Faction Turns - Dolmenwood Play Reports: Interlude 1

I summarize what Faction Turns are, why you should use them, and then make the first Faction Turn Rolls

Today’s post is going to be a little different. I’m going to discuss how I use Faction Turns to help the world of Dolmenwood feel more alive.

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What is a Faction Turn?

The short version is that it’s when the different factions of your setting get the chance to advance their agendas and goals.

The idea of living factions isn’t anything new but in the many years I’ve been GM-ing it’s always felt very challenging to pull off. How do I decide when the faction advances its agenda? How do I know if they failed? How the heck do I keep track of it all?!?! This came to a head for me when I was trying to use “Fronts” from Dungeon World as a way to track it all. It wasn’t hard to build the Front/Enemy/Faction but I was lost as to what to do with it then. Either it was an inactive part of the world, or I just arbitrarily decided when things would happen (which I hated). I basically gave up on having organized factions.

Enter Dolmenwood or rather a specific blog about Dolmenwood.

I had already decided I was going to run Dolmenwood as my first major departure from 5e and was doing a lot of reading in the blog space about the setting when I stumbled into a blog that will probably change the way I do games forever. How to Set Up and Use Faction Turns by Among Cats and Books. It is a series of articles on a structured way to build out Factions with goals, missions, and tasks, and then a structured way to execute them. Then he did this for every faction in Dolmenwood. It blew my mind. It finally felt like someone had given me a way to actually use Factions without just making up what they did as they went.

I didn’t know it when I started reading but this was a very detailed, Dolmenwood-specific version of the Mousritter Faction Rules. I wound up buying Mousritter just to read it for their faction rules. And honestly, it’s so simple I felt like an idiot for not figuring out something like this on my own. But we live and learn right?

Since starting Dolmenwood, getting more active in the Substack TTRPG space, and finding the treasure troves of ideas out there, I’ve learned about a lot of ways you could decide to move factions forward toward their goals. But in my opinion, Mouseritter nailed the balance of depth and simplicity. It will probably be the way I do things for a long time because it just feels so “right.”

I do want to mention that Chaoclypse has a really good article on Sprawling Consequences that I use to track more simplistic goals and consequences that don’t need a full Faction devoted to them.

Why use Faction Turns?

The best TTRPG adventures do a good job of making the world seem alive. Mostly this means that all the NPCs, factions, and monsters aren’t just sitting around doing nothing until the characters arrive. They all have their own ambitions they are working to fulfill. At a simple level, this might just mean that the monster keeps eating half the people that cross the bridge it lives under. Something more complex might be the struggle between a thieves guild and local law enforcement in a city. That struggle should happen whether the characters get involved or not.

In addition to making the world feel like it is a living place, Faction Turns also helps flesh out the lore and story of the world. I get to ask a lot of questions about what is happening or why their plans might have failed.

Faction Turns ultimately help the world feel alive without putting an insane amount of work into each of the factions.

How do Faction Turns Work?

If this is something you are interested in (and you should be, especially if you’re running a long game) you should absolutely check out the actual rules in the Mouseritter book. The rules are so simple they fit on a single page, and it’s easy to start using them right away. For a more detailed example, specifically focused on Dolmenwood, you should check out the full article from Among Cats and Books. I’m going to give a brief explanation here just so you can follow along with my faction turns in the future.

First, I flesh out some missions and tasks based on the different factions and their goals. Some of these might be very complicated, and some might be simple. Below is an example of a slightly more detailed Goal, Mission, and Task for the Drune.

A small portion of the Drune’s Faction sheet

The Goal is to Reclaim Dominion Over the Lost Nodals. The Mission is to Secure the Tenkystone, and the first Task is that Audrune Jhaelloch breaks Atunewe’s blockade and gets word to his Drune brothers. You’ll notice 2 boxes after that task, that indicates how many successes it will take to accomplish that task.

At the end of each week, I’ll roll to randomly determine what task each faction is working on, and then roll a single d6 and potentially give them and small penalty or bonus based on the situation. A roll of 1 indicates disaster and will create some type of setback, a roll of 2-3 indicates that the goal does not progress. A roll of 4-5 means the task progresses by 1 success, and a 6 is a huge success and progresses by 2 successes.

For each task, I’ll try to note why a task succeeded or failed and what this might mean in the larger world. If a task is completed I’ll ask myself what the next task would be, or if the mission is accomplished.

Now that we know the What, Why, and How let’s get into our first Faction Turn.

Faction Turn Results

I’ll list each faction name, the specific die roll, the mission, and the task the faction is attempting. Finally, I’ll share the result, which is essentially the reasoning behind the die roll.

Please be aware that this could create major spoilers for anyone playing in a Dolmenwood campaign. If you’d rather not know what is going on behind the scenes then you can skip this section, or simply read the major changes piece.

Faction Turn 1 - Grimvold 7th

Major Changes: None, not enough time has passed yet for any missions to be completed.

