Faction Conflict

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Faction Conflict

Land of Norune

Conflicts between factions is an expected part of roleplaying sims. Factions will disagree, have differing points of view or politics, and different goals. These factors can lead to disputes and conflict. This document is to go over the rules of how such conflicts play out, the possibilities, and the limitations. There are going to be additional rules for Faction Authority and Requirements to maintain faction status in another document.

Defending Faction Territory

Factions are presumed to have enough forces (predominantly composed of NPCs) to retain control of their territory. This includes enough forces to mount a suitable defense while retaining control of the territory. What does this mean fully?

  • Time of day is irrelevant. If you attack a faction because they don’t have ‘players’ online, does not mean they are undefended and unable to stop your attack. They are presumed to have enough force to repel it.
  • This presumption extends only insofar as defense is concerned. To rally forces to attack, requires pulling those forces from defense. So to attack another faction with force enough to conquer it, you must leave your own territory undefended, which could allow for take-over by another faction in your absence.
  • The default presumption will be a defender victory unless a full commitment of forces of an attacking faction are committed. Refer to rules below regarding Attacking and taking territory. 

Attacking Faction Territory

Due to the above presumptions of defense, most attacks are going to be shows of force. Smaller skirmishes, or raids. Shows of force are simply sabre-rattling to intimidate. Smaller skirmishes will typically be player conflict with faction defenders. While raids are objective based targeted skirmishes, typically with the goal of securing a particular object or assailing a particular individual.

  • Shows of Force will sometimes turn to skirmishes, but in most cases stand no chance of doing any actual territorial harm.
  • Skirmishes may result in wounded and casualties on both sides, but effects no change in territory as only smaller numbers of the factions total forces are in play.
  • Raids may secure a good, take a hostage (proper consent rules must be followed for this) or assail an individual or individuals. Whether successful or not depends on the objective and type of raid. A stealth raid that sneaks in and out successfully, may not take any casualties if undetected and may accomplish their goal. Or may fail horribly if they’re found out. A forceful raid may fight their way in or out, and could accomplish their goal, but are more likely to take casualties. Rules for raids will follow below.

Taking Territory

There are two ways a faction can take territory. They may do it by expanding influence, or by seizing control. Expanding influence is defined as expanding control over the NPC region around the faction’s controlled territory and may be done through storytelling events. Seizing control is defined as taking control of a faction area within the sim.

  • Expanding influence is an expected practice of the Factions, as they work through their objectives to entrench themselves more in the sim. This typically will involve faction-specific events to secure resources or influence over a story/NPC area of the world. (This does not apply to playable areas of the sim without special dispensation from the Lore/Admin teams.)
  • Seizing territory is more a one-off thing in most cases, which is what establishes faction control over an area. In rare circumstances it may happen when a faction ‘moves’ territorial control in a sim. Do note that moving a control center may come at a loss of expanded influence as the departure from an area of control removes the ability to enforce influence.
  • Factions may only control one region in a sim at any given time. This is to prevent singular control over the sim by one mega-faction and allow for the diversity of player factions within the sim. Exceptions to this rule can only come through unanimous administrative vote or direct decree from Darke himself. Given the unfair bias controlling multiple regions entails, its approval is meant to be granted only in the most rare of circumstances.
  • When seizing territory or attempting to destroy a faction. The attacking faction MUST file intent with the Lorekeepers and admins, as well as the defending Faction Lead. The defender will be given three (3) days to respond with intent to defend and best dates/times to have the conflict event. (An FL who has previously notified the staff of an absence greater than three days will be granted additional time to avoid using someone’s vacation to try and assault their faction) Failure to respond, may result in the Lore team working with officers, or permitting the attack to be planned on the FL’s behalf in absentia.

Harm to Factions

In some cases, there may be story reasons for a faction to suffer harm at the hands of another faction. This could come in the form of damage to the faction’s territory, loss of expanded influence, and harm to its members. Or in extreme cases, destruction of a faction.

  • Rendering any damage to a Faction territory (or any territory) that would leave a portion of the sim unusable for play, may only be done with approval from the lore/admin teams.
  • Loss of expanded influence should (but is not fully required to) involve skirmishes and the like over time as one faction winds up losing territory to a neighboring faction. Factions must be adjoining (neighbors) in this situation, as the rules for expanded influence still apply. Another faction may disrupt non-adjacent territory, but could not seize control of it. Such as assailing a mine and caving in tunnels, disrupting the controlling factions’ use of it for a time. But the controlling faction may dedicate time and resources or host a player event to restore access to the resource, so such disruptions are only temporary.
  • Destruction of a faction is a story-driving event that should only occur in the most extreme circumstances, such a situation is a failure on the part of the faction leaders involved unless it was planned as part of a story-telling plotline. Such would typically be the result of absolute stonewalling rather than any negotiation. Due to the dramatic disruption to players in said faction, a LOT of planning should go into this. Leaders considering this route should consult heavily with the lore team and admins ahead of time to plan out how it should go and what the dispersal of faction members will be after the fact. Faction members should absolutely be aware ahead of time OOCly of this occurring and it should not be a surprise dropped on them suddenly.
  • In the event of a faction destruction, the ‘winning’ faction will have to make a decision. Set up shop in the newly conquered region, relinquishing control over their previous region, or allow another faction to take control. (Faction approvals still must go through the administrative selection process, the removal of a faction simply opens up a slot for a new one to be put in their place. Priority in such instances will be given to factions originating from the newly allocated area FIRST, and then to existing applicants from other areas, and then open to new applications.) Do note that the commitment to attack does leave your territory exposed as you cannot properly staff guard posts and patrols while committing your forces to the destruction or take-over of another Faction.

