magical Order | Pastoral |
18 | Bureaucratic Org | Compassionate |
19 | School | Punitive |
20 | HOA | Creative |
1 HOA Ancient
2 Family Pastoral
3 Guild Punitive
4 Religion Progressive
5 Empire Pastoral
6 Bureaucracy Pastoral
What do we make of that? Looking back at the first post, we've got six settlements...
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy.... + Water, - Luxury Goods.
B: Quiet, Smoky.... + Leather, Ice. - Fine Cuisine.
C: New, Major Market.... +Guns. - Luxury goods, ice.
CITY D: New, Walled.... +Luxury goods. -Ice.
CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.
F: Militaristic, Sandy....+ Ice, Livestock. -Fruit, Leather goods.
Okay defining why three different things are pastoral seems a good start. To me, a pastoral empire in a weird west setting is 100% horse nomads with guns. We've got two new settlements on the map, so maybe the horse nomads came in and conquered the place, founding new cities as they went. Your Pastoral family is the leading family; to add tension lets say the head of the empire just passed away and the empire is mostly bickering. However, the bureaucracy established by the last head is still keeping things running. This is a little ahead of myself, but I'll say the empire and the family are both based in D, because it has a wall, while the Bureaucracy is in C because of the trade hub.
The weapon that will conquer the world.
Now, we've got an Ancient HOA, and an ancient city. Surely this means that a major power in this area is the HOA regulating who can and can't live in city E. Now, why would an HOA actually be significant? Maybe they started off with a small security team, then eventually raised an army, conquered the surrounding area and then were conquered themselves by our Pastoral Empire? Entrance to the HOA is contingent upon property ownership in the city, but they've been barred from taking up arms these days. That feels pretty good!
And now, just a Punitive Guild and a Progressive Religion. We have no factions in A, B or F so I'd love to fill at least one of those in. Maybe an ice-haulers guild that owns the ice fields in B and punishes theft? But also like there's ice everywhere in the mountains so they can't stop everyone? And the progressive religion worships.....peace? And lives out in the desert by F? Everybody else here feels fairly violent, and I'd love to have a group opposed to that. They're currently advocating for naturalistic approaches to land management and disarming various feuding cowboys, with a decent bit of success?
Roll 2d6 for their relationships to each other.
2 Immediate Attack 9-11 Talkative
3-5 Hostile 12 Helpful
6-8 Unsure
This one I don't feel the need to roll - the Pastorals all sort of hate each other in a sibling way, but unify well against external threats. The HOA is resentful of the Pastorals for conquering them. The Guild resents the Pastorals too, because they keep buying contraband ice. That creates an uneasy alliance between the two, but not because they like each other. And of course, everybody hates the progressive religion, and the progressive religion would like to love everybody.
This is the helpful reminder that the dice are a tool, not a rule. I use them when I need them, but don't when I don't.
Randomly assign or place each faction’s base in a settlement (you can change these later), Factions may share the same home. For each settlement adjacent to their base, place a representative of the faction.
Completed above.
To collate what we've just learned about each place:
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy.... + Water, - Luxury Goods.
- Factions: None
- Locations: None
- NPC's: Representative of Ice Guild
B: Quiet, Smoky.... + Leather, Ice. - Fine Cuisine.
- Factions: Ice Guild
- Locations: Guild Hall, Ice Fields, Ice Smuggler Base
- NPC's: Chief of the guild, Entry Level Guild Contact, Some weird little freak who lives in the ice fields, head of the smugglers. Representative of the Bureaucracy. Maybe they're responsible for taxation?
C: New, Major Market.... +Guns. - Luxury goods, ice.
- Factions: Bureaucracy Pastoral.
- Locations: Major Market, Bureaucracy offices, gunsmithys
- NPC's: Head of the Bureaucracy, A Handful of Traders, gunsmiths, representative of the family (maybe an uncle who got out of the chaos of the palace), representative of the Empire (Colonel guarding the market), representative of the Ice Guild.
CITY D: New, Walled.... +Luxury goods. -Ice.
- Factions: Pastoral Family & Pastoral Empire
- Locations: Palace, army camp (head of the empire itself), artisans shops.
- NPC's: Royal Family members: Naive eldest son, clever secondborn daughter, power-hungry mother-in-law (hate to rip the Livia trope but things happen). Most talented general. Littlefinger-esque treasurer. Butler, who can serve as an entry level NPC. A few luxury goods makers.
CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.
- Factions: Ancient HOA
- Locations: Community Center / HOA headquarters (complete with pool!), universities (explains need for books).
- NPC's: HOA head, annoying resident, cool professor, student doing experiments they shouldn't.
F: Militaristic, Sandy....+ Ice, Livestock. -Fruit, Leather goods.
- Factions: Progressive Religion.
- Locations: Temple for religion, livestock yards, a few bars, fields outside town full of livestock, fields of Yakchals.
- NPC's: Rep of empire (lieutenant keeping the peace), rep of family (a cousin trying out their luck as a cowgirl), head of religion, cool cowboy.
Crossroads:
- NPC's: HOA, all three pastorals. Maybe some sort of holy site that's a neutral meeting and negotiating ground? Or a battlefield? Idk.
Faction Goals and Objectives
At some point, give each faction an end goal and three objectives that will move them towards that goal. You can determine these now, but be prepared to change them in light of how each settlement develops in the next few steps. If you're uncertain, you can use the below table to determine goals or objectives randomly. The difference between the former and the later is that the Goal tends to be somewhat general, where I make the objective like a quest hook - specific enough to be actionable and measurable.
Objective
1 | Person | Possess |
2 | Settlement | Destroy |
3 | Building | Subvert |
4 | Money | Construct |
5 | Resource | Create |
6 | Religion | Restructure |
7 | People Group | Liberate |
8 | Trouble | Redistribute |
9 | Spirit | Protect |
10 | Magic | Build |
11 | Ruler | Cultivate |
12 | Land | Hinder |
Going to hold off on faction goals until I have a better idea how some of the settlements shake out.
See the next post to stock your settlements!
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