Why do I need factions?

[jleonardwv]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

[Unoriginal]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

You don't need factions, they're entirely optional stuff.

A faction is basically a group of NPCs your PCs is in cahoot with, and get perks and bonuses for helping in various ways. Do what they need, and you'll rise up in the ranks, and get more stuff and help from them. Think of it like different adventure guilds for PCs.

All the official adventures have them because a) the factions in the modules are Forgotten Realms groups who have a lot of power, so a good way to have them show up all around the world and b) those adventure modules are also what the Adventure League uses as official scenarios, and the people who play Adventure League get official special perks from them.

[Ventruenox]

Factions are a major element of Adventurers League, WoTC's approach to making D&D as plug & play friendly as possible to the widest audiences possible. (This will be found primarily at your friendly neighborhood comic book/game shop. For those who take that approach, factions are a good thing. Reach out to those crowds for their personal experiences. (Zorrogames, I apologize for calling you out, but you are one grognard whom I would trust in a heartbeat for explanations.)

5E is amazing though. If factions don't work for you, don't use them. This system is designed for flexibility. Every table can be different. Use what works for you and your players. Factions don't come into play with my Homebrewed campaign group, and we have an amazing time with Earth's far future.

[Sigreid]

As the others have said, you don't really need them at all.

That said, what they can give the game is an easy way to give the player's characters quests, information, motivation and access some special equipment or favors that you want to include. Basically, they're a tool for the DM and players to tie the characters into the world a little more closely.

[GreyBlack]

You don't.

./thread

[Knaight]

As has been stated, you don't. That said, factions are basically just organizaitons - the particular set in use is a collection of guild like entities from Forgotten Realms, some of which lean more towards secret societies. The general concept is a lot broader though - a kingdom is a faction, a rebel organization is a faction, a group of bandits is a faction, so on and so forth. Factions are basically just sufficiently large social groups with a common goal and some group identity, and any setting with humans is likely to have them simply because that's how humans have operated from a very long time, including extended family groups in the stone age and similar.

[Angelalex242]

As has been stated, you don't. That said, factions are basically just organizaitons - the particular set in use is a collection of guild like entities from Forgotten Realms, some of which lean more towards secret societies. The general concept is a lot broader though - a kingdom is a faction, a rebel organization is a faction, a group of bandits is a faction, so on and so forth. Factions are basically just sufficiently large social groups with a common goal and some group identity, and any setting with humans is likely to have them simply because that's how humans have operated from a very long time, including extended family groups in the stone age and similar.

Factions can give you adventure league legal magic items. Otherwise...

[LordEntrails]

Why would you think you would need them? Their are all sorts of optional rules in the books you don't need. Just because its there doesn't mean you need to use it. No different than factions being in the adventures. Use them if they add value. Nothing is mandatory.

[MeeposFire]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

I am slightly confused in all your time playing those versions of D&D you never had any organizations that your players could join or work with? It is not like the factions used in 5e Adventures league are that unusual to boot I mean I have had many players say they wanted to join or fight the Harpers and the Zhents so how is this really different?

[bc56]

I don't use them.
When I DM, there's an employer, but I keep faction politics out of the game. I don't want to have to deal with running them.

[Hecuba]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

If you are running a game for some friends, you don't need them if you don't want them.

Factions represent a standardized and relatively systematic way to manage the PCs' relationship with in-setting groups and establishments. The chief benefits of this is also the chief drawback: it creates predictability on that subject for games run by different DMs, but that predictability comes at the cost of flexibility for the individual DM & table.

They are included in the official adventures because part of the design goal there is to facilitate AL games and organized play events, where that predictability is important.

If your table is comfortable managing those relationships by ear, then you can -and perhaps should - ignore them (unless you're shirking a rule of an organized play event in which you are participating).

[ZorroGames]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

You don’t.

I gave been tempted to run a non-faction character many times. In AL it often seems a lazy way to gather diverse goal adventurers for a module or campaign.

They are optional but sometimes are useful. I have yet to benefit from a faction but I have left that aspect very much in the background by choice.

When I started 5e I chose Gauntlet because I played martials, I find nobility (Lord’s Alliance, Ben?) too much fun to tease my fellow players about, and since the original three books I have been heavily martial or clerical Lawful Good (Bye Zhentarim,) in character. I do currently have an almost equal number of Emerald Enclave characters which I blame on Boy Scouts, the harsh beauty of the Mojave and long term hiking in the Sierra Nevadas. More because of Rangers than Druids. Civilization is great but so is Nature even in its fallen state.

Do you need them? Well almost certainly not.

Are they advantageous if you use them for your characters? In many ways yes.

I think of them as a cross between a guild and a union.

Membership has a cost but can have benefits.

Use them if you like them in your games. Little loss if you do not but YMMV.

[ZorroGames]

SNIP

If your table is comfortable managing those relationships by ear, then you can -and perhaps should - ignore them (unless you're shirking a rule of an organized play event in which you are participating).

Yeah when playing or DMing in an AL event they are a thing but even then you can accent or diminish their roles without breaking the game.

[Tanarii]

For the same reason you needed Alignment in grognard D&D.

Which is to say, it tells you what team you're on, or working with, or aligned with.

But also is to say, you don't, really.

