RPG Design Patterns

Segregate characters into opposing groups to promote in-game conflict.

Clan, Code

Alignment, Idiom

A faction is a group or category to which characters belong. A faction may be represented as an organization, such as a mob family or police department. Or, it may be abstract, as is represented by the concepts of “good” and “evil.” What is important is that factions adopt codes of conduct, either explicitly or implicitly, that come into opposition with what the game’s other factions consider acceptable. Then, when a player has a character perform acts in accordance with his faction’s code, a counter response is demanded by characters of other factions. This generates conflict to drive the story forward.

In a game with many factions, it is possible for different factions to have common goals at times. In these cases, two or more factions may actually cooperate with one another for their mutual interests. However, a well-designed faction system ensures that some factions exist that will take exception to virtually any action. So, even though some factions may cooperate with one another on occasion, their collective opposing factions are likely to unite against them.

For example, in a modern-era game exploring the inhumanity of America’s underworld, a terrorist organization might link up with organized crime in order to obtain black- market weapons. Neither of these groups trusts one another, and neither would go out of its way to support the other. They might even come into conflict with one another on occasion. But, the terrorists’ need for weapons and the black-market’s need for cash bring them together to serve their mutual goals. However, an arms deal of this nature is likely to attract the attention of not only the local police force and the FBI, but also that of the CIA and Homeland Security.

Conflict is the heart and soul of role-playing games. The faction pattern does a good job of generating inter-group conflict but does a poor job of generating inter-personal conflict. If your game is more about person-to-person conflict rather than group-to- group conflict, you may want to avoid introducing factions into your game.

The Faction pattern introduces tension between characters in different factions merely by the fact that the characters belong to different opposing groups. When characters perform actions that support their own factions, they often oppose the interests of other factions and conflict inevitably results.

The Faction pattern does its job of promoting conflict between groups. Characters in different factions will conflict with one another. So, if you want to encourage cooperation between player characters, you need to either avoid using this pattern altogether or ensure that player characters all belong to the same faction. At the very least, you need to restrict characters to a sub-set of highly-similar factions that generally get along well, even though minor differences will inevitably cause some degree of conflict to arise, however small.

You also need to specify each faction’s code of behavior, making sure that characters following that code necessarily oppose the interests of other factions. This demarcation is critical. Suppose you hear of a game where characters belong to law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA, local police, or Homeland Security. Would that tell you enough to let you know where the game’s major source of conflict arose? Hardly. Such a game could be designed such that all player characters are member of the “Law Enforcement” faction, working harmoniously in conjunction with one another to oppose crime in all its forms regardless of the specific organization to which each character belonged. Or, it might be all about inter-agency competition where gaining credit for a “collar” was all-important, regardless of which agency actually deserved it. In such a game, the actual solving of a crime might be of secondary importance. Most likely, though, it would fall somewhere in-between these two extremes.

Factions can have either a minor effect on your game or a major one. This ultimately depends on how much you reward players for having their characters support their factions in opposition to other factions. The rewards can come in many forms. However, if you want a character’s faction to have a significant influence on how players role-play their characters, make sure that the rewards given for supporting a faction are either

1. Entirely independent of other reward systems.
2. Or, the primary means of obtaining a given reward.

Once again, if you want factions to have only a minor effect on play, you probably should reconsider using this pattern altogether. After all, why introduce complexity into your game for a minor benefit? Strip it out and focus the rules purely on the game’s central core.

Suppose we want to create a game about the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In doing so, we could create several factions modeled after historical groups involved in the movement and require that each character in our game be a member of one of them. Some of the groups and their beliefs might be described as follows:

1. All races are equal.
2. All races should live together peacefully.
3. Violence is unacceptable as a means to victory.

1. All races are equal.
2. The black race should form its own separate nation.
3. Violence is acceptable as a means to victory.

1. The white race is superior to all other races.
2. Blacks and whites should be segregated.
3. Violence is acceptable as a means to victory.

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Nobilis has five “Affiliations” that act as factions. These are “Heaven,” “Hell,” “Light,” “Dark,” and the “Wild.” Each of these factions has its own “Code” and these Codes come into direct conflict with those of other factions. For example, the highest principles of each of these codes are

1. “Beauty is the highest principle.” (Heaven)
2. “Corruption is the highest principle.” (Hell)
3. “Humanity must live, and live forever.” (Light)
4. “Humans should destroy themselves, individually.” (Dark)
5. “Freedom is the highest principle.” (Wild)

The primary reward system of the game involves awarding Miracle Points to players for having their characters follow their code in situations where doing so involves conflict.

The World of Darkness actually contains two forms of faction in Vampire: the Requiem. One faction involves a vampire’s “Clan,” which represents a character’s particular breed of vampire. Players must choose one of five clans: “Daeva,” “Gangrel,” “Mekhet,” “Nosferatu,” and “Ventrue.” (Clans also follow the Template pattern, in that they provide characters with skills.) Each of the clans has “Stereotypes” of how they view the other clans. These stereotypes are universally derogatory, although each clan varies in the degree to which it looks down upon the others. The other faction category involves a character’s “Covenant.” A covenant is a vampire organization or government. Players may choose from “The Carthinians,” “The Circle of the Crone,” “The Invictus,” “The Lancea Sanctum,” and “The Ordo Dracul.” Each of these covenants has its own aspirations and is involved in political maneuverings against the others. So, the game is brimming with built-in conflict.