We are talking about Worldbuilding with Factions! By designing factions of NPCs with goals and desires, you can quickly build a rich gameable space full of meaningful choices for players!
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My buds. Listen. I am an rpg and art channel. My statement about Power being a means not an ends, it about what I think makes and interesting story. Please stop trying to debate me on real world motivations of power. Sheesh.
It might be worth adding a segment on Gather Information check.
It's very easy to know about the city of Felden, it's grain exports and the Coinguard. Also who rules (lord or council), where a drinking hole is and local businesses, what God is worshipped in the town temple, etc.
It's a little harder to know about cutting hands as punishment for thievery and that there is a criminal underworld. I'd put guilds and the basics of their politics on the same level.
Knowledge about the dungeon under the city is probably gained through plot, but they still need a way in. In all likelihood, some sections were walled off to use as storage and maybe hidden ways to move, some of it may be used as sewer, but any known entrances to the lower levels would most likely be sealed and/or guarded. Forcing the players to find their way in OR get permission to enter and be let in, can be an adventure in itself. Some information (there are big spiders, an ghosts, there is a dark cult there) could be known by the Lord or Head Priest, but difficult to get for PCs.
There could be some gossip about Elves and Dwarves arriving to town, but buying grain is a convenient cover story for both, so to get more information, the PCs would have to investigate, approach them, or get hired as bodyguards.
Cottus, Dark Elves and the cult would not be common knowledge and require either plot or knowledge (religion) and/or knowledge (history).
This criminal element seems badly thought out to me and violates what you said about factions in the beginning. Theft in an urban environment is virtually always going to be done for reasons of personal enrichment– either someone becomes desperate because they are broke and starving or deeply in debt and someone is threatening their lives or maybe they become greedy and see an easy way to get richer and take the risk. Either way "thieves" make no sense as a faction within a city. While if you were out in the wilderness you could have a bandit group that works together to steal from those who use the roads, that's just not a viable thing in the city. If you have an organized criminal element in the city it is almost certainly going to be because there is some highly profitable business that has nonetheless been made illegal…. Really, what could the overall goals of an organization of thieves who had their hands cut off even be? But if they were an organized crime unit that revolved around profiting from various illegal businesses instead, their goal would clearly be to continue to run those businesses successfully and profit from them.
well, what happened next? come on, man, i'm invested in the story!
Coin GUARD
We have to abstract from the real world, it's like art 101: you must be able to articulate reality in order to abstract it. Power is in fact an end. It's not like cash at all.
Coin guard? WTF is this, the back of a cereal box gives better advice. Did you pick up the game last year?
So I would actually counter that the accumulation of wealth for the sake of wealth is very much a thing people do, our entire economic system is built on it. People who are already absurdly rich simply want more, it is even the entire motivation of dragons in some circumstances.
You just have to keep in mind the ideology of somebody motivated exclusively by something like greed. Greed, of course, allows you to have things, but when you have "Enough", what then motivates you to be greedy and desire wealth? In many circumstances, it is the fear of losing what you already have to someone else, or it is something deeper, cultural, or psychological.
The Ferengi in DS9's Star Trek are a great example of greed for the sake of greed. "The Greedy Capitalist" is the quintessential villain in a whole lot of stories.
Dude, you're going to blow up in subscribers soon. I got recommended this video. Haven't played any sort of tabletops for nearly a decade. But it's just so pleasant to watch these seemingly quick ideas for something that's so gripping. Keep pushing, man!
Here's a much better way to run factions that requires almost no work for the GM that almost nobody is ready to deal with
you ready?
okay
Give control over them to other people
Now this will mean you'll have to incorporate a few other things like 1:1 time (a day in game = a day irl) so that the faction controlling players can actually do things between sessions and using a ruleset that actually has consistent rules allowing for people to run factions (like 1e AD&D, ACKS, Stars without Number, etc) but the groundwork required to figure those few things out will mean IMMENSELY less work for you in the longhaul as a GM
Its just the basic application of several heads are smarter (and in this case, more creative) than one applied to TTRPGs
Homie
My guy
My players recently, stupidly, went to the city of the dead and I would LOVE if someone has time to stat out a bone spider 👀👀👀
I think in general you should avoid making factions that just want money/power cuz they'll feel boring and flat, but you could probably get away with it if you add some spice. For instance, I could see a faction that only cares about hording treasure but they claim gold is a gift from the gods and they are firstborn of the gods who alone deserve that gold, you could even make it ambiguous if they really believe that or if they're saying that just to trick/intimidate other factions into giving them what they want. Could do a similar thing with power, have a power tripping faction that claims the strong dominating the weak is just the natural order of things.
The fun fact of this is that this video works for every single storytelling medium. Great job man you earned a new subscriber.
I seriously thought the coinguard were weird aliens. It's only on my second watch that I now discover that the drawing is supposed to resemble a sword XD
The funniest thing is when players talk about how situational a spell is like my brother in Christ you are in situations
Power IS a goal.
Great insight. Seems so obvious once you say it to categorize law vs criminal in a city environment as opposing factions rather than splitting criminal into a bunch of subcategories, at least initially.
This video is amazing, I just made one of these for a city in my world and I've never felt more prepared for an arc in my campaigns.
Dude doesn't realize he's about to pop off in the algorithm
They hold their pencil with the death-grip like I do
Oh man this video is fantastic. really interesting and unique style with incredible execution, easy choice to sub
Damn I was looking for the episode on faxing my fictions.
Adventure into an Ancient city…
Thanks for the 1 shot plot hook!