Maybe it’s because I’ve spent most of the evening working on faction cards for my WWN game, so I’ve got factions on the brain, but there seem to be two different kinds of factions being described over the last few pages.
The first kind is the sort of faction that is a tool the GM uses for managing the dynamics of the game. @AbdulAlhazred please correct me if I’m wrong about what you mean. A concrete example of this would be the faction mechanics in WWN. The other kind of factions being discussed are those PCs can join and influence. They’re both quite different and serve different roles.
The faction subsystem in WWN (and BitD, which is similar) is a tool for the GM to bring life to the setting. Neither the players nor their characters never interact with it directly. They only interact with it indirectly based on the effects it has on the setting. As Kevin Crawford says frequently in WWN, it’s a tool for generating adventuring grist.
@The-Magic-Sword I assume when you talk about joining or influencing factions, you mean something like the reputation subsystem in Pathfinder 2e. That subsystem works quite differently. While it is loosely built on the VP subsystem, it’s meant to be a way for the PCs to gain favors from allied organizations. Any adventuring grist is decided by the GM.
BitD has something analogous to that, which is built on factions but separate from the GM-facing mechanics. You gain status with factions by doing missions for them. However, high status with a faction in BitD doesn’t afford the PCs favors. It potentially has favors asked of them (at the cost of losing status if you decline). Additionally, assuming BitD is like Scum and Villainy, which is the only FitD game I have experience playing, end game is triggered when you hit +3 status.
Of course, these factions mechanics can be adapted to other games. WWN is OSR-adjacent, so it’s not even that far off 5e. What FitD has is arguably already an adaption to PbtA-style games.
Anyway, I’ve run out of post, and I’m not sure where I’m going. I hesitate to get too involved because this seems like one of those threads that will go for fifty pages without reaching any kind of consensus or agreement.
The first kind is the sort of faction that is a tool the GM uses for managing the dynamics of the game. @AbdulAlhazred please correct me if I’m wrong about what you mean. A concrete example of this would be the faction mechanics in WWN. The other kind of factions being discussed are those PCs can join and influence. They’re both quite different and serve different roles.
The faction subsystem in WWN (and BitD, which is similar) is a tool for the GM to bring life to the setting. Neither the players nor their characters never interact with it directly. They only interact with it indirectly based on the effects it has on the setting. As Kevin Crawford says frequently in WWN, it’s a tool for generating adventuring grist.
@The-Magic-Sword I assume when you talk about joining or influencing factions, you mean something like the reputation subsystem in Pathfinder 2e. That subsystem works quite differently. While it is loosely built on the VP subsystem, it’s meant to be a way for the PCs to gain favors from allied organizations. Any adventuring grist is decided by the GM.
BitD has something analogous to that, which is built on factions but separate from the GM-facing mechanics. You gain status with factions by doing missions for them. However, high status with a faction in BitD doesn’t afford the PCs favors. It potentially has favors asked of them (at the cost of losing status if you decline). Additionally, assuming BitD is like Scum and Villainy, which is the only FitD game I have experience playing, end game is triggered when you hit +3 status.
Of course, these factions mechanics can be adapted to other games. WWN is OSR-adjacent, so it’s not even that far off 5e. What FitD has is arguably already an adaption to PbtA-style games.
Anyway, I’ve run out of post, and I’m not sure where I’m going. I hesitate to get too involved because this seems like one of those threads that will go for fifty pages without reaching any kind of consensus or agreement.