Game Mechanism of the Week #46: Factionalism
How do you drive story in a game? How do you inject a bit of conflict between characters who would otherwise co-operate? How do you bring a bit of co-operation between characters who might otherwise be constantly at one another's throats?
A simple answer to all of these questions comes in the form of factions, and many games have made use of this idea.
From the clans of Vampire the Masquerade or Legend of the Five Rings, the orders of Magi in Ars Magica, the corporations in assorted cyberpunk games or even the chapters of Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000.
Factions add instant ties between characters, whether those ties come in the form of communion or conflict.
Of course, factions don't always make a game better, in the same way that conflict doesn't always make a story better. Many kung fu movies are great because they bring creative conflict to the screen, but few kung fu movies are considered masterpieces of storytelling.
Like all mechanisms, you need to consider what you want the outcome to be, and how the mechanism plays toward that outcome.
A simple answer to all of these questions comes in the form of factions, and many games have made use of this idea.
From the clans of Vampire the Masquerade or Legend of the Five Rings, the orders of Magi in Ars Magica, the corporations in assorted cyberpunk games or even the chapters of Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000.
Factions add instant ties between characters, whether those ties come in the form of communion or conflict.
Of course, factions don't always make a game better, in the same way that conflict doesn't always make a story better. Many kung fu movies are great because they bring creative conflict to the screen, but few kung fu movies are considered masterpieces of storytelling.
Like all mechanisms, you need to consider what you want the outcome to be, and how the mechanism plays toward that outcome.
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Comments
The design I'm currently working on - La Familia: Italy Through the Ages - has a great deal of this sort of thing in it, to the point where the PCs are mandated to belong to organizations that either directly conflict (and the characters themselves do not) or the characters are directly at odds in an "unapproved" fashion.
One barrier to proper use of this technique, at least in the games you mentioned, can be the temptation to make these factions variable in a manner akin to D&D character classes. Vampire is the biggest offender, to my knowledge.
Of course, factions will differ more dramatically from one another in terms of skill-set, kewl powerz, etc., based on, ironically, how much they cooperate with one another (Vampire comes to mind). The more directly at-odds they are, the more well-rounded they will be, as they cannot rely on anyone else to take over large swathes of ability or specialization (such as the L5R clans).
One thing that's served "La Familia" well, thus far, is a lack of supernatural elements - I think the connection here is that it's all too easy to invent colorful, dramatic differences between groups if one can do fire magic and one can do shape-shifting, for instance.
To me, either you should tell them what to do/incentivise certain actions, or let them do what comes naturally and play is about appreciating what comes naturally to them (no matter how co-operative they are, or how at each others throats).
I don't think you predict what they'll do, then try and change it. Instead you either author it from the outset with directions and mechanical incentives, or you leave them to it. Or part of both, though authoring and leaving them to it are oil and water - it's just a question of how much oil, how much water.
It's a way to inform the mechanisms of the game through the narrative choices of the story.
Sure, you can incentivise the actions by making them "keys"...for example, do X actions for your faction, gain a level of rank within the faction.
Or you could provide certain mechanical benefits to faction members as long as they continue to toe the party line.
This isn't really an attempt to predict who will react to their incoming vectors, it's merely another way to provide tools to drive a story. If three out of five players choose a specific faction, then you can start tailoring stories toward that group. If opposing factions are chosen by two players each from the five, then a story of conflict between the groups might be a better story, where the players are simply trying to exist in the midst of the fighting.
I see it as a good tool in traditional games to let the players help shape the GM's story, or a better tool in story oriented games to communally drive a story onward.