Część 3: Frakcje

Each Adventurer belongs to a single Faction, and subscribes (or at least pays lip-service) to that Faction's beliefs and way of life. This may be due to a deeply-held feeling for that Faction, or may simply be due to a wish to blend in with the society around him or her. If you want to play an Adventurer with strong religious or political beliefs (go on, it's fun!), whether they are relatively mainstream or wildly idealistic, choose one of the Factions below. Alternatively, you can choose the Self-Interest Faction and pick one of the sub-categories within it.

The Factions described in this chapter are examples only - Factions should be designed specifically for your game world.

Righteousness

Righteousness Points (RPs) are a measure of an Adventurer's passion for his chosen Faction. Each Faction, whether it be a religious sect or a political group has a Zeal statistic, which measures the extent of the group's fervour. An Adventurer's starting Righteousness Points are equal to POW+CHA+Faction Zeal.

Uses of Righteousness Points

Righteousness Points can be used for a number of things:

Debate

In a debate between two characters from rival Factions, the two players make an Opposed Skill Test against their Righteousness Points; the Games Master may add a bonus or penalty to an Adventurer's roll for good or poor argument and/or role-playing. The winner of the opposed roll wins the argument; if this is in front of an undecided audience, they may swing in the winner's favour. Characters gain or lose Righteousness Points according to how well or badly they do in the debate, signifying increased or decreased confidence in their own opinions. Righteousness Points can never fall below 0, but if they fall that low, the character suffers a crisis of confidence; since his beliefs are so shaky, he is wide open to conversion to another cause.

Conversion

A character with a Righteousness of 0 is wide open to conversion. Such a character can only use his basic POW in any Opposed Righteousness Tests, and if he loses, is converted to the opposing character's Faction. His Righteousness in the new Faction is equal to his POW+CHA+ the same amount as the opposing character gained in Righteousness for winning the test. Since RPs can never fall below 0, the character being converted does not lose any RPs points, even if the table says he should; nor does he gain any Righteousness Points for winning—he has resisted being converted, but still lacks any confidence in his old beliefs.

Righteous Action

If a character is using a skill to further his Faction's cause, he gets a bonus to his skill roll equal to the tens digit of his current Righteousness Points total.

Inter-Party Debate

Righteous Will Tests should normally be used only for interactions between Adventurers and NPCs. When Adventurers debate, success should be determined by role-playing. The Games Master may wish to award or deduct RPs as he sees fit, based on the outcome of the argument. Awards and deductions may become less frequent as, over the course of play, Adventurers become immune to each others' rants. If it makes for a good story, Adventurers can be converted to another Faction by another Adventurer's arguments, even if their RPs aren't actually low enough to trigger a conversion under normal circumstances (although their Righteousness must be lower than that of the character making the conversion). Such a conversion will take several sessions of play.

Righteousness Contest Table

Righteous Will Tests

Of course, there has to be a down side to all this Righteousness. Passionate people can get carried away with their beliefs and find themselves holding forth on them at inappropriate (or even dangerous) moments. If a character is in a situation in which he may feel the need to defend his beliefs, or verbally attack someone who is expressing different beliefs or acting in a way the character considers inappropriate, a Righteous Will Test must be made.

To succeed at a Righteous Will Test, the player must roll above his current Righteousness Points total. If he succeeds, he manages to hold back and not burst forth into righteous ranting; if he fails, he cannot help himself, but will begin to spout his beliefs. This simulates the fact that a person with more Righteousness Points is more passionate about his beliefs and therefore less likely to be able to avoid talking about them.

Belonging to more than one Faction

Your Faction of choice represents the cause about which your character feels most passionate.

As such, your Righteousness is always measured in terms of your fervour for your main Faction. You may nominally be a member of more than one Faction, but your Faction benefits are always bestowed by the Faction that is of most importance to you.

The amount of Righteousness Points you have reflects the extent of your loyalty to your Faction. High Righteousness reflects zeal and enthusiasm, low Righteousness, apathy and a wavering attitude.

Changing Faction without being converted

Of course, your Faction can change without radical conversion. These sorts of conversions need not be played out solely in game mechanics, but can be agreed upon between player and Games Master, if the player decides that this is the way he wants his character to go. Once a player has decided to change Factions, his character's Righteousness Points in his original Faction will fall by 2D6 points each week of game time, until they fall below the level of the character's CHA + POW, at which point the character changes Faction, and he joins the new Faction with RPs equal to CHA + POW + Zeal of the new Faction, in the same way as a beginning character. The player may role-play this as a slow change of allegiance or a sudden moment of revelation, as appropriate.

