A way to "hide" the artificiality of the 5 factions that I like is introducing asymetry. 1 big dominating faction but who have a hard time collaborating with any other faction. 2 regular factions with a focus on external trouble. 1 faction having an internal conflict that have 3 sides all trying to get things to go their way, more focused on resolving this internal conflict. 1 faction that is 2+ minor factions merged by affinity but with slightly misaligned goals that hinder them without internal conflict.
Same. I added conflicting factions to my homebrew world/campaign after watching how well it worked in DoD. Definitely going to be a staple of every game I run going forward.
Conflicting factions in campaigns has always been interesting since Matt Colville. Good to know the Dungeon Dudes made this trope much more prevalent with their new campaign.
What if there was a faction of necromancer, but they didn't dig up graves? What if they took in the sick or elderly, cared for them until they passed, then were given permission to use the bodies for research, which sometimes would be reanimation?
Alternatively, burying the dead attracts ghouls and cremating them, I don't know, causes climate change. Actually your comment gave me a cool idea. What if dead people sometimes rise as ghosts if not turned into undead? The necromancers might be doing the right thing by raising them as zombies while the paladins believe in simply smiting the ghosts.
It had never occurred to me to treat a faction at large as a single NPC in terms of "personality," ideals, bonds, and flaws. Great advice that really cuts through the noise and right to the heart of the organization.
At 18:50 talking about MtG having 5 colors/factions, I actually really appreciate how that is laid out. The 5 points of the star’s colors each represent a team-the color on either side of a particular point is kind of who they ally with, and the two colors across the star points are who they oppose. Example: white gets along with green and blue, but they have conflict with red and black. Then you see green gets along with white and red, but is in conflict with black and blue. If you apply that to your factions in a D&D game it adds so many nice textural and emotional layers for your players and can cause a lot of dilemmas particularly in decisions that actually matter.
The Ravnica setting book and very likely the upcoming Strixhaven adventure book are great examples of applying color conflict and alliances to factions. The ten guilds of Ravnica were originally designed with the idea of "What do these two colors have in common?" So both enemy and allied color combos come together to form a cohesive guild. Then you have the Strixhaven colleges which were designed with "What do these two colors fundamentally disagree on?" as their main focus. So while the white red enemy combo on Ravnica takes the form of a military force dedicated to defending the people of Ravnica, the Strixhaven equivalent college is full of tomb delving adventurer scholars who identify Indiana Jones as their spirit animal.
I have used the MTG colour philosophy as inspiration for NPC's and factions a lot. Makes it so easy to make a actor with a world view and knowing how they view different things
Really cool that you mentioned Ravnica! Specially because in the latest set the guilds end up having a temporary alliance to fight Nicol Bolas, just as the example you gave about WWII
The "small jobs" at 24:20 might lead to the real world "You're in too deep, you can't back out now" recruitment technique. "It would be a shame if word got out that it was youse that 'acquired' the Book of the Leviathan for us and then later sprung Lady Montecastella. Pity about them jailers." Maybe railroad-y, but if it came from multiple sources it could really heighten the tension at the moment of ultimate decision.
Read the first 3 books of the Dune series. You'll get lots of ideas. Also , the TTRPG Paranoia deals pretty extensively with factions. Each PC belongs to a secret society and has a goal to accomplish during gameplay and many characters will be working against one another without realizing it. Playing a few games of Paranoia can give you a good idea of how your players can engage with factions directly.
Your examples and cautions remind me so much of Eberron. That setting is loaded with good factions, most of which are very gray, or can be if you take some time to think about each one.
Love how the dungeon dudes are always organized af. No time wasted, every second is great content. You guys rule! Dungeon dudes kickstarter has launched? Yes plz... auto-back that mofo... no thought required.
Best of luck! I have been running it for a group and I think it does a good job of introducing factions early and allowing you to see who your party prefers to help in the first chapter or two. Be prepared to adlib some of the faction quests to make them interesting and better tied to your story.
I heavily altered WDH. The book offers you some great tools, but lacks in several departments IMO: - plotholes - some very basic side quests - relatively low stakes - only uses one of the four villains - factions work with renown
I'm 2-3 episodes from finishing the first run of Dungeons of Drakkenheim (as a podcast). Having those five factions in there seemed a lot to me at first but after watching this episode, it really makes a lot of sense why there were that many to begin with and balance forces out.
I wanted to run an intrigue campaign. My players said they were into it. But before I started building it, I had the idea to do a test run. I walked them thru a small session. On the way to a delve to retrieve some quest item for their patron, a different NPC met them to ask them to betray their patron instead for intriguing and compelling reasons. Once the players grokked that the entire campaign would be like that X5, they all changed their minds. Saved me from a lot of wasted effort. I was sad, tho. Love learning how my players solve complex problems. Thanks, Dungeon Dudes, for the excellent content.
A faction of paladins. A faction of necromancers. "These factions may not get along..." I just loved this, made me chuckle! Thanks for all the hard work, you content is pure gold! I rewatch videos all the time, because you touch on so many interesting and useful topics!
Completely blindsided by the relevance of this. Straight up if I were to write you a letter and ask for a video this would have been it. You've already earned my backing pledge and DoD isn't even out yet!
My thieves’ guild in my homebrew world was called the Venomcloaks. There was a chapter in each of the 4 main nations of the campaign, each headed by a dragon that could polymorph at will to a humanoid form. Their goal was to use their intelligence and leadership while masking their identity as dragons to situate themselves among the best burglars and larcenists in order to use the sense of greed found in thieves to amass a large hoard of their own. But, given that they were dragons, their cruelty towards their underlings was powerful, and made it so that they ruled by fear more than true leadership. Our monk player was drawn in by the guild, not knowing its origin and instead just drawn to the gold. He had a huge character development moment when he saw the cruelty of the leader, and one of the victims joined the party after defecting from the guild. This caused the monk to defect too, and the party wound up killing the dragon leader of that chapter of the faction.
