7.8.0 Major Projects and Existing Factions

Players are likely to end up with goals or ambitions that directly involve them with local factions or potentially touch on Assets or other resources significant to faction powers. This is normal, and it’s not difficult to integrate the two systems when they happen to touch.

As a general rule, major projects should be treated just as adventures would be. When a project would plausibly damage a faction’s Assets, then the Assets will be damaged or destroyed. When they would create an Asset useful for a faction, whether one belonging to the players or to another group, then the Asset is created. If a faction doesn’t care for a project, it might turn into a source of opposition that must be quelled or overcome, while an allied faction might supply some portion of the Renown itself by taking an action to aid the PCs.

The help of a faction should be scaled by the GM; if an empire decides to give the PCs a castle, then it might be such a minor part of the faction’s holding that no Treasure expense or other effort is required to do so. A small religious cult that wants to help build a monastery for the PCs might not be able to give nearly as much help, and might simply be good for a quarter of the Renown needed if they spend an action assisting the PCs. Conversely, when a faction is opposed to some measure, the PCs will probably have to undertake an adventure to change its mind or pull the fangs that it’s using to interfere with their efforts.

If the magical change is impossible but relatively modest in scope, then one great Working will be necessary to empower it. If the change is significant and will have major repercussions on the future area, it will take two, while a change that seems barely within the limits of possibility will need three Workings to support it, all of the appropriate degree and scope. The construction of these Workings often require adventures in their own right to find the critical components or esoteric substances needed to erect them, to say nothing of the material cost of the work.

If these Workings are later destroyed or corrupted the change itself may be damaged as well. Sometimes the effect is so graven on the world that it continues unsupported, but other times the change fades away into something more mundane. In the worst cases, the magic goes rampant and terrible consequences are born from its uncontrolled fury. As a consequence, most nations are highly averse to the construction of large-scale magical infrastructure, even when they can afford to do so.