Factions in a Dungeon
Header Art: Dungeon Delve (2009) by Wizards of the Coast
Up next for Dungeon December is a look at the monsters and factions within a dungeon. This is one of the most important things in a dungeon but sadly is often forgotten about, half-heartedly added in, or just under-utilized in a lot of dungeons that I have read through.
Even in Tomb of Annihilation, an adventure often thought of as one of Wizard’s best, screws up this in their final dungeon. Sure, there are different factions in the dungeon, but they have a single sentence or two that they might tell the party, and then immediately tries to kill them. They aren’t trying to trick the party into working for them, seeking protection from the party, or interacting with them outside of combat. They just talk and then immediately attack.
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 Wizards of the Coast
And it isn’t like Tomb of Annihilation doesn’t do things correctly! In the area right before the mega-dungeon, you have various factions with quests, tasks for the party, and motives that clever adventurers can use for their benefit. Grungs, yuan-ti, jungle beasts, and more can all be cleverly used to create a living, breathing area… just that doesn’t extend into the mega-dungeon. It makes for a pretty basic hack-n-slash dungeon with little else to excite players who like to role-play just as much as they like to fight.
What Are Factions?
When I refer to factions, I am using it loosely. What makes a faction is its goals, and it doesn’t matter if it is a single creature or a group of creatures so long as they have the same goal. We aren’t worried about its real-world definition, just defining a gaming term.
A faction doesn’t just have to be a single type of creature, like gnolls, but could be a bunch of different ancestries, like orcs and humans working together for a common cause. So long as they have the same goal, like summoning the avatar of an orc deity to bring war across the material plane, then they are part of the same faction.
Of course, there might be loads of different ‘factions’ within a single faction. Everyone has a different idea on how to summon an avatar, one person wants to use the blood of an elf (the most hated enemy of the orc deity) while someone else thinks that a tarrasque would be a better sacrifice (the strongest ‘monster’ in the world).
It is solely up to the gamemaster to decide how many factions they want to create for the party to interact with. They could decide they only want a single faction in one section of a dungeon, and so the cultists are a unified front. Then again, they may decide to have two factions within the cult - allowing the players to potentially use this schism as a way to create chaos.
Dungeon Delve, 2009 Wizards of the Coast
NPCs are Factions
A single NPC can be a faction, especially if they are powerful or they are, outwardly, part of another faction but have their own wants and desires that differ from that faction. This could be a kobold who wants to become the dragon-king above conquering their old territory, while the rest of their faction is fine with the current dragon-king but wants to take over the old territory. While outwardly that kobold might appear to be part of the Kobold Faction, they are their own faction since their wants and desires differ from the Kobold Faction.
In this situation, you are creating one faction, the Kobold Faction, who only wants the party to clear out their old territory, and a single kobold who approaches the party asking them to kill the current dragon-king. Now the party has more than just killing rats to think of, but also regicide on the mind.
Create Friction
Just having factions in a dungeon isn’t enough though. You need to create friction between these factions to make their goals interesting. If you have two factions, and each wants to see a portion of the dungeon cleared, you don’t have friction. Their goals are the same thing, and thus they should be treated as a single faction.
Instead, what you want is for both factions to have goals that will hurt or hinder the opposite faction. This could be forcibly removing one faction from their territory, taking an important magic item that will help one faction someone a demon but the other faction wants it because it will help them summon a celestial, or any other activity that one faction does not want to happen.
By creating friction, you are giving the players a reason why the two factions don’t work together to solve their problems. You give the players options to side with in the dungeon, preventing it from being a stale dive into a set of ruins where they fight kobold after goblin after gnoll. Now they get to team up with Team Gnoll and drive off the goblin infestation while lying to the kobolds that they will remove the gnoll menace.
Break Up Monotony
Let’s face it - dungeons can get a bit samey and tiring. Dungeon fatigue is a real thing that can happen, even in the most murderhobo-y of players. Sometimes, you just get tired of fighting.
By adding factions that the players can interact with, you give them the option of roleplaying in your dungeon. You give them a different experience that makes the dungeon just a more interesting place to adventure in.
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 Wizards of the Coast
Example Dungeon Factions
Below are a few examples of different dungeons with some factions that you can use to help spice things up and give your players someone to interact with that isn’t just there to be destroyed.
Cavern Complex: Goblins vs Kobolds
Factions?
- Expansionist kobolds who are led by a red dragon wyrmling
- Goblins who have lived in their underground fortress for decades
- Townsfolk who keep getting attacked by the goblins
What Happened? A series of caverns has been accidentally linked by kobolds to a goblin underground fortress.
Friction? The kobolds wish to claim all the territory that the goblins have while the goblins wish to retain their underground fortress. Goblins hate being commanded by kobolds, especially kobolds with a dragon. The townsfolk are tired of the goblins constantly attacking them and stealing their supplies, but now it has gone too far. The goblins have kidnapped townsfolk.