Ravnica factions are so well done. One of my favorite fantasy settings. I think subfactions are important. They don't have to play a big role, but can really bring a faction to life. It's realistic that people who are on the same team still have disagreements, and those disagreements can be great hooks for the party to manipulate.
Please do the rest of the story/ the fleshing out part. I know there are things to learn even for a 45ish year veteran of countless campaigns. You guys are a great source for my homebrew world, thanks for all you do!
Y'all rule. This literally convinced me to run faction intrigue. Funny thing is my homebrewed campaign world already had disparate factions, I just never really made use of them as major players besides "the best one (s)" and "the worst one(s)". This seems a lot more spicy.
Hi Dungeon Dudes, Just wanted to say that I have a campaign with this ad my basic outline: The Ancient Enemy has already been defeated. However, that defeat came at the price. The stability of society fell apart. The ruling Monarch vanishing leaving the throne vacant. A powerful secret society has fallen apart into warring factions over a cache of powerful artifacts left unguarded. (Formerly removed from circulation by that society), and partly to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Monarchy. Is there potential there? More videos about faction campaigns would be SO cool!! Please make more.
I love the idea of you guys putting out a bunch of videos that will subsequently teach DMs how to run the Drakkenheim module when we get it next year 😍😍
I have been trying to build a city campaign with many Factions, Guilds, Alliance, Chapters, Clubs, Councils, Families, House's, Caucus, Cabal, Society, Sects, Confederacy, Conclave, Emissary, Amassadors, Envoys, etc....... This is the first helpful advice I have found .... EVER. There is a deep hole in D&D of this very topic that has just been ignored for far to long.
Just about to start a campaign in Ravnica, and this video was a huge help. Most of the faction creation heavy lifting is done by the sourcebook, but your guidelines for roleplaying, structuring the conflict and working in the loyalty challenges are all great. As usual, your videos are awesome. Keep up the great work.
I am currently DMing "B4 The Lost City" 5th edition and find this video most relevant for this module! Especially with the political intrigue between the Brotherhood of Gorn, the Magi of Usamigarus and the Maidens of Madarua.
I just want to Express my thanks as these videos do come in clutch and especially now since I am starting my next campaign's session 1 for my players tommorrow! You guys are thorough, detailed and a good listen while I'm working.
About 2 years ago, I watched this video and we've had an amazing fraction campaign using the Streets of New Capenna setting. Thank you for the inspiration! I'm rewatching this and just realise how much I've used!
Please, make the second video! I'm planning on doing something on those lines with League of Legends and the Ionians factions (there are a lot of them, but they could me merged into 4 major alligniments)
I'm about to start running a game and I wanted factions and patrons to be a big part of it, and I stumbled across this video - I wanted to say thank you so much, this was super helpful! It gave me some codified ways of setting factions up and gave me a good number (5!). I kept worrying about needing SO MANY FACTIONS and this helped me settle down a bit.
Green - The Rangers of the Hooded Lantern Red - The Queen's Men White - The Paladins of the Silver Order Black - The Followers of the Fallen Fire Blue - The Amethyst Academy Can't believe I didn't see it in the whole campaign, but it checks out pretty well on the MTG color philosophy. Well done Dudes
currently running a faction arc of a larger campaign and i sort of plunged myself into it, but i am so glad i found this video. i like the idea of making each faction its own "person"
The distinction between "unite the factions against common threat" and "factions vie against each other for a common goal" is crucial, and I hadn't thought of that. The lieutenant-mouth-piece and the leader-cardinal also sounds interesting. The number of factions... So much good stuff.
I've been planning a Legend of the Five Rings game with a friend, set in a fantasy version of meiji era Japan, and this has been helpful as far as getting me in the right mindset for running political intrigue.
This couldn’t have come at a better time, thank you Dudes so much! I’m two sessions into my campaign and the players will be getting into faction intrigue in a couple of months, and this was so helpful!
You mentioned factions as being often played as "gaining points" towards set rewards. In that regard, I find it similar to the idea of a reputation grind in many popular MMORPGs. I like your interpretation much better. Keep up the great work Dudes.
Really needed this, about to start a campaign with 6 clans and one king to overthrow. I honestly think it adds so much having reactive factions, not the least of which it builds in consequences (good and bad) for the player choices.
Okay, so been following the videos and reading comments for a long time, and invariably one or more comments are made about hair or t-shirts. What is up with that? Is there some weird DND runway/fashion subculture lurking around the Dudes?!
@@gsentinel7948 Think it's just a matter of staring at a video for 40something minutes and how rarely these guys use images or slides. So when you're just looking at two people for a long time, style often gets noticed eventually
Don't be afraid to have a third party outside of your Factions throw some wrentches into the mix too. Give the third party something the players may want, but the cost is something one or more of the Factions want.
Inspiring video. I suggest looking at the shadowrun RPG, since the idea of faction intrigue is very much baked into this setting - corps vs corps vs nature vs gangs etc
I was recently inspired in faction design by anime "One Piece". In theory, there are 3 big factions- the navy, the warlords and the emperors- but these broader groups split into smaller groups- navy is unified but there is a division of pragmatism and following orders vs heroism and doing what's right, with many navy members sometimes even fighting one another because of it, each of the seven warlords has their own goals which conflict with one another and sometimes a warlord is replaced by a new one, and emperors while in theory being a single faction, in practice are five different factions- although no more than four exist at once at any point of One Piece's story.
I wasn't planning on backing the kickstarter, since I don't really go in for campaign settings, but if it includes information on handling factions, that seems worth it to me, so I'm in.
I always found the Factions in the Planescape AD&D campaign setting a fascinating concept, but I could never keep track of the 15 different cliques’ names, philosophies and roles in the campaign… I have to agree with Monty that 5 is a great number of factions to have in a campaign. Otherwise players will just forget who’s who and what they stand for, or confuse one with another, and so on.
