Faction Size Poll

[Pestilence]

about 50+ o.O. I know. Scary, but they owned half the city

[hbns]

This is a good discussion.  I lean toward well-represented factions, and  I particularly like this remark:

 

All these tools are used to better allow you to thwart influence and make changes in the game.

(in the context of everything else he said)

For the most part, factions do not homogenize every character making them identical.  From a PC perspective, they are just a means to an end.  Think about your character, the reason they join the faction is to realize their own personal goals, which do not end with gaining membership to the faction--they start there.  Now that you are in that faction you have connections, you have a crew, you have an HQ, you have influence, these are all things that your PC can use to pursue their own agenda.  That agenda might greatly parallel the faction's, or it may deviate in some areas.  Those deviations might steer the whole faction in a new direction, or they might cause a schism.

 In some cases the faction molds the PC, but in some the PC molds the faction.  As much backstory as the group might have, it is the day-to-day attitude and impression that the PCs give off that really defines what people think of when they hear the faction name.

[Random_White_Guy]

33+ Yes Votes.

[cough hint cough hint cough cough hint cough hint cough hint cough cough hint cough hint cough cough hint hint join themhint cough hint cough cough hint hint cough cough]

[AKMatt]

I enjoy having the DM factions "full," but also think the server benefits from smaller factions run by players.  The burgeoning ranks of House Sharboneth and The Order recently have opened up new doors for storytelling on the server, but there are also individual characters with wonderful plots of their own.

I think a good mix of factions and free agents make the server healthy.  It's a good mirror on reality, where many people attach themselves to larger organizations in their pursuit of wealth and influence, but some choose to go alone, or forge their path to success with a small group of close friends.

[Caddies]

Agree with AKMatt 100%.

[DeputyCool]

AKMatt, gettin' it right since May 17th

[derfo]

factions rock

[Random_White_Guy]

I didn't see people anywhere saying you had to be in a faction to have fun.

A well played PC faction is a glorious thing. As Sternhund said, some of EFU's best factions have been purely PC driven.

I was under the impression this was about DM Factions, but if you wanna talk PC Faction, easily done.

EFUA Has nigh unlimited potential for what you can do with a PC Faction.

The easiest route to such is the Banner Faction. This allows you to gain instant prestige as well as prominence in the colony, and even Court seat.

Its something I find mildly ironic to be completely honest. Back in EFU people were literally slaughtering themselves to try and get upon the Sanctuary Council.

The Court is better in almost ever feasible way from what I have seen yet very few people have shown interest. Its been said time and again that two prominent banner factions will get seat upon the Court. Two PC Factions can grab hold and take a firm step in contributing to the Server.

Granted its slighty off topic but simply something I found ironic given the PC Faction talk.

[Garem]

Granting that I've been away during a period of significant political change, perhaps one of the dilemmas in PC involvement with the Court is that the manner in which PCs gain seats is not totally visible. The council was a known DM faction that was earned via elections. The Court is... uh... chosen? How? What are the selectors  looking for? Make everything more apparent. I would do this as an IG thing (simple post/sticky should do) and also as an OOC thing on the website and forums.

[GreenSkinEFU]

First id like to say that everyones feedback on this has helped me in seeing DM factions in a new lite,that thay are not just there for PC's that want DM involvment in there EFU:a gameplay but as a way too feel a part of the big picture without needing hours spent trying to create there own faction and haveing it fall to the way side.               Second I feel that lots of little PC run factions add alot of flavor to the server,simply because you never know what some one else is going to come up with.I like the idea of PC run sub-factions of DM factions,like an Elite group of treasure hunters or assassins that reported to an NPC.this may give people that have some doubt about joining a DM faction something to look forward to as opossed to feelin like just anuther watchmen.                                                                     Long live Montezzi!!

[Egon the Monkey]

I've had more PCs in factions recently, both leading and following. Bishop sadly never got his going, but he did get contracts from both faction and lone players, from escort jobs to the Stargazer Village, to tracking down artefacts. The Shattered Skulls accomplished exactly what I was aiming for, except with more zombies. Hats off to RwG on that.

PC factions can complement DM Factions really well, as hired help to do things the faction can't accomplish easily, the go-to people for information (as the University is), or as organised adversaries (there's no open hostility such as Seekers/Spellguard or Armada/Fleet about, and the Craddock Gang provided a good deal of that for the Guard).

I think though, that DM factions do need a prominent PC presence, and the "pc inducted bottom rung" setup's a good one. I know that the crooks were outnumbering Sharbs by about 3:1 or more judging from the level of "Upright man" notes to Armsman PCs I saw. I'll also say it would be nice to see more non-human DM faction members. A Gnomish Trap Specialist for the Armada, an Elven orc-hunter for the Order, etc.

One thing I would bring up though, is the prevalence of certain trends in PC factions. We've has some very successful Evil factions that have concentrated monster PCs, outcast PCs and so on, but Neutral/Good factions have limited themselves by class, race, god etc, and that's made it hard to get a core of members in despite good goals. You need the right PCs to turn up if you want it to work. For example the Gnomish Union was very prominent but seems to have burned out to a few PCs as its members dropped off. The Flying Swordfish is an exploration/adventure company limited to arcane PCs.

On the other side of things, the Bearded Hawks were effective at gathering up various Dwarf and all sorts of Good PCs into an effective questing and exploring group, but we didn't have a particularly organised set of aims. That aside though, it we did merge two ideas of "dwarf faction" and "general adventuring company" and have a good time of it.