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Factions
Faction is a broad term covering all kinds of human organizations that act as one. A faction is a major or minor corporation, an NGO, a boostergang, a government agency, a labor union, a nomad pack, a military unit or anything else where people have come together for a purpose. Factions are the key actors in driving the change and defining the edge in the dark future.
A faction is defined in Edgerunner by its characteristics, aspects and its competencies, the faction-scale equivalent of skills. They also have a concept and their own stress tracks with consequence slots.
A faction has five aspects, plus its concept for a total of six. When determining a faction’s aspects, consider things like its vision and mission, its assets and relations with other factions and its culture and attitude.
A faction’s concept is its defining aspect. It should summarize the type and definition of the faction into a single phrase. It should be the brief answer to the question: “What is it?”. Some examples are:
Ruthless boostergang, Elite marine company, US branch of European agricorp or Nationalist political movementA faction has three characteristics. Each one is a number between -4 and +4, representing the the magnitude and direction. These numbers represent the effectiveness of the faction in different scales, against other factions, progresses and single characters.
The total of a faction’s Disposition, Focus and Influence must be zero
The disposition of a faction defines how it positions itself in the social landscape. A positive number indicates a progressive attitude, striving to advance the society and embracing change. A negative number is a conservative attitude, trying to keep things as they are, or as they were in the extreme end.
−4 Luddite | Bent on destroying the new until only the old remains |
−3 Nostalgic | Trying to bring back the old ways |
−2 Conservative | Holding onto the status quo with vigor |
−1 Cautious | Keeping to good old methods as long as possible |
±0 Adaptive | Going with the flow and adapting to change, rather than driving it |
+1 Optimistic | Welcoming, adopting and advocating progress |
+2 Progressive | Actively pushing for change |
+3 Revolutionary | Attempting to bring about major change |
+4 Radical | Set on crushing the last vestiges of the past |
The disposition of a faction is used when it is trying to affect issues.
Focus describes the amount of commitment a faction has towards its goals. Higher numbers mean that the faction puts more weight behind its objectives.
−4 Lost | Don’t even know why they are still here |
−3 Apathetic | When the mission is just an insider joke |
−2 Distracted | Drowning in TPS reports |
−1 Preoccupied | Doing the small things first |
±0 Aware | Everything according to the plan |
+1 Enthusiastic | Going the extra mile |
+2 Committed | Trying to do their best |
+3 Passionate | The mission comes before everything |
+4 Zealous | No mercy for whoever stands in the way |
The focus of a faction is a modifier when using competencies against individuals. Factions with low focus are ineffective against single characters while high focus faction can project their power with surgical precision.
Influence defines the faction’s ability of affecting or being affected by the world around it, with whatever means available. It is also an indirect measure of the faction’s means and strength.
−4 Futile | Laughing stock for friend and foe |
−3 Weak | Hardly a threat for anyone, easily manipulated |
−2 Vulnerable | Open to exploitation if you know how to |
−1 Incompetent | Not the best it can be |
±0 Neutral | Capable of holding their ground |
+1 Efficient | Adept at making a small difference |
+2 Influential | Others take notice when they do something |
+3 Powerful | Hard to stand in their way |
+4 Dominant | Opposing them is suicide |
The influence of a faction is used as a modifier when using competencies against other factions.
Competencies are a faction’s equivalent of skills. Although some competencies overlap with character skills, their application almost always represent the coordinated actions of the whole faction and not any single individual.
A faction’s upgrades are not much different than character upgrades in what they can do. The only difference is that the player of the faction can choose any stress track to absorb stress caused by upgrades.
Factions also have stress tracks and consequences of their own. Just like a character, when a faction is taken out, its fate is determined by its opponent, be it stock value crash, bankruptcy, hostile takeover, union strike, crippling legal action or just being wiped out to the last man.
Faction stress tracks have a base threshold of 3.
The leverage track represents the faction’s ability to get things done. If a faction loses its leverage, it is rendered incapable of doing anything. This may mean loss of physical assets, personnel, money or any other tangible resource essential to the operation of the faction.
Prestige represents all the intangible assets of a faction. Loss of prestige causes the faction to lose its value in the eyes of whoever matters. A faction taken out on the prestige track loses its allies, business or image. It may be subject to the scorn of other factions.
This track also receives any attacks made to lower the morale of the personnel.
A faction has three consequence slots just like a character.
Last modified 3yr ago