Book on Organizations - Discussion
- Thread starter Emiricol
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Lith
First Post
Possible template.
Template first, explanations to follow.
Organization Name
Storylike blurb
General summary of Who, What, Where, Why, How?
Brief History
Pretty self-explanitory
The Organization
Headquarters: Location of HQ, if any.
Members: The groups approximate population throughout the whole of Aerde
Hierarchy: Classification of the general nature of the hierarchy, which determines various factors as described below.
Leaders: Name and title of the leader or leaders.
Religion: The Deity or deities commonly worshipped by members.
Alignment: The overall alignment of the organization, which does not necessarily apply to all members. If multiple alignments are giver the first is the most common, with the rest listed in decreasing order.
Secrecy: Classification of the level of secrecy of the group, as described below.
Symbol: A description of the symbol or symbold used by the organization.
Motivation and Goals
This section describes the motives and objectives of the organization, along with the typical activities used to achieve these goals.
Recruiting
Every organization has its own views on gaining new members and its own methods for doing so. Some groups don't actively recruit but aquire members who want to belong. Others send thier members out into the world to coerce, convince, or capture thier newest cohorts. Some organizations use the term "recruit" loosely, when they really mean "enslave." This sections describes how the organization approaces recruiting.
Allies
Rather self-explanitory
Enemies
Rather self-explanitory
Encounters
In this section you'll discover the tools needed to incorporate agents from the organization in your campaign. These tools may include a description of a typical group of travelers, a breakdown of NPC classes and levels for a series of encounter levels, a prestige class, common magical abilities held by members, and the strengths and weaknesses of the group in question.
Combat and Tactics
Notes on specific strategies and tendencies of the organization's members in combat.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The groups greatest assest and shortcommings.
Weapons and Equipment
Some organizations equip their followers with specific items or provide greater support for their missions. This section lists items common to the froup in question and give equipment and feats possessed by typical members of the organization, Unless otherwise specified it does not include bonus equipment for a character having a preferred class for his or her home region.
Special Items, and Supernatural Abilities
Any extraordinary magic items or powers available to members of the group.
NPC and Prestige Classes
Some organizations descriptions include statistics for non-player characters associated with that organization. In addition some of the enties include Prestige Classes unique to these organizations.
Sample Location
A sample location such as a base or lair is presented with information on it's inhabitants and it's role in the greater organization. Unique or important creatures and characters at this location are presented with full statistics blocks.
---
End of the template.
Hierarchy: The way an organization is structured falls intoone of four general categories.
Loose: In this type of organization, the only constant is change. Leaders come and go as easily as the weather changes. Something other than a charismatic leader keeps this group working as a unit. Perhaps the members all worship the same deity, or all share a hatred of one race, etc. Members know their leaders, openly welcome recruits, and usually rely on brawn rather than brains and on passion rather than premeditation.
Militaristic: This type of organization maintains a strict hierarchy. Orders come down from the top. Members obey their superiors. Lawful groups often use this model for their hierarchy. The leader could be an individual or a committee, but the highest level of authority remains isolated from the lesser members.
Segmented: This type of hierarchy has pods or branches that function independantly of one another. Sometimes these branches serve redundant purposes, but don't know eachother. Other times, the branches may complement one another and work together closely. Onle the highest levels of the hierarchy know the whole structure. They create hidden subsidiaries to protect their assets in time of trouble, to diversify their contacts, and to maintain their secrecy.
Webbed: A webbed hierarchy has cells connected by a single linking thread. A cell could be an individual or a small group. Members only know other members with whom they have direct contact. These organizations don't have a clearly traceable hieracrhy. They're layered in deep secrecy, and even those in the hiest level of the organization don't know all their agents.
Secrecy: Since some of these organizations cannot operate in the public eye without fear of reprisal, they adopt one of the four levels of secrecy.
High: Members know only their immediate superiors, underlings and others they work with frequently. Information is passed through intermediaries and is often in code. Only those at the highest levels of authority know the true agenda of the group, and if multiple people are at this level, thay may have their own secret agendas.Members communicate with outsiders via diguises, aliases, and anonymous messages.
Medium: Members know their superiors and inferiors, one step up and down the chain of command. Mid-level agents are usually informed of major plans, or at least how their role affects the plan. Few members are open about their affiliation and the lowest level agents may be unaware that they work for the organization at all.
