Faction Renown Rules

People aren’t born into factions. An individual can choose to belong to any faction — or no faction. Some factions actively recruit new members, while others simply accept those who seek membership. Even though people can choose their faction associations, long-standing traditions steer certain individuals toward a particular faction. People within a family might join different factions, which can lead to strong connections between the factions in question or to painful animosity in families whose members follow different paths.

Backgrounds

You establish your character’s membership in a faction by choosing that faction’s background from among those detailed in the faction articles. You may choose the backgrounds described in the faction article if you meet the requirements as described in the background. A second route to faction membership is by earning renown for that faction and then applying for a particular rank within that faction during down time. In order to achieve a rank, you must meet the preresiquites for that rank. Additionally, your character can only have the background for one faction. When you gain ranks by earning renown without the background, you gain only the benefits listed under the ranks not the benefits listed in the background.

Contacts

As a benefit of your faction membership, you have contacts both inside and outside the faction. Contacts are useful resources in the urban environment, where a friendly face can be more valuable than credits. Contacts are NPCs with close ties to one or more of the player characters. They don’t go on adventures, but they can provide information, rumors, supplies, or professional advice, either for free or at a cost depending on the relationship they have with the player.
As stated in the Player’s Handbook, bonds represent your connections to people, places, and events in the world. Contacts are people you have a connection to, but they’re not the same as bonds. People can be bonds if they inspire you, motivate you, or make you act against your best interests. They can represent flaws if their existence amounts to a weakness for you. Contacts, in comparison, are simply people you know. They might be friends, rivals, or even family members, but their relationship with you is rnot as strong as with a bond or flaw.
Although the tables of contacts in the faction articles describe nonplayer characters who are members of factions (your own and others), you are likely to acquire factionless contacts as well. When you gain a contact from your faction, you will need to establish who that contact is with the GM.  You may use the tables within the faction articles to establish the basics of your contact or you can fashion one of your own but it must be either within the faction or outside the faction as indicated by the faction reward. All contacts will have the features as listed in the Detailed NPCssection of the Dungeon Master's Guide for D&D 5e. You may use the tables provided within this rule set to create your contact or you may write these details on your own. All NPC details will be determined with GM collaboration and must be approved by the GM before the NPC is put into use.

Starting Contacts

If you choose a faction background, your character starts the game with three contacts: an ally in their faction, a rival in their faction, and an ally or rival in another faction. Tables in each faction article help you determine who these contacts are — facts that you can build on by working with your GM to add some details as laid out in the Detailed NPCs section of the Dungeon Master's Guide. The table entries for contacts are written in the first person, where “I” is your character. It is also possible to have another player as a starting contact if they meet the criteria and are in agreement with establishing this history with your character.

Renown

Renown is used to track an adventurer’s standing within a particular faction. Renown is a numerical value that starts at 0, then increases as a character earns favor and reputation within a particular organization maxing out at 50. Loosing renown can result in a score as low as -50 (indicating that you've become an enemy of that faction). A player tracks renown separately for each organization their character is a member of. For example, an adventurer might have 5 renown within one faction and 20 renown within another, based on the character’s interaction with each organization over the course of the campaign.

Gaining Renown

A character earns renown by completing missions or quests that serve an organization’s interests or involve the organization directly. Renown is awarded as characters complete these missions or quests, at the same time they are awarded experience points. Advancing an organization’s interests increases a character’s renown within that organization by 1. Completing a mission specifically assigned by that organization, or which directly benefits the organization, increases the character’s renown by 2 instead. Your status in a faction is measured by your renown score. As you increase that score, you gain the opportunity to advance in the ranks of the faction.
The various ranks within the factions describe the range of tasks you might perform, from testing experimental weaponry to leading a squad of soldiers into battle. When you’re assigned a mission that involves an adventure — leaving behind your faction holdings and putting yourself in danger — and you complete that mission, your renown score with that guild increases by 2 or 3.
You can be a member of more then one faction and have ranks within those factions. The faction articles will cover each faction's diplomacy standing with other factions. Additionally, each faction will be based out of a particular settlement that will also have a diplomacy standing with other settlements. When earning renown with a faction within a settlement; the diplomacy standing of that settlement will effect the renown you have with the factions from other settlements. This means that the actions you take with in the world will have a direct impact on the relationships that you form with the various settlements within the setting.

Benefits of Renown

As you gain renown in a faction, you gain certain benefits. Most benefits are faction-specific, but there are general benefits that apply no matter which faction you belong to:

Renown 3 or Higher.

When you have a renown score of at least 3 with a faction, you are an established and respected member of the faction. Other members of the faction have a friendly attitude toward you by default. (Individual members of the faction might have reasons to dislike you despite your renown.) They provide you with lodging and food in dire circumstances and pay for your funeral if needed. If you are accused of a crime, your faction offers legal support, as long as a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime was justifiable.

Renown 5 or Higher.

When your renown score with any faction reaches 5, you gain an additional contact within the faction (in addition to any faction specific contacts gained). This contact might be a character you met during your adventures or someone who seeks you out because of your fame. See the Contacts section of this article for how to generate this contact. 

