Organizations

Like-minded individuals tend to congregate to work together, share ideas, or just enjoy each other’s company. While small gatherings of individuals happen all the time throughout many worlds, sometimes these groups reach numbers in the dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, becoming full-fledged organizations with internal structures that exert notable influences on the world around them. An organization provides several benefits to its members, its allies, and anyone else within its sphere of influence. These can range from simple camaraderie to physical resources to influence in the form of contacts and social and political clout.

While the reason an individual may choose to join an organization can vary, most would-be members of an organization have something to gain by joining up with others for a similar cause.

This page presents rules for organizations. Each organization entry should include information on the organization itself as well as the organization’s values and its role. The entry also provides the rankings, titles, and structure used within the organization, including how a member moves up through its ranks. Following the organization’s structure are a number of rules options available to members of the organization, ranging from access to new feats and magic items to new spells and archetypes. Most of these options are uncommon, making them unavailable to most PCs, but every organization entry details how its members can gain access to the listed options.

Finally, each organization has a stat block presenting information about the organization at a glance. GMs are encouraged to use the stat block and the entries as examples when detailing organizations in their own games.

A number of sidebars in each organization’s entry provide additional information. These include a brief look at an organization’s key members, a few of the organization’s notable relationships with other groups, and some adventure hooks.

Organization Stat Block

Much like a creature, an organization has a list of traits indicating its properties at a glance. These include an alignment abbreviation and a size. An organization’s size is a measure of the approximate number of members in the organization.

An organization’s stat block is arranged as follows.

Organization Name

Alignment The alignment listed here is the organization’s primary alignment, though most organizations often allow members of other alignments (listed in the Accepted Alignments entry).

Size Size categories include Small (100 or fewer members), Medium (100–1,000 members), Large (1,000–5,000 members), Huge (5,000–10,000 members), and Gargantuan (10,000 or more members).

After alignment and size, an organization often has a trait indicating what sort of organization it is, such as academic, militaristic, revolutionary, and so on.

Title or Organization Synopsis This is a simple statement that provides an overview of the organization.

Scope and Influence This entry conveys the degree of influence the organization has, both in terms of the size of its footprint in the region and how powerful its influence is in that area. An organization’s scope can range from local (such as just one city), to a territory (such as a mountain range), to national, to regional, to global. An organization’s influence is rated on a simple scale. A weak organization can provide only simple assistance, while a moderate organization holds an established place in the power structure of its local area and has some connections and contacts with other local organizations. A strong organization may be at the top of the power structure for its area of concern, or it may be one of several organizations that hold power on a regional or national scale. A preeminent organization is the undisputed head of the power structure in its area of concern—the ruling body of a nation is an example of a preeminent organization, as is a merchants’ guild that effectively controls trade in a large region.

An organization might have various levels of influence with different scopes.

Goals These are the general goals of the organization. These goals might be public or private, and it is very possible that an organization might have private goals that conflict with its public agenda.

Headquarters This is the organization’s central base of operations, if any. It’s also possible to have a decentralized organization that oversees its operations from many different locations.

Key Members These are the names of a few key members of the organization, several of which are detailed in the organization’s entry.

Allies These are some of the organization’s common allies. Allies can include specific groups like merchants or musicians, other organizations, religions, or specific important individuals.

Enemies These are some of the most common enemies of the organization, taking the same forms of groups and individuals listed in the Allies entry. This entry is not limited solely to those opposed to the organization’s goals or values, and groups that share a friendly rivalry might also be listed here.

Assets This entry lists the different benefits the organization can provide a character. These include armaments, contacts, financing, influence, magic items, training, and transportation.

Membership Requirements The broad prerequisites for joining a group are listed here. Requirements can include open membership, an invitation, donations or fees, or specific tasks or trials. These requirements are further detailed in the organization’s description.

Accepted Alignments An organization’s alignment indicates the alignment that most closely represents its policies and actions. The plurality of the organization’s members and leaders have this alignment. The other alignments listed here work much like a deity’s allowed alignments and include the other alignments common within the organization. Alignments other than these are highly unlikely among the organization’s members, as the conflict of alignment, goals, and values motivates the organization to abstain from recruiting such people or encourages members of such alignments to leave.

Values This entry lists characteristics the organization appreciates in its members, such as creativity, combat prowess, dependability, generosity, loyalty, skill at performing particular tasks, or social station. These are akin to the edicts in a deity entry.

Anathema These are acts against the organization’s beliefs. Performing them can lead to a member being dismissed from the organization or subject to various other forms of punishment.

Organization Access This section provides a number of options that are available to members of specific organizations. These include archetypes, equipment, feats, magic items, and spells. As a result, almost all rules options in this section are uncommon. Members of a specific organization automatically have access to their organization’s uncommon options, though there may be further specific requirements to gain access to particular options. In cases where it applies, rare options are still labeled as such, and they are rare even among members of the corresponding organization. Each organization specifies typical ways for members of an organization to gain access to rare options. GMs are encouraged to use these or create other methods suitable for their games.

Sample Organizations

The following are a few sample organizations (note that some of the names have been changed from the source material to respect intellectual property rights.)

The Consortium

Rivals of the Adventurer’s Guild, this group of international merchants seeks out influence and resources in every corner of the world. While Consortium agents claim their success is due to cunning business savvy and a willingness to take risks, most of their profits come from their willingness to use cutthroat methods and bend local laws to get what they want.

Crimson Assassins

These assassins for hire are among the best killers in the world, as they consider the very act of murder to be holy. The group maintains a strict code according to their deity’s edicts, and they will not take a contract if it violates this code.

Cult of the Dead

This group is dedicated to spreading the knowledge and curse of undeath throughout the world, seeking a society free from the messy emotions of the living.

Eagle Knights

The Eagle Knights are protectors and defenders of liberty.

Elemental Houses of Perfection

Elemental Houses of Perfection are respected martial arts schools that teach techniques to hone students’ physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities, pushing the boundaries of the impossible. Each monastery focuses its instruction on methods related to a specific element: air, earth, fire, and water.

Freedom Network

A large and well-established secret society, the Freedom Network focuses on liberating slaves.

Lion Blades

This secretive group of infiltrators, scouts, and warriors work unseen to maintain order in their home nation, vanishing into the faces of the crowd when their missions are complete, leading most to deny the group’s existence.

Swordlords

These masters of the dueling sword are an exclusive group open only to those dedicated to mastering the unique dueling blade. Every Swordlord has sworn an oath to teach the secrets of their techniques to only to those who vow to uphold the precepts of the organization.