Faction Alignment: A Way to Represent Faction Relations With an Alignment Grid

 This is a repost of a post I made on the OSR subreddit many months ago. I still agree with the post, I just wanted it available in an easier to link to place.

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Factions are one of those ways that a GM can make a game feel alive. Factions tend to be the kinds of groups that go out and do active things if they players don't interfere with them. which makes the world feel alive and encourages them to do things. Best of all, factions can be anything, from a wizard and his apprentices, to a village out in the borderlands, to a cult of demon worshipers.

Factions tend to have two major defining traits: their virtues and their goals, or what they stand for and what they want. Using these two traits, we can describe how factions feel about each other. Presenting:

This alignment chart represents the 9* ways a faction can feel about another faction.

True allies are bound by both belief and a purpose. They tend to actually work together, and support each other in their endeavors. True enemies are the opposite, as they are diametrically opposed , they are doomed to war.

Those with unaligned virtues but aligned goals are allies by chance. They don't agree with each other, but are willing to work together. This doesn't mean they're allies, or even fighting by each other's side, just that they aren't actively hindering each other. The opposite of this, unaligned goals but aligned virtues, are enemies by chance. They don't wish to battle, but they have to for whatever reason. Unlike allies by chance, enemies by chance are usually actively fighting. Personally, these two are my favorite faction relations.

Having goals that are unrelated (neutral goals) tends to lead to factions that simply exist around each other. As their goals are separate, they have no reason to fight or cooperate, merely existing around each other, though one faction might dislike or like another due to their virtues, and could be persuaded to shift goals in such a way that puts them at odds or allies them with another faction.

Factions with neutral virtues are very similar. Their only relation with others is through their goals, so how their goals relates should be the thing that changes how they feel about each other. However, unlike neutral goals, those with opposed goals will tend to take up arms against each other, and those with aligned goals will often work together.

The way I separate these groups is simple: allies by chance do not like each other and do not get along. Their relationship lasts for as long as its beneficial. Enemies by chance actively dislike that they are fighting, and will try to end things as quickly as possible. Uniting and separating by cause tends to describe nations at war. These nations aren't fighting due to differences in belief, only because one nation wants something another already owns. Neither factions harbors deep ill will towards the other. Factions united or separated by belief only exist simultaneously to each other. They might like or dislike each other, but will only take active steps against another if circumstances change.

The final kind of faction relationship are those that simply don't care about each other. If your goals and virtues are totally separate, there is no reason to even have an opinion. There is technically a tenth kind of relationship, that of ignorance, of two factions not knowing each other (thus the asterisks earlier), however this is the same as a true neutral relationship, and thus who cares.

There are no mechanics tied to this, just a way of thinking about things, though for fun I will also provide the way I run faction relations:

1. Faction virtues determine how they think about each other. Faction goals determine how they interact with each other.

2. A faction will only fight another if their goals are opposed. A faction will only ally with another if their goals align.

3. A faction's goals will not change without outside influence (The players or another factions).

4. A faction's goals can only be persuaded to shift towards a faction they like, or away from a faction they dislike.

I find these rules keep a faction from feeling too arbitrary.

Anyway that's my little write up. I hope you find it useful.