Golan2072

Always start from interests - what the faction wants to achieve, and from its history - how the faction came into being and developed. Also take into account that most factions have sub-factions - and competing interests within their leadership (and beyond).

Most polities have a good side and a bad side. What is the bad side of the Commonwealth? What is good in the Collective? try thinking about that. Few polities in history were total pure evil, and even fewer were total pure good. And everybody has a skeleton in their closets - most "good guys" did pretty nasty stuff in their past (simple example - WWII Allies - the "Good Guys" in that war - but they were also the ONLY group to EVER drop nuclear weapons on population centers).

Also, try reading up history and anthropology - a lot of interesting ideas can be taken from there for systems of government, polities and factions.

I always have the problem that the factions in my universe .
Always drift in to one being good (the Commonwealth) and the other being evil (the Collective or the Cthuhi)
For some reason my universes drift in to that black and white territory .
Any advice how I can add some shades of gray ?
Thank you for your time and patience .

Did you ever think about making your space empires the good guys.
And the republicans and technocrats the bad guys.

Hi Omer,

Just to let you know, I've added your company (ISC), your magazine (Infinite Stars), and the first two issues with articles, to the database over on rpggeek.com. Now your work is searchable and you might get a few more readers. Thanks!

Hi Omer, what email address should I send the Starship Combat article to?

Paul E