Fluctuations in Righteousness Points

Righteousness can fluctuate due to factors other than Opposed Righteousness rolls. Personal events might cause a gain or loss in RPs, and events in the world at large might do the same. For instance:

• Character loses fight with character from enemy Faction: -1D10 RPs
• Character wins fight with character from enemy Faction: +1D10 RPs
• Character involved in major defeat at hands of enemy Faction: -1D10+10 RPs
• Character involved in major triumph over a group of enemy Faction: +1D10+10 RPs
• Character hears of major defeat for his own Faction in the war: -1D10 RPs
• Character hears of major success for his own Faction in the war: +1D10 RPs
• Character hears of overwhelming triumph for his own Faction in the war: +1D10+10
• Character hears of overwhelming defeat for his own Faction in the war: -1D10+10

Furthering the cause

Adventurers may also gain RPs through simple actions that further or reinforce their beliefs. These actions will vary depending on which Faction they belong to. For each day that the Adventurer engages in such an activity, he may gain 1 Righteousness Point if his player requests it. He can gain no more than 7 RPs in any one month by this means, even if other factors cause the Adventurer's RPs to fall. Some of these activities do not require more than an hour or two of the Adventurer's time.

Very High Righteousness

A character who reaches a Righteousness of 90 RPs or higher is considered a complete fanatic for his Faction's cause - he will not let anything or anyone stand in his way, and will gladly sacrifice family, friends and allies if he thinks this will further his agenda. A player whose Adventurer has reached this point may wish to retire the character, handing him over to the Games Master to play as a Non-Player Character, and start playing a new Adventurer.

Low Righteousness

If a character's Righteousness Points fall below the Zeal of his Faction, this means that he is insufficiently committed to the cause that his Faction espouses. Depending on what Faction he is a member of, he may be politely asked to leave the Faction, or forcibly expelled from the organisation in question.

Factions

The rest of this chapter is devoted to a number of Factions to which your character can belong. All follow the same format:

• Each begins with a brief list of the Faction's most important beliefs.
• This is followed by a list of which other Factions can be considered Allies and Enemies of the Faction.
• After that is the Faction's Zeal; this is a measure of the general level of passion expected of a character who is a member of that Faction. Newly created characters add this number to their CHA + POW to get their beginning Righteousness Points.
• Following Zeal is the character's starting Skill Bonuses for the Faction he has chosen.

Example Factions

Note: These Factions are condensed from some of those in the Clockwork & Chivalry Core Rulebook to provide examples, and may mention enemies not listed in the Renaissance rules.

Catholic

• Confession - You believe that if you confess your sins to a priest and perform the penance he gives you, your sins will be forgiven by God.
• Salvation through good works - You believe that doing good works (helping the unfortunate, giving money to charity, etc.) helps you get to Heaven.
• Purgatory - You believe that there is a „half-way house” between Heaven and Hell, where moderately sinful Catholics go when they die for a period of suffering before going on to Heaven. The period spent in Purgatory can be reduced by the prayers of others, or by buying an Indulgence from the Church.
• Wisdom of the Church Fathers - You believe that the accumulated wisdom of generations of Church Fathers, who have developed a deep knowledge of how the world works based on learned interpretation of the Bible, is more valid than the thoughts of individuals.
• Intervention of saints - You believe that if you pray to a saint he or she can speak to God on your behalf.
• Priesthood - You believe that there is an unbroken chain of blessing stretching back from your local Priest to Christ himself, and that only those officially appointed by the Catholic Church can perform religious ceremonies. The Pope is the supreme head of all true Christians.
• Transubstantiation - You believe that during the celebration of Mass, the bread and wine actually turns into the body and blood of Christ, and that what you are eating and drinking are truly molecules of God. This puts you at odds with Protestants, who believe the rite is symbolic.

Allies: Laudians, Royalists

Enemies: Parliamentarians, Presbyterians, Puritans

Zeal: 30

Skill Bonus: Beliefs (Catholic) +25%

Clan

• Act in your Clan's interests - Support your Clan Chief and work for the good of your clan.
• Seek bloody revenge on those who have wronged your Clan - Your traditional enemies deserve no mercy.
• Assist your Clan allies - Auld alliances deserve respect.

Allies: Allied Clans

Enemies: Enemy Clans

Zeal: 45

Bonus Skills: Lore (Clan History) +25%

Gang

• The Gang comes first - Your first loyalty is to your Gang and its members.
• The Law is your enemy - Gangs are engaged in illegal activity.
• Sometimes hard decisions must be made - It's a tough world. Leaders are only worth having as long as they bring success. Unreliable Gang members put everyone at risk and cannot be tolerated.
• Fight or die - Sometimes your Gang may ally with other Gangs; sometimes a Gang might be subservient to another, more powerful Gang. At the end of the day though, you have a turf (or sphere of operations) and you have to defend it from all rivals.

