If you would like to build a homebrew world with me, sign up to the $10 tier on my patreon to join our community worldbuilding project creating the polar islands of Jandir. Sign up here: bit.ly/2XeqzJv
This was extremely helpful in my current campaign. I decided today that I would be implementing factions but I had no idea where to start. Your video showed up right away and I already had OneNote open, so I followed along. Thanks!
Sure. My campaign is based on the silver mining cities of New Spain, the viceroyalty resulting from the conquering of the Aztecs by Cortes. The players can choose to support or oppose the Crown of Castile (my version of Spain) or the Raconteurs (a secret organization of musicians and tailors who collect intel in order to cripple nations from the inside) or even the Sons of Silver (a group of swashbuckling rebels with a masked Zorro-like leader).
Awesome! That is a very interesting period in history to draw on. So much money coming from the "new world" that there's plenty of scope for other nations to have interest in the new world. How is the Castile mining the resources? With slavery from the conquered lands? If so you can draw even more from Zorro and have the sons of silver be made of Freemen. And with so much at stake politically, the Castile will probably need a strong, bold, military leader to make sure the region is defended. Someone maybe the people would view as a more worthy ruler than whoever is currently in charge...
@@IcarusGames Great points. The problem with Castile is that they HAD a strong, bold military leader. Cortes defied orders from the governor, Velasquez, and set out with revoked permissions, and had an expedition sent out to capture him. A well-timed Aztec revolt, followed by a 3 month siege resulted in him capturing Tenochtitlan and setting up the new empire. He was declared Captain General and Viceroy of New Spain, but the Crown felt that he was too powerful, so they forced him to return to Spain and replaced him with Antonio de Mendoza, a kind and compassionate leader focused on efficiency and justice. (Cortes was LN vs Medoza's NG.) Cortes returned to New Spain later in life, but was so heavily supervised and his authority so limited that he grew bitter and left to discover California then explore the rest of Central America.
@@IcarusGames Also, the silver mines were full of lower-class natives and mestizos who were free but worked in dangerous conditions, many hardly living long enough to cash in a few paychecks. Fun fact: if you take all the working age men and work them to the bone and infect their lungs with lead and dust, they can't really fight a revolution and overthrow you.
Not sure how far ahead you are, but it would be cool if the Aparthians were like the Mamelukes in that their ruling class were former slaves who took over the core territory that the empire grew out of, maybe the senate & democracy are even remnants of slave soldier regiments or towns of escaped slaves electing a leader from among themselves
This video was extremely helpful, and I wish I'd found it before just writing massive blobs of text for my nations. Oh well, at least I found it in time for the guilds!
It's definitely worth looking at FATE's Aspect system for things like factions and NPCs. Aspects can represent a lot of detail about a story element and suggesting to players how they might interact with it in pithy 3-6 word phrases. They're a great way of laying down some high-level ideas for the faction or character that you can then develop later if you choose to but can still function on their own, giving players something juicy to uncover and give you as the DM a springboard for improv without the time investment a detailed write-up. It comes alongside very simple systems for players to learn Aspects through investigation and cleverness as well as exploit what they've uncovered for mechanical benefit. It'd dovetail nicely with 5e's Inspiration and Advantage systems, though the old standby of "extra +2 bonus" still works for earlier editions. In particular here, Aspects are a great place to start with the Description, Motivation, and Traits sections.
@@IcarusGames It's a fantastic resource for the softer arts of RPGs: Session Zero and campaign creation, linking party backstories, developing a magic system, having a healthy group dynamic, getting players engaged, etc. As a game, it's pretty rules-light, but even if you're running a mechanically-heavy game like D&D, there's a lot you can learn and incorporate from FATE's methodology, which Evil Hat does its best to explain. It also teaches a lot of good roleplaying habits, so I like to use it as my "Intro to Roleplaying" game when I'm playing with people new to the hobby. The core rulebooks (the stuff without any licensed setting material) and System Toolkit are all pay-what-you-want for the digital versions, so they're an easy grab and I consider them a must-have for any gamemaster who does homebrew.
i know that this video is old but i’m still kinda confused on what exactly a faction is, is it a city state, a group, an organization i’m still a little stuck
I know this is an old video, but you said this is for pathfinder but keep describing it as for your D&D campaign. I haven't heard you say this in any new videos but please do not use these interchangeably. D&D is not Pathfinder and Pathfinder is not D&D. They are separate systems and while they may share the same base people trying to get into TTRPGs hear stuff like this and get very confused
The advice applies for pretty much any system. When world building is concerned, my advice will apply for most fantasy systems with very little adjustment.
If you would like to build a homebrew world with me, sign up to the $10 tier on my patreon to join our community worldbuilding project creating the polar islands of Jandir.
Sign up here: bit.ly/2XeqzJv
This was extremely helpful in my current campaign. I decided today that I would be implementing factions but I had no idea where to start. Your video showed up right away and I already had OneNote open, so I followed along. Thanks!
I'm really glad you found it helpful. How did you get on making factions? Any stand-outs you want to tell us about?
