Factions for Spacer and other Sci-fi RPGS

screenshot from Outland, 1981

For me, factions are a core component of any good RPG campaign. Players need to know the power struggles at play so they can navigate (or disrupt) the structure of power within a location. With Spacer, i've been working on a variety of generation methods for making dynamic or interesting factions. many of them felt too overbuilt or specific. I finally ended on the following to not only make a faction, but their motives, goals, behavior, etc. 

I also included an general Sci-fi ideology generator for miscellaneous NPCs a player might encounter in a starport bar that wont stop talking to them, or a weird passenger the players take a board their ship. That generator can be used for very basic, descriptive label for an NPC's political stance or even as a more quick-and-loose faction creation if desired.

The following two generations might end up in print in the upcoming Spacing Solo or as a zine article down the road since I didn't have it ready for the official Spacer release.

Spacer Factions Creation

How Many Factions?: All locations will have factions with different motivations. When determining now many factions are discovered, determine the location the spacers are interacting with. 

• Local: Starport/base/asteroid or small settlement, 2 factions

• Regional: Colony or large Settlement, roll D3+1

• National: Planetside nation, 1D+2

• System: Planet and Star System, Roll 2D3

• Subsectorial: The local subsector; roll 2D

• Sectorial: roll 3D

The location of a faction will be limited to the area they are discovered in, plus have a presence in any location one step down using the above descriptors as a reference. 

• For example; System-spanning factions would also be known to other factions that are found on a national level.

Regardless of the amount of factions, one will always have the most influence and one will always be at odds with the biggest one.

Faction Generation Table: Use the following table to help construct a faction by rolling 2D on each column. The referee is expected to determine the results of each column roll and then piece it together in a way that fits their narrative. The following are the descriptors of each column:

• Group: Who the faction is organized by or is made up of.

• Motive: The Motivation behind the Faction’s formation and behavior

• Focus: The topic that the faction is most driven by

• Attitude: How the faction behaves when engaging with non-members.

• Action: How the faction acts when sharing their perspective or faced with opposition

• Goals: The ideal end result of the faction’s drive.

The terms are designed to be neutral to allow flexibility in any direction for the referee. 

• For example, if the referee rolls “corporation” on the Group column and then “suppress” on the Motive column, it can be interpreted as either the corporation is seeking to suppress another group OR feels they are being suppressed by another faction.

Roll 2D on each column to develop a faction

2D	Group	Motive	Focus	Attitude	Action	Goal
2	Outsiders*	Support	Survival	Desperate	Martyrdom	Dominance
3	Alien / Culture Minority	Suppress	Environmental threat or concern	Protective	Petty Crimes / Vandalism	Cultural / Social Control
4	Criminal	Maintain	Cultural Hierarchy	Exclusive	Propaganda	Economic Control
5	Scientists	Support	Resource availability	Tolerant	Advocacy	Political Control
6	Laborers	Suppress	Economic Trajectory	Inclusive	Open Discourse	Enforcement of Motive
7	Civilian	Maintain	Political Climate	Open-minded	Organizing	voluntas populi
8	Merchant	Support	Cultural influence	Combative	Direct Action	Political reform
9	Corporation	Supress	Technological advancement / manufacturing	Oppressive	Intimidation	Economic reform
10	Military	Maintain	Another Group (roll 2D in group column)	Militant	Isolated Violence	Cultural/ Social  Reform
11	Noble/ Bureaucrat	Support	Expansionist / Isolationist stance	Intolerant	Subversive Actions	Justice / Revenge
12	Religious	Suppress	Spiritual influence	Violent	Open Warfare / Terrorism	Elimination / Removal

*Outsiders: 1) Spacers, 2) Psions, 3) Non-Citizens (1] Drifters, 2] Refugees/prisoners, 3] Robots)

Faction Size: use the following table to determine the amount of influence a faction has.

• Local or Regional faction: -1DM

• Sub-sectorial or Sectorial faction: +2DM

• Outsider, Alien/Minority Culture, or Religious Factions: incur -2DM

• Corporate, Military, or Noble Factions: gain +2DM

2D	Faction Size	Political Example	Visibility
1 or less	Fringe	Idealists, Conspiracy Theorists	Nearly non-existent, rumoured
2-3	fledgling	Protestors, activists	Very Rare
4-5	Underground	Resistance Group	Obscure
6-9	Minor	Third party political faction	Uncommon
10-11	Primary	Popular Political Party	Common
12	Major	Single Party dominance	Dominant
13+	Puppet	External factions dictates their behavior	Dominant, but clearly under influence

Connections and Association: Use this table to determine the faction’s financiers, lobbyists, or beneficiaries that maintain the faction.

• Association: This is the primary association the faction has that supports the faction’s goals.

• Amount of Influence: This represents the association’s amount of impact it has on the operations of the faction.

• Strength of Connection: This represents how strong the bond is between the associates and the faction.

Roll 2D on each column;

2D	Association	Amount of Influence	Strength of the connection
2-3	Criminal Group	minimal	About to shatter
4-6	Economic group	minor	Wavering
7-9	Social group	split	Medium
10-11	Political group	major	Strong
12	Religious group	most	Very Strong

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Sci-fi Ideology Generation: The following can be used to develop an ideological drive for a faction or as a quick faction creator if one is needed on the fly.  Roll d66 once on each of the tables to develop an ideology that drives a faction. If a combination doesn’t inspire you or make sense, please feel free to roll again.

Variant Table: Roll D66

d66	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Techno	Ethno	Hyper	Neo	Inter	Macro
2	Crypto	Anarcho	Ultra	Multi	Geo	Cross
3	Radical	Bio	Pro	Counter	Astro	Meta
4	Xeno	Phylo	Anti	Cyber	Quasi	Socio
5	Eco	Zoo	Para	Pan	Pseudo	Neo
6	Cosmo	Extra	Sub	Micro	Ideo	Contra

Ideology table: Roll D66 and apply it to the prefix

d66	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Ecclesiasticist	Terrorist	Progressives	Unionist	Pacifist	Communist
2	Autocratist	Revisionists	Humanists	Segregationist	Survivalist	Socialist
3	Republicanist	Revivalists	Industrialists	Populist	Liberationist	Syndialist
4	Religist	Centrists	Intelligencia	Utopianist	Accelerationist	Capitalist
5	Spiritualists	Revolutionist	Futurist	Colonialists	Nihilist	Nationalist
6	Sovereignists	Traditionalist	Primitivist	Imperialists	Militarist	Fascist

Example: The referee rolls a 21 on the prefix table (crypto) and a 14 on the suffix table (Unionist) creating Crypto-unionist.