Allies: Varies

Enemies: Guilds, Parliamentarians, Rival Gangs

Zeal: 15

Bonus Skills: Beliefs (Your Gang) +25%

Guild

• Look after your Guild and your Guild will look after you - Pay your dues, contribute to Guild activities and you will be rewarded and supported.
• Respect the Guild hierarchy - Respect and defer to your seniors within the Guild.
• Dedicate yourself to your work - Work to high standards and maintain a good reputation.
• Prosper - If a Craftsman, get the highest price you can; if a Merchant, buy low and sell high. You should not undermine your fellow Guild members, but work to maximise the profitability of your industry.
• Beware rival trades and traders - It is your town; make sure your Guild's markets are protected and woe-betide any that encroach upon them.

Allies: Other Guilds

Enemies: Gangs, Other Guilds

Zeal: 15

Skill Bonus: Beliefs (particular Guild) +25%

Puritan

• Independence - The individual church should be the highest authority. You should choose which church you want to attend, rather than being assigned a place of worship according to where you live.
• Religion is a matter of individual conscience - religious tolerance should be exercised, except where Papists are concerned.
• Live your life for God - and avoid `Ungodly' pursuits. Work hard and be thrifty.
• A strict moral code should be followed - Act with Godly zeal, rather than for false worldly pleasures.
• Predestination - God has already decided who's going to Heaven and who's going to Hell. You (mostly) believe that you're one of those going to Heaven.
• Consubstantiation - You believe that during the celebration of Mass, the bread and wine is merely symbolic of the body and blood of Christ. This puts you at odds with Catholics, who believe the bread wine actually become molecules of God.

Allies: New Model Army, Parliamentarians

Enemies: Catholics, Laudians, Ranters

Zeal: 40

Bonus Skills: Beliefs (Puritan) +25%

Satanist

• Satan is the true lord of the Earth - When the end times come, those who follow him will reign at his side.
• Worship of Satan is the route to Earthly power - Only he can bestow powerful magick.
• What you want is more important than what anyone else wants - Everyone is selfish and corrupt, some just pretend otherwise.
• There is no such thing as sin - It is a myth put about by Christian clergy to keep the population under control.

Allies: None

Enemies: Everyone

Zeal: 50

Bonus Skills: Beliefs (Satanist) +25%

Magick: +1 to MAG. Characters who do not already have the MAG Attribute gain it at INT+POW+1

Self-Interest (Type)

• Grand causes are seldom worth dying for - Self-interest comes before political and religious agendas. Such agendas are only important in so far as they get you what you want.
• Strive for what you want - Life is short, you may as well enjoy it.
• Your private concerns are paramount - Do the best for yourself and don't be too concerned with worrying about the consequences. After all, that's what everyone does, when it comes right down to it. Isn't it?

Allies: Varies by Type

Enemies:Varies by Type

Zeal: 15+4D6

Bonus Skill: Choose a Faction to which you claim to be allied - you get Beliefs (Faction) +10%; Persistence +15%

Where others fight for abstract beliefs, you are motivated by pure self-interest. You do not care for any grander cause, even if occasionally you have to pretend to do so to preserve your own interests. Religion and politics may have their places for others, or even for yourself as a stepping stone to your own success, but deep down you have nothing but contempt for the gullible who espouse such convictions with sincerity. You may not be completely anti-social, however. You might still have affection for those close to you and act out of love or loyalty to personal acquaintances. Or you may be a completely flawed character, prepared to step over anybody to have your desires satiated. Below are some examples of what may be your overriding motive (type).

Amoral

The most purely self-interested of all, the amoral character cares not for right and wrong, only for themselves. You are not necessarily a psychopath (although you might be), nor need you be debauched. If you play an amoral character with high Righteousness, you are a true Machiavellian, using those you meet to your advantage, quickly dispensing with anyone who is of no use to you. The amoral character with lower Righteousness is merely apathetic, neutrally paying lip service when required but lacking any real principles.

Envy

Why is it others always seem to acquire wealth, preferment and popularity with ease, while you are passed over? It is madness. After all, you are more deserving. If only others would recognise it. You may covet other people's successes, or you may just despise the injustice of it all. You may be jealously fixated on one individual (perhaps a love rival or business competitor) or generally bitter at being held back by everyone who has ever had authority over you. However your envy manifests, it burns within you. The higher your Righteousness, the more you will work to realise what you desire.

