How balanced are the factions in your setting?
>>47110525
Do you count random old hermits who could flatten cities in the factions where their homes reside?
>>47110672
Hermits keep to themselves, so that's not really a faction.
Unless there is an association of hermits
>>47110681
"I hereby call this meeting of the United Hermit Front to order.....order you all to get the fuck out of my cave! Leave me alone, dammit, LEAVE ME BE!"
>>47110681
I think he means, are the random old hermits old, crazy, and powerful enough to consider the area around their mountain/cave home which the factions are fighting over to be their front lawns.
Astaria, Shoshkepal, and Aquileon are generally recognized as the first-rate powers. Nzemya, Fillion, and Varangia are acknowledged as second rate powers. Kiserre hovers on the cusp of becoming a first rater.
>>47110780
While among the nations of Carthacia, only the Fireborn Imperium, Queliko, and Shial have the clout to be qualified as even second-rate powers. Everyone else is a league behind.
>>47110780
>>47110806
What makes them powerful?
>>47110772
>"Those young fuckboys who ride on those shitty lions chopped down my favorite tree just last week!"
>"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
>Did anyone bring snacks? Not you, Sulm, last time we ate your cooking we were shitting uncontrollably for hours."
>"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
Jesus Christ how horrifying.
>>47110817
Industrial capacity and access to the setting's power crystals, which are concentrated in the islands north of Astaria/Aquileon and on the ocean floor southwest of Kiserre. The Former Aquilonese Empire states are also more technologically advanced than the Carthacian states, on average, with larger and more diverse industries.
>>47110780
Weren't you that dude who made a WW1 mecha homebrew? What progress have you made?
>>47110672
>inb4
>>47110951
I was.
Progress has gone into the novel instead. Title is Crowned in Lightning. Have gotten a much better understanding of the setting through it.
Also an angry lesbian princess, who doesn't want that?
Not really balanced at all. But then, that's the source of the conflict.
One of them is a single system (Really just a planet and a few colonies in the same system.) and the other is the oversight bureau that governs dozens of planets.
The former has a bad history in the past of getting stomped on by large governments so they don't trust the latter. They worry that any alliance will sweep away their own autonomy and culture. The latter sees them former as an upstart that is refusing to play by the rules and risking their own destruction playing with things they don't understand.
>>47110525
They're not, I guess? One !Roman superpower tops the charts in every category, but it's definitely losing to the barbarian monstergirl invasion/migration. Within the empire there are three main factions which are fairly balanced, the Imperials, who believe a strong emperor and strong legions are necessary to turn the tide, the Adrasteans, a religious movement which encourages assimilation and relies upon allied and auxiliary forces to defend the empire, and the Patricians, who are united by economic interests rather than political ones, but basically desire increased rights and privileges and claim the invasion will be halted by lots of effective municipal garrisons.
In actuality the Adrasteans are objectively wrong, as the monstergirl barbarians are not interested in ever assimilating and the beastgirl auxiliaries are more interested in dissecting the empire than in saving it.
The Patricians don't have a very coherent strategy to begin with but the real problem with them is that half their number would as soon declare independence from the empire as would work to defend it.
Only the Imperials could save the empire, but their emperors are constantly being assassinated by the other factions and unruly legions.
The Caledonian Empire is by far the largest military power in the world. The only nation it can't simply steam-roll if they felt like it are the Drow City-States.
Silver Finger Isles and Lancaster used to be two small empires in a cold war but due to Caledonia's sudden colonial kick, they've finally ceased bickering and the whole region has become far richer for it.
Whilst they lack the military strength of Caledonia, they have a large assortment of allies whoact as ablative armourtogether make an uninviting target.
'The Immortal Dragon Flower Empire'Not-Japanwhich sits to the north is mostly isolationist with minimal trade going on. They are rather weak and have vast mineral and metal wealth. Pretty much the only reason they haven't been taken down is because their closest neighbour, Silver Fingers, pretty much ignores them and getting a navy to cross the straight means first taking down Silver's own navy.