Thank you so much for this video. Faction conflicts have been really hard for me to do but your points offer a great way to structure them. This has been one of your best and most useful videos ever. Well done! 👍
I love the comment about the difference of personalities between a faction's lieutenant and the leader, particularly when it comes to the leader being the distilled essence of the faction's ideals. My campaign has a thieves' guild called "The Brook", whose leader is a centuries-old elven assassin. The man is ruthless, determined, and calculated. When my players first encountered the organization, though, it was through a couple of smart-talking second-story men who cracked wise and helped the party out. It really helps to draw your players into a faction with good roleplay and likeable characters to invest them before you reveal that the organization's Wizard is a kidnapped family man held against his will.
Another great Video. So awesome to see how to create and run factions. Thinking of all the memorable NPCs from Drakkenheim and seeing the creative process behind it all is so amazing.
I would love a followup video to this one! Factions seem like a whole new layer I need to delve into that I am now thinking about retrofitting into campaign that I am only a few sessions into.
Have to say I really love this video- clear, simple, but powerful ideas. I have recently realized I tend towards "faction based" storytelling when I GM; I often find myself taking a published module, and dividing all the denizens of each location into factions in my head and highlighting faction-based conflicts without meaning to, applying a significant, almost accidental twist to the story. This video is super helpful in clarifying faction-based adventure design, and will be the bedrock of the next campaign I homebrew.
In my alt-history Colonial America Spellpunk campaign, I have three factions based on the three warlock patrons out of the PHB - the Fae, the Fiends, and the Far Gods. The factions aren't their for the players to join, but to create a power struggle (and adventure hooks). There is no "good guy" out of these (the Fae are ticked that humans chased elves out of Europe centuries ago, and after the elven kingdoms on the east coast of the new world collapsed, the humans started colonizing the new world).
Holy shit this is two for two! This week I want help with intrigue. here's intrigue. Last week I wanted puzzles and traps. You had puzzles and traps. Keep it up guys!
Timely for me. Last night I pinned my players between Harpers and Zhents... and they decided they want to play both sides as if it won't all come down on their heads.
@@andressagredos4325 If they still try playing both sides, when they inevitably mess up, make sure in all comes tumbling down on them in glorious fashion.
The really big trick is when there are multiple factions and each character in the group wants to join a different faction. -aka the factions in the horde of the dragon queen/rise of Tiamat. Or waterdeep dragon heist-
Was hoping that you would make a video about how to manage a faction intrigue campaign - perfect for promoting your kickstarter. Additionally, your video here is even better with reference to the examples in your live campaign show
Something that I was thinking about while you two were going on about this is . . . what if your adventuring group has different ideas about who to join. I've played in games where there are characters had widely different alignments and beliefs. If you have a neutral necro wizard player and a paladin player, their loyalties will each be easy, but makes it hard for the rest of the group who don't have clear beliefs. NPC factions could rip your group apart.
This video was unbelievably helpful for the homebrew campaign I'm running! I wasn't sure how to classify it until now but it's 100% a faction intrigue! The premise (without giving away any secrets in case one of my players stumbled across this video): The last Goliath Conquerer of the city of Aberdell, a joint triumph of the Elf and Dwarf kingdoms, has just died under mysterious circumstances. Now the Elves and Dwarves are on the verge of war over who is at fault for allowing their beloved city to be conquered in the first place. That's 3 factions right there, and then I have plans for a neutral faction and at least one twist baked in.
I did a one-shot faction story (a soiree at the caliph's palace) a lot of fun, especially when you give all the sides a dark secret so it might be better to keep them squabbling than to side with a particular faction
Perfect as I'm struggling with this in my Eberron campaign! Thank you for making it easier as the factions are so interesting but I've found it hard to make them interact with one another. Atm the Emerald claw is getting claws into everything and trying to keep them messing with the uneasy peace of Khorvaire is a balancing act I'm still learning to do.
The _Acquisitions Incorporated_ sourcebook introduces templates for "Iconic (faction) agent" and "Iconic (franchise role)" that can give NPC statblocks an extra ability. Seems like a fun way to remind your players who they're fighting against (or alongside) through mechanics.
This gives me an idea of making a campaign based on the Manga Pumpkin Scissors. The BIG War just ended, mercenaries (or members of the army, depending on what session 0 brings) are hired to discreetly(heh) check on villages ravaged by the war. Deserters, Bandits, Cultists, Profiteers, the villages themselves declaring independence, those kind of things.
Wow! This is perfect timing! I am in the processing of transitioning from a Heist style campaign to a faction intrigue style game! Long story short, the different factions are all hunting for the same Mcguffin (the same one the players are), but differ in what they want to use it for and why. Do you have any tips for running factions with faster than light travel? What about advanced tech?
Super amazing video guys! My mind is immediately buzzing with possibilities, and now I want to sit down and make five factions just to try it out. It’s a good combination with CGP Grey’s Rules for Rulers video, as in our own world the factions within a country often represent the keys to power that a ruler needs to manipulate to stay in power. Can be a good way to think through what the factions in a fantasy kingdom might be, based on what the fantasy keys fo power are.