Why are the Adventurers there? Goblins recently kidnapped nearby townsfolk and the adventurers have been hired to rescue the townsfolk and remove the goblin infestation for good.
Monster Manual, 2014 Wizards of the Coast
In this situation, the party has several options. They could side with the goblins to defeat the kobolds and their wyrmling. The goblins promise to hand over the prisoners and that they won’t attack the village again, or maybe they are lying. On the other hand, the party could side with the kobolds who haven’t attacked the village, but they are the minions of a dragon pushing them to extend their borders. In exchange, the kobolds could offer treasure or tell the party important information they might want.
Graveyard Shift: Ghouls vs Necromancer
Factions?
- A necromancer has begun digging up corpses in the graveyard
- Ghouls are being created by the necromancer, but want their freedom
- Town guards want this menace to stop
What Happened? A necromancer has decided to create an army of undead that they control, though instead of just mindless undead, they are also creating intelligent undead like ghouls.
Friction? The necromancer sees themselves as becoming a general of an undead army, something that no one in the surrounding landscape wants. Due to the necromancer’s hubris, they have created intelligent undead, but the ghouls want their freedom. While they agree that, obviously, they should rule over the living (as the necromancer believes), they don’t want to be bound by the necromancer’s magic. The town guards are just trying to keep the town safe from the undead and are close to being defeated.
Why are the Adventurers there? The party has been hired to defend the town against a stream of undead that keeps assailing the town. They need to go to the graveyard, find out what is going on, and stop this undead plague. Once they arrive, they will have to go into the crypts and find the necromancer’s lair.
Monster Manual, 2008 Wizards of the Coast
While the party is being paid by the town to stop the undead wave, they are given a pretty wide latitude to just deal with the problem. The ghouls can easily side with the party, bringing them to the necromancer and helping to destroy the other mindless undead, but they want something that most people are not going to want. The necromancer, on the other hand, has decided to destroy their intelligent undead but faces the issue of there just being too many. Plus, if the necromancer attacks the ghouls, the magic on the ghouls will break and the necromancer will be quickly overwhelmed. Instead, the necromancer delivers a message to the adventurers, perhaps the message is carved onto the bones of a skeleton, offering a deal with the party that if they destroy the ghouls, the necromancer will reward them with a magic item or promise to seize the nearby village last.
Tomb of Annihilation: Sewn Sisters vs Withers
For the last dungeon, I have decided to update the factions within the Tomb of Annihilation (SPOILERS). This is a redo of the final dungeon, allowing the hags and Withers to have more goals. The only thing that needs to change is that each is given more goals that will have them interact with the party and try and get the party on each of their respective sides while still blocking the party from reaching the atropal.
Factions?
- The Sewn Sisters, a group of hags
- Withers, the custodian of this dungeon
What Happened? An atropal is siphoning souls, causing a wasting sickness in all those who have died but were brought back to life by magic. Eventually, the atropal will be born as a god of death, under the direct control of Acererak.
Friction? The Sewn Sisters were hired to be caretakers of the atropal, but they have grown sympathetic to the godling. While they still want to see it become a god of death, they do not want to see it be controlled by Acererak or have any taint from the archlich on it. Instead, they see themselves as the perfect mothers to the future god of death and are plotting to remove Acererak’s control over the atropal. Withers, on the other hand, is responsible for the dungeon and all those within it. If the Sewn Sisters betray Acererak, it will be Withers fault for not catching their plots and destroying them. Withers must not fail Acererak or face a terrible fate.
Why are the Adventurers there? They must save their friend from the wasting sickness and its soul being eaten by the atropal.
Tomb of Annihilation, 2017 Wizards of the Coast
Withers is facing a problem. They have adventurers in the tomb, but they are also having to deal with the Sewn Sisters as delicately as possible. If Withers simply kills the Sisters, then the atropal might die by accident without its caretakers. On the other hand, if the Sewn Sisters successfully steal control of the atropal from Acererak, there won’t be a single soul or god that could protect Withers from Acererak’s wrath. The party could form an uneasy truce with Withers to deal with the Sewn Sisters, while the Sewn Sisters approach the party for their purposes. The Sisters don’t want Withers to be alive any longer, but they can’t just remove the custodian themselves. Their contracts forbid such an act, perhaps the party might be interested in destroying Withers for them.
Of course, both parties want to ensure the survival of the atropal, so the party can’t be allowed to stop its soulmongering, but that problem can be dealt with later. What each faction needs is for the party to deal with their enemies, but the party can’t be allowed to live afterwards. Withers is frustrated by the problem, as they can’t allow the party to kill the atropal once they are down with the Sewn Sisters. Withers decides to hide the Skeleton Keys behind powerful traps, though this causes the Sewn Sisters to notice and kidnap one or two of the Skeleton Keys, refusing to give them up to Withers.
Like what we are doing here?
Support us on Patreon!
You’ll get early access to deep dives, the Homebrew Hoard featuring 500+ monsters, Monster Thursdays, ad-free articles, and more!
Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on everything we talk about!
