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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 8022199" data-attributes="member: 6677017">Another thread got me thinking. I don't care much for factions in my RPGs. It might be a personality thing. It's fine that there are occasional factions in a setting, but it can easily be overdone for me.Vampire: the Masquerade and it's fellow WoD games are where factions as a big part of the play experience really became popular, and that has had a lasting impact. I think factions work better in some of their games than others, but I think the influence on other people's game design has been too strong.What is it I don't like about them? I'm not entirely certain. Part of it might be that my level of individualism doesn't mesh well with that sort of group mindset when I (in this case, my character) doesn't completely agree with the faction. They aren't going to sign up because they can get 70% behind the faction's platform and they dislike the other guys more. Nope. Just let me be a lone hero and don't have the system punish me for it.Another reason I'm not too keen on them could be that they often feel artificial. As an example, take the way 5e D&D Forgotten Realms has an artificially expanded  list of factions (as in, they took some small local groups and decided to make them groups of major Faerun-wide importance so the players would have more choices than the Harpers or the Zhentarim) that they insist on weaving through their published adventures.  I'm much more amenable to factions that seem less contrived--such as religions, knightly orders, magical academies, or even nations. Those feel more natural and D&D is already full of them. I'm also not a fan of having interactions between various factions be the driving force in the setting, which is something that usually results in systems where you are are expected to choose a faction. Maybe that's because one of my major role-playing drives is exploration and wonder, and having that blasted opposed (or even allied) faction pop up all the time pushes that away, because they already got there first or they are right there on your tail, etc.I think I enjoy factions slightly more in passive entertainment than in RPGs, but even then they can get in the way of the experience for me.How about you?</blockquote>

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