The Culture: Build Your Faction

Fantastic adventure wargames are games where Faction Play is on the table from the get-go.

Yes, even if you're playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition and all your men so far have gone on a delve or a hunt and did not return, this is the case. The thing is, unless you're a hopeless twat, sooner or later you'll get somewhere with a man and can start doing more than just getting by.

A hobby whose primary appeal being player agency is also a hobby whose primary requirement is player ambition, and you can start building up your own faction in a campaign far earlier than you think.

Thinking Like A Sovereign

It all starts with this question: "What is the best use of my man's time?"

Let's say you're playing AD&D1e, and your man is a Fighter. Take away mandatory time sinks such as Training, Healing, or otherwise locked down due to session events (i.e. Time Jail). What does he do with the time available to him? If he has any sense, he does two things: (1) improve his gear and (2) recruit retainers upon whom he delegates necessary tasks that are poor uses of his time.

If you're thinking of how successful leaders always have a thread in their success story that involves hiring assistants or recruiting subordinates, then you're on the right track.

Information cultivation is the earliest thing he'll want to delegate. A Fighter is no less in need of reliable intelligence as an Assassin or Thief, and if he's doing the usual early game thing of hunting down bounties and other leads with the aim of sacking a small dungeon or lair then he's going to be out in the field as much as he can afford- and not in town keeping abreast of the news.

Next is he will want armed hirelings to command. Footman are cheap, clubs are free, and captured gear from monsters will be good enough early on to equip them. As he gets more successful, and scores bigger treasure hauls, he'll want to expand both the quantity of his hirelings and retain some Henchmen to wrangle them when he's not around.

As his operations, and ambitions, grow he'll want to retain expert hirelings to build/craft things for him- leading up to his building a stronghold and taming the area around it so he can make a freehold of it and rule there as Lord.

At each step of the way, he will want to delegate tasks to subordinates so that he can focus his attention on the actions that produce the highest value and generate the best returns given the risks involved. A Fighter will hand finances off to a clerk, subordinate wrangling to a majordomo, mount care to an ostler (and his stable boys), and keep his own smith and leatherwork on hand to make/repair gear for himself and his subordinates- and that's just what I have off the top of my head.

Slipping over to RIFTS, think of that Coalition Military Specialist.

He begins as a junior officer (O-1, 2nd Lieutenant), fresh out of the academy and newly commissioned into the Coalition Army. He's likely to be assigned to a field command, be put in command of an Infantry platoon, and get told where to go and what to do for a while. However, assuming he survives (hardly a guarantee), he'll make Captain and maybe Major at which point he's got a sizable unit under his command and he's got assistants and staff and people attaching to his unit from time to time (usually Intelligence).

Some of you reading this either are or were officers, or NCOs that worked with them. You know all about the importance of delegating tasks down to someone able to handle it so those higher up can (in theory) focus on higher-value operations that need their attention. This would apply, of course, to our Coalition man- especially if he wants to get into the senior ranks.

Those that play Magic-Users (by whatever name) also know all about the necessity of delegation; you know that your man's time is best spent doing research on spells or items, making spells/items, or keeping up on others doing the same thing. Spell components, finances, handling subordinates, etc. are all things delegated to assistants of some sort. Yes, this applies to those playing religious-themed sorts also (and divine patrons tend to think of your man as Someone To Delegate Things To).

Where Did This Organization Come From?

It started with hiring someone to go rumormongering so you don't have to. The next thing you know, your man is forming and training an army so you can bargain your way into a better position by way of either a feudal vassalage arrangement or a mercenary contract, and not long thereafter your man controls a strategic location (a mountain pass, a raw material source that matters, a vital manufacturing hub, a magical portal) and thus gets wrapped up in the region's geopolitics.

Congratulations, you've built your own faction from scratch.

And don't think that Coalition officer is any different. Making General is as much about building your own gang in the Army as it is actually proving that you have the chops (as Coalition life is still far too dangerous to permit Peacetime Flag Officers). At least you don't have to worry about heresy- just treason.

No matter what, your man ain't going to make it alone. He'll need subordinates as much as he'll need allies and friends, and that always results in some form of organization- and that is Faction Play.

Me and the gang about to commit some war crimes.