I honestly did not give much thought to making Guilds or how they would be if I did. But this has opened my eyes and for me it is a must have in my future campaign
I just had a very political section of my game where the players were able to approach five distinct factions within a city (Ruling nobility, nouveau rich nobility, mafia, ousted native tribe of ogres, and dissidents trying to overthrow the established system. Each faction had a main leader and at least one character who the character had to approach the faction through at first to get introduced to the leadership. This secondary named character could be given support by the party to replace the leadership of that faction if the players did some stuff to make it happen. Helping certain factions and hindering others yielded different outcomes. The most likely outcome is that the ruling house comes out victorious, as they were set up at the start as the antagonists and were in the best position to win out. I didn't see this video prior to running it, but the advice they have is good. I'll break down what the options were in my campaign. It could give you inspiration for how you'd organize your own factions in game and what sort of benefits they may reap based on their choices. If you aren't looking for any though, the rest of this comment may not be worth reading to you. If the players side with the ruling nobility, the starting leadership attempts to subjugate the nobles and dissidents by staging a war with the ogres. The other options are trying to put a more moderate noble of the same family on the throne by exposing her plotting or to re-establish a living fossil, an undead prior ruler. The former results in a stalemate war with the ogres, neither side having an obvious advantage and a modest monetary reward being given to the party while the latter sees the ogres wiped out, the mafia disbanded, and the demands of the nouveau rich and the dissidents being met, but kicking off an age of empire with the undead ruler trying to conquer the neighboring lands, while yielding positions of authority in the city to the party and a hefty cash reward. This last ending is the one my players got and despite putting a lawful evil undead on the throne, they seem to be happy with this outcome. If they side with the nouveau rich and bump off the current nobility, the nouveau rich take the throne and revitalize the economy, improving life so much that the dissidents and ogres cease hostilities and dissolve as factions, but the mafia begins plotting to take control possibly somewhere down the line. Siding with the lesser leader of this option results in a defensive pact being made with the ogres and continued tension between all other factions in the city, probably the least dramatic conclusion. If the party works with the mafia, they get an extremely sympathetic ally on the throne who gives them excellent gear, but the city enters an unparalleled period of tyranny and all the nobility get axed. If they choose to support the ogres, they end up getting the nobility, the nouveau rich, the dissidents, the mafia, and most of the common people killed or enslaved. The party's reward is being allowed to take as much loot from the sacking of the city as they can carry, the true murder-hobo option. If they side with the dissidents without dismantling the mafia, the outcome ends with the mafia taking things over and no reward for the players. If the party dismantles the mafia and supports the dissidents, the economy collapses and the city breaks up, most people starving to death and the party's reward is a long trek on foot to the nearest neighboring land, living off whatever supplies they can steal or scavenge. Each of these choices determines how the party will be received in the places they visit later in the game, so the effects of this choice has an impact on the larger story, not just the arc itself. As my party put a conqueror on the throne, the next phase of the campaign will kick off with them acting as diplomats to other countries, trying to see if they can forge alliances, force the ruler to submit, put a puppet on the throne, or attempt to backstab their own master by strengthening the neighboring nations up and trying and stage a coup d'etat.
I merged LMoP and DoIP and adapted the quests in DoIP to originate from a faction in LMoP. This enabled the party to do about 3 quests for each faction. Thus, they gained another level in that faction. Additionally, the party became a faction. Like the show, "Blacklist", the party attempted to integrate the targets of the quests into their own faction. -They subdued Venomfang and allowed him to survive as long as the Lawful dragon owed them a favor. -Iarno was secretly allowed to live if he created common Magic Items for them. -Agatha was given a common MI that gave her a cat Familiar. The undead Horse from the tomb in DoIP was also given to her. She in turn made her divination ability available. -Sister Garaele knew the Banshees and putting the other two to rest earned her thanks. -The Redbrand thugs were subdued and split among Thalia and Sildar, gaining their trust. -Kost was given a common MI and they gave him some spells for info from his faction. -The party's money was deposited in Harbin's bank. -Moesko was captured. By controlling his heart, he agreed to transplant seeds of the Gulthias tree and grow Vine Blights for the party to be used as scouts (they speak Common). The party, the Wild Elf Bunch (WEB) gradually spread their net over the region.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
A way to "hide" the artificiality of the 5 factions that I like is introducing asymetry.
1 big dominating faction but who have a hard time collaborating with any other faction.
2 regular factions with a focus on external trouble.
1 faction having an internal conflict that have 3 sides all trying to get things to go their way, more focused on resolving this internal conflict.
1 faction that is 2+ minor factions merged by affinity but with slightly misaligned goals that hinder them without internal conflict.
Drakkenheim has convinced me that adding conflicting factions is great for every campaign!
Me too!
Same. I added conflicting factions to my homebrew world/campaign after watching how well it worked in DoD. Definitely going to be a staple of every game I run going forward.
Just agreeing. Awesome
Conflicting factions in campaigns has always been interesting since Matt Colville. Good to know the Dungeon Dudes made this trope much more prevalent with their new campaign.
Lawls I have over 13 guilds 😂
What if there was a faction of necromancer, but they didn't dig up graves? What if they took in the sick or elderly, cared for them until they passed, then were given permission to use the bodies for research, which sometimes would be reanimation?
“How dare you spend your inheritance on that!” “Shut up grandma you lost the ability to judge it when you died”
@@alexmoskowitz811 "Shut up grandma, or i'll raise grandpa, and the two of you can argue for eternity"
Morally proper necromancy
Alternatively, burying the dead attracts ghouls and cremating them, I don't know, causes climate change.
Actually your comment gave me a cool idea. What if dead people sometimes rise as ghosts if not turned into undead? The necromancers might be doing the right thing by raising them as zombies while the paladins believe in simply smiting the ghosts.
Each member has a contract legally allowing ethical use of their corpse under a set of strict guidelines, after their natural demise.
Obligatory comment for the Algorithm because you guys are the bomb and deserve all the views.
I think if I reply to this comment it also helps the algorithm but I'm not sure
@@cianwade5599 how deep does this Algorithm go?
Obligatory response to obligatory comment meanwhile using obligatory more than I have ever begore.
Agreed
“The bomb?” What is this- the 90s? 😄
It had never occurred to me to treat a faction at large as a single NPC in terms of "personality," ideals, bonds, and flaws. Great advice that really cuts through the noise and right to the heart of the organization.
At 18:50 talking about MtG having 5 colors/factions, I actually really appreciate how that is laid out. The 5 points of the star’s colors each represent a team-the color on either side of a particular point is kind of who they ally with, and the two colors across the star points are who they oppose. Example: white gets along with green and blue, but they have conflict with red and black. Then you see green gets along with white and red, but is in conflict with black and blue. If you apply that to your factions in a D&D game it adds so many nice textural and emotional layers for your players and can cause a lot of dilemmas particularly in decisions that actually matter.
MTG really does have the best foundation, doesn't it? It all fits together so neatly, it's impressive.
