Spears Over Sojenka - How to Play Factions

 Introducing Spears Over Sojenka

This supplement is designed to familiarize Players of the Shadow Over Sojenka^TM Campaign with the Wargame Perspective of Campaign play.

Role playing games, the Dragon game in particular, evolved from wargame campaigns. The inventors of the game were familiar with fighting battles on the tabletop using miniature soldiers. These were not typically one-off battles, rather, they were often historical battles played in succession as part of exploring a historical campaign.

The wargame clubs would also run series of games that were not particularly historical, but followed the same linked trajectory. We might call them “What If?” Scenarios, where the winner of a historical battle might lose this game on the tabletop, and the loss would have repercussions for future battles.

Through the innovation of the Braunstein game, this type of what if gaming spread across genres, from European history, to the Old West (“Brownstone”), and on to the realm of Fantasy (Blackmoor).

This evolution from an Army-scale POV to a Character-scale POV was an important inflection point in gaming history. This innovation made a large paradigm shift possible, creating an entirely new style and format of wargaming.

The referee was still responsible for creating or outlining a set of starting conditions for a game, but once the Players starting moving and interacting, those Players drove the narrative direction of the game.

With the creation of Braunstein, Blackmoor and Greyhawk, the narrative of the game became emergent, rather than pre-determined.

Instead of getting together to trace the steps of, say, Napoleon’s generals in the Iberian Peninsula, the referee would tell the Players something like, “Spain falls into civil war. England and Portugal support one side, and France supports the other. What do you want to do?”

The Shadow Over Sojenka^TM

At the beginning of the campaign each Player and Patron controls a Faction. For the Players and some of the Patrons, this means a single character, troupe of characters, or NPC.

Players are the participants in the Campaign that attend the game sessions.

Patrons participate behind the scenes in a Braunstein game, controlling various important NPCs. The Patrons bring these NPCs to life, giving them direction and responding to events as they unfold. Patrons play the game as though in perpetual Downtime.

To win the Campaign your Faction simply needs to achieve its objective. These can be great or small, and may or may not be completed at the expense of another Faction. You are allowed to ally with or oppose other Factions as you see fit. The task of the Referee will be to adjudicate any conflicts as they arise.

The overarching theme of the Campaign is for the Player Factions to plumb the depths of the Lost Dungeon of Tonisborg in order to gain control of the treasures and secrets it contains. The power and glory this brings can lead to control of the city of Sojenka and even the Province of Kordun!

How you and your Faction decide to achieve this goal is up to you!

Factions

The Shadow Over Sojenka^TM Campaign setting includes many lands, with their rulers and vassals. Some cities are controlled by powerful, leveled individuals, others by councils or clergy. Guilds manage the various tasks that support the pillars of civilization. NPCs and powerful monsters have their agendas, free from the confines of an urban area.

What is a Faction

Faction – noun – a small, organized dissenting group within a larger group, especially in politics

In the Shadow Over Sojenka^TM, a Faction is a group of people, Humans or Humanoids, that share a common goal. This goal could be anything from the worship of a particular god/pantheon, the cheesemakers in a town or Barony, or simply the citizens of a nation. Any given person may be a member of multiple Factions.

Faction membership can be public, as in the case of a merchant guild, or secret, like a thief’s syndicate.

Membership in a Faction usually confers various benefits or disadvantages compared to those outside the group. Some Factions will have uniforms, a common language or trade, religion, Patron, or culture.

In the Sojenka^TM Campaign Setting Factions are an important part of maintaining the verisimilitude of the greater world. This greater world exists independently of the PC adventurers. While the PCs can and will have an impact on the world and setting, the Campaign will move and develop outside of session play, through the individual activities of the various Factions. At this level, we mean kingdoms, nations, tribes and religions.

The finest level of granularity is the Adventuring Party itself. This consists of your character and those of the other players, but also Hirelings, Henchmen, Retainers, and Entourage.

From time to time the PCs may find themselves needing to ally with one or more factions against another group or find themselves the targets of a Faction’s ire. Some Factions and their leaders are universally known, like the Swords of the Red Prince, or The Brethren of the Order of the All-Seeing Eye. Other Factions are secret, or of lesser renown, such as the Prophets of the Chosen or the Vigilant of Xattok, consisting of only a handful of individuals.