Benefits of Renown

Some factions have well-defined hierarchies that characters can ascend through as ranks as they improve their renown scores. Other factions have positions of honor (special ranks) that characters can apply for if their renown score is high enough. Ultimately, the GM decides whether a character qualifies for each role, with a certain renown score as a minimum requirement.
Several factions provide a salary among the benefits of renown within the faction. The salary is described as sufficient to maintain a lifestyle of a certain level. If you earn a salary, you can live at the specified lifestyle without paying the normal daily expenditure. See chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook for more information on lifestyle expenses.
A prominent position in a faction often allows you to call on the services of lower-ranking members to assist you in your work. When you do, they are assumed to be loyal followers who help you to the best of their ability. Some of them are assigned to help you for the duration of a single task or mission, while others are under your permanent command, staffing a facility where you are in charge. Depending on their role, they might help you in dangerous situations (like combat) or flee from them. You might assign them to perform tasks in your absence, which could include undertaking research, looking for witnesses to a crime, or carrying out a small-scale raid, for example, depending on their role and capabilities. You carry the responsibility for their lives and welfare, ultimately, and if the faction decides that you are abusing your authority and mistreating the members beneath you, you might lose renown, lose your rank or status in the faction, or even be cast out of the faction. 

Downtime Activities.

Characters can spend downtime between adventures building relationships and gaining renown within an organization. Any downtime activity might be considered a faction related activity depending on the goals of the faction. When selecting a downtime, you can declare that you are also attempting to gain renown with a faction for that activity. The DM will determine if the downtime is appropriate for earning renown for that faction and if it is determined that it is, you can be awarded renown for that activity's completion. When carousing, you can declare that you are carousing with members of a specific faction which will earn you contacts from that specific faction rather then general contacts from the camp you are in.
In order for these downtime activities to count towards renown for a specific faction, it must be possible for the members of that faction to become aware of your activities. This often means that you need to be spending the downtime within the settlement that the faction is associated with.
Downtime activities include: Crafting items for the use of the faction, Practicing a Profession or Working for the benefit of the faction, Researching matters that are relevant to the faction's interests, Training that is relevant to your duties within the faction or Carosing with prominent people in the faction. Depending on the faction, you might also be able to engage in Criminal activities, Gambling, Pit Fighting, or Religious Services. You can use the time between adventures to improve your renown within your faction by performing these tasks. After doing so for a total number of days equal to your current renown score multiplied by 10, your renown score increases by 1.

Losing Renown

Disagreements with members of an organization aren’t enough to cause a loss of renown within that organization. However, serious offenses committed against the organization or its members can result in a loss of renown and rank within the organization. The extent of the loss depends on the infraction. A character’s renown within an organization can never drop below -50. Having a negative value means that you are perceived as being an enemy of that faction. Upon reaching -50 renown, you have become infamous with that faction and those within that faction are likely to attempt to kill or detain you. If your renown score drops below the threshold for a rank or privilege you have attained, you lose that benefit unless it states otherwise. Even if you regain the lost renown, you might find it more difficult to again secure a position or rank you have previously lost. 
Factions have enemy and ally factions. Gaining renown with a faction will cause you to loose an equal amount of renown with any faction that is considered an enemy of that faction. Each settlement also has a diplomacy status with every other settlement. The status of a settlement will effect your renown with the factions of other settlements. Meaning that gaining renown in a faction of any settlement will result in you loosing an equal amount of renown with enemy settlement factions. 

Styles of Membership

You are considered to have membership within a faction when you have achieved a rank within that faction. It is possible to have a high renown with a faction, but not have taken the steps with that faction to have a membership with them. As you’re playing a character associated with one or more of the factions, think about your character’s relationship with the faction. Are they simply know to the faction or have they attained membership within the faction? Members can be grouped into four categories, depending on their motivations and priorities: loyalists, opportunists, rebels, and anomalies. Which one of these descriptions best fits your character? It can be different for different factions. 

Loyalist

Loyalists join a faction because they firmly believe in the faction’s ideals and want to advance its goals. Their membership in the faction is a badge of identity for them. They’re typically of the races and classes most strongly associated with the faction, and their personality traits and ideals fall in line with the suggestions given in the faction description.

Opportunists

Opportunists join a faction based on what they can gain from becoming members. Every faction offers its members something — whether concrete benefits such as opportunities for wealth or more subtle, intangible rewards such as social status — and getting that something is the primary motivation for this type of character. Opportunists often pay lip service to the ideals and goals of the faction, looking out for themselves first and the faction second (at best).

Rebels

Rebels love the factions they’re in but don’t conform to faction expectations. They might be good-hearted idealists trying to bend a shady faction toward nobler pursuits, or they might be selfish egotists hoping to direct the faction’s actions toward promoting their own interests. Most rebels are typical members of the faction in terms of race and class, but they vary from type when it comes to personalities and ideals.

Anomalies

Anomalies are individuals who join factions contrary to all expectations. Their race or class (or both) is outside the norm for the faction, but their personalities and ideals fall perfectly in line; that’s why they joined.

Membership and Independence

Some adventurers do exactly what they’re told, spending their careers doing the bidding of their faction superiors. Most adventuring characters, though, prefer more independence. You can roll a d6 or choose from the options in the table below to establish a reason for the freedom enjoyed by your character.