Part 4 of the Ferrymen series, a long running home campaign adapting Diaspora to Fate Core. See Part 6 for a post-playtest update to the Factional Conflict rules below.

Over the last three dozen sessions of Ferrymen, the crew of The Erebus (aka the player party) have repeatedly run up against the legislative dominion of the Carthage system – the sole manufacturers of FTL “slipstream drives”, who limit this precious technology to those who pay tribute and abide their trading regulations.

From the harsh taxes that drive business owners into criminality, to the ruthless eradication of “piratical elements”, to the spies of the Carthaginian Consultancy that reside on every slipstreaming vessel… it’s difficult for the crew to escape the evidence of Carthage’s misdeeds. Unfortunately, being a hard sci-fi game, running off to join the Rebel Alliance and overthrowing the evil empire by blowing up a couple of Death Stars is not a realistic prospect for the crew. Nor would starting a revolution be a particularly desirable option, since the pirates that Carthage declares war against are no better, and everyone still needs to put food on the table.

Instead, the crew attempts to reform from within. Over the duration of the campaign, they have scored public relations victories to endear themselves to the most sympathetic elements of the Carthaginian administration, and only undertaken criminal action like smuggling or industrial espionage when the moment is right.

Now, the crew has made enough of a name for themselves that political activism stands a reasonable chance of enacting change. To that end, they have formed a union of slipstreamer captains, “The Ferrymen”, who hope to successfully lobby for the reformation of an institutionally broken cluster.

A new theatre of engagement demands new rules for how to operate within it. This is what I’m planning to use.

FACTION ASPECTS

Factions in Fate Core operate in the same way as characters, albeit ones controlled by the players collaboratively rather than individually, but the elements that construct them are slightly different. Factions have faction aspects, skills, stunts, an institutional stress track and consequences.

Faction aspects are a hybrid mix of character aspects and situation aspects. Like character aspects, they are always in-play when the faction acts, and never go away over time. Like situation aspects, they can be removed from play with an overcome action – if this happens, they leave an empty slot on the faction’s sheet. Enemies can create advantages to fill an empty faction aspect slot, and these will stick around until an action is taken to replace them, but so can the faction itself. The best way to clear out a faction aspect you don’t like and replace it with one you do is to have an allied faction act straight after.

As usual, you can only create faction aspects for an allied or enemy faction that are plausible for you to create within the fiction in your current context.

Unlike characters, factions don’t get refresh. PCs can spend their own fate points to support friendly faction rolls and invoke friendly faction aspects if they are so inclined. Enemy factions spend from the GM’s pool and reserve as he/she sees fit.

Most factions begin life with three faction aspect slots, one of which is blank at the start of play. Larger, established factions might have up to five faction aspect slots.

FACTION SKILLS AND STUNTS

Skills work the same way for factions as they do for characters, but only 10 of the 20 Ferrymen skills are relevant for factions.

• Bureaucracy. Internal management and legislative authority.  Used to determine who goes first in a factional conflict (ties are broken by Investigate, then Rapport).
• Contacts. Breadth of influence in other (typically neutral) factions.  Mostly used to create advantages.
• Deceive. Bullshit PR and rhetorical “half-truths”, opposed by Investigate when it targets enemy factions.  Creates advantages based on trickery and improved perception.
• Education. Organisational output of useful, accurate statistical analysis.  Sometimes used to create advantages, if the truth is actually useful.
• Investigate. Digging up the dirt on rivals.  Usually opposes use of Deceive, can also create advantages.
• Provoke. Negative campaigning, used for scathing critiques of an “enemy” faction.  Used to make institutional attacks – enough bad publicity can “take out” a faction.
• Rapport. Skilful negotiation in a way that wins you friends and customers.  Good for overcoming faction aspects related to a negative perception.
• Resources. The disposable income of a faction.  Often used to create advantages, well-placed bribes might also overcome or build new faction aspects.
• Technology. Invention of new, exciting tech.  The right invention at the right time can create an excellent new faction aspect.
• Will. Faction morale and internal cohesion.  Used to defend against institutional attacks with Provoke.

Because factions have vastly more power, influence and supporting infrastructure than individuals do, most faction skills run within the range of +5 to +8. Some very powerful factions might have faction skills rated at +9 or even +10. All factions count as having the ten skills above rated at +4, even if they’re not explicitly stated on the faction’s sheet. A faction can never take actions using the other ten skills in Ferrymen (recounted here).

Stunts are stunts. They usually operate on a different scale than character stunts do, but mechanically they are constructed in the same way.

A starting factions begins with three skills at +5, two skills at +6 and one skill at +7. Their other four skills would be rated at +4 as normal. A starting faction also starts with one stunt. Characters so inclined can also sacrifice their own refresh to give more stunts to a faction they’re aligned with, on a one-for-one basis.

FACTIONAL CONFLICT

Factional conflict is resolved the same as any other, but typically only plays out for a turn or two (a “turn” in a factional conflict covering not seconds but weeks or months). Remember that factions can rewrite each other’s aspects as part of a conflict, as explained above.

Factions don’t attack individual characters. No single person is worth dedicating the attention of a whole faction to – they have individuals within their faction do that for them. Characters CAN attack factions, but with their lower skills, they’re not very good at it! They’re usually better off creating advantages to help a friendly faction attack for them.

To determine their ability to survive factional conflicts, factions have an institutional stress track and consequences. Stress and consequences are calculated in a way that seems proportionate to a faction’s sphere of influence and institutional backing – it is not determined by a skill. Institutional consequences are healed at milestones as normal – they cannot be otherwise healed except by characters or factions that have stunts that allow them to do so. The difficulty to heal institutional consequences is 4 higher than for mental or physical stress: +6 for mild, +8 for moderate, and +10 for severe.

Start-up factions are very fragile, with one 1-stress box, one 2-stress box and one 3-stress box, and only a mild consequence slot. They usually begin the campaign avoiding direct confrontation, or building a wall to help them survive one. Established powers like planetary governments have all three consequence slots in play and very long institutional stress tracks.

If a faction is taken out, then it collapses. Mutinees, bankruptcies, jail sentences. Perhaps the victor might spare the loser from total annihilation, and just rewrite the faction’s aspects to be something more to their liking. To be taken temporarily rather than permanently, or to rescue enough from a failed faction to go and build another one, factions should consider concession.

FACTION MILESTONES

The growth of a faction over time is generally tied to narrative positioning – they don’t always have the same smooth, natural growth that characters do. However, if you do want to tie faction expansion to the same milestone system as player characters, consider this as a guide.

• Factions do not change at minor milestones, except to swap around two adjacent skills OR replace a stunt, and to begin the healing process for mild and moderate consequences (if appropriate).
• At a significant milestone, factions can increase one of their skills by 1. You must maintain the integrity of your skill pyramid as normal, except skills lower than +5 do not count – you are allowed to have more skills rated at +5 than +4 without penalty. You also gain all the benefits of a minor milestone.
• At a major milestone, gain a stunt. Alternatively, you can forgo a stunt to increase your institutional durability. Your 1st such milestones gains you a moderate consequence; the second, a 4-stress box; the third, a severe consequence; the fourth, a 5-stress box. In addition to your stunt or increased durability, you gain a new faction aspect slot, up to a maximum of five aspect slots; this starts play as blank. You also gain all the benefits of a significant milestone.

EXAMPLES?

Unlike my rules for spaceship combat, these are completely untested, which is why there are no suggested examples for faction aspects or stunts. If you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them in the comments!