The Island - Playing with Fate - Faction Affiliation Part Two

In part two of the Faction Affiliation design journal, I am going to discuss the Faction Affiliation Rating (F.A.R.) and the impact it has both on a character and with the faction to which it refers. After that I'll be moving on to the Faction Conflict Mechanic.

Faction Affiliation Rating
Each character sheet is going to have an area designated for Faction Affiliation Rating. My current ideas behind how this works is it will start with zero. As the players interact with the various factions on the island, this will increase and decrease. The rating will start at zero.

My idea is whatever else is going on plot-wise, in factions the players have made contact with, various "side-jobs" would be available. Depending on the difficulty of the assistance rendered, it would be worth a certain amount of Faction Points. The Faction Points are an abstract way of measuring acceptance, trust and influence a character has with a given faction. At the moment I'm thinking that the F.A.R. will range between 0 (unknown) and 10 (Faction Hero).

How is the F.A.R. used? First, there is the Faction Benefit. These are going to be Aspects and Stunts available to those who reach an appropriate level. As soon as a character reaches the appropriate level with the faction they will have access to all F.B.s of that level and below.

Additionally, the F.A.R. can be used like currency during a Faction Conflict. A player can spend F.A.R. points from a third party when two factions are going up against each other. This will enlist the aid of that faction in the conflict on whatever side the player desires. This will essentially be calling in a favor and will lower the character's F.A.R. with that faction by that amount until they do something for the faction to regain the previous level.

Example: Fartosh sees that the Reapers are preparing to attack the Innocents. However, he has a rating of 5 with the Repentant faction and chooses to spend 2 of those points to aid the Innocent's defense. Now the when the GM rolls for the conflict, he adds to to the defense total of the Innocents and says that at the last moment a troop of Repentants join the fray and push the Reapers back into their own territory.

Faction Conflicts
As I mentioned in my last post, Faction Conflicts are going to be an adaptation of the Franchise Conflict from Time Heroes of Fate. While the idea behind it itself will be similar, the mechanics will be more in-depth and fleshed out. I want the system to illustrate the potential for changing alliances and possibly points when characters will have to look out for themselves over the whole of the group.

The first thing I want to say is that character involvement in Faction Conflicts is going to be secret. The conflicts themselves will occur at the end of a session. The players will write down what (if any) F.A.R. points they will be spending from which factions and pass them to the GM. The GM will then make the necessary rolls, privately adding the appropriate bonuses. After, the GM announces the results of the conflict.

I think I'm going to have the consequence boxes for the factions represent strongholds or important parts of the Island they control. As they lose conflicts, they lose the area in the appropriate consequence box. I haven't yet decided if it will then go to the winning side. I suppose it would make sense.

The skills are broken up into offensive and defensive versions (except for the Trade skill, which is simply an indicator of what that particular faction is known for being able to offer to the island's economy as a whole). Whatever skill is being used by the aggressor determines the defense used by the defender.

I'm going to do one more post on Faction Affiliation where I'm going to show some examples of factions I plan on designing between now and tomorrow. As always, feel free to comment or question! As was yesterday's post, this one was freeflowing, so if I missed something I meant to touch on, let me know.