How To Run Faction Intrigue in Dungeons and Dragons 5e 

What if there was a faction of necromancer, but they didn't dig up graves? What if they took in the sick or elderly, cared for them until they passed, then were given permission to use the bodies for research, which sometimes would be reanimation?

Drakkenheim has convinced me that adding conflicting factions is great for every campaign!

A way to "hide" the artificiality of the 5 factions that I like is introducing asymetry. 1 big dominating faction but who have a hard time collaborating with any other faction. 2 regular factions with a focus on external trouble. 1 faction having an internal conflict that have 3 sides all trying to get things to go their way, more focused on resolving this internal conflict. 1 faction that is 2+ minor factions merged by affinity but with slightly misaligned goals that hinder them without internal conflict.

Obligatory comment for the Algorithm because you guys are the bomb and deserve all the views.

Perfect timing, starting Waterdeep Dragon Heist the day after tomorrow.

At 18:50 talking about MtG having 5 colors/factions, I actually really appreciate how that is laid out. The 5 points of the star’s colors each represent a team-the color on either side of a particular point is kind of who they ally with, and the two colors across the star points are who they oppose. Example: white gets along with green and blue, but they have conflict with red and black. Then you see green gets along with white and red, but is in conflict with black and blue. If you apply that to your factions in a D&D game it adds so many nice textural and emotional layers for your players and can cause a lot of dilemmas particularly in decisions that actually matter.

It had never occurred to me to treat a faction at large as a single NPC in terms of "personality," ideals, bonds, and flaws. Great advice that really cuts through the noise and right to the heart of the organization.

The "small jobs" at 24:20 might lead to the real world "You're in too deep, you can't back out now" recruitment technique. "It would be a shame if word got out that it was youse that 'acquired' the Book of the Leviathan for us and then later sprung Lady Montecastella. Pity about them jailers." Maybe railroad-y, but if it came from multiple sources it could really heighten the tension at the moment of ultimate decision.

Completely blindsided by the relevance of this. Straight up if I were to write you a letter and ask for a video this would have been it. You've already earned my backing pledge and DoD isn't even out yet!

Love how the dungeon dudes are always organized af. No time wasted, every second is great content. You guys rule! Dungeon dudes kickstarter has launched? Yes plz... auto-back that mofo... no thought required.

Really cool that you mentioned Ravnica! Specially because in the latest set the guilds end up having a temporary alliance to fight Nicol Bolas, just as the example you gave about WWII

Read the first 3 books of the Dune series. You'll get lots of ideas. Also , the TTRPG Paranoia deals pretty extensively with factions. Each PC belongs to a secret society and has a goal to accomplish during gameplay and many characters will be working against one another without realizing it. Playing a few games of Paranoia can give you a good idea of how your players can engage with factions directly.

Your examples and cautions remind me so much of Eberron. That setting is loaded with good factions, most of which are very gray, or can be if you take some time to think about each one.

My thieves’ guild in my homebrew world was called the Venomcloaks. There was a chapter in each of the 4 main nations of the campaign, each headed by a dragon that could polymorph at will to a humanoid form. Their goal was to use their intelligence and leadership while masking their identity as dragons to situate themselves among the best burglars and larcenists in order to use the sense of greed found in thieves to amass a large hoard of their own. But, given that they were dragons, their cruelty towards their underlings was powerful, and made it so that they ruled by fear more than true leadership. Our monk player was drawn in by the guild, not knowing its origin and instead just drawn to the gold. He had a huge character development moment when he saw the cruelty of the leader, and one of the victims joined the party after defecting from the guild. This caused the monk to defect too, and the party wound up killing the dragon leader of that chapter of the faction.

I just introduced my players to a criminal syndicate that I'm using as a group patron. This video is so well timed

The last time I was this early, Rat Food was still alive.

A faction of paladins. A faction of necromancers. "These factions may not get along..." I just loved this, made me chuckle! Thanks for all the hard work, you content is pure gold! I rewatch videos all the time, because you touch on so many interesting and useful topics!

I'm 2-3 episodes from finishing the first run of Dungeons of Drakkenheim (as a podcast). Having those five factions in there seemed a lot to me at first but after watching this episode, it really makes a lot of sense why there were that many to begin with and balance forces out.

Ravnica factions are so well done. One of my favorite fantasy settings. I think subfactions are important. They don't have to play a big role, but can really bring a faction to life. It's realistic that people who are on the same team still have disagreements, and those disagreements can be great hooks for the party to manipulate.

