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  1. The Shattered Imperium
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02. Factions, Loytalty, and Mixed Parties

Faction Connections

Every character should begin with at least one meaningful faction connection.

This may represent:

  • Active membership

  • Former service

  • Employment

  • Family loyalty

  • Religious duty

  • Political obligation

  • Debt

  • Patronage

  • Rivalry

  • Exile

  • A temporary alliance

  • A faction hunting the character

A faction connection gives Franz people, resources, enemies, and obligations to use during play.

It should not permanently determine what the character believes.

Types of Loyalty

Loyalty can take several forms.

A character may be loyal to:

  • A faction

  • A commander

  • A regiment

  • A Chapter

  • A crew

  • A family

  • A settlement

  • A faith

  • A contract

  • A cause

  • The party

  • Their own survival

These loyalties may conflict.

A Guardsman may serve the Imperium but refuse an order that sacrifices their home. A Kroot mercenary may honor a contract while opposing the employer’s methods. An Inquisitorial agent may support their master but distrust the wider Inquisition.

Conflicting loyalty is useful when it creates choices rather than predetermined betrayal.

Mixed Parties

Mixed parties are common in the campaign because small missions often require unusual specialists.

A party might include:

  • Imperial soldiers

  • Inquisitorial agents

  • Tech-Priests

  • Psykers

  • Mutants

  • Abhumans

  • Kroot mercenaries

  • T’au operatives

  • Aeldari outcasts

  • Ork freebooters

  • Renegades

  • Chaos-aligned characters

Such groups are usually formed through necessity.

They may share:

  • A contract

  • A common enemy

  • A transport

  • A patron

  • A prison sentence

  • A debt

  • A survival crisis

  • Knowledge of the same threat

  • Different pieces of the same objective

The party does not need to begin as friends.

Why the Party Stays Together

Each player should give their character a believable reason to remain with the group.

Useful reasons include:

  • The party provides protection

  • The mission serves a personal goal

  • A shared enemy threatens everyone

  • The group controls needed transportation

  • A patron requires cooperation

  • Another party member is owed a debt

  • The character lacks safer allies

  • The group possesses important knowledge

  • Cooperation offers status, payment, or freedom

  • Leaving would create greater danger

The reason may change as the party develops.

Eventually, loyalty to the group may become stronger than the original contract.

Imperial and Xenos Characters

Imperial citizens are often taught to fear or hate xenos.

A mixed Imperial-xenos party therefore needs context.

Possible explanations include:

  • A Rogue Trader’s authority

  • Inquisitorial sanction

  • A Deathwatch operation

  • A temporary military alliance

  • Mercenary employment

  • A neutral trade station

  • A shared enemy

  • Isolation beyond Imperial law

  • A disguised or concealed arrangement

  • Mutual survival after a disaster

Official permission may reduce legal danger but does not remove prejudice.

Some NPCs may refuse service, demand proof of authority, or react with fear.

These reactions should create setting tension without making every social encounter impossible.

Mutants, Psykers, and Abhumans

Mutants, psykers, and abhumans may be tolerated, sanctioned, feared, or persecuted depending upon location.

A character may carry:

  • Sanctioning records

  • Military credentials

  • Inquisitorial protection

  • Guild identification

  • Religious seals

  • Medical records

  • A patron’s warrant

  • False documents

These protections may work in one region and fail in another.

Franz should not treat every mutant, psyker, or abhuman as secretly corrupted.

Chaos-Aligned Characters

Chaos-aligned characters require especially strong reasons to cooperate with others.

Possible concepts include:

  • A renegade using the party for survival

  • A former cultist seeking escape or redemption

  • A warband operative serving a temporary alliance

  • A Blackshield hiding a shameful history

  • A Chaos Astartes opposed to a rival Legion

  • A daemonhost restrained by a patron or pact

  • A heretek searching for knowledge

Chaos alignment should not grant permission to sabotage the campaign without player agreement.

A character can be cruel, ambitious, or corrupted while still honoring bargains and protecting useful companions.

Hidden Loyalties

Players may create characters with secrets, but character sheets are visible within Friends & Fables.

Do not build a concept that depends entirely upon other players being unable to see the character’s faction, race, class, or stated history.

