Post by soypunk on Jun 16, 2020 3:58:29 GMT
It occurred to me that there’s a Faction system already sitting around in No Limits. Like many other RPGs Factions are really just characters with different narrative effects. So, for example a local crime syndicate might look like
The Ruttas
Rep: 3, People: 3, Savvy: 2
Their Rep doesn’t allow them much influence outside of their local system. They are decent enough at recruiting and dealing with people but their planning and technology skills are less sophisticated.
As part of the monthly turn sequence you can have a Faction Turn where they might choose to start or continue a project. Maybe they want acquire an asset like a starship, a cache of weapons, new recruits, or improve a skill.
To start a project is Savvy Challenge, representing their ability to make an efficient plan. Passing 2 dice means it is a 4-tick challenge, passing 1 is 6-tick challenge, and none is an 8-tick challenge. This works like a “clock” or progress bar from other RPGs - they now need 4, 6, or 8 success on additional Challenges on future Faction Turns to complete these projects.
Whether you use Rep, People, or Savvy might depend on the nature of the project and I don’t have a good handle on that. But it would work like passing 2, means you mark off 2 ticks on the Project clock, passing 1 is 1 tick and none is no ticks, there was some sort of narrative setback on your project.
Possibly PCs can run missions to sabotage these project clocks and remove ticks. Likewise I could envisions missions run to accelerate these clocks, robbery of trade secrets that gives the Faction an edge.
I imagine PCs could also roll Challenges their Rep, People, or Savvy against the Faction to gain assets for their own use. Convincing a Faction to loan you crew members, weapons, starships, or perhaps “Rep” (Credits) which would be used to pay down crew & ship upkeep or other debts your PCs have accrued.
All of that is just repurposing tools Ed already gave us in No Limits and bolting a progress track here and there. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks Ed!
The Ruttas
Rep: 3, People: 3, Savvy: 2
Their Rep doesn’t allow them much influence outside of their local system. They are decent enough at recruiting and dealing with people but their planning and technology skills are less sophisticated.
As part of the monthly turn sequence you can have a Faction Turn where they might choose to start or continue a project. Maybe they want acquire an asset like a starship, a cache of weapons, new recruits, or improve a skill.
To start a project is Savvy Challenge, representing their ability to make an efficient plan. Passing 2 dice means it is a 4-tick challenge, passing 1 is 6-tick challenge, and none is an 8-tick challenge. This works like a “clock” or progress bar from other RPGs - they now need 4, 6, or 8 success on additional Challenges on future Faction Turns to complete these projects.
Whether you use Rep, People, or Savvy might depend on the nature of the project and I don’t have a good handle on that. But it would work like passing 2, means you mark off 2 ticks on the Project clock, passing 1 is 1 tick and none is no ticks, there was some sort of narrative setback on your project.
Possibly PCs can run missions to sabotage these project clocks and remove ticks. Likewise I could envisions missions run to accelerate these clocks, robbery of trade secrets that gives the Faction an edge.
I imagine PCs could also roll Challenges their Rep, People, or Savvy against the Faction to gain assets for their own use. Convincing a Faction to loan you crew members, weapons, starships, or perhaps “Rep” (Credits) which would be used to pay down crew & ship upkeep or other debts your PCs have accrued.
All of that is just repurposing tools Ed already gave us in No Limits and bolting a progress track here and there. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks Ed!
But it also demonstrates how there's a nearly limitless way to take the THW toolbox and repurpose them to fit your story. Even better: you don't need a game master, as the mechanics handles all of the NPCs for you.
