Factions are a staple of OSR adventures, but with a few exceptions most rulebooks don’t have rules for creating factions, so there is high variance in their appearance in adventures. Good faction design introduces greater dynamism into adventures. Factions players interact with may act as a hindrance or source of aid depending on the events that unfold in play. The following are what I think are the most important components of factions with some examples from rulebooks and adventures that are illustrative.

Components

1. Name

Lets start with an obvious one. A faction needs a name. Sometimes the name will be highly specific like “the Shadow Order of Accursed Flame”, but a faction could also just be called “the bandits”. The important thing is that by naming a faction, NPCs are then able to it. That which is not named does not exist, at least not socially.

2. Quantity

Every faction has an implicit or explicit quantity of NPCs belonging to that faction. Factions come in all sizes. A very powerful individual such as a dragon or wizard can act as a faction of one, or a faction could be an army of thousands. In Desert Moon of Karth, it includes the “population” of each faction, and in the case of factions with class divisions, lists the numbers of each sub-group within the faction. It is more common to have a more vague sense of the quantity of a faction. This is fine, an exact number is unnecessary, but it is helpful for the GM to have a general sense of the faction size. Does the faction consist of a select few, some, a village worth, a hoard, etc.? How does that affect their behavior?

3. Goals & Desires

A faction wants things, and this is the most important component of a faction. Goals and desires make the faction open to negotiation. It also implicitly means the faction faces an obstacle that has kept that goal out of reach. Faction obstacles deserve greater consideration than they typically receive. Thinking clearly about them is what will distinguish your faction from some cliched video game style quest-giver. In Desert Moon of Karth it also lists fears for each faction. Fears can be thought of as a type of desire, in other words, a desire to avoid a particular outcome. A faction doesn’t need a fear, but I mention it as a way of broadening the scope of what counts as a goal. Good faction goals should be specific, actionable, and have meaningful stakes. A band of knights might seek glory, but that is a banal goal unlikely to elicit concern from a party. On the other hand, if that band of knights plans to make a name for themselves by slaughtering a group of trolls, and those trolls will then obviously seek revenge on the neighboring village that the party is on good terms with, we now have a specific situation more likely to grab the party’s attention.

4. Resources, Benefits & Advantages

Resources and benefits provide reasons for why NPCs might join a faction, and will color negotiations between players and the faction. Resources are things the players might utilize if they ally with the faction, and inversely threats they reckon with if they cross a faction. As with goals and desires, it is better if resources are specific and usable within the context of the game. For example, in Fever Swamp, it is said that the warriors of the Tree-Wearing House “are skilled ambushers, and their warriors have mastered the use of breathing-tubes to allow for amphibious attacks.” One important resource that is often inadequately considered is faction knowledge. This is particularly relevant within the context of a dungeon crawl. What can a faction tell the party about the surrounding area?

5. NPCs

Factions consist of NPCs. Therefore it can be helpful to include a few specific NPCs that the party are able to interact with. Specific NPCs provide an opportunity to add depth and texture to a faction, as NPCs can have different relationships within the faction. There can be a mix of specific and stock characters for a faction. In the first edition of Vaults of Vaarn, the factions of Gnomon all have leader NPCs that have six or so traits or details, but also some stock rank-and-file type NPCs that just have standard NPC stat blocks.

6. Scope

Factions possess different scopes depending on the needs of the table. Sometimes factions exist purely within the context of a single adventure, and other times they are a persistent feature of the social fabric of the campaign. The scope of the faction will determine the amount of care to detail that they deserve. Not every faction should be equally important to your campaign. It is much more manageable to have maybe 3 or 4 factions that persist through play, interspersed with minor factions that make brief appearances in adventures.

7. Ability to Take Action

Factions should be able to have an impact on the world. Otherwise they are just cheap props, and the game world will feel less alive. How factions make that impact on the world is not always considered, although there are a couple of notable techniques. In Mausritter, between sessions the GM is instructed to roll a d6 for each faction, and on a 4+, they make some progress towards a goal that has between 2 to 5 progress pips. Additionally, players have the ability to advance or set back these progress pips through the course of play. This strikes a balance between a simulation style of play where the world operates independently of the players, while also preserving the ability of players themselves to have an impact on the game world.

Another technique is the use of conditionals for scripting faction behavior. If a happens, then the faction does b, but if x happens, then the faction does y, and if all else fails, then the faction does z. In Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier, it describes what happens if any of the powerful NPCs achieve their goals, leave the dungeon, and so on. Conditionals are a powerful tool, but should be used sparingly. Going overboard with conditionals leads to difficult to follow logic. Also conditionals are not the best use of prep time since the party will only end up making one decision. Including lots of conditionals is anticipating things that could happen, but won’t. In the end the party is just as likely to make an unanticipated choice. Every conditional considered that isn’t utilized is wasteful prep time. Overall, it is better to have a clear sense of general principles of how the faction operates without trying to rigidly define its actions. Consider the resources at its disposal, and how it might use those resources to achieve its goals.

8. Relationships

Factions will have relationships with other factions, and they will have a relationship with the party. Relationships can either be fixed or in flux. Sometimes fixed relationships make more narrative sense, but in flux relationships are more interesting and can be gamed. So they should be heavily preferred. Relationships are one-sided or mutual. That is, sometimes factions despise each other, but also sometimes one faction is envious of another faction, but that faction is unaware of the former. Goals can be used to determine the relationship between the factions.

When handling long-term factions attitude to players in place of a reaction roll, you can have a reaction index. In other words, a numeric score equivalent to a reaction roll that determines the faction’s relationship to the party. As the party does things that the faction likes or dislikes, you adjust that score as appropriate.

9. Territory

One final consideration for factions is they occupy space in the world. Presumably the faction is not ubiquitious. Where can they be found? Do they have a lair or center of power, or are they nomadic? Where would it not make sense to see members of the faction, and if one were to see them there, what would that say about the state of the world? What does their existence in a particular place say about them? If in the context of a megadungeon, how does that affect the overall ecosystem of power in the megadungeon? Faction territory does not need to be explicitly defined, but is an opportunity to more carefully consider the material history of your game world.

Final Thoughts

Factions are good, and as a GM you should use them. They introduce easy opportunities to inject interactivity into your adventures, and don’t require a ton of prep to create, although you should make sure they have sufficient specificity to have an impact in your game. It is rare to see all the specific components laid out in this post when you read a faction section in an adventure. This can mean there are some creative gaps you can fill to make a faction a more memorable and interesting experience at the table.