D&D 5E New Blog - Faction Mechanics - Generic Factions

[Archade]

New blog is up!

Something I did in my home campaign is build some light faction rules for generic organizations, to hook players into not just doing a good deed for the Temple of Churcainn, or the Merchant Council of Goethe, but also motivate them to be hooked and immersed in the world's politics.

It worked. After a 2nd level generic 'do X for the local lord' adventure, I gave each of them a point of renown for the Merchant Council of Goethe, a letter of commendation, and told them they could show that letter to get a helpful attitude from Merchant Council Officials, and the next rank was 5 points. That little formal renown point and rule bump had them asking questions ... who did work for the Merchant Council? What other work did they need doing? Could they earn a seat on the council? It was less about hard core mechanics, and more about capturing their imagination of attaching their name to a local government that would give them something more lasting than a bag of 50 gp.

Anyway, here's the generic faction rules I used for my game, and it worked well ... Some PCs had renown with 2-3 different organizations, and it's easily used in any campaign ...

5E Faction Mechanics - Generic Factions

The D&D 5th edition core rules touch on the idea of joining factions and earning renown, but the PHB and DMG are sadly lacking in guideli...

archadestower.blogspot.com

 

[Khelon Testudo]

Hmm... I wonder how these will compare to whatever's supposed to be in Tasha's Cauldron? I understand they're doing a generic version of the stuff in the Eberon book.

BTW I've bookmarked your blog. You have ideas.

 

[Archade]

I'll be interested to see that! I'm wondering how heavy the mechanics might be ...

 

[Khelon Testudo]

What about a negative rating? If you get a positive with the Guild of Assassins, that gives you a negative with the Watch, and the Church if you gain a lot of renown with the GA.

 

[Archade]

What about a negative rating? If you get a positive with the Guild of Assassins, that gives you a negative with the Watch, and the Church if you gain a lot of renown with the GA.

Yep, absolutely! If the PCs try to build renown with competing or opposing factions, I'd offset gains 1 to 2 or 1 to 1, if the factions know what you are doing -- the Merchant Council won't appreciate you doing side gigs for the Thieves' Guild ...