Small Factions for Sunk Cost
Homebrew factions for the early release of Sunk Cost a game by Magnolia Keep.
A few of us bloggers are participating in a holiday extravaganza called Covert Critic—a Secret Santa in the same vein as my holiday gift guide. My Secret Santa recipient is Liz from Magnolia Keep. She's got a fresh blog and an early release of her fantasy submarine game Sunk Cost. Rather than review it, I decided to play around in her game's world and create some factions for it!
What is Sunk Cost?
Originally a hack of Scum and Villainy (but very different mechanically), Sunk Cost is a game of submarine-piloting freebooters who plunder a flooded world called Cardinal Basin. It's got elves, dwarves, and humans. Which is totally normal. But it's also got orca sorcerers and sharks that suck in pollution through their gills. That's just cool.
The homebrew factions.
One thing Cardinal Basin is missing are small-time players. The groups that hire your characters, lay on the pressure, and otherwise cause trouble. Right now, the game has big underwater cities like Glory, Liberty, Vigilance, and Hope. There's also an exiled faction of Manta Ray people who like to oppress "Drylanders" and a roving hoard of undead pirates with an undead queen.
Simply put: they're all epic-level, colossal, Fantasy Empires. Hard to conceptualize in the micro. Even harder to convince your players to poke them with a stick. So, here are some small factions to splash in the pool before escalating.
The Blue Lights
Lantern suppliers. They're a lifeblood and employer for freebooters. Their stinking lamps flood submarines in an azure light without burning oxygen. They want trophies from the undead. Whatever happens next is anyone's guess. If you press your ear to the lamps, you can hear whispers as if under the waves.
- Wants: Bounties. They want heads that still have some bite in them.
- Jobs: Sometimes they want bigger undead or specific undead.
- Problems: The Reavers (undead pirates) track Blue Light collaborators.
Dram Druids
Not all druids adopted the sea. When the floods came, the Dram hid corners of the old world from it. Dram druids collect fresh water and feed their salt-sensitive groves. The things they venerate are the most precious resources in Cardinal Basin. Trees. You won't find them except through messengers. Usually sea birds.
- Wants: Lost groves and seeds in exchange for wood, fruit, and medicine.
- Jobs: The old world lingers in the basement of the world. Its roots run deep.
- Problems: Every faction wants to consume or control what the druids have.
The Lampreys
Blood-sucking vampire thralls at the helm of cold, sweaty submarines. Their vampire lord sits somewhere in Glory's high seat. His jittery minions go wherever he tells them—usually to dredge some drowned memory of his. The Lampreys are naturally resilient to the deep's suffocating darkness.
- Wants: Freebooters for raiding the brighter waters of Cardinal Basin.
- Jobs: Infiltrate places of light to extract artifacts that belongs to their lord.
- Trouble: The Church of the Invisible Sun will eradicate The Lampreys eventually.
Barnacles
Everyone calls them Barnacles. They're the lowest of the low. Their submarines are half-flooded, dented, and more missile than vessel. They've been trying to name themselves for years but nothing has stuck—except their reputation. When you need cheap swabbies, Barnacles come free.
- Wants: Likeminded wretches that can help them do jobs way past their pay grade.
- Jobs: "Pssst! Hey! Buddy. What do you say we make some quick coin? C'mon!"
- Trouble: Bad plans and stupid intel are the least of your worries if you succeed.
The Whale Fall
Glory's Navy doesn't suffer any in-fighting, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its rejects. "The Whale Fall" are the veterans, cast-offs, and discharged soldiers who've turned to freebooting. They resurrect decommissioned subs and wage small wars on the outskirts of Deadwater Range and Mother's Embrace.
- Wants: Intel. You bring them targets and they'll boil the sea around them.
- Jobs: Draw the attention of wealthy lords with good old fashioned plundering.
- Trouble: Share their enemies and you might as well be part of their army.
Scuttle Rats
No one knows how to tool a submarine like Scuttle Rats. In the old world, their order fixed pots and pans to the amusement of powerful guilds. Now, they have a chapter in every city and port—a loose cooperative of part collectors and tinkerers.
- Wants: Parts and schemata from abandoned ships and ruins. They'll share.
- Jobs: There's always a new bulkhead, engine, or ballast to lug back to port.
- Trouble: Many would like to close Scuttle shops. The Bliss Kings especially.
Guild of Porters
In the city of Glory, even the gangs love paperwork. The Porters monitor the flow of loot that comes in and out of Glory. They demand a cut of everything. Refusal only angers the bigger gangs that employ them.
- Wants: Their cut... Unless you're willing to do something for their employers?
- Jobs: Smuggle something from one city's porters to the next. Don't get caught.
- Trouble: If you're working for the porters, odds are their cargo is bad news.
Stokers
A massive gang of coal miners and coral hewers. They're up-and-coming. They have something every non-magical submarine needs and they know it. Their members cover their brows in soot. Their arms look like they can peel hulls like tin foil.
- Wants: Protection. Stokers need escorts, guards, and occasional rescue teams.
- Jobs: Protect a strike. Escort a Stoker crew. Break out one of their own.
- Trouble: Beneath the surface, the Orcas of Liberty wage a war of sabotage.
The Red School
A cartel of Liberty merchants who trade in contraband. They hide among the other merchants for protection. Their machinations fuel most of the petty squabbles and power struggles within the city. Their symbol is a red herring.
- Wants: Products to hawk inside Liberty and Glory. Stuff Freebooters can get.
- Jobs: Plunder ruins. Extract artifacts. Perform a hand-off in a nearby hangar.
- Trouble: The School is always supplying one faction and screwing another.
Depthwrights
Submarines are not lifeless. Many contain a soul of some kind—one molded and grown by Depthwrights. They are a secretive order who know the miracle of Leviathan-craft. If they hire a Freebooter it's because they can't trust anyone else.
- Wants: Ancient knowledge from ruins deep beneath the waves above.
- Jobs: Retrieve an unassuming artifact or schlep something secret away.
- Trouble: The Beloved Rays, Bliss Lords, Orcas, and Lords of Glory will do anything they can to pull something out from under the Depthwrights.
Final Thoughts
Sunk Cost is new. Most of its world is contained in just a few paragraphs. For example, I don't even know what the technology level is in the world. Based on the presence of submarines, corporations, and industrial economies—I assumed some kind of oil punk setting.
It's fun filling in puzzles with your own misshapen puzzle pieces. If you're interested in playtesting Sunk Cost, you can find it on Magnolia Keep's Itch page. The rules are familiar. Similar to most elf-based games. The setting is the best part. Who doesn't love submarines?
Other links:
Liz Brasell
Clayton Notestine
I used a lot of this approach for "extrapolating" factions from the setting.
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