Raids

Raids are a variable type of Conflict between factions. Where a skirmish is just a general brawl between factions, a raid is a more targeted type of interaction. This still requires agreement between the leaders of the involved factions in an Out of Character sense. It is recommended to have a member of the lore team hosting the raid to keep a mediator who is not involved in one of the sides leading the event.

  • Raids can be a variety of event types, including rescues of prisoners/hostages, stealing goods or information, targeting an individual, etc…
  • Raid events should have clearly defined objectives.
  • The raiding group should plan the raid as part of the early setup ahead of the event, working with the event host to plan how the raid /should/ go. The Host will then make conditionals for the raid to reach such goals, and determine what sort of rolls are necessary to stay on track for each segment of the raid. Failure at any particular point may compromise part of the objective or increase difficulty (such as a stealth raid being spotted or alerting guards)
  • It is encouraged the Raids be planned alongside the lore team, in the event a faction leader refuses to engage with any raid plots without citing reasons not to, the lore team may be compelled to host the raid regardless as the stonewalling Faction Lead may be crossing the line into meta-gaming trying to use the consent rule to avoid their faction ever being raided.
  • Faction leads may cite compelling reasons to disallow a raid. A compelling reason must include a cited explanation, ie: A raid planning to teleport in, teleporting violates the rules, barring the raid is justified. Or the raid is being planned using information gained OOC, the raid is metagaming, and barring it is justified. But if there is no compelling reason as to why the raid should be barred, Faction Leads should be cooperating with the planning of them.

Managing In-Character (IC) Fallout

Faction conflicts will frequently trigger the In-Character Actions equal In-Character Consequences (ICA=ICC) rules. Only over two entire factions, as well as any characters who may be involved in the periphery. So it is important to keep in mind that the fallout from such actions will have not only immediate, but lasting impact not only on faction leaders, but on all faction members involved on both sides.

  • Play area limitations – A conflict between factions will commonly result in those factions being at odds with each other. As a side effect, it is to be expected that they will bar members of the opposing faction from their controlled territory. This means entire areas of the sim may become unvisitable for some players. This can disrupt ongoing storylines and result in a lot of Out of Character frustration.
  • Cooperative limitations – Members from opposing factions may, for quite some time after a conflict, not be able to cooperate with each other during sim-wide events. This can lead to disruption of events or inability for some individuals to participate in events due to such issues.
  • Management of this fallout is to be planned for by the Faction Leaders involved in the conflict. Sim staff WILL direct complaints from faction members back to their respective leaders.
  • Faction Leaders SHOULD be worried with the diplomatic and economic standing of their Faction. So even after such incidents occur, they should be actively working to mitigate those impacts. Failure to take such efforts may be grounds to revisit faction leadership.

Managing Out of Character (OOC) Emotions

One thing that cannot be overlooked in any faction conflict, is that such events make emotions run hot. Each side wants their side to come out on top, and in many cases, at least half the participants are going to wind up angry with the outcome. In some instances, all the participants may be. So this is something that has to be taken heavily into consideration when planning for Faction Conflict events.

It again falls on the participating faction leaders to plan for these emotions and to ensure cooler heads will prevail. The existence of a Faction Conflict does not invalidate the existing rules and with tempers flaring, the odds of players finding themselves on the wrong side of the rules for a variety of reasons tends to skyrocket.

  • Always expect and prepare for the OOC fallout from a conflict event.
  • Try to anticipate potential issues and smooth them as best as possible ahead of the event.
  • Faction Leads and Officers should strive to keep their own faction members as calm as possible oocly. (Being riled IC is perfectly expected and acceptable)
  • Planned outcomes are preferable to just winging it, as it allows for preparing people ahead of time oocly, working directly with the lore team also reduces the odds of trouble as staff will already be involved.
  • After a Faction Conflict event, Faction Leaders should engage in efforts to calm the hot emotions of their Faction Members. Efforts to instead rile up Faction Members OOCly, may be used as justification by the Admin team to remove a Faction Leader. (IC riling up, is expected and acceptable)

Guild Conflict

Guild conflict is similar in many ways to Faction conflict, but there are a few distinct differences. Guilds are smaller entities without regional control. While allowed to man their base with NPC guards to defend against another guild/player group attack, Guilds do not have the manpower to stop a faction full-force attack.

A faction who controls the territory in which a guild is located, can expel that guild from its territory if that guild gives good reason for them to do so. And when attacking, a guild may only attack using player-controlled characters, not any NPC forces.

  • Guild Conflicts should be Guild against Guild, Guilds cannot stand up to a Faction in a direct conflict as the Factions are larger with more substantial forces at their disposal. The only exception to this is when a guild is being elevated to a Faction and the existing Faction authority is being destroyed. These sorts of events will be exceptionally rare and require excessive staff involvement.
  • Guilds may Raid other Guilds, or potentially Raid Factions, though this is a disadvantageous position and should only ever be attempted against Factions in which the Guild does not reside, as repercussions for a raid on a Faction that controls the Guilds locale could include expulsion of the guild from that territory.
  • Expulsion of a guild from a territory involves rental transfers. Due to this, it may only occur with administrative involvement for the transfer of the rental to another locale.
  • Rules for IC and OOC fallout still apply to guilds, so Guild leaders should keep these in mind when performing conflict events.

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Land of Norune

Faction Conflict Rules / Guild Conflict Rules

Original by Kiya Foxtrot September 12th, 2025