Low: Members of the orgaization know most of the other members, particularly the leaders. Some efforts are made to conceal the identity of important individuals from common folk. Outsiders know the affiliation of many members, and some flaunt theur relationship and status with the group.
None: The group works entirely in the open and makes no effort to conceal it's agenda, headquarters, or operatives. Members are easily recognized, and most people are familiar with the nature of the organization and it's ultimate goals.
---
This is mostly from the Lord's of Darkness sourcebook, I really like the layout of the organizations (I'm really tired of typing that word) and at a few glances a DM can find what info he/she needs to use this organization (argh! again) in their campaign.
Template first, explanations to follow.
Organization Name
Storylike blurb
General summary of Who, What, Where, Why, How?
Brief History
Pretty self-explanitory
The Organization
Headquarters: Location of HQ, if any.
Members: The groups approximate population throughout the whole of Aerde
Hierarchy: Classification of the general nature of the hierarchy, which determines various factors as described below.
Leaders: Name and title of the leader or leaders.
Religion: The Deity or deities commonly worshipped by members.
Alignment: The overall alignment of the organization, which does not necessarily apply to all members. If multiple alignments are giver the first is the most common, with the rest listed in decreasing order.
Secrecy: Classification of the level of secrecy of the group, as described below.
Symbol: A description of the symbol or symbold used by the organization.
Motivation and Goals
This section describes the motives and objectives of the organization, along with the typical activities used to achieve these goals.
Recruiting
Every organization has its own views on gaining new members and its own methods for doing so. Some groups don't actively recruit but aquire members who want to belong. Others send thier members out into the world to coerce, convince, or capture thier newest cohorts. Some organizations use the term "recruit" loosely, when they really mean "enslave." This sections describes how the organization approaces recruiting.
Allies
Rather self-explanitory
Enemies
Rather self-explanitory
Encounters
In this section you'll discover the tools needed to incorporate agents from the organization in your campaign. These tools may include a description of a typical group of travelers, a breakdown of NPC classes and levels for a series of encounter levels, a prestige class, common magical abilities held by members, and the strengths and weaknesses of the group in question.
Combat and Tactics
Notes on specific strategies and tendencies of the organization's members in combat.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The groups greatest assest and shortcommings.
Weapons and Equipment
Some organizations equip their followers with specific items or provide greater support for their missions. This section lists items common to the froup in question and give equipment and feats possessed by typical members of the organization, Unless otherwise specified it does not include bonus equipment for a character having a preferred class for his or her home region.
Special Items, and Supernatural Abilities
Any extraordinary magic items or powers available to members of the group.
NPC and Prestige Classes
Some organizations descriptions include statistics for non-player characters associated with that organization. In addition some of the enties include Prestige Classes unique to these organizations.
Sample Location
A sample location such as a base or lair is presented with information on it's inhabitants and it's role in the greater organization. Unique or important creatures and characters at this location are presented with full statistics blocks.
---
End of the template.
Hierarchy: The way an organization is structured falls intoone of four general categories.
Loose: In this type of organization, the only constant is change. Leaders come and go as easily as the weather changes. Something other than a charismatic leader keeps this group working as a unit. Perhaps the members all worship the same deity, or all share a hatred of one race, etc. Members know their leaders, openly welcome recruits, and usually rely on brawn rather than brains and on passion rather than premeditation.
Militaristic: This type of organization maintains a strict hierarchy. Orders come down from the top. Members obey their superiors. Lawful groups often use this model for their hierarchy. The leader could be an individual or a committee, but the highest level of authority remains isolated from the lesser members.
Segmented: This type of hierarchy has pods or branches that function independantly of one another. Sometimes these branches serve redundant purposes, but don't know eachother. Other times, the branches may complement one another and work together closely. Onle the highest levels of the hierarchy know the whole structure. They create hidden subsidiaries to protect their assets in time of trouble, to diversify their contacts, and to maintain their secrecy.
Webbed: A webbed hierarchy has cells connected by a single linking thread. A cell could be an individual or a small group. Members only know other members with whom they have direct contact. These organizations don't have a clearly traceable hieracrhy. They're layered in deep secrecy, and even those in the hiest level of the organization don't know all their agents.
