Factions and hierarchy

A faction is a named group that holds reputation, members, ranks, and relationships. Factions nest into a hierarchy, link to an actor for an automatic roster, and carry their own reputation mode.

Creating a faction

Open the entity creator from the Create a faction control. Set a Name, an Image, and a Type, and pick an optional Parent. A faction with a parent nests under it in the navigator.

The creator also has a Copy from Existing mode that duplicates a source faction. You choose what carries over: members, nested children, relations, changelog history, and Journal plus RollTable links. Move members strips the members from the original instead of copying them.

A new faction starts at the reputation defined by the reputation settings. See Reputation and tiers for how reputation, tiers, and presets resolve.

Faction types

A faction is one of two types.

Organization is a standing body that members belong to.
Group is a loose collection, including the party.

Change the type from the configuration drawer on the faction detail. The type is a label and a navigator grouping; it does not change how reputation is tracked.

Members and ranks

The members panel lists the actors that belong to the faction. Add a member by dropping an actor onto the panel. A member row links to that actor’s detail. An actor with no token shows a marker.

Ranks are an ordered list you define per faction. Each rank has a name, a color, and a multiplier. Add ranks from the Ranks section in edit mode, then assign a rank to each member from the dropdown on the member row.

The rank multiplier scales how much that member’s actions move the faction’s reputation when reputation flows from the member to the faction. A member with no assigned rank uses no multiplier.

When members hold individual reputation, the detail can show a Member Average: the average of each member-actor’s reputation, weighted by rank. You toggle whether this bar is shown. Faction reputation and the member average are tracked separately and can diverge.

Linked actors and roster sync

A faction can link to an actor. When the linked actor is a group actor, its members become the faction’s members and stay in sync: actors added to the group are added to the faction and flagged as tracked, and actors removed from the group are removed from the faction. Linked members carry into the faction’s roster automatically, so you do not maintain the list by hand.

The linked actor’s name appears on the faction detail and opens that actor’s sheet. Clearing the link leaves the current members in place unless you choose to prune the ones that came from the actor.

Party integration

One faction is the active party. Set it from the flag control on a Group faction’s detail; the active party shows an Active Party badge.

Bondsmith can build the party for you. With no party present and player characters in the world, you are prompted to create one. On the system, this creates a group actor from the player characters, sets it as the system primary party, and links a new party faction to it. Without a group actor, the player characters are added as members directly.

If the system already has a primary party actor, you can merge it into an existing unlinked party faction, which links the actor and syncs its roster. The Follow System Primary Party setting keeps the active party pointed at the system’s primary party actor; it needs a faction linked to that actor. Configure it on the settings page.

Per-player reputation mode

Each faction tracks reputation in one of two modes, set from Reputation Mode in the configuration drawer.

Global stores one reputation value shared by everyone.
Per-Player stores a separate reputation value for each player.

In per-player mode the detail shows a row per player instead of a single bar, and a Party Average bar summarizes them. The default mode for newly created factions is controlled by a setting on the settings page.

What each player sees from these values is covered in Visibility and players.

Locations and control for tying factions to places they hold.
Relationships and graphs for faction-to-faction and faction-to-actor relations.