Factions and hierarchy

A faction is a named group that holds reputation, members, ranks, and relationships. Factions nest into a hierarchy and link to an actor for an automatic roster. A faction’s headline reputation is the average of each party PC’s relation toward it.

Creating a faction

Open the entity creator from the Create Faction control. Set a Name and a Type, and pick an optional Parent. A faction with a parent nests under it in the navigator. Set the faction’s image from the configuration drawer after creation.

You can change a faction’s parent later. The configuration drawer has a Parent select that reassigns the faction to any other faction or to the top level. In the navigator, dropping a faction onto the middle of another faction nests it as a child. Dropping onto the upper or lower edge reorders it as a sibling. A move under one of the faction’s own descendants is rejected.

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’s headline reputation starts at zero until a party PC sets a relation toward it. 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; 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. A member with no linked actor 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. The Ranks section has a mode toggle that sets how members get their rank, either manual or by reputation. In manual mode you assign a rank to each member from the dropdown on the member row. In reputation mode the dropdown is hidden and each rank also takes a reputation threshold. A member’s rank is then the highest rank whose threshold is at or below that member’s own reputation toward the faction, shown on the row as a read-only badge.

Each rank carries a reputation multiplier that weights that rank’s members when the faction acts as a body. The weighting reads manual rank assignments. A member with no rank counts at the base weight.

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.

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 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. If no faction links to that actor, Bondsmith creates one. Configure it on the settings page.

On the system, an NPC that belongs to the party is still classified as an NPC. Party NPCs stay in the NPCs list and do not count toward headline reputation averages.

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