Arelith

Hello folks,

Here is a guide about any random thoughts that come into my head in regards to building and running factions. Feel free to add your thoughts!
I'll do my best to keep this organized, following the process from beginning idea to end of faction in a sort of step by step way. One thing to keep in mind however, is each character will treat faction building differently, and chances are you'll have more failed factions than succesful ones, but don't let that get you down.



The Idea Phase

Alright, so when building something on Arelith, whether from the start or mid way through, set yourself reasonably achievable goals in a block by block type of set up.
For example.
I want to build a guild focused on trade. I want to get rich as Pufferfish and build up a good network of contacts. In the longterm i want to use this influence for something cool. Doesn't matter if you know what you want to use that influence for, given this type of idea will let you build and focus on natural character development.
Before i even think about recruiting, i need to actually start the collecting of resources, crafting items i can sell, and building a small reputation. This shows people when it comes to the recruiting phase that this guild already does something they can assist with, and also gives you a general idea of what you would be recruiting them to do.
So..
Collect resources
Craft items
Pick faction name
Sell items face to face to get the name around faster
Advertise trade name when introducing your character

This is a very, very simple pattern which if followed should get the ball rolling. The same goes for anythig really, not just trade. Spy networks would start off with collecting information, then find your contacts, etc etc.



Recruitment Phase

Lots of numbers does not a faction make. Nobody wants to sit around supporting you if you have more workers than you do work. Recognise your limitations and progress gradually, otherwise you'll swiftly end up with too large a plate.
In this particular scenario however, if you followed the above pattern, you probably ended up with quite a few people asking to help you out. Take your time here, pick someone who you can mold to do the job your character is doing currently, get their loyalty and get them on board with any other ideas you have, this guy is your right hand man.
Once you have this guy, then start looking into what things you could task other people with, or ideally support another trader in focusing on another product. Hurrah for business expansion!

I really cannot stress the importance of how over recruiting is bad though. People join your faction for somthing to do, and to find RP. By just having them stand there, you are both wasting their time and your own. Just be honest and tell them to try again later because reasons.



Expansion

At this point you should have a decent amount of contacts, a good reputation, some loyal people having your back who know their roles, and probably a healthy amount of gold. So what next?
A smart person at this point would just continue like this, and enjoy the limitless amounts of wealth a d popularity they can achieve. Then there are not so smart people like myself who just keep expanding on things just to see what happens.
So let us assume you are not so smart..
Fall back to the idea phase. Get your right hand guy to run business whilst you focus on your new project. This time we want to go with the information network idea. However, keep in mind you also need to manage your trade guild if need be, people will still want to RP with you, however on the upside your reputation is going to get the shady underworld curious.

Locate your resources (Halflings with hoods on!)
Gain their support (Gold and influence!)
Attach this to your trade guild or go incognito with a new name
Mold a new right hand man
Utilise information to further build influence
Rule over the informatiton and trade world

Rinse and repeat until the faction implodes in on itself or you rule the world.



People Management

I see a lot of people get crushed under the pressure of many people wanting them, day in and day out. That shows you are doing something good, giving people something to do, however do not feel obligated to appease everyone at once. From an early start in the faction set your authority in place, and make people realise you are going to do your own thing as well from time to time (a.k.a follow none faction based storylines, or just enjoy one to one rp with someone for a while)
Honesty is the best approach here, whether IC or OOC. Players will understand, and well, those that don't are just being selfish..?

That aside, try to keep your faction busy with tasks and goals. If you have no ideas, consult your allies for ideas, or really just spend time with your faction members. Never forget, the ultimate goal here is just to hang with people on a video game and have fun.



Faction end

I get it, you built something great and you don't want it to die. Though it is going to eventually. Do not get possessive over in game stuff, especially factions. The less attached you are to things, the more you will actually enjoy the problems that come up in game, rather than getting stressed out about them. Begin every faction with the intent of losing at some point, and recognise you are going to crash and burn at some point. Enjoy the chaos whilst it is there!


Feel free to add your own thoughts and opinions. Hope this helps someone, somewhere.

Location!

It always helps stability and faction reputation to have a base of operation. It gives other characters a place they know they can find you/see your group numbers and activity and opposing factions/spies have a place to work with/break into it.

Locations don't have to be tied with settlements! It can be a tent and a board somewhere.


-S

A few other tips that I have personally found useful:

Delegate Tasks
This, I feel, is the single most powerful tool at your disposal when running a faction, bar none. It simultaneously frees up some of your time, which is likely to be in short supply, and makes your faction subordinates feel important. Don't be afraid to delegate authority either. It's way better to give other players enough leeway to make horrible choices than it is to demand that all choices be cleared through you as the leader.

Hold Faction Meetings
Inevitably, running a successful faction means that more people will be asking for your time than you will be able to take care of. This means that you can often find yourself missing out on interactions with some faction members, which can make them feel discouraged or excluded, even when you don't intend that. Holding a quick 1 hour meeting every other week can be a good remedy to this: it gets your whole faction interacting with you, and gives less visible members a chance to participate and get a leg up in faction stuff, as well as advance concerns.

That said, approach meetings with an agenda and a timeframe in mind: I suggest selecting 3-4 issues to tackle, and a little time for questions and concerns, don't be afraid to hold people to a schedule, to keep these things from eating everyone's time.

Learn to Recognize Three Types of Member - RP Triage
When running a faction, you'll probably find yourself getting three kinds of potential recruits. The first is the excellent character who fits well without any coaching at all. The second is a character who has decent potential, but has a few bad habits or a shallow/developing grasp of their character. The third is the actively disruptive character looking to be spoon fed easy RP, who does not necessarily understand some simple RP concepts.