The Drow are largely small, pitifully weak baby kingdoms that are constantly fighting each other and themselves. A decent party of adventurers could probably destabilise one without much effort and even an army a few thousand strong could take one in a few days.
However any outside threats will find these kingdoms putting aside all their differences in seconds to present a single, unified and highly organised alliance.
The moment the threat has gone away though, it's straight back to backstabbing.
Meanwhile, the atolls and archipelagos of the Lapis Ocean and her surrounding seas are finding themselves bearing the brunt of Caledonia's expansion as colonists move in the the natives are shipped out as slaves with only token communities left alone as pretty much zoological pets.
>>47111544
This isn't even all the empires, just the ones our campaigns have dealt with.
Our first campaign we all hailed from Caledonia, caught in a war with the Drow, then we were from Silver and Lancaster, and our actions started to cement the two kingdoms together.
Now we are playing natives of the Lapis Ocean, fighting against the empire we had supported just four years ago.
I wonder if the DM had all this planned before hand or is history being written by our actions.Pic heavily related. Though I was hoping to find one of a Hawaiian Outrigger fighting a Galleon or something. It'd be far more apt description of our campaign.
>>47110525
I like to have the classic triumvirate with three big powers that cannot risk to start an all-out war against one of the foes due to fear to be attacked by the third in a moment of weakness.
>>47110525
Fairly. I like to keep things as simple as possible so I don't need to infodump on the players. Even if the number of countries or people is fairly complicated it can usually be boiled down to a few larger blocs of political power.
If I want a straight up conflict I'll use two major players ala the WW2 axis and allies sort of set up. If I want a stand-off situation I'll use three sort of like how >>47114124 explained it. The three can be equally balanced, or a third can be a smaller neutral party that could sway a conflict somehow that both sides are interested in, depending on the theme of the game. If I want something more complicated but less openly hostile I'll have four or five factions with different levels of power and a lot of interpersonal history.
>>47110525
Define "faction" and "balanced faction"
>>47118704
Faction: A group of people with a shared goal
Balance means that each faction can exert an equal amount of influence or power, or check each other.
>>47110525
Whats this? Looks nice.
>>47119327
GATE
>>47119377
I want more. I finished all the episodes on Hulu.
>>47110977
Not only does that nigga's beard have a beard, but said beardbeard is flexing.
You gon git fukd.
>>47119327
>jpol wank
>nice
And learn yo google, fagmotron
>>47119405
>not liking nationalistic and impotent pandering to a declining Japan with all of the typical Otaku garnishings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDKvKejXybM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm3bGKMYM_w
Remember, everyone in the Japanese army is amazing, and can take on anything! Even navy seals and spetsnaz- at once!
>>47111066
>an angry lesbian princess, who doesn't want that?
Her subjects?
>>47110525
Perfectly, if precariously.
Then PCs happen and hijinks ensue.
>>47119327
GATE: Thus the JSDF fought there.
S'alright. Reeks a bit of hardcore nationalism, but hey, you get to see F-4 Phantom IIs dogfight a dragon.
>>47110525
The factions in my setting have different strengths and weaknesses, but in any conflict the winner would not be clear, so pretty balanced, i guess?
Except for nomads. They lack proper organization to wage a large-scale war, but they a) hard to catch, as they travel through murderous wilderness, b) individually pretty badass, again, because they travel through murderous wilderness and c) they have a lot of economic pull due to being the only ones willing to travel (and protect other merchants from) murderous wilderness.
>>47110525
Horribly balanced.
Up until a few years ago, the !Romans quite literally had God on their side and were expanding constantly during a golden age that just kept getting brighter.
Then God vanished and the !Roman empire splintered half a dozen ways in a giant civil war that ended with the largest faction unleashing the pure undistilled essence of Death on the world in a last-ditch attempt to not lose. Said faction is now a nigh-unstoppable empire of the dead poised to wipe out all life in the world if not stopped.