Hi Dungeon Dudes, Just wanted to say that I have a campaign with this ad my basic outline: The Ancient Enemy has already been defeated. However, that defeat came at the price. The stability of society fell apart. The ruling Monarch vanishing leaving the throne vacant. A powerful secret society has fallen apart into warring factions over a cache of powerful artifacts left unguarded. (Formerly removed from circulation by that society), and partly to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Monarchy. Is there potential there? More videos about faction campaigns would be SO cool!! Please make more.

Kelly looks so good in this haircut, he literally has this perfect lenght right now.

Y'all rule. This literally convinced me to run faction intrigue. Funny thing is my homebrewed campaign world already had disparate factions, I just never really made use of them as major players besides "the best one (s)" and "the worst one(s)". This seems a lot more spicy.

You're a little late on this one, boys. My Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign ends on Monday. So many factions, so much intrigue.

Please do the rest of the story/ the fleshing out part. I know there are things to learn even for a 45ish year veteran of countless campaigns. You guys are a great source for my homebrew world, thanks for all you do!

I wanted to run an intrigue campaign. My players said they were into it. But before I started building it, I had the idea to do a test run. I walked them thru a small session. On the way to a delve to retrieve some quest item for their patron, a different NPC met them to ask them to betray their patron instead for intriguing and compelling reasons. Once the players grokked that the entire campaign would be like that X5, they all changed their minds. Saved me from a lot of wasted effort. I was sad, tho. Love learning how my players solve complex problems. Thanks, Dungeon Dudes, for the excellent content.

Awesome tips, and really helpful for the upcoming Drakkenheim campaign that ~7,500 people are gonna be starting next year!

I have been trying to build a city campaign with many Factions, Guilds, Alliance, Chapters, Clubs, Councils, Families, House's, Caucus, Cabal, Society, Sects, Confederacy, Conclave, Emissary, Amassadors, Envoys, etc....... This is the first helpful advice I have found .... EVER. There is a deep hole in D&D of this very topic that has just been ignored for far to long.

About 2 years ago, I watched this video and we've had an amazing fraction campaign using the Streets of New Capenna setting. Thank you for the inspiration! I'm rewatching this and just realise how much I've used!

I am currently DMing "B4 The Lost City" 5th edition and find this video most relevant for this module! Especially with the political intrigue between the Brotherhood of Gorn, the Magi of Usamigarus and the Maidens of Madarua.

I love the idea of you guys putting out a bunch of videos that will subsequently teach DMs how to run the Drakkenheim module when we get it next year 😍😍

Happy to be seeing more cerebral content like this instead of more "top 10 list" style content.

Please, make the second video! I'm planning on doing something on those lines with League of Legends and the Ionians factions (there are a lot of them, but they could me merged into 4 major alligniments)

I always found the Factions in the Planescape AD&D campaign setting a fascinating concept, but I could never keep track of the 15 different cliques’ names, philosophies and roles in the campaign… I have to agree with Monty that 5 is a great number of factions to have in a campaign. Otherwise players will just forget who’s who and what they stand for, or confuse one with another, and so on.

Thank you so much for this video. Faction conflicts have been really hard for me to do but your points offer a great way to structure them. This has been one of your best and most useful videos ever. Well done! 👍

I just want to Express my thanks as these videos do come in clutch and especially now since I am starting my next campaign's session 1 for my players tommorrow! You guys are thorough, detailed and a good listen while I'm working.

This couldn’t have come at a better time, thank you Dudes so much! I’m two sessions into my campaign and the players will be getting into faction intrigue in a couple of months, and this was so helpful!

Another great Video. So awesome to see how to create and run factions. Thinking of all the memorable NPCs from Drakkenheim and seeing the creative process behind it all is so amazing.

Don't be afraid to have a third party outside of your Factions throw some wrentches into the mix too. Give the third party something the players may want, but the cost is something one or more of the Factions want.

Just about to start a campaign in Ravnica, and this video was a huge help. Most of the faction creation heavy lifting is done by the sourcebook, but your guidelines for roleplaying, structuring the conflict and working in the loyalty challenges are all great. As usual, your videos are awesome. Keep up the great work.

Well done! This is perhaps the best video on how to structure an intrigue-based campaign that I've ever come across.

Every single video you guys do is useful, but this one was above and beyond!

This is the perfect video to watch as I'm working on my Ravnica campaign. Thank you Dungeon Dudes!

