How to Play Factions

 Factions

The Shadow Over SojenkaTM 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 SojenkaTM, 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 Shadow Over SojenkaTM 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 only of a handful of individuals.

Downtime Players and Faction Play

For this campaign, I am including a new category of participant, one I call Downtime Players (DTP), sometimes called "Patrons" or "Illegal High-level NPCs" in other places...

These Downtime Players would run what would otherwise be NPCs, individually or as entire Factions. The blog will include "Braunstein Reports" (for lack of a better term) which will sometimes include the Discord chat logs between the Downtime Players and myself, to give an idea of how this procedure works in real life. Endless pixels have been burned in discussions and arguments over the validity and value of this method of play, so I will provide definitions of, and descriptions of, how this is supposed to work in a campaign.

Definitions

Defining our terms. This is a vital part of structuring this kind of game. There are several competing definitions and interpretations of "Patron", as well as their purpose in the campaign.

Session Player

A participant in the game who attends the regular weekly sessions and runs one or more Player Character adventurers. These Players take an active role in Session play and their characters are subject to 1:1 Downtime Pacing between Sessions. In-session time may flow as fast or slowly as needed, even for the party to be able to get as far as two weeks into the future.

Session Players earn experience and are graded on how well they play their role in the game. This grade will affect the amount of time (and gold) needed for training to rise in levels.


Downtime Player

A Downtime Player is primarily differentiated from a "normal" or Session Player by not actually taking part in the weekly adventures of the player characters. The Downtime Player will run an NPC as a single character or as part of a group or Faction. Each Downtime Player will set out their plan for a monthly turn, with weekly updates/course corrections. Some of the DTP will run characters that are leveled, and some are not. All of them will have access to regular income, and regular expenses. There are other important differences from "regular" Session Player characters:

DTP Characters will not earn experience.

The actions and activities of DTP Characters will be held strictly to their alignment and personality traits. Out-of-character activities will be discussed (leaving the door open for Character development) and either modified or canceled. (As opposed to Session Players, whose choices can & will lead to an alignment change).

DTP Players will control Factions, but not Domains. All of them will be subject to the rule of the Governor and the laws of the land. This is to avoid the perception of "cheapening" or de-valuing the Domain. If a DTP wishes to pursue the creation/usurpation of a legitimate, existing Domain, that is another thing altogether. And a very interesting play idea!

An important factor in using Downtime Players for running the actions and activities of erstwhile NPC characters/Factions is that their role is somewhat limited by the Dungeon Master. 

  • While the NPC will be created, in whole or in part, by the DTP and the DM, the NPC will have a randomly defined personality. 
  • The DTP will be empowered to set the initial goals. 
  • The DTP character/Faction's actions or moves may be vetoed or modified by the DM to fit the Character, Setting, Theme, and Tone of the campaign.

What is the Purpose of Downtime Play?

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.

By no means does this mean there can only be one winner.

The purpose of Downtime Play is to be an engine for keeping the campaign world moving forward. No matter what the Downtime Player's personal goal might be - whether gaining political power, amassing wealth, or leading armies into battle - they will change the setting & their actions will have ripple effects across the campaign.

Strategic, tactical, local, regional & individual effects. 

The Session Players (PCs) are free to act on or ignore these changes (perhaps call them "adventure hooks") as they wish.
Even if the PCs ignore the Patron content, as the referee I can always utilize it as I see fit. Content generated by the Downtime Players that is ignored by the PCs is not wasted.

Far from it. In fact, Downtime Players will have unique & creative responses to random events in the campaign as well as the actions of the other Patrons.
They can & do come up with interpretations of events or Session Player activities that I would never have thought of. In fact, the most exciting responses are the ones where Session Players &/or Downtime Players misinterpret the effects of random events as Patron activity.
Or mistake the intention behind Patron activity.

Ultimately, the purpose of the Downtime Player is to create content (adventure hooks, sub-plots, drama) that I can use for the development of the campaign, whether or not the Session Players act on it.

Strategic vs Tactical POV


 My core principle is, first and foremost, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS IS A WARGAME.

As such the game will have multiple points of view, such as the typically individual/tactical POV of a Session Player or the more strategic-level POV of a Downtime Player. Both types of participants will, in the course of play, participate in the campaign via different points of view at different times.  Strategic- and Tactical-level activities will take place simultaneously. Any differences in POV are a matter of scale, there are no boundaries between them. The idea of "tiers of play" is a misnomer, there is no magical play-style transformation when a character moves from level x to level y. Any character, of any level, is capable of getting involved in economic activity, politics, religious proselytizing, creating a base of operations, or even open war!

Your character's level is not a limit upon your ambition or creativity!

Session Player and Downtime Player Faction objectives are wide open, defined only by the limits of the “Sandbox Campaign”. The overarching theme of the Campaign is anticipated to be for the Player Factions to plumb the depths of the Lost Dungeon of Tonisborg 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 define and achieve your goal is up to you!