The Ravnica setting book and very likely the upcoming Strixhaven adventure book are great examples of applying color conflict and alliances to factions. The ten guilds of Ravnica were originally designed with the idea of "What do these two colors have in common?" So both enemy and allied color combos come together to form a cohesive guild. Then you have the Strixhaven colleges which were designed with "What do these two colors fundamentally disagree on?" as their main focus. So while the white red enemy combo on Ravnica takes the form of a military force dedicated to defending the people of Ravnica, the Strixhaven equivalent college is full of tomb delving adventurer scholars who identify Indiana Jones as their spirit animal.
I have used the MTG colour philosophy as inspiration for NPC's and factions a lot. Makes it so easy to make a actor with a world view and knowing how they view different things
Thank you for explaining that! This will help me better understand how organize everything.
Richard Garfield really was a visionary, huh
Really cool that you mentioned Ravnica! Specially because in the latest set the guilds end up having a temporary alliance to fight Nicol Bolas, just as the example you gave about WWII
I agree with this! I'm running a Ravnica campaign right now and have been doing a TON of guild intrigue. Thanks Dungeon Dudes!
Interesting analogy but who's the USSR then? Niv Mizzet?
The "small jobs" at 24:20 might lead to the real world "You're in too deep, you can't back out now" recruitment technique.
"It would be a shame if word got out that it was youse that 'acquired' the Book of the Leviathan for us and then later sprung Lady Montecastella. Pity about them jailers."
Maybe railroad-y, but if it came from multiple sources it could really heighten the tension at the moment of ultimate decision.
Read the first 3 books of the Dune series. You'll get lots of ideas.
Also , the TTRPG Paranoia deals pretty extensively with factions. Each PC belongs to a secret society and has a goal to accomplish during gameplay and many characters will be working against one another without realizing it. Playing a few games of Paranoia can give you a good idea of how your players can engage with factions directly.
Your examples and cautions remind me so much of Eberron. That setting is loaded with good factions, most of which are very gray, or can be if you take some time to think about each one.
Eberron rocks!!!
Yessss
Love how the dungeon dudes are always organized af. No time wasted, every second is great content. You guys rule! Dungeon dudes kickstarter has launched? Yes plz... auto-back that mofo... no thought required.
Perfect timing, starting Waterdeep Dragon Heist the day after tomorrow.
Me too!
Best of luck! I have been running it for a group and I think it does a good job of introducing factions early and allowing you to see who your party prefers to help in the first chapter or two. Be prepared to adlib some of the faction quests to make them interesting and better tied to your story.
@@gabsinventions9135 me three!!
I heavily altered WDH. The book offers you some great tools, but lacks in several departments IMO:
- plotholes
- some very basic side quests
- relatively low stakes
- only uses one of the four villains
- factions work with renown
I'm starting it tonight! So excited!
I'm 2-3 episodes from finishing the first run of Dungeons of Drakkenheim (as a podcast). Having those five factions in there seemed a lot to me at first but after watching this episode, it really makes a lot of sense why there were that many to begin with and balance forces out.
I wanted to run an intrigue campaign. My players said they were into it. But before I started building it, I had the idea to do a test run. I walked them thru a small session. On the way to a delve to retrieve some quest item for their patron, a different NPC met them to ask them to betray their patron instead for intriguing and compelling reasons. Once the players grokked that the entire campaign would be like that X5, they all changed their minds. Saved me from a lot of wasted effort. I was sad, tho. Love learning how my players solve complex problems. Thanks, Dungeon Dudes, for the excellent content.
A faction of paladins. A faction of necromancers. "These factions may not get along..." I just loved this, made me chuckle!
Thanks for all the hard work, you content is pure gold! I rewatch videos all the time, because you touch on so many interesting and useful topics!
Completely blindsided by the relevance of this. Straight up if I were to write you a letter and ask for a video this would have been it. You've already earned my backing pledge and DoD isn't even out yet!
My thieves’ guild in my homebrew world was called the Venomcloaks. There was a chapter in each of the 4 main nations of the campaign, each headed by a dragon that could polymorph at will to a humanoid form. Their goal was to use their intelligence and leadership while masking their identity as dragons to situate themselves among the best burglars and larcenists in order to use the sense of greed found in thieves to amass a large hoard of their own. But, given that they were dragons, their cruelty towards their underlings was powerful, and made it so that they ruled by fear more than true leadership.
Our monk player was drawn in by the guild, not knowing its origin and instead just drawn to the gold. He had a huge character development moment when he saw the cruelty of the leader, and one of the victims joined the party after defecting from the guild. This caused the monk to defect too, and the party wound up killing the dragon leader of that chapter of the faction.
This is brilliant and I'm probably gonna steal it. Thank you.
@@ciarajeanr Thank you for the kind words!
The last time I was this early, Rat Food was still alive.
Ravnica factions are so well done. One of my favorite fantasy settings.
I think subfactions are important. They don't have to play a big role, but can really bring a faction to life. It's realistic that people who are on the same team still have disagreements, and those disagreements can be great hooks for the party to manipulate.
I just introduced my players to a criminal syndicate that I'm using as a group patron. This video is so well timed
Please do the rest of the story/ the fleshing out part. I know there are things to learn even for a 45ish year veteran of countless campaigns. You guys are a great source for my homebrew world, thanks for all you do!
Y'all rule. This literally convinced me to run faction intrigue. Funny thing is my homebrewed campaign world already had disparate factions, I just never really made use of them as major players besides "the best one (s)" and "the worst one(s)". This seems a lot more spicy.
Hi Dungeon Dudes,
Just wanted to say that I have a campaign with this ad my basic outline:
The Ancient Enemy has already been defeated. However, that defeat came at the price. The stability of society fell apart. The ruling Monarch vanishing leaving the throne vacant. A powerful secret society has fallen apart into warring factions over a cache of powerful artifacts left unguarded. (Formerly removed from circulation by that society), and partly to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Monarchy. Is there potential there?