In my alt-history Colonial America Spellpunk campaign, I have three factions based on the three warlock patrons out of the PHB - the Fae, the Fiends, and the Far Gods. The factions aren't their for the players to join, but to create a power struggle (and adventure hooks). There is no "good guy" out of these (the Fae are ticked that humans chased elves out of Europe centuries ago, and after the elven kingdoms on the east coast of the new world collapsed, the humans started colonizing the new world).

Yes please. More details on how you fleshed out you factions. Thanks for the great video.

Seriously good tips in here! Your channel is great for new and experienced DMs and players alike.

Yes! Awesome. And of course i want you to do more about factions!

Great timing! I'm about to run the second council meeting in Rise of Tiamat and this will really enhance it in comparison to the first one

This is some great insight into factions and faction conflicts. Thank you, Kelly Mclaughlin, for suggesting that I watch this! Great stuff.

Very helpful advice and way of thinking about/planning for factions in a campaign. Thank you :)

THE video I've been waiting for from you guys!

currently running a faction arc of a larger campaign and i sort of plunged myself into it, but i am so glad i found this video. i like the idea of making each faction its own "person"

I have a few factions in my world some world spanning and others regional, it helps to give the world depth. Enjoyed the video immensely. Cheers

This is awesome! I love how you ran factions in DoD, thanks for sharing!:)

I'm about to start running a game and I wanted factions and patrons to be a big part of it, and I stumbled across this video - I wanted to say thank you so much, this was super helpful! It gave me some codified ways of setting factions up and gave me a good number (5!). I kept worrying about needing SO MANY FACTIONS and this helped me settle down a bit.

Really great advice in this one. This video has directly helped me a lot with this topic.

You are giving me amazing ideas. I love this channel! thank you so much!

Really needed this, about to start a campaign with 6 clans and one king to overthrow. I honestly think it adds so much having reactive factions, not the least of which it builds in consequences (good and bad) for the player choices.

Thank you for doing these videos, Dudes, they are fun, informative and well made :D

Perfect video to finish off my birthday. Keep up the good work and I wish I could give more on Patreon :) y’all rock

Considering we have Ravnica as an official D&D setting and the Forgotten Realms and Eberron have notable factions, this is a SUPER useful video

I was JUST about to introduce a new faction into the campaign. So glad this video came out today!

This is probably the best video you guys have ever made!

I pledged to the Kickstarter last night and I’ve never been more excited for something to succeed. Looking forward to diving into Drakkenheim.

You guys are amazing thank you for the advice which has been game saving 😀

Just into the faction section of waterdeep dragon heist, perfect timing thank you amazing dudes so much

I wasn't planning on backing the kickstarter, since I don't really go in for campaign settings, but if it includes information on handling factions, that seems worth it to me, so I'm in.

this video is super useful, sharing it with my DM now!

This gives me an idea of making a campaign based on the Manga Pumpkin Scissors. The BIG War just ended, mercenaries (or members of the army, depending on what session 0 brings) are hired to discreetly(heh) check on villages ravaged by the war. Deserters, Bandits, Cultists, Profiteers, the villages themselves declaring independence, those kind of things.

Would love to see tips on creating factions! I want to run a faction campaign now!

Something that I was thinking about while you two were going on about this is . . . what if your adventuring group has different ideas about who to join. I've played in games where there are characters had widely different alignments and beliefs. If you have a neutral necro wizard player and a paladin player, their loyalties will each be easy, but makes it hard for the rest of the group who don't have clear beliefs. NPC factions could rip your group apart.

Please more of this. Faction Intrigue is my favorite type of stories to run

This is an amazing video, gentlemen. Thank you!

I love the comment about the difference of personalities between a faction's lieutenant and the leader, particularly when it comes to the leader being the distilled essence of the faction's ideals. My campaign has a thieves' guild called "The Brook", whose leader is a centuries-old elven assassin. The man is ruthless, determined, and calculated. When my players first encountered the organization, though, it was through a couple of smart-talking second-story men who cracked wise and helped the party out. It really helps to draw your players into a faction with good roleplay and likeable characters to invest them before you reveal that the organization's Wizard is a kidnapped family man held against his will.

Best DM advice evah. Thank you once again for a great channel.

Super amazing video guys! My mind is immediately buzzing with possibilities, and now I want to sit down and make five factions just to try it out. It’s a good combination with CGP Grey’s Rules for Rulers video, as in our own world the factions within a country often represent the keys to power that a ruler needs to manipulate to stay in power. Can be a good way to think through what the factions in a fantasy kingdom might be, based on what the fantasy keys fo power are.

This is perfect! I am about to start running a campaign with tons of faction intrigue!

