Which faction progresses depends on the kind of mission you win:

• Patrons may belong to a faction and if you do a Patron Mission, it will benefit that faction
• Opportunity Missions can belong to a faction of your choosing (if it fits) or no faction
• If Rivals belong to a faction, when they win against you, the faction improves, if you beat them off the faction declines.
• Quest missions may also be faction related. Ideally a Quest should have one faction benefit and another damaged by the quest.

For each faction in the RPG “Never Tell Me The Odds” there are also suggested characters you may meet, missions you may do and locations you may go related to a faction, so all that can colour the narrative of your battle.

Welcome to the fast lane. Good Society is made up of the rich and influential, with all their lace and satin and fine jewels. Members of Good Society drift through scintillating nebulas in their superyachts, hosting parties with delicacies from some far quadrant of the galaxy. In Good Society, appearance is everything. If you’re going to stab someone in the back, use a jeweled dagger inlaid with Antarrikan pearl — and make sure you look good doing it.

To the conqueror goes the honor and glory! Hypervikings are star pirates who swoop in from nowhere to raid unsuspecting ships. Existing as a ragged culture at the edges of dangerous asteroid fields or unchartable regions of space, the Hypervikings have a strong code of honor. They live and die to the fullest, risking everything for a good raid. Some are born Hypervikings and a few seek out the pirate life, but most are forced to take on the raider’s mantle out of total desperation. Consequently, they often have nothing left to lose as they spiral their spiked, cannon-covered junk ships toward the nearest trade convoy.

Some say a secret energy surrounds us and penetrates us, binding the galaxy together. TheOrder of the Stars is a secretive religious faction that safeguards this ancient knowledge and, some say, actual magic. This lore is guarded zealously, and to cross a member of the order is to find yourself on the receiving end of dire consequences. Various sects compete within the Order of the Stars, each convinced that their interpretation of the ancient teachings is the only correct one, and that the other sects are evil and must be opposed at all costs.

When a building inexplicably explodes and nobody claims credit, people whisper that the Space-Nihilists must have been behind it. They believe in nothing, and nothing is more terrifying than that. Perpetrators of random acts of violence and chaos, Space-Nihilists oppose order and structure in all forms. The galaxy can be a cruel and unpredictable place, and those who seek out the tenets of Space-Nihilism embrace that unpredictability, finding a certain liberation in it.

There’s nothing more terrifying than an efficient subcommittee. The Galactic Congress are politicians … in space! They simply ooze charm. (Depending on their race and homeworld, they may also ooze ooze.) They lie, they cheat, and they jump from system to system in an effort to collect votes and sway the populace in favor of their pet projects and complex machinations. Some say they’re ineffectual bureaucrats more interested in scoring political points than getting anything done for their constituents. In response, the Galactic Congress would like to say: “Just wait until the next sub-relocal-anti-pre- strawvote-primaryquarterterm ballot results come in, and then we’ll see who’s laughing!”

Every star is subject to the will of the mighty. The Iron Imperium is a militant empire that subjugates every system within their reach, laying claim to huge swaths of space. They build garrisons full of shock troopers and raise blockades to “inspect” every civilian ship passing through, no matter how innocuous the cargo. Some might call them evil; they insist that they bring civilization and peace through superior firepower, erecting schools to indoctrinate and fortresses to subjugate. Only the very foolish or very desperate would oppose such power. In the Iron Imperium, everything proceeds as the Grand Imperator wills it.

Money makes the stars glow bright. The Merchant League is a trade federation whose star-galleons can be found in every major shipping lane, their holds heavy with wealth from across the central systems. As a civilian organization, the Merchant League often has to turn to professionals to protect their convoys and guard their negotiations. After all, with this kind of money at stake, you’re going to need some big guns at the door.

Make sure you pay off the Slime Mob when you get the chance. The Slime Mob is a seedy criminal underground run by giant alien slugs. If you don’t follow their rules, they’re liable to put a price on your head so high that every bounty hunter in the galaxy will be looking for you. Listen, the Slime Mob can be great. They can offer the best jobs, fix matches for big winnings, and pay their favorite goons in moons and pleasure planets. But cross them, insult them, even look at them the wrong way, and you’re likely to find yourself at the bottom of a Grugnak pit, asking yourself why you didn’t go into interstellar medicine like your mother told you to.

Technological progress is its own reward. Sci-Tech Incorporated is a massive galactic corporation dedicated to the advancement of science. Although some might call their methods dangerous, illegal, immoral, or detrimental to the fabric of space and time, the researchers at Sci-Tech Incorporated understand that a calculated risk is an important part of building better worlds. Whether it’s harvesting exotic exobiology, digging in the ruins of alien temples, or splicing together genes and machines of all sorts, Sci-Tech Incorporated is out there pushing boundaries for the good of all (except the ones who are dead).

Sometimes it’s better just to run. The Sprawn are an alien horde of flesh-destroying monsters. Their paralyzing pincers, oozing tentacles, and hypnotic eyes are the stuff of nightmares. All fangs, slime, spines, and pseudopods, the Sprawn are as strange and mutated as they are terrifying. Wherever the Sprawn appear in the galaxy, they either eradicate or are eradicated; there can be no middle ground.

All that is required for evil to triumph is for good humanoids to stand by and do nothing. The Alliance of Revolt is a union of heroic do-gooders working to overthrow oppressive regimes. Whether pushing back against corporate domination or authoritarian empires, the alliance is a network of passionate beings willing to risk everything to set people free.

Every secret has a price tag. Black$ail is a for-profit spy network that sells compromising information to the highest bidder. Sometimes called the privacy pirates, Black$ail specializes in finding out what people most want to hide and leveraging that desire into cold, hard credits. Although nobody is outside their crosshairs, it’s well known that the network loves to target the rich and powerful. They can afford the big bounties, and cracking their security systems is a much more rewarding challenge for the kinds of souls that Black$ail attracts.