Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agent Oracle" data-source="post: 2944153" data-attributes="member: 40076">Affiliations are a great way to ground players in the reality of their setting.  I'll give you a basic overview (without copying directly) as a means of explaining.There are two basic kinds of affiliations: Social affiliations, and Racial affiliations.  Social affiliations are people with a common intrest, that come together to promote a specific cause.  Racial affiliations are only open to people of a specific race.Now, the reason to join an affiliation? they can be viewed as another kind of reward for adventuring.  Gold can be stolen, Levels can be lost, But friends are forever.  Well, at least untill you screw up REALLY badly.A little exampleThink about this: You've gotten in way over your head.  Anthros is dead, Trimper lost his arm, and you and Tira'tia are wanted by the crown for a crime you did not commit.  Luckily, the Brotherhood of Bahamet is allways there.  They'll ressurect Anthros, Pay for Trimper to get his arm regenerated, and provide as much assistance as they can to make sure your name is cleared.  That is the kind of reward that a good affiliation can provide.  You do some work for them, they do good work for you.So, really, what do they actually do?Whatever an organized network of allies would do for you.  Sure, initially, they'll only provide basic assistance (Gathering information, setting you up with places to stay, etc.) but as your status in the organization rises (either through contributions, or furthering the group's cause) so do the rewards.  Furthermore, you can be a member of multiple affiliations, granting you far reaching benefits!Okay, so are these all, like, the shriners or what?Uh... okay, no.  There's a wide diversity in affiliations.  Ten seperate types (everything from buisnessmen to spy rings) with scales that range from "five guys and a rotting ballistae" to "five battalions and flying dragon support"Woah, sounds good so far, how do I join one?Well, every group has some kind of critera for members (you must be THIS SHORT to join the Gnomeish Legion) but these criteria are pretty logical and fairly achievable.  For instance: only humans who grew up on Dragon Island may join the Dragon Island affiliation.  The best way to get ahead is to contribute gold to the hoarde of one of the dragons from dragon island (though advancement is slow and pricey).  Soon, you start seeing benefits, like a +4 bonus on social interactions with other residents of dragon island, and you gain a supernaturally long life.  Ultimately, you become a Dragonmaster, among other things, you recieve +8 bonuses to ride dragons, and you become completely immune to dragonfear, and, as a human, you gain a life span that elves would wonder about. (I think that it pushes "death from old age" back to 400 years for a human)Conversely, The Chalice (an organization first mentioned in the pre Complete Divine splatbook "Defenders of the Faith") is open to many people, provided that they dispise fiends as much as the Chalice Knights do.  The easiest way to get ahead is to apply yourself to the cause kill some fiends, and eventually, they'll start giving you things to help you on your quest, just for being a member.  Things like free potions, free spells, ultimately, they start letting you borrow magic items from their vault (not major ones, but one of good value nonetheless)What If I don't want to join one of the groups in the book?There's a full set of instructions for creating your own group, including FOUNDING your own group. (though, being the founder of a group can sometimes take more effort than it offers rewards.  I mean, you'd pretty much be sitting back in an executive position sooner or later)</blockquote>

Verification