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.

I’m usually not a fan of “look how cool my homebrew setting is!” videos, but this was surprisingly clever and insightful.

I think it's genius to consider monsters "factions" in dnd, after all, they do have some kind of will. There is causes and consequences to them having to be dispatched by adventurers.

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

This is fantastic. You're like literally giving a rundown of a current situation in my world with the City of Crtestvale. In your vid, Crestvale would be Felden.

My man FAR too casually just invented "bone golem spiders" like it was nothing. Seriously.
Though you did follow it up with "ghost farmers" which is kinda adorable.

I absolutely love the videos you have made, and this is definitely one of my favourite, so far! My problem is figuring out what level of detail I need to have as a GM, versus how much players would need to be able to prep character creation. Any suggestions?

that was a nice vid, it's actually similar to what i do, so it was easy and smooth to listen to, great stuff.

Warhammer Fantasy GM

I run a campaign on an continent where Empire doesnt exsist. Instead they have another big faction that controls another.

Basically (lets call it Empire for the sake of imagination) The Empire is a big nation that runs all of the continent and hates magic. They are the natives and they were here for eons.

Now we have the Offworlders. Offworlders are the people that appear on the Offworld Coast every year because of an magic ritual. Its important because its the reason the party appears. They run into a storm and wreck their ship here.

Now we have the Witches. They are a kind of necromantic tribe that uses the magic of the forest to pull in Offworlders to fill the continent with magic and wisdom because they want their population to thrive.

The Empire controls The Inquisition who are basically the medieval church. They burn Witches and also Offworlders. They also use magic but call it "miracles".

So now we have a circle of relations. The party gets chased by every faction but also have a chance to convince them to work with them.

There also some smaller factions like The Offworld Colony far into the north, The Muremantics that are criminal mages that control hordes of rats and birds, The Sniper House who are charismatic aristocrats who have the talent to shoot and The Swordhood Guild who are a private military for guarding the aristocrats.

Any comments from other GMs? What do you think?

I've got a fictional world that I've been adding to for a few years.
Even I still don't know what the "bad guys" want. I've just been going off a general idea I have for the conclusion. I trust my imagination will make it all work together in an interesting way.

Another great vid! Thanks! 😀

This is quite a bit of fun to do, and can help to reverse engineer what an area and/or adventure could be like. I like the city of gangs archetype, where there's those in the slums, as well as the ivory towers.

I learned so much

Isn't faction could be powerhunger for forgotten purpose, or of fear thet they would lost their power? Like old tiranical ruler who want more power more control because of paranoia of losing control. Repressions, crazy laws, searching of enemies and traitors. Isnt this is classical absolute power corrupt absolutely?

I’ve DM’d for a long time. This is a great resource to add to my tool belt. Great video

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

this video came at perfect time for me! great info ... delivery and presentation! thanks so much!

Great video!

It is not a fantasy setting unless you know the ideas and opinions of the dwarfs and elves. Classic setting!

I have one faction of a mage guild
That has the philosophy of.
"Mages are Dangerous and therefore Many laws should put on us and watched carefully. " a lot of Mages and non Mages alike join this faction because they get have lost someone threw magic or many others threw magic. And they also can point to the past like the "Great Mage War", "The Book of Forbidden Knowledge" and "The Great Shattering." To name a few.
They believe that Mages should be forced into Magic Schools for their protection and the protection of others.
Fugitive mages, Mages on the run are to be captured and put into a school.
If the Mage hurt or stolen something or committed some other type of non violent crime they are to be inslaved to the person or family that has been wronged if they don't want them they are to be sold on the market.
If a Mage did kill someone without just cause then they will be executed. Or at minimum sold on the slave market if the judge wants to be "soft". And they got a few places to pass these laws.

I agree with the "means to an end part". I'm a creative writer and I have two factions who use different powers for different ends in a conservative republic. One faction uses terrorism to instill fear and then hopefully do a Coup and establish the monarchist utopia of their dreams. Another faction is that of a city mayor who wants a more liberal society, but is trying to build it by slowly changing the system from the inside and pass new laws. Radicals try to talk to mayor's faction, but find out its people are as adamant about liberal ideas as the radicals are about their authoritarian ideas.

In World of Darkness/Vampire remember seeing this done for Factions in a city, and Individual characters and there interactions with the other character and factions. I always liked how it made it easier to "See" what was going on narratively. Just wish there was a Template for it.

this is not only an excellent world-building lesson, but also a wonderful lesson in elemental core of political science right from the start. excelent job!

Who wants what from whom?
What happens if they don't get it?
Why is this happening now?

"It's not a fantasy setting unless you know what the dwarves and the elves are up to" Brilliant

Factions is a really cool part as a Gming, but at the same time difficult. But it can also go in the start of world building as the start of a conflict.

I start my campaign with following plot: In my world there a big world war called the Obsidian War. A war against a big evil: The Obsidian Dragons, the most evil and powerful among the Gem Dragons.

