Worldbuilding | Fix Your Factions

My buds. Listen. I am an rpg and art channel. My statement about Power being a means not an ends, it about what I think makes and interesting story. Please stop trying to debate me on real world motivations of power. Sheesh.

"Write situations not stories." If there was only a single piece of advice you could give a new DM, this would be it I think!

I think that Matthew Colville was right in his video "Everyone Loves Zombies" to say that, for games like dungeons and dragons at least, it's a good idea to have one unambiguously evil faction to put next to all of the intricately ambiguous ones. You want to challenge your players to proactively define their characters' morality throughout the main story of the game, but you also want to give them moments where they can fight monsters without having to ever consider whether or not this is a good thing that they're doing.

I find it really helpful to use John Truby's "four-corner opposition" making factions. Essentially you just choose 2 thematic statements/values and plot the opposing positions into a square matrix - makes it really easy to see potential allegiances and conflicts between factions, and to identify space where you could create additional factions.

this makes creating a big rich world or plotty novel so much easier holy shit. this breaks down the process in a way ive never seen. i know "heres a setting, what groups live in that setting and what do they want?" seems super easy on paper, but its so so easy to forget or not know how to start. this simple walkthrough of the process is really simple but easily creates really intricate worlds. what a game changer!!

Great and inspiring video! I love how the “minion factions” that serve the Centimane and Cottus all have their own, slightly tragic motivations that each contain an opportunity and a method to turn the faction away from the Big Bad. All of them can be slaughtered wholesale by a party of murderhobos, but a smart party can improve conditions for the underclass through political and social play, put the bone spiders to a final rest and end the eternal servitude of the wraith keepers – genius examples of motivations and the opportunities they bring!

One thing I love to add is having each faction have a single big plot event or setpiece they are working towards and a rough timeline of what happens when they all go off without a hitch. Faction A does their big thing X now which means faction B does their big thing two weeks later as a response etc. You have a clear map of what happens without the players' input. Then you have some clear time pressure or at least time CONSEQUENCES for what the players choose to do/not do. Just a vague outline helps feel like the world is moving and being alive outside the players and having clear concise plots that the factions are attempting or reacting to makes it an easy entry point for players to grasp where they can apply pressure to change things. It's easy to say; okay so the players destroyed this magic necklace the cultists needed so that pushes their plan to summon the demon servant Baogirim back four months as they have to find the sister necklace instead (which the players can also try to stop.) And maybe pushing it back four months means the summoning overlaps with the mayoral election that the criminal enterprise is trying to influence to get a corrupt candidate in. Suddenly, thanks to the players, now there's intersecting conflicts going on and maybe the cultists don't have Baogirim's mind control to get THEIR candidate the win so it's an actual race. Etc. Etc. Clear cause and effect for players when they change things or fail to change things! Not sure if this made sense at all haha. Also started following about a month ago and loving your continued videos! Keep it up!

All chopped off and discarded hands have found their way to the Overlord Cottus, and have formed an abominable monstrosity. I think there's one aberration from an old D&D edition, that is comprised of hundreds of hands and arms...

I've been struggling for ages to think of how to worldbuild for my stories. I've watched so many videos, read so many books and blog posts and articles, and I've got a lot of great tools . . . I just don't know how to apply them. This is the first video I've seen that has actively walked me through the process of worldbuilding a fictional setting with factions and history. I can now look at what you've laid out and see where I can apply the tools I've already learned. Thanks so much, man.

To think of factions as "not stories and instead as situations" that should be interacted with how the player's choose is probably wholesale the best advice if anyone happens to be a newer DM with factions. I've been an avid fan of guilds, factions, and alliances in all of my campaigns, they add a lot of breadth and depth to your worlds. But they were tricky to pull off at first. That's why advice like this is a lifesaver, because once I could understand that all the other pieces fall into place a lot easier, there's no "clashing of narrative" because they are disparate pieces until the players want to connect them. Absolutely stellar man, thank you so much for videos like this.

This is such a good format, I'll never get over it

Great video! I would like to add a bit of advice re: implementing your factions in your game. What I tended to do is try to flesh out the individuals in each faction and make them a complex and fully realized organization before the PC's ever engaged with them. I speak from experience when I say DON'T DO THAT! Its more often a waste of time and not as actionable as you'd hope it would be. Of course, do it if that faction is the only faction the PC's are going to engage with, but for multi-faction play (political or otherwise), you are far better off having a singular representative of a faction embody the ideals and goals of the faction that the PC's can talk too. Its far more approachable, both as a DM and as a player to have that well realized point of contact, rather than a menagerie of characters to wrap your head around right off the bat.

I have no idea who you are, but I would DIE for this video. I stopped playing D&D a while back to make room from my all-consuming passion of writing epic fantasy novels. While drafting my current book I've been slowly working through the worldbuilding/outline of my next book, procrastinating as one does. Three groups, or... FACTIONS are needed for the main location of the book, with lots of conflict, politics, etc, and this video is making me think about base-level things that tend to slip away when one get too far in the trenches with their worldbuilding. You spoke so casually as you were coming up with these groups and world interactions, and it made me remember that coming up with something cool is what drove me to writing, first and foremost. The logistics are for future me. Don't worry, he loves that stuff. Whether you truly made this up on the fly or had a rough idea before you filmed, I commend you either way. This little glimpse of a world is very interesting, and the perfect base for expansion and extrapolation into something greater and more unique than it already is. This was basically a long and convoluted way for me to thank you for giving me the inspiration to write and worldbuild. I was ten minutes away from closing my laptop and giving up, but luckily I spent those ten minutes watching this. Thank you <3

I was running the DnD module "Princes of the Apocalypse" and this is one of the things I had to spend a lot of time fixing. There are 4 cults of earth, fire, air, and water, and all of them want to release their elemental ruler to cause the end of the world, but it never says WHY they want to do that. All 4 were exactly the same with different elemental "flavoring" and with no motives of any kind. So, I added goals and philosophies to each of the cults to give them an actual motive for unleashing their elemental lords. It made the game much better to oppose an ideology rather than just a bunch of mindless minions.

Was looking for ways to expand the world of Mörk Borg and this video has been really insightful! I especially appreciate your illustrative mapping out of the different elements. :D

I am so happy I get to see your videos the minute they come out. As always, very good video!

Damn, this is way too good. As in "considering making a major change to my world" big. Essentially overhauling. Also, can you talk about making/using gods?

Love this video! The diagram layout really fits well with how my brain likes to process information, and it immediately gets my gears turning about all the potential conflicts that could arise between these factions! Well done! Keep up the great work!

Magnificent video. Crystal clear explanation using a highly unique and interesting visual example. It got my thoughts running. Thank you.

Great overview of faction, love the visual mapping. Not my skill set, but the ideas and method were very valuable to me.