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Excellent Additional Faction Information; Bonuses as well
Topic Started: Oct 25 2013, 04:39 PM (451 Views)
LiquidDreamer
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Dungeon Master
Well, i was shopping around for additional info when i stumbled across this site, needless to say it got bookmarked. Everyone with a PC in a faction should give it a look over, as it shows some special abilities commanded by those in each faction.

Now granted, we don't have these in the mods but the builders may be persuaded to change it or depending on the PC, NPC, DM, or EM, your interacting with they might allow what's listed.

As a way to hopefully boost faction involvement I am all for it.

http://www.funkplanet.com/dnd/PS/factions.html
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Whatever this is "Dog, dey be like, baller as *** y'alls. Dey is got PHAT ACs n dey abz is like pizschow, 'aight?"


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Fraternity of Order

Society Of Sensation

Xaositects
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Mr_Otyugh
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Not adding them has been a deliberate building choice. We don't want people to choose factions on basis of benefits to their builds.
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Darkrob
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If EM's/DM's (and players in private/local RP) are willing during their events, most of these can be RP'd anyhow. It all depends on the individuals/players involved.
Charles Goodman - owner of The Consortium and Chairman of the Syndicate - Indep and Merkhant
Daniela Nokomis- "The Enclave" - Vampiress, The woman in White, Soul Stealer, Merchant
Garen Seph - Fraternity of Order B3

"You may think you have us surrounded, but in reality you have simply put us in a target rich environment."
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Agony_Aunt
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Get a Life
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Plus some of them just are not implementable, or even worse, would cause most people to completely avoid that faction, eg: Godsmen Resurrection Immunity - right, that would be like implementing a Hardcore mode for one faction only. Dustmen also with a 50% failure rate due to Craving for Death.
Stepped down as admin, but still lurking.
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Midnight
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Factor
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As I said to one of the doomguard players in the forum thread I'd be allow them but it works both ways and if the PCs meet hostile members of other factions expect them to use faction abilities of their own.

This of course only applies to forum rp when it gets in game there's the limitation of game mechanics and as with any rp power not supported mechanically I think you should need the consent of everyone involved for it to work.

On a side note I'm against anything that puts people off playing a dustie. I think I am the only one and it is lonely. :P
Partial Character list:
Annia Jahram (Retired)
Jentia Snyden (Retired)
Rania Dias (Mercykiller Tracker)
Elliana Wettel (Godsman Smith)
Caterina Arnders (Fraternity Judge)
Emila Valios (Dustman Factor)

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Selebius
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While fun they are hardly balanced and often rather situation dependent.

Also as I am not a fabn of the factions anyway I try to stay clear of those :P.
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LiquidDreamer
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Aw, well i tried :beatdeadhorse:

What would boost faction participation you think?
Quote:
 
Whatever this is "Dog, dey be like, baller as *** y'alls. Dey is got PHAT ACs n dey abz is like pizschow, 'aight?"


Factions: Don't be afraid to shoot me a PM.

Fraternity of Order

Society Of Sensation

Xaositects
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Er_Nano_Infame
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EL NANO!!
Tester
what a question... boobs on the recruiting posters, of course. what else?

hmmm...

maybe easier links and references to more extensive factions lore in the web. ah, but who i kid? there're lore books in game too, and how many stops and read them? few, i'd wager. i have yet to read most of them admittedly

perhaps explaining better how each faction relates to each other (i know guides were made already in general discussion section, so perhaps find and pin them) and toward the dreaded sigillian law and its limits. so for istance our hardhead or mercykiller guard knows what they can do, and consequentially how to get around it...

but certain factions are more...philosophical than others, so i point again to the point above (not the boobs, the references and links to lore materials)
Maewind:''That's still plant-hating! That makes you a plant racist!''

Lucelle Vand'hovar: ''Miss Maewind, i assure you, the plants started this conflict.''

Nienna: ''Razorvine is hardly a plant, in her defense.''

