Creating a faction

Description: My opinionated guide towards faction creation.

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[url=https://desolationlabs.com:0/app.php/kb/viewarticle?a=6&sid=2779d075e34222cc6778c728051bd852]Knowledge Base - Creating a faction[/url]

I. Preface:
Creating a faction should always be defined by the motivation to provide something fresh to the table via unique concepts & creating characters with quality character development. A faction, whether unofficial or official, must uphold the standards, if not beyond, in order to truly establish itself as a decent faction. The main focus should be the character development of its members, a proper and unvague picture of where the faction is heading towards in terms of roleplay & development and most importantly, portraying the faction's struggles & hardships before reaching a powerful status. However, at the end of the day, it all depends on the leader's creativity and ability to adapt to the roleplay environment that the faction might land upon. One may simply want to roleplay a decrepit faction filled with nothing but struggle & melancholy, while others might opt for a faction that goes on to control the post-apocalyptic status quo, or a just a crew that goes on to cause general havoc; it all lies on one's creativity. No matter what type of faction it is, the bad guys or the good, it's important to stress that a faction should not allow to box its roleplay. Don't be hesitant about roleplaying out of the box once in awhile, make your characters/members human. For example, corruption in non-bandit factions or the showcase of empathy in bandit factions. Try to swerve from movie character stereotypes and act accordingly as one would in real life and everything should be smoother and much more fluid.
II. Member Selection:
Make it necessary that you pick a good line-up. There is no minimum as to how many members one faction should hold in its initial stages as long as your members are highly knowledgeable with roleplay. For example, one faction can only have three excellent members that relay proper & quality roleplay and still be considered a decent & active faction. Member count doesn't really matter as the FMT merits quality roleplay over it. A faction with a member count of ten with members that do nothing but AFK on the game, play characters based entirely off movies or refuse to engage in passive roleplay are usually overlooked over a faction with three members that go hardcore with it when it comes to character development, faction development and creative passive roleplay scenes.
Be wary of members that are flagged with OOC toxicity as well, as it may bring negative popular view at your faction. Though blacklisting toxic players from a certain faction isn't mandated per the server's faction rules, it's still important to note that OOC toxicity can discourage players from roleplaying with your faction, or new players with potentially fresh ideas from joining. I personally agree with the fact that it's quite unfair how people align with biases based off OOC attitude when everything IC should remain IC, but as somebody who has ran factions before, a faction with a bad credit score/reputation will always be barred from experiencing smooth interaction with other factions, players and the community.
III. Hierarchy:
While generally, everybody agrees that any form of hierarchy must only be present In-Character, it is also important to establish an Out-of-Character hierarchy in order to, on a certain extent, control the flow of the faction as well as have people that make decisions that will affect the faction's main objective as well as to keep stability & order within the faction on an OOC level. Though not necessarily required, one faction must have people that moderate screenshots or portrayal of faction roleplay. For this reason, the leader is encouraged to form a team that makes these significant decisions. These may take form through a High Council team.
The job of a High Council (HC) member should be to regulate members' screenshots, their roleplay & character portrayal and mostly, provide interesting roleplay ideas & guides pertaining the kind of roleplay atmosphere/culture that the faction wants to showcase. It should be in no way shape or form become a badge to flex on regular members or to power trip. This role must be looked at as a job full of responsibilities faction-wise and based on my experience, the faction's overall well being & rate highly lies on the decisions taken by the High Council. If you're a leader, make sure you give this role to players that can effectively roleplay, interact, well-mannered & most importantly, able to take initiative that regular members can't.
IV. Faction Thread:
In my honest opinion, a faction thread should be concise, simple, less GFX oriented & easy to read. While not mandatory, it's also important to point out that a faction thread must be as creative as it can be & not the usual faction story, faction members, what we do type format. Though how a faction thread looks like is not the main indicator whether a faction would turn out decent or the opposite, having an interesting & unique way to portray what your faction is on the forums is always a good way to make an excellent first impression. There are no word limits or strict formats to follow when creating a faction thread either way, so crank your creativity all the way up!
However, faction threads must always showcase what it is trying to portray. One can choose to come off vague with their faction threads, but it's always better to give readers dots to connect & ultimately catch a glimpse of what the faction is. This isn't to say that you should go out of your way and create seemingly impossible puzzles to solve for readers to play, but more like subtleties or pieces of roleplay material/culture/idea that readers can give a full thought towards.
V. Establishing Your Objective:
Now that you've decided everything that's fundamental in the creation of your faction, all that could dictate from then on will be your ability to realistically roleplay towards the objective(s) that you want your faction to commit to. Will all of it be for money? Will all of it be for glory & honor? Perhaps, stability & order? Or do you want your faction to be a pioneer in establishing a microcity to provide a society bubble amidst the apocalypse? It's all up to you. Avoid having the mentality of focusing solely on official status and instead, focus on how good you & your faction's roleplay can get. Compete with yourselves instead of competing with other factions & all will be straight. It's also important to note that you could always ask a member of the Faction Team to become your faction's advisor. Lastly, just have fun. It's just a game.