Hi. We are playing Lost Mines of Phandelver and during the course of the module membership of the four main factions get dished out to players. I'm not really sure how to actually take these forward though. Could anyone point me to where to find ideas to incorporate membership of for example the Lord's Alliance, the Zhentarim etc into the game? It's all very well having a player invited into the lower ranks of a faction but the module doesn't suggest what that actually entails.
The Zhenatrim are essentially Take Over the World-types disguised as mercenaries. A member of the Zhenatrim would most likely get missions that further the ambitions of the faction as a whole, such as seeking out powerful artifacts, assassinating leaders so Zhenatrim puppets can take their place, etc. As the player succeed their missions, they may ascend the ladder until they start getting their missions from the guild leaders themselves, the Doom Raiders. As high tier Zhenatrim members, they would get benefits such as being able to hire mercenaries ofr (relatively) cheap and having access to a wide information network. You could make it a plothook later that Mansion, the Zhenatrim's founder, has returned.
The Lord's Alliance is mainly a political faction. Members would be called on to protect the interests of the various cities involved, most likely Neverwinter and Waterdeep, as those are closest to Phandalin. If you read the Neverwinter Campaign Guide for 4e, you'll learn that Neverwinter is a whole stew of problems. As they ascend the Lord's Alliance ladder, they'd probably earn more renown, becoming well known to even members outside the faction, and could be offered legal help. At the highest tiers of the faction, they might even be elected as an Unmasked Lord or even Lord Protector of Neverwinter, assuming something happens to Dagult Neverember
Cheers, that's good stuff. I do find it hard to picture how I incorporate this into the party play. By the end of LMoP we could well have a member of The Lords Alliance, The Harpists, the Emerald Conclave and the Zhentarim in the party. LMoP doesn't have any suggestions as to how to take this further for the party and they are all very discrete from each other.
If you have an overarching story, the player's faction contact may send them a message saying "Yo, we see that you're going to this place. There's a thing we need you to do there", so the players can get their faction missions done without interfering too much with the story
Hi. We are playing Lost Mines of Phandelver and during the course of the module membership of the four main factions get dished out to players. I'm not really sure how to actually take these forward though. Could anyone point me to where to find ideas to incorporate membership of for example the Lord's Alliance, the Zhentarim etc into the game? It's all very well having a player invited into the lower ranks of a faction but the module doesn't suggest what that actually entails.
Cheers.
The Zhenatrim are essentially Take Over the World-types disguised as mercenaries. A member of the Zhenatrim would most likely get missions that further the ambitions of the faction as a whole, such as seeking out powerful artifacts, assassinating leaders so Zhenatrim puppets can take their place, etc. As the player succeed their missions, they may ascend the ladder until they start getting their missions from the guild leaders themselves, the Doom Raiders. As high tier Zhenatrim members, they would get benefits such as being able to hire mercenaries ofr (relatively) cheap and having access to a wide information network. You could make it a plothook later that Mansion, the Zhenatrim's founder, has returned.
The Lord's Alliance is mainly a political faction. Members would be called on to protect the interests of the various cities involved, most likely Neverwinter and Waterdeep, as those are closest to Phandalin. If you read the Neverwinter Campaign Guide for 4e, you'll learn that Neverwinter is a whole stew of problems. As they ascend the Lord's Alliance ladder, they'd probably earn more renown, becoming well known to even members outside the faction, and could be offered legal help. At the highest tiers of the faction, they might even be elected as an Unmasked Lord or even Lord Protector of Neverwinter, assuming something happens to Dagult Neverember
Cheers, that's good stuff. I do find it hard to picture how I incorporate this into the party play. By the end of LMoP we could well have a member of The Lords Alliance, The Harpists, the Emerald Conclave and the Zhentarim in the party. LMoP doesn't have any suggestions as to how to take this further for the party and they are all very discrete from each other.
If you have an overarching story, the player's faction contact may send them a message saying "Yo, we see that you're going to this place. There's a thing we need you to do there", so the players can get their faction missions done without interfering too much with the story
Thanks, I'll do something along those lines I think.