Conflicting Characters HELP!

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

I told my players from the start, they had to choose one of three fractions: EWF, God Learners, or Orlanthi. That campaign is in Ralios and starts two weeks: Saturday. I told them to discuss amongst themselves which one they will follow.

They submitted thier characters, very timely, and now I have three God Learners, Two EWF, and 3 Orlanthi.

I hate to have them redo their fractions.

So, Any ideas how to run a mixed fraction campaign?

 

[RosenMcStern]

Option a) the big bad adversary. He is so bad that all factions cooperate until he is defeated. What happens one second after he is dead is another story, though.

Option b) never mind. Perhaps in your Glorantha the EWF and MSE do not hate one another so badly as it is described in the official sources. This is what we all did in our first experiences with Glorantha. My first campaign involved Troll/Dwarf cooperation.

Option c) have them change their faction. This is the best option. The starting faction of a party should always be a GM option. Changing sides during play is of course always an option.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

The easiest thing is probably to have them go back to the drawing board. In fact, it's generally a better idea to do character generation as a group, and to have the players work together in character building.

If you really don't want to ask them to go back and redraft, then I'd suggest - the campaign's set in a partly Draconised village, where you've got both EWF and Old Way Orlanthi living together despite the simmering tension between them. The God Learners can be undercover spies.

 

[Mage]

They could all be forced to work to gether by one person, either through blackmail or threat. Then again they could just be paid a lot of cash. Money changed peoples political opinoin quite easily.

 

[hdrider67]

Start them all off in either EWF or MSE prison together. That pretty much kills off support for one of the opposing factions.

 

[Se Chris]

I'm with Gar. Start again, because that mixture just won't fly.

It might behoove you, if you can't get them together to do character gen as a group, to simply say "You're all Orlanthi" or whatever faction you like best.

(I tried to run Blood of Orlanth for the Mongoose Hall guys and ended up with a similar problem. "You have to all be from the Orlanthi, EWF or God Learners." "We're all ducks.")

 

[Shadow Queen]

I have in mine 2 nobles, 1 spy 1 female physisan, 1 townsman Necromancer, 4 Barbarians

 

[zozotroll]

A lot depends on how dedicated the players are to thier factions. If they Are not the concerned, fine. If they are, redo.

As Rosen stated above, many a RQ game has been played with odd groups, just because the PCs made allowances for other PCs. Happens in real life as well.

 

[Sinisalo]

!snip! Then again they could just be paid a lot of cash. Money changed peoples political opinoin quite easily.

Some of my workmates are: catholics, orangemen, tories, feminists, bigots, socialists, pagans, racists, muslims and evangelical missionaries. You'd be surprised just how few rows there are.

We are joined hand-in-hand in the quest to earn a living!

 

[Rurik]

Well the re-roll characters option may be the best way, or at least have some of the players re-make their characters (EWF seems to be the minority, as the Orlanthi are kind of 'neutral' in that they could side with either side). I'll throw out some ideas if you decide to try to make it work.

The key is finding reasonable enough motivations to work together. Parties where characters share an overall goal while made up of factions that have their own little agendas and goals can be fun.

Both sides can have been sent to woo a clan or tribe, and the chief has ordered them to assist the Orlanthi in some tasks, so they may judge their worth.

Chaos is another easy unifying enemy.

Also, both the EWF and God Learners have different factions, moderate God Learners my need to ally with EWF factions to prevent an extremist factions (Rightness Army for example) from achieving their goals. Perhaps the god learners have an interest in something the Orlanthi have, but their plans may be foiled by a faction that wants to destroy the clan or some essential holy site (with an important hero gate perhaps). Not strong enough themselves, they must turn to the EWF.

All unlikely scenarios, but not impossible, and plausible enough for a game. Look for Orlanthi Clans in the Ralios pdf that are Favourable or Neutral in attitude to both factions.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Thanks Guys. I told them they have to submit to ONE fraction only.

They chose Orlanthi......

 

[PaulB]

Just a note - when I read your originally question in passing I thought you meant to choose one of the three factions, rather than one for the whole group from the available three. I had to re-read the question to get the drift. Don't blame the poor players for this. Like has been suggested, better to create characters as a group to allow a natural connection of stories to come together...

Best of luck!



Paul

(Mind you... you could always get a game of PARANOIA together to satisfy the players interest in internal group conflict!)