The War last for 300 years, and only end around 30 years ago, when the Obsidian King was finally killed. Many Obsidian Dragons was either killed, seal away, or just disappear. Either hiding in the darkness or in other dimensions.

However, a group of people who adore the Obsidians because of the power and mighty of those beings was forged: The Brotherhood of the Ruby Prince, a militar and religious group who main goal is bring back the age of the Obsidian Wars, by bringing back the Obsidian Dragons to power.

They divide their powers in certain areas: The first is arcane knowledge, more specific in three areas: Necromancy, Conjuration and Abjuration. With the sole goal in bring back dead Obsidian Dragons to make Obsidian Dracoliches, and hopeful resurrect their Leader. Conjuration to find a way to summon the Obsidians Dragons outside of the Material Plane (And maybe get allies in other Planes of existence, such as devil's, Ilithids and other extra planar creatures) and Abjuration to find more methods to destroy the magic seals holding the strongest Obsidians.

They also have a division focus in Dragon taming, focus in control types of dragons less intelligent but very useful in combat, with their primary force be Pseudo Dragons and Kobolds.

They also have a group in their factions called "Black Wolfs" a group of moneylender who offer protection to less fortunate villages and people, but by asking a lot of payment for such protection. They are kinda one of the greatest sources of money to the Brotherhood, and the leader of the Black Wolfs is a Obsidian Dragonborn called Deimos. A cruel, ruthless member of the cult, and at the moment one of the enemies my players is facing at the moment. It is the first "main" enemy my players will face in the first Arc of campaign.

And right now, this is most of the thing about this organization. I know power is not the same original goal, but for my first time as a dm, I think it works just fine.

Subscribed 👍 love this art style and content

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!!

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

Another great way to plot out some worldbuilding is using a 4 step process that I call "Expand, Complicate, Connect, Blur."

1. Expand the worldbuilding. Think of an idea, or immediately relevant idea that you have, and flesh it out. Think of a character, faction, or item that has significance. What purpose does it serve? The Codex Mortis is a powerful tome of all undead secrets.
2. Complicate the plot. How is this idea relevant to the story? Or world? Why does it exist, and who knows about or why is everyone after it. Codex Mortis can break the fundamental rules of necromancy, and bring the dead, once thought to be lost back to life.
3. Connect the dots. Connect the idea to as many central plot threads as you can. The Lich wants the codex mortis because he wants an unstoppable undead army and wants to attain near unlimited power.
4. Blur the Line of morality. Find ways to make the situation ambiguous, or at least give pause to motivation. The lich wants the codex mortis because he also wants to resurrect his brother that he lost so many years ago from an accident that he blames himself for. He doesn't want to destroy the world, he wants his brother back.

This was a goldmine of great info and advice for adventure design. BITCHIN!!

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

Honestly you can have factions within factions and the bard can just influence those politics.

Great for triggering events.

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.

I agree power is a bad goal, but it is a goal, and I have to be honest someone who just wants power, and doesn't have a plan of what to use it for is the most dangerous kind of person

Well done, this reassured me for my world building for my first contact novel. (Humans come and find factions that want things)

Loved this one! Despite being what I usually do, more or less, it felt really insightful. The idea of making a graphic map is one I'll be taking too :P

um this video fucking slaps??? thank you for making it

40k much?
i love it ^_^

Well, the quintessential "Thieves Guild" is all about Wealth and Power as a purpose about itself. Not as way to achieve something using wealth and power. It's like any Mafia.

The cult members could be ex-Hookhands who have been enticed by the cult offering them hand replacements offered by Cotus.

If I want to start a faction war over how giraffe should be pronounced then you can't stop me.

Am i the only one who think that these elves looks like the Necrons?

damn you are good, i want to read some story on this now.....

Hey Kyle, I absolutely loved this vid. Came to your channel by way of your podcast with John who I already adored. Your content is really amazing and the point you made about power not being an end in itself is already paying huge dividends in my own world building. It just adds so many hooks and so much depth to members of a faction when you think of their motivation beyond just becoming more powerful. I know some are concerned about not having an "evil" villain to send the players against, but I've found that unpacking my villains/evil factions deeper motivations can actually allow for more monstrous big bads since their motivations being something more personal than "get money" can allow them to rationalize horrible things in service of their complex goals

Hard disagree on power and wealth not being goals in and of themselves but I love the rest of the vid

This has been super helpful. This really showed me other ways to make the world feel more alive. Everyone has their own agendas and such, sometimes they conflict and they all operate autonomously outside of the PC's influence. Super cool stuff, loving the channel dude

I will mention that Godzilla Unleashed had the Mutant Faction, which is indeed the faction of the evilest monsters. But the end goal is for one of them to become all-powerful and destroy the Earth, so maybe their unity is because they share a common goal rather than actual teamwork. Once that goal is reached, it would only be reached for one of them.