More videos about faction campaigns would be SO cool!! Please make more.
Awesome tips, and really helpful for the upcoming Drakkenheim campaign that ~7,500 people are gonna be starting next year!
I love the idea of you guys putting out a bunch of videos that will subsequently teach DMs how to run the Drakkenheim module when we get it next year 😍😍
I have been trying to build a city campaign with many Factions, Guilds, Alliance, Chapters, Clubs, Councils, Families, House's, Caucus, Cabal, Society, Sects, Confederacy, Conclave, Emissary, Amassadors, Envoys, etc....... This is the first helpful advice I have found .... EVER. There is a deep hole in D&D of this very topic that has just been ignored for far to long.
Just about to start a campaign in Ravnica, and this video was a huge help. Most of the faction creation heavy lifting is done by the sourcebook, but your guidelines for roleplaying, structuring the conflict and working in the loyalty challenges are all great. As usual, your videos are awesome. Keep up the great work.
I am currently DMing "B4 The Lost City" 5th edition and find this video most relevant for this module! Especially with the political intrigue between the Brotherhood of Gorn, the Magi of Usamigarus and the Maidens of Madarua.
Well done! This is perhaps the best video on how to structure an intrigue-based campaign that I've ever come across.
I just want to Express my thanks as these videos do come in clutch and especially now since I am starting my next campaign's session 1 for my players tommorrow! You guys are thorough, detailed and a good listen while I'm working.
About 2 years ago, I watched this video and we've had an amazing fraction campaign using the Streets of New Capenna setting. Thank you for the inspiration! I'm rewatching this and just realise how much I've used!
Please, make the second video! I'm planning on doing something on those lines with League of Legends and the Ionians factions (there are a lot of them, but they could me merged into 4 major alligniments)
I have a few factions in my world some world spanning and others regional, it helps to give the world depth.
Enjoyed the video immensely.
Cheers
Yes please. More details on how you fleshed out you factions. Thanks for the great video.
Great timing! I'm about to run the second council meeting in Rise of Tiamat and this will really enhance it in comparison to the first one
I'm about to start running a game and I wanted factions and patrons to be a big part of it, and I stumbled across this video - I wanted to say thank you so much, this was super helpful! It gave me some codified ways of setting factions up and gave me a good number (5!). I kept worrying about needing SO MANY FACTIONS and this helped me settle down a bit.
Green - The Rangers of the Hooded Lantern
Red - The Queen's Men
White - The Paladins of the Silver Order
Black - The Followers of the Fallen Fire
Blue - The Amethyst Academy
Can't believe I didn't see it in the whole campaign, but it checks out pretty well on the MTG color philosophy. Well done Dudes
Happy to be seeing more cerebral content like this instead of more "top 10 list" style content.
currently running a faction arc of a larger campaign and i sort of plunged myself into it, but i am so glad i found this video. i like the idea of making each faction its own "person"
This is the perfect video to watch as I'm working on my Ravnica campaign. Thank you Dungeon Dudes!
The distinction between "unite the factions against common threat" and "factions vie against each other for a common goal" is crucial, and I hadn't thought of that.
The lieutenant-mouth-piece and the leader-cardinal also sounds interesting.
The number of factions...
So much good stuff.
I've been planning a Legend of the Five Rings game with a friend, set in a fantasy version of meiji era Japan, and this has been helpful as far as getting me in the right mindset for running political intrigue.
This couldn’t have come at a better time, thank you Dudes so much! I’m two sessions into my campaign and the players will be getting into faction intrigue in a couple of months, and this was so helpful!
I pledged to the Kickstarter last night and I’ve never been more excited for something to succeed. Looking forward to diving into Drakkenheim.
Yes! Awesome. And of course i want you to do more about factions!
You mentioned factions as being often played as "gaining points" towards set rewards. In that regard, I find it similar to the idea of a reputation grind in many popular MMORPGs.
I like your interpretation much better. Keep up the great work Dudes.
This is some great insight into factions and faction conflicts. Thank you, Kelly Mclaughlin, for suggesting that I watch this! Great stuff.
great video as always.
also I was so pleasantly surprised to see DUNGEONS OF DRAKKENHEIM as the sponsor of the latest Critical Role episode.
Really needed this, about to start a campaign with 6 clans and one king to overthrow. I honestly think it adds so much having reactive factions, not the least of which it builds in consequences (good and bad) for the player choices.
What are the clans general deal? And what's up with the King that needs overthrown?
Perfect video to finish off my birthday. Keep up the good work and I wish I could give more on Patreon :) y’all rock
Kelly looks so good in this haircut, he literally has this perfect lenght right now.
Okay, so been following the videos and reading comments for a long time, and invariably one or more comments are made about hair or t-shirts. What is up with that? Is there some weird DND runway/fashion subculture lurking around the Dudes?!
@@gsentinel7948 Think it's just a matter of staring at a video for 40something minutes and how rarely these guys use images or slides. So when you're just looking at two people for a long time, style often gets noticed eventually
Right? Top fluent hair for no reason? Let's freaking go 🤟🏻
Kelly looks good in most hairstyles, and in the past year, he’s had quite a few of them lol
@@OfTheMindscape Kelly looks good in his T-Shirts too! 😉
Considering we have Ravnica as an official D&D setting and the Forgotten Realms and Eberron have notable factions, this is a SUPER useful video
Don't be afraid to have a third party outside of your Factions throw some wrentches into the mix too. Give the third party something the players may want, but the cost is something one or more of the Factions want.
Would love to see tips on creating factions! I want to run a faction campaign now!
Inspiring video. I suggest looking at the shadowrun RPG, since the idea of faction intrigue is very much baked into this setting - corps vs corps vs nature vs gangs etc
I was recently inspired in faction design by anime "One Piece".
