Foundation
You establish your own faction. Choose a Faction Name, Faction Type, and Core Tenet. You also gain a Faction Facility as an Apartment. Your Faction Facility may be a part of another player’s Domicile.
Heads Up
The Choices here choose which actions and effects are granted by the rest of the Grand Design Effect Tree.
For example, when you are a Charity, your Clerk, Intel, Operator, and Quartermaster are all the Charity Version of the Root.
Foundation is a requirement for all Grand Design Effects.
Faction Name
Your Faction Name may be a personal or party affair. Choosing a Faction Name creates an entry for Faction Reputation. When you and your party do things in the name of your Faction, it is usually good enough to obscure the names of the individuals involved. This isn’t always true. So, what do you call yourselves?
Choose Your Faction Structure
Cabal: A Cabal has very few members, likely none outside of the Operational Supporting Characters. They tend to have a very specific way they want to change the world, and they want to remain in the shadows while they achieve these goals.
Charity: These Factions tend to attract the kind hearted and find funding and cooperation to fight against pain, suffering, poverty, or some other altruistic mission. Members may go out healing or feeding the poor, provide shelter to orphans and the homeless. Spend time educating those who have no skills so they can learn to take care of themselves. Grand Design Charities typically have a narrow goal which they work toward daily.
Militant: A militia, a private defense contractor, a group of mercenaries. There are many different subtypes of Militant Factions. Their focus tends to be peacekeeping, preventing or participating in war.
Union: Unions are often the beginning of creating a trade and labor empire. Their goals typically include creating standards and developing networks of merchants and crafters. Strong unions take care of their bottom line and bring the quality of life of their members up by helping keep fair trade and fair wage in line.
Radical: Radical Factions are typically an extreme response to other Factions overstepping, a strong idea often carried out with the best intentions, but to the detriment of their own public image. They tend to be polarizing and opinions of them are often two completely different sides of the same coin. The advantage to the Radical Faction for Grand Design is the ability to shift the Core Tenants in response to the world.
The Core Tenets
After choosing Faction Type, the Core Tenet should be fairly easy to dress up. It can be as simple as a single sentence, or it could be an ongoing mess of a vision where the Player’s Character is just trying to save the world one day at a time. Regardless, choose one of the core tenant types below. For mechanical reasons.
Altruism: Other factions, especially well meaning ones, will help support you any way they can if your cause is truly or majorly altruistic.
Mercenary: Are you a band of adventurers? A pack of crazy? Ready to do whatever it takes for the highest bidder? Are you a group of Radicals going day by day? You’re probably Mercenaries, and that you put coin before moral will likely become common knowledge. Common knowledge is good advertisement, by the way.
Preservation: You and yours are there to keep things, or something the way it is. You are likely getting in the way of progress, but that’s the point? No out with the old in with the new. The old ways work! The new way is just some garbage money can buy. Save the Trees!
Rebellion: Other factions may use you for alternate goals, the people may join in your plight to help make change. Violence is possible. You may get shut down by peacekeepers, or you might start a war.
Rising to the Top: So you want to be king? Eh? You know its just a bunch of paperwork, right? And liability for everyone who calls you boss.
Story Guide’s Notes: Maybe not all factions can be squeezed into these tenets. You’re more than welcome to come up with your own for you and your table. These core concepts are used in our Setting along with base faction type to address how other factions and supporting characters may relate to your group. There is nothing here which says you can’t be a Radical Altruistic Thieves Guild. Oh, you Robin Hood, you.
Vital Statistics Adjustment
Awareness: +200
Unlocking Foundation
Potential Cost: 100
Requirements
Minimum Level: 10
Foundation Branch Effects
• wip
“The monks of Ralipal eat the simplest diet, all grown on the rooftops above their monastery. Their entire system is designed to persist indefinitely without import.”
