When trying to enact a scheme, decide the end goal and the general means, and tell the MC. Assuming that the end goal could conceivably be met by the general means proposed, the MC will tell you "Yes, but ..." and 1 to 4 of the following:
enacting the scheme will take an inconveniently long time;
before enacting the scheme, you must acquire ______________;
before enacting the scheme, you must master a new skill or power;
you will need ___________'s help;
enacting the scheme will cost you significantly;
there will be undesirable consequences to enacting the scheme;
the end goal itself will have unsatisfactory elements;
enacting the scheme will expose you and your fellow schemers to serious danger;
success will require many attempts;
you will have to wait a session or 2 for the result of the scheme to come to fruition;
you must take ___________ apart or use it up to enact the scheme.
The MC may connect all of the caveats with 'and', or, mercifully, include an 'or'.
One scheme, successfully enacted, can:
create or obtain an object of desire;
find a location or shadow of desire;
make you a power behind an existing faction;
create a new threat, alone or as part of a faction;
add someone or something to a faction as a threat;
add someone or something to your faction as a threat regardless of its consent;
remove a threat from your faction without its consent;
add advantageous features to an object or location;
regain something lost yet at least potentially still yours;
put a proposition that could well be true to the test;
discover a new way to destroy something;
relocate to an adjacent region of shadow;
accomplish some other feat on a par with any of these.
A faction is yours if you are a power behind it.
The MC will create threats, individually and as parts of factions.
To create a faction, choose an ambition to be at its heart and detail what the specific object of this ambition is. Then, populate this faction with threats. At least one such threat should probably be a person or a person-like threat whose associated ambition matches that of the faction itself. If the faction contains no such person, be mindful of why not. Also, determine which of the threats are powers behind the faction. Then, looking at the faction's ambition, object and threats, determine countdowns and custom moves as needful. In play, the faction can change, with new threats, new powers behind the faction, new custom moves, even new countdowns.
Player characters can create and join factions, usually by expending Respect. Each member of a faction must identify as a specific type of threat within that faction, even if innocuous, even if a PC. The MC can then create countdowns and custom moves for the faction, as appropriate.