This week Play on Target considers Communities &
Organizations in RPGs. This covers a wide range of elements in our games:
factions, locales, icons, and clans. When done well, I adore these elements
in games. I like how they offer a shorthand for GMs and a resource for
players. The smartest games make them into a conversation. They inform players
about the world without resorting to an info dump. But they also offer a channel
to support the players with strings attached. A good faction ought to
give and call in favors- a two-way street.
Before I move on I want to direct your attention to RPG Geek’s VirtuaCon, an online gaming convention coming up October 10th-12th.
Play on Target came together through RPG Geek and we’re the "unofficial" podcast of
the site. VirtuaCon offer 60+ events for free, including games and panels. You can see the full list here. I’ll be running four games and one panel, as well as
participating in several others. Expect me to collapse by the end of that
weekend.
KILL THE SORTING HAT
I’ve been thinking about what fiction has factions and organizations
as useful touchstones. Steven Brust’s Jhereg comes to mind. While the
main character only belongs to one faction, the interactions between
the other Houses define that world. Eventually when a character of a
particular house appears on scene, they arrive with a set of expectations. Brust develops
those naturally over time. Harry Potter offers another example. Ravenclaw,
Hufflepuff, and the other ones each represent a kind of faction in the world.
School games can easily replicate this or break things along other lines
(Years, Clubs, and Nationalities). You might also be able to read the Marvel
Universe this, with the political and power splits of X-Men (Good Mutants),
Brotherhood (Evil Mutants), Inhumans (???). You have strong characters leading each. Maybe you could borrow
something from 13th Age and have iconic relationships in a modern
supers game.
MODERN FAMILIES
Many games have integrated ideas of factions to help lay out
their world. Brian mentions how World of Darkness has crafted nearly all of the
new worlds (Vampire, Mage, etc) with a two-level system: group and philosophy.
In Changeling the Lost, players select a Seeming and then usually connect
themselves to a Court. That’s given added complexity through a system of “special
interest clubs,” the Entitlements. It is interesting to look at games which
offer archetypes that define role (Shadowrun, Earthdawn) versus those which
define interests or allegiance (Legend of the Five Rings, Fading Suns).
In the episode we mention several games focusing exclusively on communities: The Quiet Year, Blood & Honor, Durance, Deluge,
and Kingdom. I want to emphasize that last one. Kingdom’s a really interesting
game and a great exploration of the tensions between competing interests
within a group and the collective desire to maintain a stable society. We don’t mention World of Dew, Ben Woerner’s sequel to Blood & Honor.
This deals with classical Japanese urban society and the lives of the
non-samurai. DramaSystem (Hillfolk & Blood on the Snow) also features many
campaign pitches focusing on the dramas inherent in communities.
HAIL KOBRA?
It’s worth looking at some of the traps and pitfalls that
factions offer as well. For example, I love the factions of Planescape. They’re
supremely cool. But they’re also a great way to get a group at each other’s
throats. If players pin too much attachment to those ideals it can lead to
serious inter-party strife, worse than some alignment BS. Group attachments
also have to have some payoff for the players. They should get a benefit at least slightly outweighing the cost IMHO. They also shouldn’t lock down or severely
restrict the PCs’ choices. If the game’s mobile, any community attachment
shouldn’t guilt them for travelling. Also be aware of the bookkeeping trap. If you
introduce something the players can spend points on or build up, don’t go too
granular. Otherwise you’ll have to track all of those details- especially if
each player has their own to play with. Think about the economy of this. If the
players can invest in something (a town, a base, a ship) figure out how far you
expect them to go, how much that will cost, and how many sessions you expect
them to play. Dole out points and set costs accordingly.
Most importantly if you present groups and communities in a
game, you need to be willing to explain how and why they function. What does
the Thieves Guild offer people? Why don’t the authorities directly act against
it? If they’re so powerful, why don’t they take over? You need to establish the
logic of these things. That’s especially true with authority groups, since
players usually have a knee-jerk reaction against those. For example, the Court
system in Changeling the Lost often
irritates PCs. Why would Changelings replicate a hierarchy out in the real
world when they’ve just escaped from that? I have something of the same
reaction to Werewolf Clan structures. The answer is that they are doing something
collectively that individuals couldn’t do, for the benefit of the group as a
whole. That’s often hidden and forgotten behind layers of ritual. In CtL the
Courts and their cyclical nature offer a powerful magic to help conceal the
Freehold from the attentions of the Keepers. If that magic weren’t in place,
then everyone would be vulnerable. Authority groups have duties and obligations
and shirking or concealing those should cause them distress.
ALLIANCE, HORDE, I’M
THE GUY WITH THE EPS…
I have a useful trick for integrating communities in a meaningful
way: put the players in charge. Make that part of the game's premise from the start. It’s
a little like a Star Trek game. Everyone’s an officer and the ship’s a
community. It’s a shared resource and responsibility. This is how I’ve handled
two recent campaigns. For The Last Fleet, everyone took up a role in this
rag-tag Fantasy/BSG fleet. Each player represented a particular ship/race. They
had to balance the desires of their own peoples against the needs of the fleet as
a whole. That meant sometimes enforcing rules and roles against their own. One player ended up effectively exiled from them for her choices. I’ve
also done that with our homebrew L5R game, The New Dragon. Borrowing from Blood
& Honor, everyone holds and office and we switch between classic adventures
and seasonal actions.
DELTA BLUE AND BUREAU
17
I’ve written a few posts related to this topic you might
find useful:
- The "What My Father Told Me" Trick is the best thing I’ve stolen from Glorantha. A useful way to give players info on communities and their background. Alternately you can have the players generate these, as they did for my Last Fleet campaign. Check out the Nocturne Consortium Goblins and the White Elves.
I’ve done several posts assembling games with a
group or faction theme.
- “Home Is Where The Sword Is: Communities and Groups in RPGs” mentions many of the games we spoke about in the episode.
- "Trader to the Crown: Merchants in RPGs" looks at trade as an rpg element.
- "By Sword, Spell and Spectre: Warfare in Fantasy RPGs" looks at games with rules for armies, companies, and organized warfare.
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