I love using faction play in my games. In fact, I'm not sure if I could still run one without it. Now I know a bunch of games renowned by their good procedures for that: Stars Without Number, Blades in the Dark, and everyone's favorite: Mausritter.

I like all three, with Mausritter also being #1 for me, even if not perfect. Jim Parkin has a good post on enhancing it, it has some good ideas (I like the concept of the random event), but still didn't exactly satisfy me. When I started running the playtests for SaB (on a campaign that is still going), I started experimenting with ways to adjust what I most disliked: The rolls felt to swingy for something supposed to represent a organization working on something overtime.

First I tried removing rolling at all, with factions having a amount of progress to "spend" each turn. Just like too much randomness, no randomness at all also proved to be lacking - the turns felt bland and uninteresting. The solution came by making the factions fill clocks like in BitD, but instead of using the faction's tier, you build your dice poll by counting resources like in Mausritter. That made the rolls somewhat predictable - with stronger factions progressing faster - but still kept enough swingness to allow some turns to be surprising.

The system still looks mostly like the Mausritter one, just with a tweaked resolution. I also do random events, but simply with a 10% chance of happening every faction turn, and instead of a table the event is just whatever idea pops in my brain at the moment. - I wanted the random events to be trully random, even to me.

The updated system follows, along with some examples taken from my campaign:

Factions

A Faction can be any kind of group: armies, adventuring guilds, religious orders, groups of scholars, etc
The GM manages their movement between sessions, applying their interests and actions based on the current landscape of the world around them.
Each faction is described by a summary of who they are, their interests, their Resources and Goals.

Resources

These represent the assets the faction has to forward its agenda: numbers, equipment, knowledge, etc. Each faction should start with 2-4 resources. With 2 being a small group still building its power, and 4 being a well established force to be respected. Factions with at least 3 resources have enough numbers or assets to form Detachments.
As the faction progresses its goals, they'll acquire new resources or empower their existing ones. And at the same time, they can be weakened or lost if the faction is attacked.

Goals

These are the things the faction is working towards at the moment, each of them require a certain amount of progress to be achieved, ranging from 4 to 12 depending on the complexity:

• 4 Progress are goals that are quite simple and immediate to achieve, needing mostly time and effort to be applied.
• 6 Progress are goals that are still simple, but might require some tricky steps to be completed.
• 8 Progress are complex goals, needing multiple steps, knowledge and preparation to be achieved.
• 12 Progress are goals truly difficult to achieve, requiring a long time, hard work and caution. Once achieved, they make major changes on the landscape around the faction.

The Faction Turn

Between sessions, the GM will roll for the progress of each faction's goals. It's up to you if that will happen after every session, depending on how fast you want things to change, but it's recommended that it happens once every 1-2 weeks of game time.

During the faction turn, the faction will choose to focus in one of its goals, and them gather a pool of d6s:

• Add 1d6 for each resource useful towards the goal.
• Add or subtract 1d6 if the faction is on an advantageous or precarious position due to external reasons (e.g. the PCs are helping them, or their target is inaccessible).
• If another faction is the target of the goal, subtract 1d6 for each resource the target has that helps protecting them.

Roll all dice gathered, each result of 4+ makes 1 progress towards the goal. If a faction has no dice to roll, they fail to make progress this turn.

When a faction completes a goal, add a new resource or rewrite an existing one to represent their increase in power. Equally, if they targeted another faction, it loses or rewrites a resource to represent their losses. Such changes should be noticed in the game, either through gossip, rumors or visible events.

To my players: If you're one of the Carlos, turn back now, spoilers ahead!

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Factions on the Prismatic Sea

Quick context pitch of the campaign:

Thousands of years ago, a group of sorcerers founded a city amidst a great desert, and along the centuries, it festered into a massive urbanscape that attracted eyes from all over the universe. Until one day they bit more than they could chew and caused an arcane cataclysm that destroyed the city.
Now, centuries later, the PCs are one of the thousands of people who settled around the ruins in a daring attempt to wrestle wealth, power or knowledge from what remains of the great city.

