Question Major Factions, can you stop trying to pander to every idea?

[Tefka]

I'd really love to live in a Chaos world where cliques took a backseat to good ideas and moves.

Cliques = IRL friends who all want to write together, and eventually determine to survive on the map you gotta lump all Sith/Jedi/Imperial/Confederate ideas into one pseudo-government. I get life is messy and Chaos is messy and to stay competitive you have stay creative, but I feel like we can draw some lines.

Major Faction = if you're a law and order Major Faction, don't make several criminal subfactions. If you hate Sith, don't make a Sith subfaction. If you love Sith, don't pander to Jedi characters. "I'm just going through a phase." Tell those people to take a hike, find another Major that adapts better. Just tell those people your faction isn't about that. I remember trying to join the Bryn'adul one time and they (in)famously told me my concept wouldn't work there. This is the play to make, I think. And if you lose activity because of it, well, I think that's a fair trade off too.

I more than anyone understand the need to stave off stagnation by constantly growing, but I'd love to see these cliques stop sacrificing immersion for membership. Let's draw some lines and stick to them.

And lastly, don't get me wrong, I 100% understand that a good majority of the forum already goes in on this. You don't have to virtue signal here, this is me just putting it out there.

 

[Orion Skywalker]

So you're saying that I won't save my faction by creating a mandalorian sub faction, criminal subfaction, and force order group that is grey jedi but flavored differently despite my group hating force users entirely???

Cold take 0/10, I need more subfactions.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Jedi Mandos when

 

[Darth Strosius]

I can dig it.

 

[Arlo Renard]

I'd like to know what exactly this take is referring to.

 

[Tefka]

I'd like to know what exactly this take is referring to.

drama NOW pls member HUNGRY

 

[Kyric]

Yeah, fuck em up, old man Tefka

 

[Arlo Renard]

drama NOW pls member HUNGRY

I was asking so I could better understand where this is coming from, but ok good ok fine lol.

I originally wrote a couple more paragraphs to go with my post talking about how I disagreed but deleted them because I wasn't quite sure what you were talking about, but hey, fuck it.

While I am all for letting majors exercise creative control over their RP - the concept of rebel subfactions has been poorly handled and most of them just wind up fighting for the MFs they're supposed to be against, too many people want splinter factions and secret societies in order to feel special/powerful, etc - encouraging MFs to cut off anything that doesn't conform would not be conducive to creative storytelling.

I was going to use Kai and the Sithspawn Sanctorium as an example of a character and minor faction that go against the main narrative of the MF they're attached to. Hell, an argument could be made that their very existence goes against canon somehow; I'm not super well-versed in SW lore, I just thought it would be a cool idea to play as a Sithspawn who actually wants to be a Jedi. And yeah, when I first introduced the character, I had people telling me they didn't want anything to do with him, or who thought I was playing a target their character could hunt, or a villain, or whatever. The Sanctorium also has had to shift its main story away from a Sithspawn vs Jedi persecution narrative because the people we were going to have as opposition weren't interested/didn't care enough to oppose a bunch of sad monsters living in the sewers.

Anyway, my point is this: I feel like this is just part of the issues that arise when you give writers a ton of glorious freedom. Not every idea is going to work, but you've still got to let people try new things. If it doesn't work, it will fall apart on its own without any intervention from an admin. Maybe if the writer(s) involved are actively causing problems by pushing their ideas, yeah, but how often does that actually happen?

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Brb jedi sith faction coming up

 

[Tefka]

Kai and the Sithspawn Sanctorium as an example of a character and minor faction that go against the main narrative of the MF they're attached to.

If you're a subfaction and you go against the main narrative of the Major Faction you're attached to, I make the assumption that you're only there in the hopes of attracting their members. ie, poaching. Or that faction has bad relationships with other Majors and would rather just stealth PvE via opposable subfactions.

You can be a minor faction and still interact with Major Faction's "narrative" and oppose them, without being a subfaction.

I don't like the clique element that constantly persists in the "Creative Team"/Admin circles. It feels too much ol' boys clubish, too put offish to new members. Obviously one cannot kill cliques, but we can definitely do better at balancing them.

 

[Arlo Renard]

I make the assumption

plz don't do that

Otherwise yeah, that's true. I guess the main debate would be what constitutes a subfaction vs a minor faction that interacts heavily with a major, then.

 

[Amanda]

Brb jedi sith faction coming up

Not if I do it first!

 

[Tefka]

plz don't do that

i'mma DO IT

 

[Thurion Heavenshield]

pls childrens

 

[Lyrrin]

I think the recent-ish move towards subfactions versus stand-alone Minor Factions was due to the longstanding desire by some Minor Faction players to be more consistently involved with the map game/"main story" of the board.

If you and your friends had a neat idea that didn't quite reach Major level then you could still seek out the RP you enjoy while the Major also benefits from the additional participation and new stories. To that end I don't think its a clique thing or even malicious. You could decouple, on paper, Minor factions from Subfactions but if the Minor continues to play with the same 1 or 2 Majors then I don't see much of a difference aside from a label change

 

[Rurik Fel]

Me explaining how this criticism doesn't apply to my major faction

 

[Lief]

Factions? Never heard of 'em

 

[Aeshi Tillian]

Yes, end subfactions

 

[Damsy Callat]

I guess the main debate would be what constitutes a subfaction vs a minor faction that interacts heavily with a major, then.

Another Sithspawn Sanctorium rep here:

I just wanted to explore a nontraditional Star Wars story.

Yeah, with others if possible because writing all alone kind of sucks when that's not your thing. I'm not trying to poach off the GA though. We're not even an official subfaction as far as I know, but we interact so closely because that's kind of the whole point of our story.

Regardless, I don't want to make anyone interact with our ragtag group of Sithspawn if they don't want to—either as friendlies or opposition—because that would suck too.

 

[Dagon Kaze]