I've been planning a Legend of the Five Rings game with a friend, set in a fantasy version of meiji era Japan, and this has been helpful as far as getting me in the right mindset for running political intrigue.

300K. Woot woot. Congratz

You mentioned factions as being often played as "gaining points" towards set rewards. In that regard, I find it similar to the idea of a reputation grind in many popular MMORPGs. I like your interpretation much better. Keep up the great work Dudes.

You guys are seriously the most useful RPG channel I’m watching right now.

The _Acquisitions Incorporated_ sourcebook introduces templates for "Iconic (faction) agent" and "Iconic (franchise role)" that can give NPC statblocks an extra ability. Seems like a fun way to remind your players who they're fighting against (or alongside) through mechanics.

Have to say I really love this video- clear, simple, but powerful ideas. I have recently realized I tend towards "faction based" storytelling when I GM; I often find myself taking a published module, and dividing all the denizens of each location into factions in my head and highlighting faction-based conflicts without meaning to, applying a significant, almost accidental twist to the story. This video is super helpful in clarifying faction-based adventure design, and will be the bedrock of the next campaign I homebrew.

This is a pretty good video for a number of systems. World of Darkness and most other Storyteller settings are big on faction conflict and intrigue.

Perfect as I'm struggling with this in my Eberron campaign! Thank you for making it easier as the factions are so interesting but I've found it hard to make them interact with one another. Atm the Emerald claw is getting claws into everything and trying to keep them messing with the uneasy peace of Khorvaire is a balancing act I'm still learning to do.

As a dm I think this has been the most helpful video from yall, entirely new concept for me

The really big trick is when there are multiple factions and each character in the group wants to join a different faction. -aka the factions in the horde of the dragon queen/rise of Tiamat. Or waterdeep dragon heist-

I was recently inspired in faction design by anime "One Piece". In theory, there are 3 big factions- the navy, the warlords and the emperors- but these broader groups split into smaller groups- navy is unified but there is a division of pragmatism and following orders vs heroism and doing what's right, with many navy members sometimes even fighting one another because of it, each of the seven warlords has their own goals which conflict with one another and sometimes a warlord is replaced by a new one, and emperors while in theory being a single faction, in practice are five different factions- although no more than four exist at once at any point of One Piece's story.

Super useful content, thanks!

Love your work. Really interesting video.

I would love a followup video to this one! Factions seem like a whole new layer I need to delve into that I am now thinking about retrofitting into campaign that I am only a few sessions into.

Green - The Rangers of the Hooded Lantern Red - The Queen's Men White - The Paladins of the Silver Order Black - The Followers of the Fallen Fire Blue - The Amethyst Academy Can't believe I didn't see it in the whole campaign, but it checks out pretty well on the MTG color philosophy. Well done Dudes

Holy shit this is two for two! This week I want help with intrigue. here's intrigue. Last week I wanted puzzles and traps. You had puzzles and traps. Keep it up guys!

Inspiring video. I suggest looking at the shadowrun RPG, since the idea of faction intrigue is very much baked into this setting - corps vs corps vs nature vs gangs etc

Really great tips that I need to seriously consider.

