Factions
In Enigma, factions play a crucial role in shaping the world, its conflicts, and the opportunities available to your party. Each faction has its own goals, resources, and ideological beliefs, and your relationship with them—measured through Faction Standing—determines whether they see you as an ally, a nuisance, or a sworn enemy.
Faction Standing
Your Faction Standing with any given faction ranges from -5 to +5, representing how they perceive your party:
+5 Champion: You are a vital ally, seen as a core part of the faction’s mission. They offer you powerful resources, secrets, and privileges.
+4 Favored: The faction trusts you deeply and prioritizes you over most outsiders. Your group gains special considerations and exclusive opportunities.
+3 Ally: The faction considers you a reliable partner. You can access faction-specific benefits and expect support when needed.
+2 Trusted: You’ve built a positive rapport. While not fully committed, the faction is willing to cooperate and trade favors.
+1 Recognized: The faction knows of you in a positive light, but you have yet to prove your full loyalty or commitment.
0 Neutral: You are unknown or unimportant to the faction. They have no reason to help or hinder you.
-1 Distrusted: Your actions have made the faction wary. They won’t cooperate without incentive and may monitor your activity.
-2 Unwelcome: The faction views you as a threat to their goals. You are barred from faction facilities and watched closely.
-3 Enemy: The faction actively works against you, denying resources and opposing your actions.
-4 Hated: The faction sees you as a severe problem. They send agents to disrupt your efforts or eliminate your influence.
-5 Anathema: You are an existential threat to the faction. They will use every available means—mercenaries, assassins, political sabotage—to destroy you.
At +1 to +5, factions provide perks that enhance gameplay, granting access to faction resources, upgrades, information, and allies. At -3 or worse, factions take active measures against your group, escalating from denial of services to direct hostility at -5.
Opposing Factions
Factions in Enigma often have conflicting interests. While it’s possible to maintain neutrality or even positive relationships with multiple factions, supporting one faction may lower your standing with its rivals. For example:
Gaining favor with Exaltaco will likely decrease standing with the Bloodforged and Reclaimers, who view Exaltaco as an oppressive force.
The Azure Syndicate and The Rusted both engage in black-market dealings, but their chaotic methods clash, making it difficult to remain in good standing with both.
Managing opposing faction standings is possible but difficult—you cannot go beyond +3 with two directly opposed factions without exceptional effort.
Starting Faction Standings
At character creation, each player selects two factions:
One faction at +3 (an ally or past affiliation)
One faction at -3 (a group that opposes them)
The party’s faction standing is calculated by combining all members’ individual standings.
For example:
Larry has the following Standings: Exaltaco +3, Bloodforged -3
Curly has the following Standings: +3 Exaltaco, -3 with the Purifiers.
Mo has the following Standings: -3 Exaltaco, +3 Bloodforged
The party’s standing with Exaltaco starts at +3, as two members have a +3 and one has a -3. Bloodforged remains neutral (0), as the +3 and -3 cancel out. Purifiers start at -3 since Curly has a personal -3 standing.
This system ensures player backgrounds shape faction dynamics while also allowing the group to influence their standings through gameplay.
Changing Faction Standing: Faction standing changes over time based on:
Decisions & Roleplay: Directly assisting or opposing a faction adjusts standing.
Story Events: Major faction-based storylines can shift standings drastically.
Bribes, Negotiations, & Subterfuge: Certain factions may allow limited standing manipulation.
However, actions have consequences—earning favor with one faction can lead to losing standing elsewhere, and fully repairing a -5 standing will take significant effort.
Access vs Ownership: Faction Standing indicates a character's level of trust, privilege, and reliability within supply lines. A character with high Standing has official access to powerful resources through sanctioned channels, requisitions, or trade networks. Maintaining good Standing with specific factions can bring benefits, such as access to more advanced arcanotech.
However, these powerful items are not exclusive to factions. If a character has low Standing but still desires relics, arcanotech, or significant favors, they can explore alternative methods, such as engaging in black-market dealings, espionage, theft, or seeking narrative favors. While these approaches are riskier and generally less reliable, they offer more flexibility for bold or desperate characters.
Do not restrict item access solely based on faction Standing. Instead, use it to influence how easily and safely players can obtain gear. Characters with low Standing may face higher costs, need to make challenging Influence checks, or risk encountering hostility when trying to acquire restricted technology.
Individual Faction Standing: You may choose not to average the Faction Standings of the party members. Instead, each player can track their standings independently. This approach allows the party to more easily access higher-tier Faction Standing perks. However, it's important to consider the narrative implications of having multiple party members with high standings in ideologically opposed factions.