THRACKForge Your
Own Faction
The six major factions are only the ones you’re most likely to have heard of. Nova Eden is full of smaller outfits, settlements and warbands with their own loyalties and grudges. The custom faction toolkit will eventually let you build one of your own and put it on the table.
The rules are still being developed and playtested, so for now this page is about the sort of factions I want the toolkit to support.
Beyond the Six Factions
The Iron Pact, Ashen Covenant, Splice, Null Protocol, Crimson Veil, and the Scavver Clades are among the best-known factions in Nova Eden. But they're far from the only ones.
Across the wasteland, smaller groups have carved out territories of their own. Some are settlements that have armed themselves against raiders. Others are mercenaries, religious offshoots, trading crews or simply groups of survivors who've managed to stick together.
Some might control little more than a water supply and a few buildings. Others could have enough fighters and equipment to challenge the larger factions, at least on their own territory.
The custom faction toolkit is being developed to let you create groups like these, with their own strengths, weaknesses and ways of fighting.
What could yours look like?
The custom faction rules are still in development, but there are plenty of possibilities beyond the six established factions. Here are a few ideas for the sort of warbands you could create.
The Deep Clans
Mining communities that sealed their tunnels during the Collapse and kept digging. Generations later, they've returned to the surface in battered mining rigs, carrying equipment originally built for work rather than war. A good excuse to get some sci-fi dwarfs on the table.
The Ledger
Descendants of a colonial bank's debt collectors who still enforce contracts signed before the Collapse. They travel with armed escorts and records of debts that nobody alive remembers taking out. As far as they're concerned, those debts are still owed.
The Storm Riders
Nomadic glider crews who follow the weather fronts across the plains. They raid settlements, scavenge what the storms leave behind, and move on before anyone can organise a response.
The Drove
Machine herders who round up feral automata and drive them across the plains. They make their living trading salvaged parts and selling machinery to settlements along their routes. Keeping the machines together is a job in itself.
The Shoal
Salvagers who work the flooded districts in patched pressure suits, recovering machinery and supplies from submerged buildings. They know the drowned streets better than anyone and aren't particularly welcoming to outsiders.
The Nursery
A generation raised in a sealed facility by caretaker machines, with little contact with the outside world. Now grown, they've begun venturing into the wasteland. Their mechanical guardians still accompany them and remain fiercely protective of those in their care.
Not sure what kind of faction to create? Try the generator. You might come away with something worth building a warband around.
How custom factions will work
The custom faction system is still being developed, and the details may change during playtesting. The aim is to give players enough flexibility to create something different without making them calculate the cost of every stat, weapon and ability from scratch.
Want to know when it’s ready?
The custom faction toolkit is still in development. Join the Thrackdown mailing list and we'll let you know when it's available.
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