Secrecy: Since some of these organizations cannot operate in the public eye without fear of reprisal, they adopt one of the four levels of secrecy.
High: Members know only their immediate superiors, underlings and others they work with frequently. Information is passed through intermediaries and is often in code. Only those at the highest levels of authority know the true agenda of the group, and if multiple people are at this level, thay may have their own secret agendas.Members communicate with outsiders via diguises, aliases, and anonymous messages.
Medium: Members know their superiors and inferiors, one step up and down the chain of command. Mid-level agents are usually informed of major plans, or at least how their role affects the plan. Few members are open about their affiliation and the lowest level agents may be unaware that they work for the organization at all.
Low: Members of the orgaization know most of the other members, particularly the leaders. Some efforts are made to conceal the identity of important individuals from common folk. Outsiders know the affiliation of many members, and some flaunt theur relationship and status with the group.
None: The group works entirely in the open and makes no effort to conceal it's agenda, headquarters, or operatives. Members are easily recognized, and most people are familiar with the nature of the organization and it's ultimate goals.
---
This is mostly from the Lord's of Darkness sourcebook, I really like the layout of the organizations (I'm really tired of typing that word) and at a few glances a DM can find what info he/she needs to use this organization (argh! again) in their campaign.
Northman
First Post
The only thing is that I wouldn't want to make a full layout for every paladin order. In fact, just doing one organization would be serious work with this template. It's a great template, but man... you really have to pour a lot of work into filling it out. Like you said, Lith, you've been working on the template for this template for a long time.
Maybe we could create a shorter, more streamlined version too.
Maybe we could create a shorter, more streamlined version too.
Emiricol
Registered User
True, it'll be a lot of work, but I'd rather farm out completion of it to creative types on EN World than do a less detailed version. I don't really see anything in the template that I don't want to see when I read a supplement on organizations!
We can come up with a contest for any organizations we don't want to do ourselves. For me, I'll be happy to do this as it will jump-start my creativity, but I can understand that some people with tons of organizations (as opposed to my 3 or 4) might want to coordinate development rather than /do/ the development...
Just a thought. Either way, I think we do ourselves a disservice going down the easier path.
We can come up with a contest for any organizations we don't want to do ourselves. For me, I'll be happy to do this as it will jump-start my creativity, but I can understand that some people with tons of organizations (as opposed to my 3 or 4) might want to coordinate development rather than /do/ the development...
Just a thought. Either way, I think we do ourselves a disservice going down the easier path.
Northman said:
Lith
First Post
I tried cutting it down, but everytime I did, it seemed to me that what I cut out was something that is necessary for a DM to know.
The only one I think could be toned down in massiveness of work would be the encounters section. Instead of providing multiple encounters of different ELs, it would be to provide one generic encounter, with a scalable guide.
IE> The leader of the group will always be 3 levels higher than his henchmen, etc.
The only one I think could be toned down in massiveness of work would be the encounters section. Instead of providing multiple encounters of different ELs, it would be to provide one generic encounter, with a scalable guide.
IE> The leader of the group will always be 3 levels higher than his henchmen, etc.
Northman said:
Emiricol
Registered User
That's a good idea. One "typical" encounter, aimed at mid-level PCs, to give DMs an idea of what such an encounter would look and feel like. Then the DM can scale or come up with something unique that fits the flavor.
I really wasn't jazzed about doing a bunch of encounters for each organization, personally.
I really wasn't jazzed about doing a bunch of encounters for each organization, personally.
DMEntropy
First Post
I believe that these "typical" encounters with an organization serve to pigeon-hole the group into a unidimensional presentation. What you interact with from a group depends upon the circumstances of the meeting, the short and long term goals of the group and their perception of yours. This is already too many variables to make a viable "typical" encounter. Unless of course they are led by the offensive coordinator from the University of Miami. In that case the same plan is used on everyone whether it is working or not. (somewhat bitter UM grad here...)
For that reason you will not see anything like this in my organization write-ups, whenver I find time to do them.
For that reason you will not see anything like this in my organization write-ups, whenver I find time to do them.
Emiricol
Registered User
:shrugs: Okay, do away with that part altogether then, I guess. I think it only pigeonholes bad DMs (who might actually be greatful for the structure) and gives good DMs a picture to go from to create a consistent theme for encounters, but perhaps I overestimate the talent of most DMs.
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