In theory, there are 3 big factions- the navy, the warlords and the emperors- but these broader groups split into smaller groups- navy is unified but there is a division of pragmatism and following orders vs heroism and doing what's right, with many navy members sometimes even fighting one another because of it, each of the seven warlords has their own goals which conflict with one another and sometimes a warlord is replaced by a new one, and emperors while in theory being a single faction, in practice are five different factions- although no more than four exist at once at any point of One Piece's story.
Very good idea. I love One piece.
I wasn't planning on backing the kickstarter, since I don't really go in for campaign settings, but if it includes information on handling factions, that seems worth it to me, so I'm in.
Every single video you guys do is useful, but this one was above and beyond!
I always found the Factions in the Planescape AD&D campaign setting a fascinating concept, but I could never keep track of the 15 different cliques’ names, philosophies and roles in the campaign… I have to agree with Monty that 5 is a great number of factions to have in a campaign. Otherwise players will just forget who’s who and what they stand for, or confuse one with another, and so on.
Agree
Thank you so much for this video. Faction conflicts have been really hard for me to do but your points offer a great way to structure them. This has been one of your best and most useful videos ever. Well done! 👍
I love the comment about the difference of personalities between a faction's lieutenant and the leader, particularly when it comes to the leader being the distilled essence of the faction's ideals.
My campaign has a thieves' guild called "The Brook", whose leader is a centuries-old elven assassin. The man is ruthless, determined, and calculated. When my players first encountered the organization, though, it was through a couple of smart-talking second-story men who cracked wise and helped the party out.
It really helps to draw your players into a faction with good roleplay and likeable characters to invest them before you reveal that the organization's Wizard is a kidnapped family man held against his will.
Another great Video. So awesome to see how to create and run factions. Thinking of all the memorable NPCs from Drakkenheim and seeing the creative process behind it all is so amazing.
You guys are seriously the most useful RPG channel I’m watching right now.
Thank you!
I would love a followup video to this one! Factions seem like a whole new layer I need to delve into that I am now thinking about retrofitting into campaign that I am only a few sessions into.
Have to say I really love this video- clear, simple, but powerful ideas. I have recently realized I tend towards "faction based" storytelling when I GM; I often find myself taking a published module, and dividing all the denizens of each location into factions in my head and highlighting faction-based conflicts without meaning to, applying a significant, almost accidental twist to the story. This video is super helpful in clarifying faction-based adventure design, and will be the bedrock of the next campaign I homebrew.
This is probably the best video you guys have ever made!
As a dm I think this has been the most helpful video from yall, entirely new concept for me
In my alt-history Colonial America Spellpunk campaign, I have three factions based on the three warlock patrons out of the PHB - the Fae, the Fiends, and the Far Gods. The factions aren't their for the players to join, but to create a power struggle (and adventure hooks). There is no "good guy" out of these (the Fae are ticked that humans chased elves out of Europe centuries ago, and after the elven kingdoms on the east coast of the new world collapsed, the humans started colonizing the new world).
That sounds like a potentially very interesting setting!
Please more of this. Faction Intrigue is my favorite type of stories to run
Holy shit this is two for two! This week I want help with intrigue. here's intrigue. Last week I wanted puzzles and traps. You had puzzles and traps. Keep it up guys!
This is a pretty good video for a number of systems. World of Darkness and most other Storyteller settings are big on faction conflict and intrigue.
Seriously good tips in here! Your channel is great for new and experienced DMs and players alike.
You're a little late on this one, boys. My Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign ends on Monday. So many factions, so much intrigue.
Timely for me. Last night I pinned my players between Harpers and Zhents... and they decided they want to play both sides as if it won't all come down on their heads.
Timely for me too, since I don't have a campaign going at the moment and watch largely to stave off the ol' existential dread for a while
@@douglaspage7311 My players are on the brink of this decision right now. Harpers vs Zhents is such a cool plotline.
@@andressagredos4325 If they still try playing both sides, when they inevitably mess up, make sure in all comes tumbling down on them in glorious fashion.
Very helpful advice and way of thinking about/planning for factions in a campaign. Thank you :)
THE video I've been waiting for from you guys!
I was JUST about to introduce a new faction into the campaign. So glad this video came out today!
The really big trick is when there are multiple factions and each character in the group wants to join a different faction. -aka the factions in the horde of the dragon queen/rise of Tiamat. Or waterdeep dragon heist-
Was hoping that you would make a video about how to manage a faction intrigue campaign - perfect for promoting your kickstarter. Additionally, your video here is even better with reference to the examples in your live campaign show
Something that I was thinking about while you two were going on about this is . . . what if your adventuring group has different ideas about who to join. I've played in games where there are characters had widely different alignments and beliefs. If you have a neutral necro wizard player and a paladin player, their loyalties will each be easy, but makes it hard for the rest of the group who don't have clear beliefs. NPC factions could rip your group apart.
This video was unbelievably helpful for the homebrew campaign I'm running! I wasn't sure how to classify it until now but it's 100% a faction intrigue! The premise (without giving away any secrets in case one of my players stumbled across this video): The last Goliath Conquerer of the city of Aberdell, a joint triumph of the Elf and Dwarf kingdoms, has just died under mysterious circumstances. Now the Elves and Dwarves are on the verge of war over who is at fault for allowing their beloved city to be conquered in the first place. That's 3 factions right there, and then I have plans for a neutral faction and at least one twist baked in.
I did a one-shot faction story (a soiree at the caliph's palace) a lot of fun, especially when you give all the sides a dark secret so it might be better to keep them squabbling than to side with a particular faction
You guys are amazing thank you for the advice which has been game saving 😀
This is must-watch material for any Ravnica campaign.
Perfect as I'm struggling with this in my Eberron campaign! Thank you for making it easier as the factions are so interesting but I've found it hard to make them interact with one another. Atm the Emerald claw is getting claws into everything and trying to keep them messing with the uneasy peace of Khorvaire is a balancing act I'm still learning to do.
The _Acquisitions Incorporated_ sourcebook introduces templates for "Iconic (faction) agent" and "Iconic (franchise role)" that can give NPC statblocks an extra ability. Seems like a fun way to remind your players who they're fighting against (or alongside) through mechanics.