Take in to account I'm a huge fan of the way 5e Alignment works, which isn't really about Teams at all any more. :smallwink: But you still don't really need it anyway.

[ZorroGames]

For the same reason you needed Alignment in grognard D&D.

Which is to say, it tells you what team you're on, or working with, or aligned with.

But also is to say, you don't, really.

Take in to account I'm a huge fan of the way 5e Alignment works, which isn't really about Teams at all any more. :smallwink: But you still don't really need it anyway.

Oooh, good comparison!

[Nettlekid]

Can someone clarify - is there a technical definition of "faction" that I'm not understanding? People are referencing AL stuff, are there "factions" through which AL play is mediated? Obviously I understand that in Forgotten Realms lore there are factions like the Harpers or the Zhentarim or whoever, organizations of people with a certain purpose. In just about any game you're going to have some kind of faction, be it the group of mages studying at a mage's college or the collection of guards who don't trust those shifty magic-users or the thieves hiding in the sewers. Any group of people who share an objective could be called a faction, and the world gains infinitely more depth when you understand why these different factions exist and how they brush up against one another. The magiphobic guards learn that you dropped off a shipment of Basilisk Eyes to the mage's college and now they're a little more terse with you, etc. If you're content with "hurr durr hit the monster" for four hours per session then no, you can manage without factions, but if you have any desire to build and flesh out a world then I literally can't imagine not designing some kind of faction that exists within it.

[Unoriginal]

Can someone clarify - is there a technical definition of "faction" that I'm not understanding? People are referencing AL stuff, are there "factions" through which AL play is mediated? Obviously I understand that in Forgotten Realms lore there are factions like the Harpers or the Zhentarim or whoever, organizations of people with a certain purpose. In just about any game you're going to have some kind of faction, be it the group of mages studying at a mage's college or the collection of guards who don't trust those shifty magic-users or the thieves hiding in the sewers. Any group of people who share an objective could be called a faction, and the world gains infinitely more depth when you understand why these different factions exist and how they brush up against one another. The magiphobic guards learn that you dropped off a shipment of Basilisk Eyes to the mage's college and now they're a little more terse with you, etc.

Yes, "Faction" is technically a game term due to the "official AL Factions", which are the Harpers, Zhentarims, Emerald Enclave, and others. They have a few rules tied to them for AL (for examples, I think only the Lords' Alliance accepts Yuan-Ti in its ranks, and they all have specific magic items you can get from them).

The DMG has a chapter on faction optional rules, like "gain X notoriety with them by doing Y task for them to climb the ranks".

But as everyone said, it's all optional, and doesn't remove the existence of other factions who aren't subjected by those rules.



If you're content with "hurr durr hit the monster" for four hours per session then no, you can manage without factions, but if you have any desire to build and flesh out a world then I literally can't imagine not designing some kind of faction that exists within it.

True. Even among monsters, factions tend to be a thing. The Kobolds in a dungeon aren't likely to be pleased with the Slaadi disrupting their mines, etc.

[NecroDancer]

Playing in the Adventure League. My character purposely refuses to join or learn anything about factions. Having nothing to do with factions has yet to affect my character.

[Eric Diaz]

I don't think you NEED factions TBH. And I don't play AL.

But here is why I LIKE factions in my games:

http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com.br/2015/12/game-of-thrones-star-wars-and-what.html

Multiple Important Factions. This might be the best feature of playing in Westeros for my group. It ties everything else together, in some ways.

First, it is easy to introduce an important NPC. If the group meets a knight called "Lyonel Lannister" or "Edric Stark", he already brings dozens of unspoken assumptions in his name. The same happens if they meet a unnamed member of the Kingsguard or the Night's Watch. The best thing, of course, is that there are NO guarantees that those assumptions will be true: the Lannister guy can be an impoverished and gentle warrior, and even a member of the Kingsguard can be incompetent.

A single character can be part of multiple significant circles: a family, a foster family, a knightly order, a group of friends that fought side by side, etc.

And, again, no good or evil: every faction has its own interests, and not all of those interests point the same way. Or, as Jaime Lannister said in the TV series (source):

"So many vows. They make you swear and swear. Defend the King, obey the King, obey your father, protect the innocent, defend the weak. But what if your father despises the King? What if the King massacres the innocent? It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or another."

This kinds of choices - and, well, meaningful choices in general - is what a great campaign is made of.

[Tetrasodium]

I started with the Basic Set back in the day and played 1e, 2e, and now 5e. I don't want factions, I don't understand factions, what in the world do I need factions for? And while I'm grouchy, why do all the WotC official adventures have factions and/or make the DM/players use them?

Not playing or running AL (join the club y0!), you don't need them
Just playing in AL you don't really need them, but some gm's will say you do. it does not really matter what you pick but some of them have different boons you can get in theory if you approach d&d like a chinese goldfarmer (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html)
If you are a new gm it's not bad on a conceptual level to help you keep flogging your group in desirable directions without needing to send an npc with them once hired. But you will uickly learn how to handle gm'ing without the awkward training wheels you would need to read 30 years of drizzt books, untold forgotten realms games, etc in order to really understand them beyond "generic faceless globe spanning network of superfriends who exist with a yellow ! floating above heads" & find that it's easier to just make your own.