The Domain Game Begins with Session One

In the Old School style of play, the world is a very dangerous place. A small group of 3-5 men and women can easily be swallowed up by the dangers of the howling wilderness between settlements. Historically the solution is to bring some hired help on these expeditions.

PCs who hire people to assist them to survive and overcome the dangers of the wilderness are creating the seed of their very own Faction.

In so-called “modern” play styles, the concept of these hirelings and henchmen has been discarded in favor of making the PCs more capable and powerful on their own.

I believe the “modern” style is a truncated and inferior mode of play. The combination of 1:1 time, multiple characters per player, and establishing a personal Faction encourages a deeper, richer, more involved gaming experience.

Why Create a Faction

The primary reason to create a Faction for your PC is that you dream of rising in power & reputation, all the way up to your own Barony or Kingdom. Your PC is much more likely to survive to higher levels if they have a cadre of trusted companions and troops of men at arms. The AD&D Monster Manual suggests a random wilderness encounter could be with as many as 300 Orcs! Few adventuring parties can go toe-to-toe with an actual army.

Building & maintaining an organization is an expanded concept of the fantasy role-playing game concept. It opens more possibilities for play, more scenarios, and session ideas. Faction play means your PC can go beyond the dungeon crawl, the hex crawl, and the urban murder mystery. You can free the village from the raiding humanoids with your army. You can join a military campaign with your liege to protect the kingdom from invaders. You can get involved in regional & national-level politics.

All these methods of play provide skills useful to your PC, not to mention Contacts and Allies when the time comes to establish your domain.

How to Build a Faction

The first step in establishing a Faction is to recruit some hirelings, people to join you in your adventures. A group of beginning PCs with average starting funds can afford to hire a few men-at-arms to act as guards and combatants. With Magic Users being so ineffective in combat, it becomes imperative for them to create a personal guard. A first-level Fighter PC has the experience and know-how to act as a Serjeant for up to ten men.

A troop of ten men, kitted out as Light Infantry, is enough to prevent a dangerous encounter from becoming deadly, or fatal.

What Does a Faction Do

Over time your PC and the adventuring party will be able to afford to hire more men, more Specialist or Expert Hirelings, and dedicated officers to lead them. By the second or third level, it will be time for your PC to establish a Homestead. This will attract more skilled NPCs to join your group. These trusted companions are very useful for guarding your accumulated loot, treasures, and the safety of your person & home.

Your Homestead attracts hirelings who form your Entourage. These retainers should be put to work at Hijinks like Swaggering & Treasure Hunting between sessions or while your PC is away training or on long-term adventures. Successful hijinks generate new Contacts, Rumors of adventure, and possible maps to lost hoards!

Your PC will need the results of these Hijinks, Contacts, and loot, to build or refurbish a Stronghold.

The Braunstein Game

A Faction or Domain Turn occurs over the course of one month (Calendar days). Barring unusual events, the Faction/Domain morale is adjusted every Quarter.

The Domain Growth phase occurs automatically for PCs of the appropriate level, as listed in the character class description. Wilderness Domains do not automatically draw families to settle.

Factions grow by recruiting new members and/or promoting Hirelings to Member status (if appicable).

The Congregant Growth phase is only applicable to PCs/NPCs that have built and staffed a religious structure.

The Revenue Collection phase must be performed by the Master of the Domain, or an officer of the court called a Bailiff. In larger Domains, the Bailiff will have deputies to assist in collection.

For Factions involved in mercantile or trade ventures, the revenue is collected as rent, trade goods exchanged, etc.

Campaign Activities include a wide range of actions. These include adjusting garrison levels, patrol frequency, trade issues, domain infrastructure, issuing decrees, and so on. 

Braunstein Patrons may engage in, or have Faction members engage in, the various Downtime hijinks or other time-consuming activities such as making scrolls/potions, etc. These activities may influence Faction/Domain morale.

The Braunstein Turn

1.    Faction/Domain Growth

2.    Congregant Growth

3.    Revenue Collection

4.    Campaign Activities: Complete responses to the previous month’s events. Write orders to NPCs/PCs for the coming month.

a.    Random Events

b.    Week One – DM Resolution

c.    Week Two - DM Resolution

d.    Week Three - DM Resolution

e.    Week Four - DM Resolution

5.    Expense Payments

6.    Faction/Domain Morale

Next we'll go over how to make all this work with 1:1 Time.