![]() ![]() Locate a stable entrance into a Fairy Road leading to the Mortal Plane Setup embassies with the Lady of Midnight and Queen Abyssinia ![]() Establish an agent in Dolmenwood to act as trusted "quest-giver" to locals Glamours, trinkets, artifacts, and spells able to tempt mortals Deft subtlety and cunning among agents sent far afield to realms and planes Tremendous, nigh-eternal fairy power through magic, land, and personnel Lord of Frost Elves and f ormer dictator of the Wood. Clewyd to begin purification and reconstruction Expel undead saturation around Fort Vulgar using a cadre of St. Close, time-honored ties with the Duchy of Brackenwold and its influence Singular authority over religious business, miracles, obligations, and observances Dozens of specialized clerical and monastic orders, all playing to different strengths More a cult of saints than a traditional monotheism. Note that these are my write-ups for my live home game, personalized for that table's instance of the setting, and are neither fully representative of official Dolmenwood "canon" nor any of my online games. As such, I've identified them below, along with the Mausritter-adjacent treatment. While there are many actors in the Dolmenwood setting, I've identified ten major factions which have enough persistent influence and resources to be major players in the sandbox. You have the following full procedure (copied from the free PDF for clarity): Personally, I prefer a tiny bit more detail on each faction write-up and its derivative elements, but this is a solid foundation. Somewhere more in the sweet spot for my taste is Mausritter's setup. A lot of brainfuel, but hold up, Kevin Crawford, you've developed an entire minigame here. If you want to spend an evening setting up the big players in a space opera and roll dice back and forth to generate a whole sector's worth of complex action and intrigue, look no further than SWN's approach. Resources and stats and tags are tied to numbers which influence rolls which limit or expand the scope of possible actions. Multiple spreads from that big book are spent detailing what and how many resources any faction has, its stats (typically reach, cash, influence, brute force, etc), and the various tags that allow it to flex various faction moves on other factions who are also using faction moves against yet more factions. Stars Without Number is often the poster child for robust faction play, and for good reason. Should it be subtle, just a thought? Should it be a tracked rubric of needs and wants, like a private rumor table with bonuses? Should it be a complex system of rolls and resources, like a solitaire Matrix game the referee plays behind the screen on off-hours? Well, it ought to be something if merely to add some variability to whatever sociopolitical forces prop up the flavor of the setting. Sandboxes tend to imply factions, but faction play is sometimes a boogeyman for open world games. ![]()
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