For Session Players

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 play mode. The combination of 1:1 time, multiple characters per player, and establishing a person 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 soldiers 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.

For Downtime Players

The first and best thing for you to do, if you are NOT familiar with wargaming, is to get a copy of this book by Tony Bath and read the section on How to Set Up a Wargames Campaign.





The Domain Game

After a PC has established a Domain by creating a Stronghold and clearing the land around it of monsters and other threats, it will begin to attract settlers. These peasants, farmers, and workers will come looking for land and opportunity.

Market Class           No. of Families

1                 75-175

2-3               176-599

4-5               600-2,499

6-8               2,500-4,999

9                 5,000-19,999

10                20,000+

Wilderness Domains

A Domain will generally begin as Wilderness. A wilderness domain gains settlers by attracting the families of the garrison and/or any workers brought in to develop infrastructure. These families can be attracted by 200 GP worth of land, a cottage, draft animals, and tools to work the land.

Borderlands Domains

A Domain can become Borderlands once it has:

·         A permanent garrison, or “Watch” (50+ Men-at-arms) AND 1000 GP of infrastructure improvements (fort, Religious Structure, etc).

·         An area set aside for a Marketplace.

·         A Population of at least 75 families.

·         Regular weekly patrols (a “Ride”) of the “home” hex and monthly patrols of the six surrounding hexes.

Civilized Domains

A Domain can become Civilized when:

·         A Watch & Ride consisting of Citizens (# of Families/2) AND a permanent garrison of Men-at-arms (# of Families x Might)

·         It contains an urban center of at least Market Class 3

·         Another urban center of at least Class 5 (1500 Families) within 75 miles

·         An additional 5,000 GP has been spent on infrastructure, including at least one Religious Structure

·         Regular weekly patrols of the six 5-mile hexes around the “home” hex.

The Domain Turn

1.   Domain Growth

2.   Congregant Growth

3.   Revenue Collection

4.   Campaign Activities: Complete responses to the previous month’s events. Write orders to NSPCs/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.   Domain Morale

Domain Growth

Every month 1d10 families will be drawn to the Borderlands/Civilized Domain over the course of the month. This number can be modified by Morale. No families are automatically attracted to a Wilderness Domain hex.

Investing in infrastructure draws in new settlers. Transitioning from Wilderness to Borderlands attracts 1d10 families over the course of 1 month. The transition from Borderlands to Civilized draws 4d10 families over the course of three months (25%/50%/25%).

Land/cash grants of 200 GP will attract one family.

Congregant Growth

Each month the Priest gains congregants based on proselytizing. The GM has complete rules, but the summary: 1d10 + CHA mod per month for at least 1,000 GP/month of service to the community.

Revenue Collection

Revenue consists of cash raised via trading/commercial activities (Land use) via monthly Levies, and Taxes. These amounts are listed per month, per Family (avg 5ppl).

Terrain Quality   Value

Land, Poor

D3+1 GP

5 GP/acre
40 acres/family

Land, Moderate

2d3+1 GP

10 GP/acre
20 acres/family

Land, Good

3d3 GP

20 GP/acre
10 acres/family

+ Forest

+2 GP

 

+ Hills

+2 GP

 

+ Mountains

+3 GP

 

Service Levy

4 GP

50% to support Garrison

Extra Taxes

5d4 SP

Svobodný Pán only

Forests add value from Lumber harvesting, have 50% habitable acreage.

Hills add value from Mines, Quarries and Hunting, have 50% habitable acreage.

Mountains add value from mines, have 25% habitable acreage.

Non-Name Level Domains

Characters who begin to construct a Domain, or who take over an existing Domain, are able to run and administer the Dmain. They can pay families to settle in the area, because families will not migrate automatically due to the character’s lack of fame and power.

By providing enough land to support a family (10 acres of Good land or 20 acres of Moderate land), a cottage, and tools with which to begin a homestead of their own, characters can “recruit” families to emigrate to their Domain.

For Wilderness and Borderlands hexes (five mile hexes on the regional map), the following table shows the maximum number of families that a hex with arable land can support. This assumes 100% habitability. Certain features or terrain effects may reduce the number of habitable sub-hexes, and the maximum number of families.

These values increase when a hex graduates from Borderland to Civilized.


Weeks One to Four

The Master of the Domain will plan out his activities for the Domain Turn on a weekly basis. Orders to NSPCs or PCs will be issued in written form at the beginning of the Campaign Turn

Expense Payments

At the end of the month, the Master pays the bills:

  •  Garrison (2 GP per Family)
  • Men-at-arms
  • PC and Entourage Living Expenses
  • Domain Expenses (infrastructure construction, loan repayment, military construction/recruiting, etc.)
  • Settlement Expenses (for the following month’s recruitment)
  • Congregant Expenses (1 GP per Congregant)
  • Taxes to Liege Lord