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Ninefingers
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Greybeard
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Consistent activity is really the only way to encourage people. It often feels like the Triad of Law is over-represented, since they're generally the more active players. It also feels like there's more EM/DM participation in Harmonium/Mercykiller related lines, though that could well be a matter of convenience more than anything else.

So short version? I'd start with players, get a semi-regular group going, start doing things (even if it's as simple as gathering people up for a planewalk under the auspices of "Hey, there's a MacGuffin that probably totally really matters to OUR FACTION!" it's getting people doing something), maybe find an EM/DM to run something more complex, go from there.

Also boobs.
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Agony_Aunt
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When people say "Triad of Law" i think sometimes they view this as one big happy family of factions. The Triad of Law is at best an uneasy alliance that generally work together because often their basic aims are in alignment. However, behind the scenes you can be sure there is plenty of faction rivalry going on, and remember, each faction wants to be top dog.

And never forget about sub-factions. They are what really bring in the faction intrigue.

It doesn't matter if most players are from the Triad of Law (or the Triad of Chaos or whatever the other rough alliances are called), or even if every player on the server played a Harmonium, because the factions have internal rivalries that can be as strong, if not stronger than their external rivalries.

And as Ninefingers saids, McGuffins can do wonders. Ravel is good at pulling McGuffins out of his ass and making events happen even when he is player side, its a shame he doesn't touch factions.

And yes, boobies.
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Tomekk
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Considering how the Triad of Law have the most things to do, is it surprising if they have the most members?:P

It has been argued time and time again, and it always ended up with this conclusion: you're not going to see 15 active factions with a playerbase of this size; and giving them bullsh*t mechanical abilities isn't going to help.
"From the realms below we ride,
And in terror they run and hide,
From the shadows of old we rise,
Awakened, from the dark!

Over the ancient ruins we fly,
Where the old kings go to die,
And the new kingdoms rising high,
Awakened, from the dark, dark slumber!"
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Mr_Otyugh
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There are so many reasons why Factions aren't big enthrallment to players and why some of them are more popular than others. And here are some of them laid out:

Simplicity/Relatability
  • Factions which are simpler to understand usually have more popularity. This is why Harmonium remains the highest activity faction since the begin of times... it's playing a police, nothing could be simpler (in a remotely appealing way). The further away you go from the "simple" ideology, the less activity you will see. Sensates and Godsmen are also semi-frequented, but try a Signer or a Cipher and most seem to draw blank in the whole "What should I do as one?". The lines aren't clear as to how to play a compelling archetypical factioneer of such organization and reading a wall of text isn't quite that appealing in the age of twitter.

    Or you could even know what the faction is about, but just fail to be able to relate to it in an immersive manner. Which again really just makes it simpler to not even give it a go since it might just be a horrible failure and waste of time.
Activity
  • Another big reason is already existing activity. These are what I'd call "unreliable" members since at the first moment of something else getting more activity, they're as good as gone. Characters that hop into bandwagon will continue to do so to every other bandwagon out there, so while there's temporary benefit, I don't see a longterm gain out of it unless wanting to support the faction for a very long time. Otherwise activity is great way to reward the more long lasting members rather than a means to gain other members.
Reputation
  • IC Reputation governs quite a bit what people think about factions OOC. There was a time when everyone and their mother thought Hardheads were pure manifestation of tyranny, and then even made characters to Harmonium that were exactly that. Same went with Anarchists whom were for a good while huge bombers and terrorists, even though there are a number of different archetypes in them and any other faction.

    So currently on going reputation is likely to shape what people know about factions, rather than a broader perspective. If characters had a broad perspective to Factions, I bet there'd be a lot more diversity in each faction.
Illusion of Power
  • Sometimes people just love the ability to govern what happens to other players character... even if they really have none, but there is an illusion of power. One which is often also carried by other player characters around, and everyone has a nagging consideration "Does my/their character really have the ability to do this?"