Gluttony

After every meal, what you most desire is another meal. You are a glutton, obsessed with consuming food and drink. You have a voracious appetite, never feeling your thirst is slaked or your guts are full. You may be blessed with a metabolism that disguises the physical effects of your quaffing; or your bulk may reflect your diet. You may have spent so long half-starved, that you are just habitually ravenous; or you may always have had a life of plenty. Whatever your story, you have little self-control and overindulge at every opportunity. Surely it must be time for another snack?

Greed

You never have enough and so are never satisfied. Whether it's wealth or power, you want it all and you want it now. You may be miserly, or you might spend freely enough, as long as you get ever-increasing amounts to spend and can enjoy the shiny things you get for your money. You probably find it hard to disguise your obsession with getting more than your fair share, but it is of no concern. As long as you get what you desire, who cares what others think? You will have what you want and they won't.

Lust

You are wracked by intense sexual cravings. You spend most of your time planning new conquests, your amorous pursuits by far the most interesting thing in the world (at least, as far as you are concerned). Your lusts may be straightforward, or they may be more unusual. You may be a dangerous lecherous swine or a dashing and charming paramour; you may only press your suit with the stunningly handsome/beautiful, or you may be somewhat less choosy. You might think that the world would be a better place if everyone would surrender to wantonness, with lust replacing conflict; or you may be a complete hypocrite, preaching to all and sundry your belief in sexual morality, while privately being debauched.

Personal Honour

You aspire to be a paragon of integrity and fairness. You will act to ensure that you undertake everything in terms of your personal code of honourable conduct. This may annoy allies, as you will propose a duel, or appeal for a champion, if you have been slighted; you might help the defenceless, even if they are your enemies; or, you might speak out against the less honourable, even if it is not politically wise to do so. Despite the potential consequences, at least you will preserve your sense of honour and be able to live with yourself, secure in the knowledge you „did the right thing”.

Pride

You are vain and self-important. Puffed up with pride, you know you are special. You might be haughty, aloof and superior in your attitude; or you may overbearing and brashly confident. You want others to recognise and appreciate your greatness as well. Sometimes your boasting might put you in awkward situations. Other times you may be forced into confrontation in order to avoid shame. Whereas those with Personal Honour are content to fulfil their own ethical codes, seeking a feeling of inner righteousness, to you, outward appearance is everything. Privately of course you may do anything to further your ambitions; after all, if you succeed, people will have to take you seriously (or suffer the consequences).

Protection of Family

Your overriding motivation is the well-being of your family, whom you love very much. Your family are more important than any silly cause; and you are probably bewildered by those families that have been torn apart by the conflict. Your family name, reputation and status might be your priority, or perhaps you just want to ensure they are fed and have a roof over their heads. You will always act in your family's best interests and against those who threaten them. You might dote on one family member particularly, possibly even at the expense of other relatives; or you might mobilise to aid any of your relations.

Protection of Lands

You are driven by your desire to protect your land. You might be a Lord or a member of the Gentry with a fine estate; or perhaps you have a more humble freehold. You may just want to hang on to your entitlement to common land, where your ancestors have grazed their livestock for centuries. Whatever your situation, you will resist encroachment from rivals, and look to secure your land for your own benefit and that of future generations.

Revenge

You have been wronged and you will not rest until you have had your revenge on the transgressor(s). Perhaps you are right to be angry and bitter, perhaps someone hurt you, or those close to you. Maybe your parents were murdered, your lands snatched, your possessions stolen and your home burnt down. Sick of insult or injury you will have your vengeance. On the other hand, maybe you just feel cheated. Whether real or perceived, you burn with hatred and look for every opportunity to retaliate against your enemies.

Sloth

You might be a member of another Faction, if only you could be bothered. You take idleness to an extreme. If it needs doing, you don't want to do it. You may not need much sleep at all, you might just want to sit or lie around, or you might wish never to rise from your cot. You might have to be kicked awake, and then kicked again to encourage you to get dressed, and so your day progresses. Of course, if you are privileged enough to be able to afford a life of leisure, there is little you need to worry about; sweet apathy! However, if you are embroiled in danger or actually have to work to make a living, you will probably be miserable and on the look out for any excuse to loaf about or take a little nap.

Wrath

You are filled with an anger that never abates. Your ire may be targeted, or maybe you are just generally hot-blooded, unable to control your temper. You possibly shout a lot, venting your rage; you roar your disapproval at all and sundry. Or perhaps you seethe silently, acting with savage delight whenever you have the opportunity to verbally or physically attack others. Your Wrath may well be of a religious nature, in which case you burn with Wrathful Righteousness; however if Wrath is your Faction, your fury takes precedence over all else, pure aggression being your motive to espouse a belief, rather than the other way around.