New Organisations Extension - Request For Input

[dulux-oz]

Hi Guys,

I'm about to start work on my new Organisations Extension and I thought I'd ask the community what they'd like to see incorporated into it. The idea is that it'll hang off the NPCs Window in the same way that Encounters now does, and will incorporate information about, well, organisations.

I want to keep it at generic as possible (so as to have it usable by as many as possible) so it will be CoreRPG based, but if you'd like to see anything in particular then please post to this thread.

At the moment it'll have:

• Organisation's Name
• Size (could be as a number or as a "Size Category")
• Alignment (always risky, but we can hide this if the campaign isn't using Alignments)
• HQ
• Location (possibly tying back into my Locations Database Extension)
• Resources (again, may as a number, maybe as a Category)
• GM Notes
• Member NPCs Page
• Sub-Organisations Page
• Notes Page

So, if you'd like to contribute, let me know

Cheers

[OneSidedDie]

Instead of alignment you could call it purpose or goals if you want to keep it generic. ("World domination", etc.)

I would use something like this frequently. I run a few sandbox style games and each has a dozen or more groups that I normally keep in several pages of notes. I think this would help keep it together nicely. If you are going to integrate it into the locations module make it work in the other direction too. If I open a location it would be nice to see a short list of each organizations members at that location.

What about belonging to multiple groups? Citizen of city, solder of the city guard, part time enforcer for thieves guild.

[dulux-oz]

Instead of alignment you could call it purpose or goals if you want to keep it generic. ("World domination", etc.)

Nice Idea - I'll use that one

I would use something like this frequently. I run a few sandbox style games and each has a dozen or more groups that I normally keep in several pages of notes. I think this would help keep it together nicely. If you are going to integrate it into the locations module make it work in the other direction too. If I open a location it would be nice to see a short list of each organizations members at that location.

Already available (in Locations v3) - when you load up both Extensions the NPCs Page of a Location will have a list of Organisations for that Location.

What about belonging to multiple groups? Citizen of city, solder of the city guard, part time enforcer for thieves guild.

Again, already taken care of - the Organisation's NPC Page will simply be a copies list, similar to the Location's NPC Page now (in fact, I'll probably use the same code )

Cheers

[sukEEt]

i would love to give some type of clever input, but it seems, that you guys have it all taken care of ... great ideas everyone.

[Bidmaron]

I don't like losing the Alignment. Purpose/Goals should definitely be there, but we still need alignment (it is possible for a LG organization to have a goal to take over the world, after all). If you must make it generic, call it ethics/morals.

Governance would be another field (e.g. hierarchical, cells, etc).

[Blacky]

I think one of the most useful tool, but probably also the hardest to do, would be a chart.

As a GM, if you handle several organizations and need quick and formated access to them, having a window with your NPCs (like portrait&name, being a link to said NPC sheet) and visuals links (like arrows) between them. That way you immediately know who's who, who has what relation (usually of obedience but could be anything) with who, and so on.

[shemantis]

I would like it if it had a "ranks" section. Maybe the lowest rank for one organization is "initiate," whereas the another organization has the lowest rank called "newbie." or what-have-you. My PCs join factions (D&D 5e), and I'd like to keep track of what rank each PC is in, and what that rank is called. Even if it was just a text list, that'd make me happy. =o )

[brochr]

hi Matt

Excited to see you are looking at it :^) So there is public feedback, here was my thinking as noted a while ago...

All the best

Toph

_________________________________________

My basic structure was that organizations have a many to many relationship (ick). An organization can have many members (affiliates) and a member can be affiliated with many organizations.

As I see it, the attributes of the organization are:

- Type [varies by game system]
- Scale [overall size of membership]
- Reach [geographic presence]
- Governance [method of organization]
- Alignment [notably a D&D concept]
- Benefits [promised benefits available]
- Costs [expected costs available]
- Treasury [mostly a D&D thing]

The nature of affiliation is:

- Relationship type [member, enemy]
- Influence level of affiliate [how much sway they have]
- Influence on affiliate [how much it influences their action]
- Benefits available [specific benefit]
- Costs incurred [specific cost]

Organizations also have a relationship with locations:

- Presence type [owner, visitor etc]
- Local scale [how big]
- Local treasury [how much it influences their action]
- Local benefits available [specific benefit]
- Local costs incurred [specific cost]

In my 2.8 version did this my having a Organizations sheet with tabs for general info, locations (droplinked), stories (droplinked) and NPCs (droplinked, with field for relationship type)

On the Locations sheet I added an "Organizations" tab a droplink for the specific org plus a field for the relationship type. I think I also had one for items, but not linking them to the orgn in any way.

[shemantis]

Is the 2.8 version available for download anywhere? This extension would be *so* useful to my current campaign.

[dulux-oz]

Is the 2.8 version available for download anywhere? This extension would be *so* useful to my current campaign.

I don't know - I certainly didn't write one (in fact, I'm still writing this one for 3.x). Brochr may still have his, but if my memory serves me correctly from his and my discussions it wasn't made available to the general public but was used solely by him - and anyway, I doubt a v2.8 Extension would work with the v3.x Ruleset as things changed quite a bit when FG went to v3 - but I could be wrong, because some v2.x stuff works OK with v3.x.

But this is the main reason I'm doing this Extension now - plus to ensure it works with my Locations and Weather Extensions

Cheers