    Of course there's the whole issue where things are divided with "should/shouldn't have power" compared to "This is just silly now, of course they'd have power." which perhaps should have a bit better articulated as to who and what has authority and where... on other hand, Sigil's power structure is a mess where the guys with most clubs have the power in the very small vicinity they are at the time being.
There's few others such as having a character concept they like, but not many factions that fit in them, then there's friends, intent to be recruited by faction at later date but none of them seem to try or really just wanting one specific faction to really do it even if telling yourself you're being openminded... plenty reasons out there, won't find just one since there's a lot of players with their own reasons.

But this has made me to think having a more visual map of factions and their relations... will have to ponder that for a while and then use my awesome paint skillz to draw something up that may or may not have something to make it a quick referencial guide also.
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Agony_Aunt
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From a RP and lore perspective, almost all factions have something to do. Admittedly, some of those are harder to act out in a CRPG world, especially when there is no DM present to constantly interact with you brilliantly RPing embalming corpses in the mortuary as a Dustman, or spray painting the gents toilet in the Triarium pink and chaging the signs on the doors as a Xaoxcitec.

But all factions have their place in Sigil and things to be doing there.

But yes, with the playerbase then we will never have 15 active factions. The best we can hope for is a few factions at a time getting up to stuff and perhaps people rotate around a bit.

But of course, not everyone wants to play a factioneer anyway. Not every character concept fits with a faction.

I suppose the main thing for people to keep in mind is that this is Sigil, and whatever RP they get up to, there are going to be (NPC) factioneers around paying attention to their antics. So, maybe you have nothing to do with factions, but your quest to retrieve Item X from Pane Y might just interest half a dozen factions.

And make no mistake, its the factions that run Sigil. Maybe your character has no interest in the factions, the factions are vying for the heart and spirit of the city, and that includes its citizens.
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Darkrob
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The factions of law (the Triad) get the most love because, generally, they’re the most political and members (players) have the most say in the day to day business of the city. That isn’t to say they actually direct the city in any given (or meaningful) way, only that they are the closest to “Government” positions. Most players, who enjoy such RP, will generally gravitate towards these sorts of Factions as they’re the easiest to assimilate into daily IG RP.

Most other factions, aside from their internal workings, have little to no effect on the daily workings of the city. Oh the sinkers love to bring decay and the Dustmen love to play with the dead and Anarchists love to create, well, Anarchy, but their plots and events bring little to the political table. They’re short lived “I want to play a Chaosman!” faction ideas that fade as soon as interest wanes. They’re the Factions of “neat ideas for character concepts” and good for little else. They require a great deal of EM/DM attention to maintain relevancy and that just isn’t going to happen.

That being said, Agony is correct in stating that the Factions of the Triad are less than cozy with each other. They all resent each other for various reasons, hold little trust for each other and will actively work against each other when they can get away with it. They will strong-arm each other, undermine each other, sabotage each other and generally make life difficult for each other... but will still maintain a flimsy alliance to prevent their shared enemies from gaining any ground.

Even internally the members will work against each other to make themselves more important and gain within their factions. My reasons for getting people up the Fraternity ladder (with Garen) are not entirely because he’s a nice guy. I have other reasons I don’t share. Suffice to say… it’s for personal reasons he keeps to himself and is not because of some view of greater good for the Fraternity.

In the long run… love for the “fringe factions” (as I tend to call them) will always be scarce. The only ones to get attention will be the popular ones… and the popular ones are the ones who bring “assumed” (incorrectly or not) power and influence in the city. This isn’t going to change any time soon.
Charles Goodman - owner of The Consortium and Chairman of the Syndicate - Indep and Merkhant
Daniela Nokomis- "The Enclave" - Vampiress, The woman in White, Soul Stealer, Merchant
Garen Seph - Fraternity of Order B3

"You may think you have us surrounded, but in reality you have simply put us in a target rich environment."
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Agony_Aunt
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Mr_Otyugh,Oct 28 2013
07:11 PM
But this has made me to think having a more visual map of factions and their relations... will have to ponder that for a while and then use my awesome paint skillz to draw something up that may or may not have something to make it a quick referencial guide also.

I gave it a go here...

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:P
Stepped down as admin, but still lurking.
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