The Untapped Narrative Power of Factions in D&D
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2024
- Factions are an awesome way for the players to navigate the pressure on the game world's status quo!
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The "mirror" character is called a Foil in literature and they are the embodiment of a psychological phenomenon in which 2 people who share an experience exactly can have 2 entirely opposite reactions.
Exactly!
The distinction between a foil and a mirror/clone character is that while a foil presents a single contrast, traditionally an opposing expression of the theme, the mirror is across every conceivable axis that can serve the theme. But they pretty much refer to the same thing
this video got me so excited about stuff for my own campaign i got distracted mid-video, daydreaming about that. Had to make some quick notes, and then rewind a bit to properly appreciate this video
Stopping the video to worldbuild is the ideal outcome, algorithm be damned. Thank you for watching!
I love seeing how it applies to both characters and *groups* - that’s so helpful to think about across both worldbuilding and storytelling!
I think it's interesting that, at least in TTRPGs, interaction with groups boils down to either combat with said group or a social interaction with an individual representative
Bro this video is fire. Love your breakdown of status quo and how it relates to factions
Hey thanks!!
I also love when players get loyal to factions, especially when it's split between party members. It makes me feel like the world is real
Wow! I was blown away by how simple yet useful this concept is. Thanks for the great content.
I'm glad it was useful! Thank you so much for watching!
So very much appreciate this break down! 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you for watching!!!
Surprised you don’t have more likes and views! This is the most condensed, straightforward, and helpful DM video I’ve come across! Do you have any ideas on how you would integrate these different faction ideals into their actual realms? When I DM most of my villages and towns all feel kinda similar and I struggle to define clear regions and cultures within the world.
Thank you for watching!
As far as integrating factions into their realms, I do have some resources on that. ua-cam.com/video/SaokJYgjEV0/v-deo.html
my Cultures video touches on that a bit, but the short of it is, choosing unique values for whatever culturally distinct pocket of the world you're dealing with (Country, Region, City, Neighborhood, or even Family). Going through to determine their relationships with cultural values can create a really sturdy framework for a culture that feels unique in the world.
RE: 9:50 ish, my design instincts say that Reliability/Power, Social Consequences, and Cost to Ally/Leverage should form the points of a balance triangle for most faction design goals. Obviously, I'm not saying you can't ever start the party with easy access to a powerful and reliable ally, but it's going to be much harder to make a satisfying narrative with relevant stakes.
I love a good points triangle! That's kind of forcing them to choose a side in the end which I think is great for the story
6:47 Not so fun fact, in real life most laws are not simply made by the person with the right badge of office, no, it's more complicated than that.
Most laws exist because someone _did_ experiment, they, "fucked around and found out" as they say.
The reason we have a minimum wage is because before then people were allowed to get paid essentially dirt if they wanted.
The reason most things become illegal is because enough people did it to the detriment of everyone else.
It's never just the person with the badge of office.
How would you handle faction representatives in a game where the characters do a lot of traveling without putting down roots in a single place?
Short answer: In games that don't have much of a home base for the party, I really like dividing the areas the party DOES visit up between the different factions, basically determining how easy it is for a given faction to find out what's going on in that region and act on that knowledge.
Long answer: In the deep woods, the village hunters are going to know more than the king's spies. The fishermen will hear about the party boarding the pirate ship to save the ransomed noble before the priests in the mountain temple.
Thinking about how information travels (is the party tied so closely to the conflict that a given faction would be interested in actively scrying or sending familiars, are they hearing things secondhand from witnesses, do they notice the consequences of the party's actions) and how the faction representatives would communicate with the party as a result. The person who carries out that communication tends to be the faction rep, be it through actual face to face correspondence, a sending spell, courier messages, or whatever else. Getting invited into the faction stronghold for a meeting is a milestone in this case.
@@TheADHDM Thank you for the great advice!
In my case, it sounds like maybe I should brainstorm how each faction is getting its information about the PCs, as well as the types of areas and scenarios the PCs could encounter that each faction would take an interest in. Sounds like fun! :D
Yes! So many cool ideas in this video. I especially like the 5 stances based on the 5 mana types in MTG.
Thanks for the video
Edit: I'm curious. I've been taking classes in leadership theory recently and basically everything I've learned has direct application for DMs. Do you have any thoughts on the idea of DMs as leaders or the role of leadership in D&D groups?
RE: Mana types, I spend so much time just categorizing things by MTG color wheel, it's my favorite type
I am extremely interested in hearing about overlaps between leadership theory and DMing! I think the handy DM skill of making someone's idea feel heard while still saying no is a great leadership quality, as well as "assigning work" (encounters and story beats) that highlight and challenge an individual's strengths and weaknesses.
If you're asking do I think Dungeon Masters should be in charge of the government? Of course.
@@TheADHDM 🤣 That sounds like a good point. If positional leaders treated those the govern like (good) DMs should treat their players, I think we'd actually be making progress.
@@TheADHDM I first encountered the MTG colorwheel used on non-mtg stuff when a League of Legends Coach/Streamer used it to describe draft theory in league of legends, said coach later found out he was autistic+adhd.
So yeah its a really cool system to apply to other things especially once you get to the multicolor categories.
@@luminous3558 This is so cool! My little brain loves a flexible, categorical system I can filter stuff through. Probably why I was so obsessed with D&D alignment in high school
14:11 ah yes, the annoying political situation of *war.*
Great video. You mentioned that you have all the combinations of the action words on your patreon, but couldn't. Is it a patreon only post?
Thank you for watching! It should be public! You can find it here:
www.patreon.com/posts/factions-spread-81946422/edit
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