The NPC character arc attributes (Attitude + Motivation) are working well, I think. Next stop, factions. At the moment all factions of a given type (MILIT, CORPO, CRIME, POLIC) are pretty much alike. Also, the events of the core story don't generally spill out into the rest of the campaign. I have an idea which could potentially fix both of these problems: give factions some character attributes of their own.
The best thing is, this would not require any major changes, just a little shuffling around of responsibilities. Currently the state of the enemy faction in the core story is determined by the +P descriptor. For instance, if the enemy faction is attacking the descriptor will be +Pun. Instead of being a property of the core story this descriptor could be a property of the faction itself. Shifting the responsibility like this allows several things which weren't really possible before.
First off, the faction's state could influence the plots and news events which are generated. Whatever the faction is doing would affect not just the core story but the entire world. Suppose the enemy faction had the +Pun attacking state- a special attacking news event (of greater severity than the current Skirmishing event) could be generated. Enemy weapons program? Experimental weapons start showing up to harass the PC.
Secondly, this should allow for greater flexibility in the core story. At the moment there's a problem if the enemy faction is switched midway through the campaign. Because the +P state is a property of the story rather than the faction, the new enemy will take up doing whatever the old enemy was doing. With this new system the new enemy would have its own state.
I think these state changes should only apply to the factions involved in the core story. That way, the events of the core story look more important, since they're literally changing the world. This change could also help differentiate the factions by giving them all different initial states. Since only the factions involved in the core story would change, this would give most of them dependable natures.
Each faction, or at least each faction that'll make a good enemy, should have a core story master plan. Factions which are not good enemies should have an easy out where a related faction will take over for them (MUGL Enterprises and the Bohemian Collective already have plots which do this). What is a master plan? It's a series of pre-scripted story states that the faction will go through if it's selected as the enemy faction. The faction will not necessarily follow the path exactly but it should at least influence several of the steps along the way.
For example, here's the master plan of the Red Mask Raiders: they start out by attacking cruisers and gathering raw materials. These materials are used for their weapons program, which eventually gets unveiled, along with their secret fleet and ultimate goal.
Here's a plan for the Aegis Space Force: Sow uncertainty in L5, to convince the Dominion that they're needed to keep the pirates at bay. Attempt to isolate the Alliance and the Rocket Stars. Move into the Dusty Ring in force, establishing a real Aegis presence in space.
And because Earth's allies can be your enemies, a plan for the L5 Alliance: Play Rishiri and the pirates off one another, weakening both. Attempt to isolate the Dominion within the Free Commerce States. When the Dominion strikes back, convince the Kosaka council that they're working for Luna and have them shut down. Alternatively, when the Blades launch a terror attack against Rishiri use this as evidence that their tactics aren't working and again petition the Kosaka council to shut them down. Later on Adrianna ascends to chief technocrat of all L5.
Using the new encounter/confrontation system, it should be easy + fast to add a series of 4 or 5 encounters for each faction laying out their master plan. The news events + non-core plots would then do the work of showing the effects of the plan.
What do you think?