Useful secrets instead involve:

  • Why the character left a faction

  • What happened during a failed mission

  • The identity of a former commander

  • An unpaid debt

  • A private religious doubt

  • The true purpose of a relic

  • A family connection

  • A hidden fear

  • A past crime

  • Knowledge the character refuses to discuss

Secrets should add depth without requiring deception outside the game.

Betrayal

Betrayal should never be assumed simply because characters serve different factions.

A betrayal works best when:

  • The player chooses it

  • The possibility has been established

  • Other players still have meaningful responses

  • The event does not erase prior choices

  • The campaign can continue afterward

Franz should not secretly change a player character’s loyalty or declare that the character was controlled all along.

External coercion, corruption, psychic influence, and faction pressure may create choices, but the player decides how the character responds.

Faction Orders

Characters may receive conflicting instructions.

Examples include:

  • Recover a relic while another faction demands its destruction

  • Protect a witness another patron wants silenced

  • Save civilians or preserve military secrecy

  • Deliver xenos technology to the Mechanicus or Inquisition

  • Assist an ally who is officially an enemy

  • Abandon a settlement to complete a larger mission

Orders should create dilemmas, not remove agency.

Characters may obey, refuse, negotiate, deceive, delay, or seek another solution.

Each option may have consequences.

Reputation

A character’s actions affect faction reputation.

Reputation may improve when characters:

  • Complete missions

  • Protect faction members

  • Return valuable equipment

  • Keep agreements

  • Provide information

  • Accept responsibility

  • Defeat major enemies

Reputation may decline when they:

  • Break contracts

  • Lose sacred equipment

  • Aid an enemy

  • Expose secrets

  • Disobey orders

  • Cause civilian or political damage

  • Publicly embarrass a leader

Reputation should influence access, trust, prices, reinforcements, and future missions.

It should not function as a simple morality score.

Party Agreements

Players may establish a few basic party agreements before play.

Examples include:

  • No attacking party members without player agreement

  • Disputes remain in character rather than becoming personal

  • Valuable discoveries are discussed before being surrendered

  • Every character receives a reason to participate

  • Characters may disagree without deliberately ending the campaign

  • Major betrayals require player consent

These agreements protect player freedom while allowing tense roleplaying.

Party Roles

A mixed party benefits from varied capabilities.

Useful roles include:

  • Frontline combatant

  • Ranged specialist

  • Scout

  • Investigator

  • Diplomat

  • Tech specialist

  • Medic

  • Psyker

  • Survival expert

  • Pilot

  • Heavy weapons specialist

Characters do not need to fill one fixed role.

Overlapping abilities help the party survive when someone is injured, separated, or unavailable.

Prompt Add-On for Franz

Add this section to a character-generation prompt:

Faction and party connection:
My character is connected to [faction] through [membership, employment, debt, family, former service, rivalry, or another relationship].

Their current loyalty is [strong, uncertain, practical, divided, resentful, or another description].

They will cooperate with the starting party because [reason].

Create one believable source of tension with another faction or party member, but do not force betrayal, secretly change the character’s loyalty, or determine future choices.

Give the character:

  • One faction contact

  • One faction obligation

  • One faction benefit

  • One possible conflict of loyalty

  • One reason the party still matters more than immediate disagreement

Mixed-Party Prompt Example

Create a level 5 Kroot Scout who works as a mercenary on Krell’Sharr Platform.

They were hired by a Rogue Trader but believe the employer is hiding the true nature of the mission. They respect contracts, value practical courage, and distrust wasteful Imperial commanders.

Give them a reason to cooperate with Imperial, mutant, and Mechanicus party members despite cultural tension. Create one useful Rogue Trader contact and one rival Kroot hunter.

Do not make them secretly loyal to the T’au or destined to betray the group. Leave their long-term loyalty to player choices.

Factions in Play

Faction and loyalty conflicts can support adventures involving:

  • Conflicting orders

  • Negotiating a temporary alliance

  • Protecting an enemy diplomat

  • Choosing who receives a relic

  • Hiding a party member from authorities

  • Repairing a damaged reputation

  • Leaving a former faction

  • Rescuing an estranged commander

  • Deciding whether to honor a dangerous contract

  • Building trust between hostile cultures

A strong mixed party does not require agreement.

It requires enough shared purpose to keep choosing cooperation.