This gives me an idea of making a campaign based on the Manga Pumpkin Scissors. The BIG War just ended, mercenaries (or members of the army, depending on what session 0 brings) are hired to discreetly(heh) check on villages ravaged by the war. Deserters, Bandits, Cultists, Profiteers, the villages themselves declaring independence, those kind of things.
Wow! This is perfect timing! I am in the processing of transitioning from a Heist style campaign to a faction intrigue style game! Long story short, the different factions are all hunting for the same Mcguffin (the same one the players are), but differ in what they want to use it for and why. Do you have any tips for running factions with faster than light travel? What about advanced tech?
Really great advice in this one. This video has directly helped me a lot with this topic.
Great article - My favorite 5:
1. Ruling nobility
2. Religion
3. Military
4. Merchant and/or professional groups
5. Criminal and/or poor people groups
Super amazing video guys! My mind is immediately buzzing with possibilities, and now I want to sit down and make five factions just to try it out.
It’s a good combination with CGP Grey’s Rules for Rulers video, as in our own world the factions within a country often represent the keys to power that a ruler needs to manipulate to stay in power. Can be a good way to think through what the factions in a fantasy kingdom might be, based on what the fantasy keys fo power are.
I'm currently trying to write a city-based campaign. This was perfect timing for it. Thanks!
This is awesome! I love how you ran factions in DoD, thanks for sharing!:)
I'm 100% interested on more content about factions.
I honestly did not give much thought to making Guilds or how they would be if I did. But this has opened my eyes and for me it is a must have in my future campaign
I just had a very political section of my game where the players were able to approach five distinct factions within a city (Ruling nobility, nouveau rich nobility, mafia, ousted native tribe of ogres, and dissidents trying to overthrow the established system. Each faction had a main leader and at least one character who the character had to approach the faction through at first to get introduced to the leadership. This secondary named character could be given support by the party to replace the leadership of that faction if the players did some stuff to make it happen. Helping certain factions and hindering others yielded different outcomes. The most likely outcome is that the ruling house comes out victorious, as they were set up at the start as the antagonists and were in the best position to win out. I didn't see this video prior to running it, but the advice they have is good.
I'll break down what the options were in my campaign. It could give you inspiration for how you'd organize your own factions in game and what sort of benefits they may reap based on their choices. If you aren't looking for any though, the rest of this comment may not be worth reading to you.
If the players side with the ruling nobility, the starting leadership attempts to subjugate the nobles and dissidents by staging a war with the ogres. The other options are trying to put a more moderate noble of the same family on the throne by exposing her plotting or to re-establish a living fossil, an undead prior ruler. The former results in a stalemate war with the ogres, neither side having an obvious advantage and a modest monetary reward being given to the party while the latter sees the ogres wiped out, the mafia disbanded, and the demands of the nouveau rich and the dissidents being met, but kicking off an age of empire with the undead ruler trying to conquer the neighboring lands, while yielding positions of authority in the city to the party and a hefty cash reward. This last ending is the one my players got and despite putting a lawful evil undead on the throne, they seem to be happy with this outcome.
If they side with the nouveau rich and bump off the current nobility, the nouveau rich take the throne and revitalize the economy, improving life so much that the dissidents and ogres cease hostilities and dissolve as factions, but the mafia begins plotting to take control possibly somewhere down the line. Siding with the lesser leader of this option results in a defensive pact being made with the ogres and continued tension between all other factions in the city, probably the least dramatic conclusion.
If the party works with the mafia, they get an extremely sympathetic ally on the throne who gives them excellent gear, but the city enters an unparalleled period of tyranny and all the nobility get axed.
If they choose to support the ogres, they end up getting the nobility, the nouveau rich, the dissidents, the mafia, and most of the common people killed or enslaved. The party's reward is being allowed to take as much loot from the sacking of the city as they can carry, the true murder-hobo option.
If they side with the dissidents without dismantling the mafia, the outcome ends with the mafia taking things over and no reward for the players. If the party dismantles the mafia and supports the dissidents, the economy collapses and the city breaks up, most people starving to death and the party's reward is a long trek on foot to the nearest neighboring land, living off whatever supplies they can steal or scavenge.
Each of these choices determines how the party will be received in the places they visit later in the game, so the effects of this choice has an impact on the larger story, not just the arc itself. As my party put a conqueror on the throne, the next phase of the campaign will kick off with them acting as diplomats to other countries, trying to see if they can forge alliances, force the ruler to submit, put a puppet on the throne, or attempt to backstab their own master by strengthening the neighboring nations up and trying and stage a coup d'etat.
This gave me great ideas to running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Thanks guys
You are giving me amazing ideas. I love this channel! thank you so much!
Thank you for doing these videos, Dudes, they are fun, informative and well made :D
Just into the faction section of waterdeep dragon heist, perfect timing thank you amazing dudes so much
I merged LMoP and DoIP and adapted the quests in DoIP to originate from a faction in LMoP. This enabled the party to do about 3 quests for each faction. Thus, they gained another level in that faction. Additionally, the party became a faction. Like the show, "Blacklist", the party attempted to integrate the targets of the quests into their own faction.
-They subdued Venomfang and allowed him to survive as long as the Lawful dragon owed them a favor.
-Iarno was secretly allowed to live if he created common Magic Items for them.
-Agatha was given a common MI that gave her a cat Familiar. The undead Horse from the tomb in DoIP was also given to her. She in turn made her divination ability available.
-Sister Garaele knew the Banshees and putting the other two to rest earned her thanks.
-The Redbrand thugs were subdued and split among Thalia and Sildar, gaining their trust.
-Kost was given a common MI and they gave him some spells for info from his faction.
-The party's money was deposited in Harbin's bank.
-Moesko was captured. By controlling his heart, he agreed to transplant seeds of the Gulthias tree and grow Vine Blights for the party to be used as scouts (they speak Common).
The party, the Wild Elf Bunch (WEB) gradually spread their net over the region.