Well met!
Your world may be an official setting or you might have put the last hand on a fully homebrew continent. What is missing are some organisations. Look no further!
I have been working on a handbook Faiths & Factions, that introduces some faiths and factions to be used in your games. I created the organisations while running a campaign and were slowly edited along the way until they are what they are now. The book is, however, taking too long to actually finish, so I decided to share the bare bones on my website.
Your players can join these at the start of your campaign, or you might introduce them later on. One thing is certain, if played out well, they’ll give an extra layer to your games when a player aims to become high ranking member in the organisation. These Faiths & Factions are generic enough that they can be introduced in any campaign.
How the reputation system works
There are numerous factions across the world and to create them all would be an arduous project. It would also be meaningless because all you need for a campaign are factions that players might want, and be able, to join. I propose to work in two groups of organisations: General reputation in a town/city/area/ factions you do not join and reputation by joining a famous Faith or Faction. The system is not ground breaking nor is very hard to implement.
Reputation in various communities and factions you do not join
When you do not ‘join’ a particular faction or community, but still complete missions and tasks for them, then you gain positive reputation with them. The more reputation you gain friendlier people affiliated to that community will become to you.
The reputation for the myriad of cities and factions are rated on a scale of 0 to 20 and you (usually) gain +2 per noteworthy action (task):
reputation 0-3 : Indifferent (rank 1)
reputation 4-11 : Friendly (rank 2)
reputation 12-17 : Famous (rank 3)
reputation 18-20 : Renowned (rank 4)
reputation 20+ : Legendary (rank 5)
This simple rule will allow you to track how the players are perceived to the public and gives players something else to strife for. A hero is only a hero when he is legendary, right?
Joining a faction
A character might join an organisation to gain its benefits, but it often means having responsibilities as well. The organisation will expect you to support them and should you ever leave an organisation, all reputation and rank could be lost (in some case leaving is not even an option).
The reputation here is rated on a scale of 1 to 50+ and you gain various amounts depending on task. In the coming blog posts series 'Faiths&Factions' I will also show what a character must do to gain reputation and rise in rank, but the thresholds are the same for each:
reputation 1-4 : rank 1
reputation 5-14 : rank 2
reputation 15-29 : rank 3
reputation 30-49 : rank 4
reputation 50+ : rank 5
Excited to see the first Faction? I can tell you now that it will be The seekers of the Arcane, including their symbol, an original by me.
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