sure.
And after a while they will develop ideas that were never mentioned.. and you adopt to those. Making it quite possible that a determined member will max out fairly early..
After that consider some "epic bonuses".
Say a affiliation grants some diplomacy +4. At maxed out, this could begin increasing with +1/10 affiliation points.. do this for all bonuses.
Same with those giving various trooper aid, getting them to level up might be in order too... (at maybe 1/5.. giving a "chosen one" of the tribes access to 9th+ level hunters)
We're just finishing up The Bullywug Gambit and I'm not sure the players would even think of the various options provided to raise their scores.
Do you think I should have dropped hints during the module? Perhaps give hints for the first couple chapters until they get the hang of it?
My characters have really never shown any interest in the affiliations. The only one who seemed to really care was a sorcerer who was part of The Church of Whirling Fury, but he died. I have not really pushed the issue, will it have any outcome with the way the whole adventure ends? They will reach the Isle during our next gaming session.
Affiiations seem to have little direct influence on the adventures- Affilation powers are nice, and probably will help, but I doubt they're necessary.
Give them hints. I see no reason to let them know how to advance within thier affiliation groups. I think it would be something another member or even a sponsor might mention to them. If you don't let them know how to gain in thier affiliation, then that aspect of the game will become mute. Let them know how to gain in thier affiliation and players will do those things. Advancement within an affiliation is how you get players to actually utilize this aspect of the game. That's how you make affiliations a part of the game. Players won't think about there affiliation if they don't know what to do with them. That's how an affiliation will become "just" a detail written on the character sheet.
Our group currently has no affiliations active, mostly because it is a "new" thing that noone has dealt with before. Playing in the Realms, we have come up with an extremely diverse group. Our most likely character to go after affiliations would be our Shou Expatriate, but I can't say for certain which affiliation he might go for.
My own background doesn't support any major affiliation, so other than our relationship with Livinia we don't really have any ties to Sasserine's affiliations.
Perhaps you could have recruiters looking out for people who have affiliation scores over 5 through incidental happenings. Just because the players don't understand or want to deal with affiliations doesn't mean the affiliations would ignore potentially useful candidates.
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Yeah, it's just not something that ever really made sense in our party. Some campaigns will play up those afilliations more, and others won't. Ours is one that hasn't, and I don't think that's caused us any real problems or lessened our enjoyment of the AP.
As Jaatu said, our group is really diverse. We have a guy from Shou, a guy from Mulhorand, an elf from Sasserine (who may have a possible affiliation potential, but I'm not pushing it on him), 2 Aventi, a Water Genasi, a Human Swashbuckler who would maybe fit one, but is unlikely to pursue it, and Jaatu who, as he said, doesn't really fit the mold of any of them either.
I asked for affiliations from my players because I really like the concept. Many of the affiliations have standing orders (bring down a demon, donate a magic item, collect big monsters) etc and with a simple knowledge (maybe wisdom) check a PC can remember seeing a posting at the guildehall asking about "earn affiliation points by...." So I say 'yes' I am asking for my PC invovlement in this as well. They will give me an outline of the affiliations current leader (or at least a name) so I can say something like "Abbot Scarletclaw wants more outposts in the south seas," or "Grand MC ZelHorn has no thunder lizards mounted in his trophy room." In character a PC should have as much knowledge of their affiliation as they do their class (hey if we rest tonight, I can two-handed fight in the morning--hey sailors will want to know about this whirlpool). Hopefully it will create a little more buy in as well.
I told the players before the campaign started that affiliations would be available. They do not have to join them but their choices will affect their ability to buy/ sell/ trade equipment during the course of the campaign. I plan to use Lavinia (her nobility), affiliations, and prestige classes (another organization) to be the main way for characters to buy and sell their loot.
Hopefully that will be enough motivation to get the players involved.
We just started STAP on Sunday. I have one monk. She is already affiliated with the Scarlet Brotherhood. The Scarlet Brotherhood in Sasserine has decided to take worthy Petetioners to learn martial arts. At the begining I had the character kicked out of the Embassy and told to find 50gp to continue her training.
I have a psychic warrior who is interested in the Churhc of the whirling blades. I had asked all the players to find thier characters home on the map. He put his home across from the church. He trains behind his house wondering what goes on in that church.