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Faction Name

roll | Mission: Task [ ] [ ]
Result: Details

Atanuwe

2 | Campaign against Prigwort: Ambush merchants on Fort Road. [ ] [ ]
Result: Due to the loss of crookhorns at Droomen Knoll, Snarkscorn will need to find new contacts with the traitors in Prigwort.

Cold Prince

3 | Locate the rift mortals used to enter Frigia: Send word to Lady Frost-Dust-Shadow. [ ] [ ]
Result: Still investigating rumors that this even happened. Still unable to find proof.

Drune

4 | Forge an alliance with the Witches: Hold initial tentative meetings [X] [ ]
Result: Several representatives have carried messages back and forth, while no date is set the meetings are moving forward.

Human Nobility

6 | Locate a Stronghold of the Drune: Capture Drune villagers [X] [X] [ ]
Result: Several villagers have been captured and held at Harrowmoor Keep until they can be sent to Castle Brackenwold.

House Brackenwold

2 | Duchess Ophilia: Learn the truth about her daughter’s disappearance
Result: The Duchess isn’t even really sure where to look.

House Guillefer

2 | Dream a way to please the Duke Who Cherishes Dreams
Result: Dreams do not contain enough energy. If failures continue, perhaps seek additional assistance.

House Harrowmoor

5 | Find and retrieve her daughter Violet: Learn of her daughter’s last actions in Prigwort [X] [ ]
Result: She had sent notices and rewards for any information about what her daughter was doing in Prigwort. Information has started to flow in.

House Hogwarsh

2 | Recover the Hanglehorn: Learn more about Dewidort of Smerne and begin to track down his hoard [ ] [ ]
Result: Research does not produce any results. Perhaps this is due to prioritizing parties.

House Mulbreck

6 | Find the source of the Myconom: Investigate rumors [X] [X] [ ]
Result: Two of her sons have heard rumors of others deep in the forest that share their symptoms. They have traveled into the forest to validate these rumors.

House Nodlock

n/a, they are mostly concerned with defending their territory so until they are threatened they will do…nothing

Longhorn Nobility

Lord Malbleat

5 | Unlock the arcane secrets of Lord Gnarlgruff: Finish deciphering some of Gnarlgruff's oldest texts that reference a laboratory [X] [ ]
Result: Malbleat has recruited a magician talented in deciphering ancient tomes that have begun making progress on the texts.

Lord Murkin

5 | Find those responsible for the revolt: Send humans to infiltrate the hamlets in 0108 [X] [ ]
Result: His spies have begun to make contacts within the area but haven’t cemented a relationship.

Lord Ramius

5 | Learn more about the beast: Capture several sleepwalking shorthorns to learn what motivates them [X]
Result: Ramius’ forces have captured several of the sleepwalking shorthorns and have realized their intentions.

Pluritine Church

5 | Find a stronghold of the Witches: Search the wood for rumors of a stronghold [X] []
Result: Scouts are making good progress throughout the woods.

Individual Goals: Abbot Hargle

5 | Form a secret relationship with the Drune: Cultivate a courier within the church he can trust [X] [ ]
Result: Training continues well, though slow due to secrecy.

Witches

4 | Find information relating to the two missing mirrors: Research a ritual that would allow them to search for the other mirrors [X] [ ] [ ]
Result: The plan proceeds well, they will try to replicate a different version of the holy spell locate object.

Individual Goals: Sadewyn Gallgucket

1 | Awaken the nobles of House Guillefer and nudge them into mobilizing against Atanuwë: Awaken the dreaming lady of the house [ ] [ ]
Result: Caught in suspicious activity, maintains disguise, but future rolls are at -1 until next success.

The Hag

1 | Form an alliance with the Nag-Lord: Visit the Atacorn Ignormwm to establish initial contact. [ ] [ ]
Result: The chaotic nature of Ignormwm results in conflicts between the two hags. (Cannot attempt this again for 2 turns.)

Ygraine Mordlin

3 | Block the Drune’s active investigation: Learn of the Drune’s plan to manually search the lay line for the nodal stone [ ] [ ]
Result: Nothing

Post Turn Wrapup

All in all, not a lot happened during week 1 but we laid the groundwork for some really interesting developments. While this might seem like a lot it only took about 30 minutes to roll and document. Setting up all the faction stuff took way longer but now that it’s in place it doesn’t require a lot of maintenance. And to be fair there are a ton of factions in Dolmenwood, you most certainly don’t need this many factions but the core idea would be the same.

In my Shadowdark Play-by-Post, the group is going through Stonehell and I’m using the Faction Turn framework for the 2-3 factions on each level of the dungeon. I’m keeping it super simple and it’s still great. Below is an example of one of the factions in the dungeon that is a lot closer to the original Mouseritter design.

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Hopefully, this was informative and useful to everyone following along with our group’s adventures. Or maybe just anyone looking to use the Faction Turn framework.

We’ll pick up time with the group in the creepy town of Fort Vulgar. Until then, stay curious.