PHB2 Affiliations - How well do they play?

[Azgulor]

Having recently purchased the Player's Handbook 2, I've been reading through the section on Affiliations. It seems like an interesting concept but I don't want to introduce another subsystem into my game without some practical knowledge of how they perform.

For those who have used them in their game have they enriched the game or detracted from it? Have your players found them to be worthwhile?

Thanks,

Azgulor

 

[Warren Okuma]

Me? I just use them as plot hook generators, and use them as factions, so I can get some inter class rivalries. Druid summoners verses Druid wildshapers verses... or different flavors of Paladins, Pelor, Hiero, Saint Cuth, Crown Paladins etc...

 

[Azgulor]

Well, if the feedback on the mechanics is strongly negative, your approach is the one I would use as well. I like the idea of attaining ranks/status in the game and was intrigued by the executive powers. The mechanics benefits of gaining rank seemed somewhat hit-or-miss on my first read, which is what prompted the post.

Azgulor

 

[Azgulor]

Wow. I guess no one really uses the Allegiances system as written?

 

[Stormborn]

One responce and you decide no one likes them?

(Oh, and I gather that you are talking about Affiliations?)

We have used them in a game where I have been a player. An order approached the PCs for assistance (actually 2 rival ones did, we initailly didn't agree to help either but decided in the end that the agenda of the one was better for our interests than the other) and after an adventure or two several of the PCs had a potential affiliation score. We decided that the group, which was a benevolent order of paladins, clerics, fighters, etc, would grant the lowest level benifit of the association to the the PCs as a bonus for their assistance but that to recieve any of the higher level ones unless a PC actually joined. My cleric did and soon rose in ranks as we completed an extended quest for the Order, incluiding a minor magic item and +1 weapon.

Overall it made the organization more interesting. They became more than just another big group of NPCs that wanted the PCs to fetch or destroy something. I will certainly use them in future games I run, and I hope more show up in the current campaign.

I do think that I will either try to interest the PCs in an organization to which they can all belong, or at least support, or use very specific non-competing affiliations that would allow there to be many in a single group. I wouldnt want them to develop into somethign that could be disruptive of the group. But that could happen with or without scores to go along with them.

If you like to use various NPC organization in your game and want to encourage players to interact with them or even join them then Affiliations are an excellent way to do so. If on the other hand you dont really care about the PCs doing so then I wouldnt bother, but not becuase they are hard to keep track of but because they wont add much to your game.

 

[borc killer]

Affiliations=cool

Work well and make things a lot easier for me really. I am really enjoying DMing with them.

 

[Mercule]

Great. What's the easiest way to use them in an existing game?

With an 11th level group, I've got one PC who is a member of an elven knightly order; one who is a lay member of a religion and an associate of the king; one who has just been appointed, by the king, of a newly formed wizard guild; and one who is a member of the Order of the Bow.

I'd like to use affiliations, but I've got no idea how to really add them in.

 

[Shadeydm]

You could always reverse engineer them from some of the more unsual prestige classes which you allow in your game.

 

[ThirdWizard]

We use 'em for the Sigil Factions, Churches, and some other Organizations, and it works very well. It's a nice way to keep track of performance within the affiliation as well as offer little perks to PCs who work toward their group's goals. My PC belongs to three: the Harmonium, the Babylonian Church, and The Order of Illumination (Shadowbane PrC). Thus far, its worked out quite well.

We added it after the campaign had started, but if we had started with it, I might have turned the Shadowbane PrCs into affiliation trees instead of PrCs, with bonuses for roguish skills and some of the abilities gained through affiliation scores instead.

In fact, that might be a good way to get rid of the problem of having to design PCs to exacting specifications that I had to go though to qualify for the PrC. I could have joined as a plot point without having to make sure I was in by 7th level, etc. That will definitely be something I consider in future campaigns.

 

[JustKim]

I updated the Planescape factions as affiliations for a Planescape I ran last year, but I had to cut the game short because of a personal tragedy. When I was ready to run a game again, we decided to give Eberron another try instead. At first, I started working on making affiliations for all the Dragonmarked houses, but remembering how much of a nose pull it was to get my players to subscribe to any one faction's beliefs for the Planescape game, and never seeing anyone actually try to ascend the ranks, I decided it wasn't worth the effort. When Complete Champion came out with all the domain-based churches, it was heavily Greyhawk-flavored and not really appropriate for Eberron anyway.

So my experience with affiliations has been very disappointing.