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Christopher Grey's Factions Pay What You Want
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Christopher Grey's Factions
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Tim B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/07/2018 19:08:26

Christopher Grey's Factions supplement is a neat rules add-on that dovetails nicely with the Renown optional rules and the Recurring Expenses section (both from the Dungeon Master's Guide). It adds just a teensy bit of extra complexity in the form of:

  1. Faction Levels and the XP necessary to go up (or down!) in standing with a Faction.

  2. Influence, which nets you minor hirelings and henchmen from the Faction.

  3. Property, from which you can generate income, apply your Influence-gained henchmen for daily oversight of the place, and conceivably where you can perform Faction-related duties.

Overall, the systems seem pretty solid for a highly social campaign, but come with a few flaws: Faction Levels use the Challenge of NPCs and conceivably the rules for Social Interaction (also in the DMG) -- though that last bit isn't spelled out -- in order to award XP for interactions with Faction members. Of course, this means tracking an XP number for each Faction in the campaign, and making sure that total is up to date, which notably is a little harder than tracking XP because you also can LOSE points based on your standing with rival Factions. Similarly, the Property portion seems to be derived in part from the Recurring Expenses section in the DMG, but the pricing doesn't quite match up: an Abbey costs 125 gp per day in this book, but only 20 gp per day in the DMG.

The Faction Renown section in this book follows the DMG's Renown optional rules almost to the letter, however.

It's worth noting that the added complexity of these rules do yield some really great results, and thus even if you think, "Hey, I want it to match the core rules EXACTLY!" you could be missing out on some really neat stuff in the interaction tier of the game. The Faction Levels directly correlate to the initial attitudes and potential business dealings with Faction members, and the sites you can set up with the Property rules generate more than just income or servants: you might get discounted goods, generate greater Influence within or for the Faction, create siege engines or naval ships, and so on. Importantly, not every single NPC in the campaign world is going to be a Faction-member, so it's not like these complex rules need to be layered onto every single interaction encounter.

Therefore, this guide gets 3 stars. If you want a lot more detail in the interaction tier of the game, this short document provides a lot more than its page count might suggest. However, if you're just looking to flesh out the Factions or Renown rules that already exist, or add new ones to your game, this book is going to have to be weighed carefully against the DMG's optional rules to see which route you'd rather take.



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