PHB 2 Afflitations - are you using them?

[Nellisir]

I haven't used them in game yet, but I'm absolutely going to. I don't think I'll use the "large-scale" stuff very much, but just having a quantifiable way for PCs to enter and advance in a group will be a huge boon. I'll probably link some to prestige classes, making affiliation of rank X a prerequisite for the prestige class.

Are you going to use them for stuff like the Knights of the Watch?

Is that a prestige class?

Either way, yeah, probably. Take, for example, the Harpers. That's an affiliation. And to BE a Harper (prestige class and all), you ought to have a reasonable affiliation score -- say, 10. Then you cap affiliation scores at...19 for any non-prestige class Harper, so to really get high up in the organization, you need that class.

 

[prosfilaes]

This is one of those things that looks mechanically plausible, but I'm not sure that it's results are enough better than fiat to warrant the extra tabulation.

I'm not sure if the results are better than fiat, but yeah, they seem like a lot of rules for what can be done fairly easily ruleless.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm not sure if the results are better than fiat, but yeah, they seem like a lot of rules for what can be done fairly easily ruleless.

Some of us like the extra structure. I'm no slouch in the story department (despite the meager flavor text in my wiki), and I'm perfectly comfortable tweaking rules (as the abundant mechanical twists on the wikis should illustrate), but the extra structure makes it easier for me and provides an objective feedback to the player.

 

[lukelightning]

I'd consider using them, I think they are pretty simple and I've been trying to give the players options on joining organizations.

But nobody seems interested other than the mage that I pretty much forced to be in an arcane guild (the Council of Magisters in the Diamond Throne). Well, I didn't force, but strongly suggested during character creation so I would have a simple way for the party to have magical contacts for resources (buying/selling items, etc.)

A potential problem with these affiliations is not a mechanical thing, it's a campaign/player thing: If some players join organizations and others don't then the game might get shifted to focus too much on the organizations, which might bore/annoy the unaffiliated ones.

 

[Vanye]

Either way, yeah, probably. Take, for example, the Harpers. That's an affiliation. And to BE a Harper (prestige class and all), you ought to have a reasonable affiliation score -- say, 10. Then you cap affiliation scores at...19 for any non-prestige class Harper, so to really get high up in the organization, you need that class.

I like that idea. That works for me. Then you can set a prereq of affiliation rank 30 or so for the Harper Paragon PrC....

 

[RodneyThompson]

I have a "secret society" in my campaign setting that serves as a catch-all organization for mystical prestige classes that are supposed to have an organization (in this case, I'm using it as the organization for the daggerspell mage in my campaign). I've written up a custom affiliation a la PHB2, and we're going to be testing it out for a few weeks. On the bright side, while I'm certainly capable of handling organization benefits on my own, this cuts down on the prep work I have to do significantly and allows the player to become more personally invested in the character's growth in the organization.

 

[Mighty Veil]

I can give that to you if you're willing to convert to Modern's Wealth system....

You converted the wealth system? I've been wanting too. I don't suppose you have a write-up on it?