It is important to know how to handle all three. The temptation will be there to give the bulk of your time to the first category, because they will likely be the most enjoyable to play with and will cause you almost no headaches. Giving them all of your time, however, is probably a mistake. In many ways, the biggest impact you can make is in putting at least some time into coaching and helping the second group of recruits improve overall. This is because there is no better way for a newer or struggling RPer to improve than with some gentle guidance and encouragement while surrounded by more comfortable and experienced RPers (the reverse is also true: there's no surer way to make sure they develop truly awful habits than to surround them with lazy or sloppy RP). The third group is where you have to draw the line. Some players have no interest in improving or cooperating: they will be snide and dismissive of your overtures, they will refuse to cooperate with other faction members, and they will do terrible things and generate headaches. If you have a faction that can screen out these members, try to catch them before recruiting. If you have a faction that needs to give everyone a shot, then bump these characters when they show themselves for what they are. You likely will not have the time it takes to get these characters to stop being disruptive unless you ignore everyone else, and time management is important.

In short, adopt triage procedures: avoid focusing exclusively on characters who need no help, help the ones where a little time can make a huge difference, and learn to recognize the ones you cannot help.

An observation I've made over time is that the quickest way to kill a faction is to have more guild space than guild members.

The most successful factions start small and very often stay small - you don't need a guildhouse to run a successful faction, not in the least bit. I've never seen a expansive faction that started with a Cordor McMansion. I have no idea why. Perhaps all that empty space and time behind locked doors brokers an "us & them" mentality among the guild members that leads to insularity and insularity leads to the faction boring itself. It might seem a strange thing to suggest, but while it's important to develop intimate relationships among members, it's equally important for those members to go out in the world and interact with the exterior, especially with other factions, especially other factions of similar size and shape. In my experience the most frustrating type of faction member is the one who doesn't promote the faction in their own time -- they aren't interested in the buildup, they just want the action.

Keeping the faction's vision and theme strong is also very important. Don't be insular, but don't let your faction get white-washed either.

Scurvy Cur wrote: Some players have no interest in improving or cooperating: they will be snide and dismissive of your overtures, they will refuse to cooperate with other faction members, and they will do terrible things and generate headaches. If you have a faction that can screen out these members, try to catch them before recruiting. If you have a faction that needs to give everyone a shot, then bump these characters when they show themselves for what they are. You likely will not have the time it takes to get these characters to stop being disruptive unless you ignore everyone else, and time management is important.

I've come across this sort of player, and I think you're absolutely right. I call them small faction bullies. Either bluntly or insidiously they undermine any sort of IC authority, refuse to fit the mold of the faction and pick and pry at it, rarely work towards the faction's ambition in their own time, sometimes they just make your character look like an idiot for daring to boss them around. Often you may be tempted to give in to their small aggressions because they have the leverage of being a valuable asset - they're a member, and you are in desperate need of those. But don't. A fun faction with three members is better than a dreadful one with four.

If I'm joining your faction and your first command is for me to collect stone, I'm out! This isn't minecraft. Also to hell with faction security. Go out and do cool stuff, be daring, go down in flames. 99.99% factions die from internal boredom, not losing at PvP.

My experience leading a few factions back in the day is very simple. All you need is three to four people counting yourself. If you can get that solid core of people who are engaged, see your character's vision and are willing to support it, then you have a faction. Everyone else is frankly expendable.

I do not say that with the intention of saying 'Ignore their RP or throw them out', rather they are the ones you can Work on but not rely on. Having characters to rely on for all of the things Scurvy talked about is 100% important and you will likely not spend as much time with your core as you would like except to exchange information or engage in out-faction activities like PvE and PvP.

Excluding people from your core is the fastest way to kill a faction in its budding stages. You need to spend time outside of that core with people you recruit more so than your trusted group because they need that time and RP to shape up into the outer edges of your faction who will do a lot of work for you once they get the proper idea.

Time zones really come into this and something to take into consideration because if you have one lone member in an odd time zone to the rest of your group, no matter how willing they are it will fall through for them as they will find RP from outside sources that Might turn them evil/good or into a spy on you and you have no way of knowing or handling them doing so. Try to recruit members no further than the edges of your play time as a leader so you Can interact with all of them ideally and not make them feel completely isolated.

Control, or hands on participation with All of your members is very important. People need to feel included and important and a part of something bigger than just a name. The best way I have found this to work is to round up All the members when possible and go on a crazy PvE exploring/murder spree. Taking the time to RP with everything along the way and explain or show the new recruits all the neat things they will be able to see on their own some day. I have found this pretty informative for the recruits and also a bonding experience as there are deaths/close calls/random encounters with UDers/someone blows themselves up.

In the end, it is all about time and caring. Caring about the RP of your people, caring about the interactions of your people, and caring about the fact these people are giving you their time and looking to you as a leader. So you got to do your best by them and not burn yourself out at the same time. Delegation is Very important for this reason but in the end, smaller factions just work better unless its broken up into several factions under one banner. In the end, give me a faction of 3-7 members tops if they are all active and then make some alliances. Now you got a working deal!

This has already been mentioned, but I'm going to say it again (mostly because I have a forum account again!): The best thing you can do if you're leading a faction is MAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF.

The leader of an active faction can get burnt out and a little jaded quickly if you don't, and that's no fun for you, or the people you play with.

Also, after leading a faction for a time and retiring that character, it can be a good idea to actively try to be a subordinate the next go around. It keeps things fresh and helps you be a better leader yourself when you decide to go that route next