PC Factions
- The main purpose of Factions is to allow players and NPCs to claim and control points of interest and land by building and staffing outposts. Renown is spent to recruit faceless NPCs to move to a new or expanding settlement. See settlement rules below.
- Players who wish to create factions with a different purpose than creating outposts and holding territory should speak to the GMs about what they want to do and what they wish to gain from running the faction.
- When forming a faction, the PCs must provide the GMs a concept or cause and what kind of members they wish to recruit.
- To form a faction, one or more PCs must undergo a Project (see WWN Core Book pg. 322).
- Projects require 1 DTA per 5 Renown (or up to 5) spent. The character spending the renown must spend the DTA. If 5 characters spend 1 renown each, they must all spend one DTA.
- Forming a faction rallies NPCs who fit the concept, who then move to form the faction's first outpost.
- NPC faction members are loyal to the faction or cause, not the PCs.
- While NPC faction members will generally respect the faction hierarchy, they are not hirelings; they see themselves as partners or vital members.
- The degree to which NPCs would be likely to join a faction will affect the Renown cost. A faction with a cause of "kill all humans" is unlikely to gain much of any support from a predominantly human populace.
- The GMs will determine the Renown cost of forming the Faction based on the concept and location of the initial outpost.
- Once a project to form a new settlement is complete, the settlement will always be populated by a portion of the faction. The settlement will be self-sufficient - players will not need to micromanage every faction member's food and housing costs.
- Workers who perform tasks directed by the PCs need to be paid for their labor. (This does not include the settlement Garrison - see settlement rules below).
- Forming a faction does not create buildings and facilities; these will still need to be paid for by the PCs. However, in the spirit of NPC faction members not being hirelings, they will pay for their own needs (housing, food, etc).
- Factions can secure and hold additional territory within the Iterum by building more outposts. Building a new outpost is a new project, as it requires someone to keep it safe while the PCs are not present. Again, the PCs only need to build the structures they want/need in the outposts. NPCs will see to their own housing.
- Outposts can grow with sufficient time and effort. Expanding an outpost is an additional project. See Settlement rules below.
- Factions have an additional benefit in that they do not have a limit on how many hirelings they can have. If a faction needs to hire servants, skilled craftsmen, soldiers, etc., they can do so - for every 10 hirelings the faction has, they will need one manager to oversee the rest. For every 10 managers, they will need a steward. (For soldiers, this would be a Sergeant and a Captain; the rules for hiring soldiers are being replicated to other hirelings for Factions.) Managers cost x2 the most expensive hireling type they manage, Stewards are x5.
Settlements and Security Range
Settlements are permanently-occupied areas that are to some degree defensible, however meager it might be. PCs do not have random encounters inside of settlements, and PCs may start an expedition from any friendly settlement.
Renown Cost Multiplier: Settlement size affects the renown cost to build/expand; see table below. This replaces the "scope affected" column in the Project Cost table on pg. 337.
Security Range:
- Settlements secure an area around them based on the size of the settlement.
- An outpost only secures a single point of interest within a hex or provides a safe area for PCs to use as a staging area.
- Once a settlement grows to at least a village, they secure all hexes within their security range.
- Within this range PCs will not have random encounters and NPCs will not face any major threats, allowing construction of buildings and facilities.
Garrison Combat Strength:
- The settlement has a standing garrison, whether it is hardened soldiers or untrained militia.
- The combat strength is used to handle mass combat should it come up.
- If the owner/leaders of a settlement attempt to remove the garrison for any reason (to use them as troops elsewhere, for example) this will signal to all parties that the settlement is being abandoned - any civilians will immediately flee, and the garrison may not fully follow in this event.
Max DTA Income:
- Settlement size affects the maximum income that can be made when spending a DTA to earn income via a skill (for example, using Perform to earn tips, using Exert to do construction, Work to earn money as a guard, etc).
- There simply aren't enough people with disposable income in smaller settlements to pay for expensive services.
- Note: this is only used where a PC is spending a DTA per the "earn silver" downtime example. It does not affect silver found on expeditions, silver earned as quest rewards, jobs posted on the job board, trading items, or PCs interacting with one another in any way.
Settlement Size |
Renown Cost Multiplier |
Security Range |
Garrison Combat Strength |
Max DTA Income |
Outpost |
x1 |
Range 0 (Single point of Interest only) |
10 |
20 sp |
Hamlet |
x2 |
Range 0 (Occupied hex only) |
30 |
50 sp |
Village |
x4 |
Range 1 |
90 |
150 sp |
Town |
x8 |
Range 2 |
270 |
500 sp |
City |
x16 |
Range 3 |
999 |
unlimited |
Burrows
If a settlement expansion would bring another settlement into its Security Range, the second settlement's size multiplier will be added to the Active Opposition Multiplier. If the renown cost is paid and the second settlement is at least 2 sizes smaller than the expanding settlement, the smaller settlement is absorbed by the larger as a burrow and adds its Security Range and garrison to the larger settlement. [[Rules for settlements absorbing another are very theoretical right now and may need revision once we see how they work in practice.]]
Factions that control settlements that get absorbed by larger settlements usually still maintain control of their own buildings and property if the absorbing settlement is friendly; they just lose authority of the settlement itself. However, you may not know if the other faction is friendly or not until it's too late.