this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2023
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Don't remember all the details, but there was a bitter rivalry between a high elf wizard and a human warlord. The high elf wanted to develop magic defenses to replace siege weapons, which would have greatly diminished the importance of the traditional human army. The warlord wanted to build arenas with anti-magic barriers, so mages could be recruited to participate in gladiatorial combat. Not all of the in-fighting was this obvious, but I wanted at least one example that would be easy to spot.
In contrast, there was one leader who was inoffensive and wouldn't precipitate any crisis if you chose to support him. Naturally, I went out of my way to make him as unlikable as possible, so the average player would be dissuaded from speaking to him unless strictly necessary. He'd be boring, and sometimes unpleasant, but the jobs he'd give the party would always yield the most benefits for the most people.
I think it's the subtlety across multiple factions that I struggle with. It's easy enough to do a monster of the week and be subtle about what and why it's there but the interrelations are a challenge.
I'm not sure if my approach would work for everyone, but I like to have a strong faction leader so I can clearly define their character and think of them like I would think of my own PC. If I have a solid understanding of their motivation, their personality, how smart they are and how they deal with conflict, I can determine how they'd react to moving and shaking in their sphere of influence. A warlord might bristle at the slightest insult, or perceived insult, and be ready to settle a dispute with fists rather than even entertain diplomacy. Depending on which faction he's picking a fight with, they might ignore his posturing, get intimidated and back down, or try and goad him into doing something stupid.
Other members of a given faction will tend to reflect the leader's personality, since realistically, that's the sort of follower a strong leader often attracts: imitators. It's a bit of a shortcut so I don't have to create 50 different NPCs that the party may or may not ever meet, but still. I also think that when AI chatbots get a bit more sophisticated, I could use those to literally simulate conversations with characters I design.
That sounds a lot like Icons from a game that I can't remember the name of atm. The idea being to make faction leaders the definition of the faction. Maybe sometime I'll remember that advice, lol.