The Sandclaws

A clan of psionic warriors dating back from the days of the great city, they survived the cataclysm due to living deeply underground. See themselves as the rightful rulers of the prismatic desert, and plan to show no mercy to the "invaders".

Resources

• An army of warriors trained to fight together since childhood.
• Mastery of psionic arts and how to use them in battle.
• Full access to the massive network of tunnels underneath the ruins.
• Nearly impenetrable fortress deep underground.

Goals

• [0/8] Establish a network of telepathic spies.
• [0/4] Capture and interrogate adventurers, learning who can pose a threat to the Sandclaws.
• [0/12] March on war against the invaders.

Brack Banking Company

A family of bankers who, as bankers do, decided to exploit the precariousness of the life around the ruins for profit, by loaning money to desperate adventurers at insane rates.

Resources

• Virtually infinite money.
• Excellent charlatans and negotiators.
• Influence over a few hundred people who are indebted to them.

Goals

• [0/6] Improve their reputation with the common folk.
• [0/12] Start a enterprise to mine the rare metals found in the city's underground.

The Children of the Fall

Acolytes of a secluded cult to an ancient god of magic, they know well that the sorcerers' unchecked ambition is what brought down the great city. They seek to attain, understand and keep the knowledge and power from that time before it falls into the hands of someone who will commit the same mistakes again.

Resources

• Dozens of members well-versed in illusions and negotiation.
• Access to ancient magic and artifacts from their god.
• Fully secluded, they're known to exist but no one's sure about their real intentions or capabilities.

Goals

• [0/6] Spread their numbers for maximum coverage of the ruins.
• [0/8] Establish a hidden archive where they can store their findings.
• [0/12] Understand what was the source of power that allowed the sorcerers to build the great city.

The Gilded Brotherhood

A ragtag band of young mercenaries that united after being rejected and mocked for their inexperience. In a twist of fate, they came in possession of powerful magical gear, and now intend to show what they're capable of to those who once disrespected them.

Resources

• Enough magical weapons and armor to fully outfit their dozen or so members.
• Specialized in stealth and guerrilla tactics.

Goals

• [0/6] Hunt a powerful creature as display of force.
• [0/8] Obtain more magical gear.
• [0/8] Recruit more warriors.

Lord Ignis

A charming and arrogant nobleman with a natural talent for the arcane. In truth, his bloodline traces back to one of the sorcerers who founded the great city, and he plans to rebuild it under his reign, more powerful than it ever was.

Resources

• A cadre of devout followers who believe in him as a rightful ruler.
• Limited, but consistent knowledge about the great city and the sorcerers.
• Financial and social resources granted by the noble status.

Goals

• [0/12] Uncover all the steps to a ritual of immortality.
• [0/12] Locate the grimoire of his ancestor.
• [0/8] Secure direct access to an arcane leyline.

Night Hounds

A tightly connected network of assassins and spies, brought together by the common goal of controlling power from the shadows. The members act mostly alone, indirectly creating opportunities for each other to prosper.

Resources

• Agents infiltrated everywhere, from common folk to factions.
• Complete discretion, they aren't even known to exist.

Goals

• [0/12] Place a spy inside the Brack Banking Company, and slowly funnel money into their agents.
• [0/6] Learn how to proper navigate the network of underground tunnels, possibly through deals with other adventurers.

Deserters

A group of veterans who were expelled, abandoned or escaped from their former allegiances and banded together for mutual survival. They seek to protect the common folk from the whims of those in power, being a brotherhood for the brotherless.

Resources

• A few dozen veterans who have been trough the worst. Loyal to each other.
• A bunch of specialists and common workers with varied capabilities.

Goals

• [0/12] Build a stronghold where they can shelter those on the run.
• [0/8] Recruit other defectors by wrestling unhappy members from the other factions.

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