Planescape Adventure introducing the PCs to factions?
- Thread starter Tymophil
- Start date
I've tried a few times in my eberron games where the dragonmarked houses are a very big part of the world and it never really sticks. Ultimately the trouble with doing so in 5e is that the players have no reason for them to care enough for them to be remembered any more than the name of a random NPC vendor they expect to never meet again. This whole problem occurs because the 5e PCs don't NEED anything that might require remembering anything about the dragonmarked houses and as a result there's nothing those faction equivalent houses can be expected to provide Beyond their ability to function as a quest giver. Even if you use them as a quest giver there's only so much depth they can have before they turn into good guys who hired us vrs bad guys who don't approve and forgettable set dressing unless you want to run an entire campaign or more introducing "didn't we meet these guys in a game a year or two back?"
That's a stark difference from past editions where players would flat out say "hey I want to [find/reach out to/visit] this explicitly named dragonmarked house because I think that they can help me get [thing I want]" & it shows the lack of needs as the pretty serious design flaw it is".
So to better orient those who might respond, are you seeking what other table runners have done generally to make factions appealing to players in an adventure or a campaign setting?
Seeing what someone may have done with factions and organizations specifically for Planescape?
Looking for inspo on scenarios that could introduce one or more factions to PCs?
Quickleaf
Legend
Yes, I did a small version of that back in AD&D Planescape. I had two players (very rarely a third or fourth around holidays), one running a Sensate, the other wasn't faction aligned. I focused on a little adventure to run some faction possibilities by the unaligned PC's player...
What is prophecy? That was theme, but specifically it was about a prophecy of an Outlands town shifting to one of the Upper Planes.
For a Sensate, prophecy is sort of neither here nor there... it exists beyond what we think of as traditional senses. I picked a couple factions to highlight different perspectives – Fraternity of Order, Believers in the Source, and divergent Sensate perspective, and a few others.
The unaligned PC decided prophecy was a system of control implemented by temple authorities / factions, and joined the Anarchists. However, they eventually sided with the divergent Sensate perspective and betrayed the Anarchists.
aco175
Legend
What is that saying- You get what you reward. Give the PCs cool stuff for being part of the faction. This can be aid, item, information, etc...
My players do not care for factions. We play in FR and have the basic factions, but do not get that involved with them. I have not push them on the players if they do not care. They like to bond with each other as a group and not join a faction or a few different ones. More than one starts to divide the party with competing arcs.
Might be better to have the factions hire the PCs for jobs and introduce the factions similar to NPC in that each has their own goals and needs. Sometimes they work together and other times apart.
My players do not care for factions. We play in FR and have the basic factions, but do not get that involved with them. I have not push them on the players if they do not care. They like to bond with each other as a group and not join a faction or a few different ones. More than one starts to divide the party with competing arcs.
Might be better to have the factions hire the PCs for jobs and introduce the factions similar to NPC in that each has their own goals and needs. Sometimes they work together and other times apart.
pukunui
Legend
It depends on which factions you mean.
Several of the early 5e adventures were written to introduce players to the official AL factions (Harpers, Emerald Enclave, Zhentarim, Order of the Gauntlet, and Lords' Alliance). Lost Mines of Phandelver has a representative of each faction in Phandalin, and PCs can be recruited by them to join.
Princes of the Apocalypse includes each of the factions and has adventure hooks for them and so on.
The factions also appear in Tyranny of Dragons and Storm King's Thunder.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a bit crunchier when it comes to having PCs join factions and giving them faction-specific missions. It includes some new ones beyond the AL factions, like Force Grey and Bregan D'aerthe.
It is a bit much. There are a lot of factions.
If you run a game with a plot, it is very hard to bring in all the factions and give them each a big spot light. It takes time to spot light each one and not just the "um, this group like undead" and "um, this group hates gods". And too often a player will just pick a faction that "looks cool".
The best way to do it is very slowly over at least a couple games. Give each faction a big spotlight and plot and showcase. Then let them pick.
I am assuming that because this is in the Planescape sub-forum; and the initial salutation was to "bashers" they are looking to introduce folks to Planescape/Sigil factions?
pukunui
Legend
Oh, I missed that! Sorry. Thanks for pointing it out.
