It seems that factions are heavily referenced and/or promoted in the 5th Edition Starter Set and AL game play, and I was curious how others were dealing with this.
Personally, I have chosen to totally ignore (not use) the factions "option" and keep things more streamlined. They just felt like unnecessary fluff that got in the way of things in my campaign...
What have you chosen to do with the factions "option"? Are you using them in game play, and if so, why? Did you decide to skip using them, and if so, why?
Just really curious as to how popular factions are in people's campaigns and their reasons for including or not including them. 
The FR Factions play a pivitol role in Rise of Tiamat, although they appear to be little more than window dressing in Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
Kalani wrote:
Akeisha wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Akeisha wrote:
Kalani wrote:
Akeisha wrote:
Kalani wrote:
We don't use factions in our homebrew campaign because to us, they feel too simplistic and mechanical. Too "crunchy". We have conflicting interests to side with, but they are driven by people rather than organisations.
I think perhaps factions appeal more to players who like the reassurance of belonging to an organised group. My players are a bit more "chaotic"
I seem to remember one of the Kobold Press guys who write the Tyranny books saying that they wanted RoT to be more about political intrigue and they needed large-scale organisations to pit against each other to generate dramatic situations. So factions were a necessary part of RoT and were added to HotDQ as precursor rather than inherently essential. Then, since AL this season is Tyranny, factions needed to be inserted into that. If next season's theme is quite different, they might become irrelevant again.
BoldItalic wrote:
I renamed the factions to fit with my Western theme in Lost Mine of Phandelver. I use them as a means of providing adventure hooks. So joining a faction is just a way to get more opportunities for adventure.
I play in HotDQ but haven't signed on to a faction.
iserith wrote:
I haven't done much with the published adventures; not completely sure about the context. Are you talking about factions as in competing groups or is "faction" a game term?
I use factions pretty heavily in both my homebrew campaign and one-shots. However, there are no game mechanics behind it. I like to have a layer of political intrigue in all my games so factions are a must. There is no really need to declare a faction, but there is no way around being affiliated with them either. To stay neutral is a faction in and of itself, because other characters will try to leverage the fact that a PC wants to stay neutral. Ultimately factions have information, money, people that will not be available to the PCs. Ultimately, factions can be used to create conflicts that don't have to be born from or resolved by violence.