Sure. My campaign is based on the silver mining cities of New Spain, the viceroyalty resulting from the conquering of the Aztecs by Cortes. The players can choose to support or oppose the Crown of Castile (my version of Spain) or the Raconteurs (a secret organization of musicians and tailors who collect intel in order to cripple nations from the inside) or even the Sons of Silver (a group of swashbuckling rebels with a masked Zorro-like leader).
Awesome! That is a very interesting period in history to draw on. So much money coming from the "new world" that there's plenty of scope for other nations to have interest in the new world.
How is the Castile mining the resources? With slavery from the conquered lands?
If so you can draw even more from Zorro and have the sons of silver be made of Freemen.
And with so much at stake politically, the Castile will probably need a strong, bold, military leader to make sure the region is defended. Someone maybe the people would view as a more worthy ruler than whoever is currently in charge...
@@IcarusGames Great points. The problem with Castile is that they HAD a strong, bold military leader. Cortes defied orders from the governor, Velasquez, and set out with revoked permissions, and had an expedition sent out to capture him. A well-timed Aztec revolt, followed by a 3 month siege resulted in him capturing Tenochtitlan and setting up the new empire. He was declared Captain General and Viceroy of New Spain, but the Crown felt that he was too powerful, so they forced him to return to Spain and replaced him with Antonio de Mendoza, a kind and compassionate leader focused on efficiency and justice. (Cortes was LN vs Medoza's NG.) Cortes returned to New Spain later in life, but was so heavily supervised and his authority so limited that he grew bitter and left to discover California then explore the rest of Central America.
@@IcarusGames Also, the silver mines were full of lower-class natives and mestizos who were free but worked in dangerous conditions, many hardly living long enough to cash in a few paychecks. Fun fact: if you take all the working age men and work them to the bone and infect their lungs with lead and dust, they can't really fight a revolution and overthrow you.
Loving this series so much! Being released at the perfect time! Thank you so much!
I needed this series so much! Loving everything so far
Your content is absolutely superb! I can't wait to see more!
I'm really glad you're enjoying it :)
I've been looking for something like that! Thanks for the vid.
Hope you found it useful :)
Like usual your videos are great and super helpful!
Thanks a lot. I'm glad you found it useful :)
Not sure how far ahead you are, but it would be cool if the Aparthians were like the Mamelukes in that their ruling class were former slaves who took over the core territory that the empire grew out of, maybe the senate & democracy are even remnants of slave soldier regiments or towns of escaped slaves electing a leader from among themselves
This video was extremely helpful, and I wish I'd found it before just writing massive blobs of text for my nations.
Oh well, at least I found it in time for the guilds!
Glad you enjoyed it :D
It's definitely worth looking at FATE's Aspect system for things like factions and NPCs. Aspects can represent a lot of detail about a story element and suggesting to players how they might interact with it in pithy 3-6 word phrases. They're a great way of laying down some high-level ideas for the faction or character that you can then develop later if you choose to but can still function on their own, giving players something juicy to uncover and give you as the DM a springboard for improv without the time investment a detailed write-up. It comes alongside very simple systems for players to learn Aspects through investigation and cleverness as well as exploit what they've uncovered for mechanical benefit. It'd dovetail nicely with 5e's Inspiration and Advantage systems, though the old standby of "extra +2 bonus" still works for earlier editions. In particular here, Aspects are a great place to start with the Description, Motivation, and Traits sections.
I've yet to check out FATE, but it does come highly recommend!
@@IcarusGames It's a fantastic resource for the softer arts of RPGs: Session Zero and campaign creation, linking party backstories, developing a magic system, having a healthy group dynamic, getting players engaged, etc. As a game, it's pretty rules-light, but even if you're running a mechanically-heavy game like D&D, there's a lot you can learn and incorporate from FATE's methodology, which Evil Hat does its best to explain. It also teaches a lot of good roleplaying habits, so I like to use it as my "Intro to Roleplaying" game when I'm playing with people new to the hobby.
The core rulebooks (the stuff without any licensed setting material) and System Toolkit are all pay-what-you-want for the digital versions, so they're an easy grab and I consider them a must-have for any gamemaster who does homebrew.
Check out my full HOW TO: HOMEBREW CAMPAIGN playlist here: ruclips.net/p/PL3cwve_r0qbFtopu_ektfE3k9smywAFOB
i know that this video is old but i’m still kinda confused on what exactly a faction is, is it a city state, a group, an organization i’m still a little stuck
A faction is a group of people with a similar goal. So it could be a guild, a religion, a city government, or anything like that.
I know this is an old video, but you said this is for pathfinder but keep describing it as for your D&D campaign. I haven't heard you say this in any new videos but please do not use these interchangeably. D&D is not Pathfinder and Pathfinder is not D&D. They are separate systems and while they may share the same base people trying to get into TTRPGs hear stuff like this and get very confused
The advice applies for pretty much any system. When world building is concerned, my advice will apply for most fantasy systems with very little adjustment.