I think another big thing to consider is the internal philosophical differences within a faction. This could be as detailed as having 3 or more smaller sub-factions within each faction, but that could be a lot for both you & the players to keep track of; instead I'd recommend just asking these 3 simple questions: 1. Who are the moderates? 2. Who are the extremists? 3. Which one is currently in charge? Let's go with the Paladins & Necromancers example. An moderate paladin seems like a contradiction in terms, but you can simply tone down both the good & the bad a little bit: perhaps the moderates don't push their religion on anyone, but also tend to take a more lax "not my problem" attitude to stopping injustice when it's happening farther away, or when the injustice is more abstract. A hardline paladin, on the other hand, might be an archetypical paragon of justice, but is also a massive zealot. The extremist/moderate split might be roughly age-based as well. Necromancers fresh out of school have souls untainted by dark magic, so might have a moral compass more in-line with that of the average person. Only the extremist necromancers actually rob graves, the moderates always make sure to use a system analogous to donating one's body to science, where they have permission to use the corpse; on the other hand, the moderate necromancers tend to have a more intellectual curiosity, but without the experience needed to temper it with caution. They don't really do much aside from study & use the guild like a social group, but if you give them the Necronomicon they'd eagerly study it in a much riskier way than the extremists, who, for all their faults, probably know what they're doing. If you have a leader & a lieutenant as your 2 main NPCs, you could make one a moderate & one an extremist so they serve as foils to each other, where the views of the leader are currently more dominant among the faction. Generally moderates will be much more agreeable & easier to get along with, but they can also come off as spineless stooges lacking in any real conviction. Extremists, on the other hand, are going to be much more prickly & will exaggerate both the good & the bad of the faction's ideology. The extremism of the ideology of a faction will ebb & flow over time, & the players might be able to influence it by persuading members of the faction or changing the leadership. Just like with factions in general, you want to be sure that neither the moderates nor the hardliners are 100% correct. The extremism of 2 factions will change their dynamics; for the following examples, we will be looking at faction A & faction B. Scenario 1: A is moderate, B is moderate, & they are enemies. In this case, they'll have their tensions, but won't generally interfere with each other. They'll try to stay out of each other's way & avoid coming into contact, but the most disruptive they'll be is some passive aggressive comments. If they must, they will readily compromise, even in spite of their alleged values, so long as the other side comes out of it just as bad as them (ie. they'll come to an agreement that makes both sides unhappy, but will refuse if it'd be good for at least one of them). Scenario 2: A is extremist, B is moderate, & they are enemies. A will be mostly acting on B, while B will be on the defensive. A will likely send the party to disrupt or harm B however possible, while B will want some protection, but is unlikely to retaliate. Depending on public opinion, this could go one of a couple different ways: 2a. If the public supports A, A will bully B into submission, making them compromise on several key issues. B won't (usually) give up *everything,* but B's ability to act might be significantly hindered. If the paladins were A & necromancers were B, for example, the paladins might be able to muster enough political leverage to outlaw animating dead, or at least strongarm the necromancers into stopping; the necromancers wouldn't disband, & could still do other necromancy, just not that specific spell. 2b. If the public supports B, B will likely sit idly by, taking only minimal precautions to defend themselves, & just let A make fools out of themselves & tank their public image further: B won't do anything because they won't have to. This will continue until public image (somehow) swings the other way, A becomes moderate (which is the most likely outcome), or B becomes extremist. 2c. If the public is pretty split, they will be stuck in a deadlock until something changes. Most often, B will become extremist, but public opinion might shift one way or the other, turning this into scenario 2a or 2b, or perhaps A will become moderate. Scenario 3: A is extremist, B is extremist, & they are enemies. This is extremely dangerous. A & B will be caught in a runaway feedback loop of each taking greater & greater disruptive action against the other; simultaneously, they will each become more & more extremist, making it basically impossible for one of them to spontaneously become moderate. This will continue until one of them triumphs, they tear each other apart, or something steps in to stop them. One or more mediator factions calming them down might work, but sometimes it takes a complete regime change on both sides to stop this. Scenario 4: A is moderate, B is moderate, & they are allies. Their status as allies will likely be really stable. Not much will change with their relationship unless acted upon by an outside force. Scenario 5: A is extremist, B is moderate, & they are allies. This allyship is a little less stable, but surprisingly not by much. A will tend to domineer B a bit, perhaps even messing with their internal politics to make sure B stays loyal; alternatively, if B is much bigger & more powerful than A, A might be a hanger-on that B finds mildly annoying while A dreams of taking B over. Scenario 6: A is extremist, B is extremist, & they are allies. Not for long they aren't! They will inevitably turn on each other over the tiniest differences until this turns into a scenario 3. They might stay together despite squabbling if they must (such as to handle a bigger threat), but it's only a matter of time before they're at each other's throats, no matter how similar their motives might be. "Disruptive action" here could mean anything from theft or murder of enemies to simply feeding them false information or messing with their goals. How severe the disruptive action is will depend on the details of the situation, the stakes involves, & what each side thinks they can get away with. Note that the extremism of a faction is prone to shifting over time.

Excellent as always

I'm currently trying to write a city-based campaign. This was perfect timing for it. Thanks!

Excellent video as always but this time there's one thing I have to disagree with. I think you view the number of 3 factions quite negatively while 3 will be the ideal number of factions in many campaigns. The thing is - if I was about to create and publish my own DnD campaign, of course I would focus on at least 5 factions. Why? Well I have no idea what kind of people will be playing my campaign so of course I want to create a wide range of intriguing options for all sorts of players. But what you are forgetting (in my opinion), is that most people watching this video will just be creating factions for their friends where they know what makes their players tick. This is why I believe that for most people 3 factions will be the right number where they can focus on each of them in a lot of detail while making sure it will be very hard for their players to choose one of them. But maybe that's just my point of view.

You guys bring the heat but this was really an especially outstanding resource for DMs and a unique one at that

I'm 100% interested on more content about factions.