Several quests in the starter adventure state that an NPC will approach certain members of the party and offer them to join the organization / faction upon completion of said quest.
1) what does this mean?
2) what are the benefits / restrictions of joining theses groups?
3) how can I customize these for a homebrew?
4) are there higher ranks and benefits?
?
It seems like its tied to the Adventurer's League Faction of their Organized Play Program, which we should know more about before the end of the month.
Not to mention that factions and religious groups are one of my primary means of delivering plot hooks to PCs. I'm looking forward to more guidance from wotc on how they suggest to implement them, as well as how they appear in premade adventures.
I don't do organized play and thought this starter adventure (and that adventure Kobold Press is doing about dragons) were meant to be run for home games. I'm confused by the inclusion of organizations without any support and even more baffled if it's only for organized play.
It's definitely not restricted to organized play. I've always used factions in my DMing. I'll try to post something more concrete once I have more info about the various factions.
In the adventure I'm running from basic (... let's just say that I didn't know local stores had the Starter Set until after we started our havoc with the Basic set...) I have created a few organizations from previous games and incarnations of other organizations I've run across in my adventures. So that my referencing them in this post makes sense, here's a bit about the three big ones:
Draconic Mercantis: an order of dragons and humanoids who attempt to create open mercantilism in the world; they travel to frontier lands to create trade and standardize currency. A copper dragon is their contact in the present adventure.
Sacred Warders of the Silver Flame. an order of humans (clerics, fighters and paladins) who travel the world to relieve the oppressed, protect the innocent, and serve in the name of the Platinum Father.
Red Flame of the Eastern Star. an order of wizards who seek to make magic commonplace and give free education to the common people.
In the present adventure, these orders play tiny parts in offering quests and making social contacts. In future adventures, they will offer discounted prices (DM), quests and healing (SWSF), and knowledge about enemy locations/resources (RFES). If a character who is in the SWSF wants to learn Draconic or Celestial - I reduce the training cost, but not the time, because the people are willing to help. If a character wants to learn how to use thieves tools or a jewelers' kit, I'll do the same with the DM (draconic mercantis). Need a rare artifact's location? Hit up the RFES and ask the librarian of history a question. Whatever it is, these organizations open avenues for information and training.
As to the real world application of similar concepts...
In the real world, membership in an order gives you a few great advantages. For example, if I walk into a masonic lodge, I can pretty well guarantee that I'll get a good meal if they have a meeting that night - if not some good chili dogs and the poops for a few days. If I walk into a music building in a university I do not attend and I step into the Kappa Kappa Psi office, I'll get a run down on the music program, what to expect as a student, and probably the best restaurants in the area - maybe even a place to stay the night. If I travel to Europe, KKPsi doesn't exist in universities there, and freemasons aren't so open with their membership. I won't be afforded every custom that I would expect in my American lodge, but I'll be treated like a brother and can expect fairness from a complete stranger - if not assistance (explaining that is complicated and should just be attributed to "regional differences.")
All this is to say that membership in an organization does not guarantee material gain or mechanical game bonuses, but it should make things more dependable for achieving your goals in concordance with that organization's goals.
Xuub wrote:
I'm not surprised the Starter Set doesn't have much info on factions or organizations being an introductionary product. I like that it ties to the FR organization used in Adventurer's League though, as it facilitate its inclusion as part of the Organized Play program without explicitly saying so.
If a player is approached by a member to join the Zhentarim organization for exemple, a DM can either refer to the Organized Play document or use whatever info it has on them if they don't want to rely on OP material. Or they can use the Internet to find info on it if they know nothing about it. i.e http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Zhentarim
Who they deal with and what benefit they get should be up to the DM then.
I noticed that the D&D Adventures League twitter linked to Dungeon's Master who has a full preview of the factions documentation that will be available. You may find it useful. The link is:
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2014/07/dd-encounters-tyranny-of-dragons-kit-preview/
I found it interesting that they are going with five factions initially. Four famous ones and the Order, which I never heard of before. I like how this image details the three main attributes of each faction:
Also, I imagine details for running faction specific stuff will be in the adventure books and eventually campaign setting book. Hopefully some online reference and Morningstart support as well.
So... we can be a member of the "OG"...
AWH YEAH
If new players to either DnD or Forgotten Realms enter the ecosystem through the Starter Set, then it will be likely that they will have familiarity with (some of) the factions and it will make choosing one less of a thing. I assume this will save some time, which is limited, during organized play sessions. I'm running it Phandelver and I'm not even using the titles, though if a player wants to explore an NPCs motives, or asks, they may find out the name.
Also it could tie into the new campaign books coming out.
Any suggestions on which pre-gen would be approached by which organization?
defense fighter - lord's alliance
archery fighter - order of gauntlet
halfling - zhentarim
elf wizard - harpers
So the dwarf cleric is SOL?
jpedumont wrote:
That makes total sense!
jpedumont wrote:
DM_HEEGZ wrote:
I'm assuming that no one has posted this, yet, because the thread predates the launch of the new site. Still, I assume many aren't aware of this, since the posts were made since the site went live.
This is a link to the "Factions" page of the new site, setting up the "Tyranny of Dragons" storyline. It gives some basic info on each organization, and gives an idea about who might be interested in joining, in some cases.
http://dnd.wizards.com/dungeons-and-dragons/story/factions
Wow. So apparently this newest iteration of the forums (or the fact that I'm on an iPad) means there is an extra step to turn that URL into a link. Well, for now you can copy and paste.
pukunui wrote: