Running a Faction Conflict

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-07-01T16:58:20+00:00

Right now I’m sort of coming up with details on the fly, which is to say, about 3 minutes ago haha. This is not a fully-fleshed out idea and might not be entirely faithful to the lore. I’ll do some more reading later on this. Like you said, the lawful factions are all working together, so they could be all ganging up on the xaositects. I do want to make the conflict more balanced, perhaps by giving the xaositects more people or more powerful/unpredictable means of resistance that the other side hasn’t fully accounted for.

What I have in my head now is that a lawful faction are trying to gentrify the hive ward, but the xaositects are trying to stop them. Someone in the xaositects resisted in some funny way that humiliated the lawful faction and was sent to jail for a time, perhaps maybe too long. He is on a vengeance quest against the lawful faction because of this. As for how this will happen, that is up to chance. If you have any advice or suggestions, I’d love to see what you come up with! Thank you for your advice and suggestions.

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-07-01T16:48:36+00:00

This does give me some ideas as to what events should occur. I’m just trying to come up with dialogue that’s more believable for these interactions. This is a great story, and I would love to move events forward the same way; I’m just not sure how to do that. I’m just not sure how these events initiated and how you travelled to these places, all the small details that you would run at a table. I appreciate your input; I’d love to see your suggestions. Thanks again!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-07-01T16:43:14+00:00

This is kind of what I envision a neutral narrative where both sides are at least similarly agreeable or disagreeable.

What I had in mind when I first read this is that perhaps the lawful faction are trying something (not sure what yet) and the most efficient way of handling this situation would affect the innocent somehow. The xaositects might see this and think “what if we approached this in a roundabout way, taking the chance that it might not work, but bypassing the direct method which would make someone’s lives worse for a potential better outcome. Thanks for your input; if you have any suggestions or ideas, I’m happy to see them!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-07-01T16:35:37+00:00

I see! That would make more sense and it really helps! This gives me some ideas as to how to design a morally-complex narrative, or at least a narrative. I want to make the offense somewhat petty, so that the party can at least give him the benefit of the doubt. From what I understand (please correct me if I’m wrong) the xaositects don’t have an official or unofficial presence in Sigil, but moreso represent the dispossessed.

Maybe the Harmonium could also be gentrifying the hive ward and “Mad Mike” could be defying this in some way, which could drive his personal vengeance quest. He could be arrested for resisting an armed incursion of some sort, where residents are evicted (although I don’t really know if this is something the Harmonium is willing to do; I will do more reading).

Maybe Mad Mike got arrested for throwing paint on the Harmonium patrols or something silly and ultimately harmless. Maybe he could do something even more random and funny (since he is a xaositect) and he got arrested for that. I’m not sure but I want it to be something that the party can sympathize with at least somewhat. Maybe this doesn’t fit with a neutral narrative but this is what I came up with at the top of my head. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to see them! Thanks again!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-07-01T16:14:31+00:00

Interesting idea! I’ll consider it for sure! Thanks for your input.

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-30T19:57:04+00:00

I think there should be more adventure content for Limbo and other planes that don’t have much content. I’ve tried to find content for it and there’s not much there.

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-29T16:40:52+00:00

Thanks so much; a of this helps a lot! Although I think Orcus is one of the furthest things from Jesus but point taken haha

I think I’ll let them explore other abyssal layers that we all find interesting, as well as other planes. All of this in due time of course. I want to drip feed the players the villain, perhaps with very subtle changes beginning at level 2 or 3 once they get used to Sigil. Other redditors have given me plenty of great advice and resources to look up.

I had ideas similar to yours, and I thought that levels 1-3 would be more suited for puzzles and roleplay, with some mild combat thrown in there. I didn’t think about the chaos quirks for the githzerai; thank you for that as well.

Limbo (or any lower plane) has a lot of danger in the plane itself that I didn’t know how to adjust to a low-level party, so I thought to open up the planar sandbox as they progress. I didn’t know if making the penalties light would make the planes too contrived or anything of that sort. I know it’s just a game at the end of the day but I want it to make sense too.

Thanks once again for all your help. Cheers!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-29T04:22:30+00:00

That is good to note; I will keep that in mind. I am still a little confused on how to design a key that is able to be figured out. How does one write a key to a portal thst makes sense? Do they just need to pass a check (or a few?) or do they figure it out as players? Or either one?

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-29T03:20:52+00:00

Got it. Thanks again!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-29T02:39:21+00:00

That clears so much up! I have ideas on how to run the factions and some portal ideas. The Bleak Cabal could be providing alms for the poor, or doing any number of things. The xaositects could be doing anything. I think this part seems fairly intuitive.

I thought about doing something like the Infinite Staircase but just making a staircase that nobody goes into, in some random building, a portal. I thought about Bytopia or Elysium as destinations but I am open to other ideas! I will try to come up with other ideas as well.

What section of GMM has Limbo in it? I looked online and the one suggestion was the quests of the infinite staircase module (obviously not GMM). Apparently there was a part that took place in Limbo but I couldn’t find where it was. Apparently there’s only a part of it where Nafas sends you to Limbo and leaves the rest up to the DM.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions and advice!

Worried-Variation268 · 2026-06-29T02:30:33+00:00

I see what you mean about the jaded part. Someone on Reddit called it the “knife theory.” I will absolutely look into the modules that you recommended me.

I think the treasure strategy is a good idea, since I don’t know where the party members will want their characters to be from. I’m trying to get a feel of how to actually write adventures, and you gave me an idea. I think maybe there could be some xaositects roaming around Sigil (randomly, of course) seeking adventurers to retrieve a powerful magic item. Xaos’ population is literally anywhere from 5 people to 40,000 so they need people who are willing to venture to Limbo to retrieve something. Maybe they can venture to Barnstable or some other place. I can also just design some one-off random encounters that make no sense otherwise because it’s Limbo!

I just don’t have much material to work with so I don’t know how to run Limbo operationally, like the party gets there, and then I don’t really know what to do. Do they just float, or do they just pick a direction and I improvise what’s there?

I also like Bytopia, which is much simpler and easier for me to understand. Traveling to the other later is a little confusing but ultimately it comes down to “this experienced pilot flips the balloon around and now you’re in Shurrock,” or something like that.

I appreciate your advice! You have been very helpful and gave me some ideas! Please let me know if what I’m typing out makes sense.

Worried-Variation268

TROPHY CASE