I found a faction SMP that is mostly scripted and it is built around server lore and planned story moments.
There are two main factions. One is Eternal Regime and they are the rich and powerful group. The other is Obdolbos and they stay hidden in caves with a small but strong team.
The story is about Elias who leads Eternal Regime and wants control over the whole server and everyone on it. They are looking for more people to join Eternal Regime. If you are good at pvp you can try for Obdolbos.
RegionsSMP is a soft anarchy survival server that is all about team based PvP and fighting over the world.
It runs as a seasonal SMP where you pick one of two teams and then the war starts. Over about a month players can claim regions across the map and try to take control from the other side.
The main twist is the Regions areas. Some regions are themed around special mechanics like lifesteal and strength so it feels like those old school popular SMP moments.
When your team claims a region it gets protected from the other team unless they own a region next to it. That makes a big push and pull where borders matter and the warzone keeps changing.
The owner says it is a passion project and each season is supposed to improve with changes and new stuff over time. It is war focused but they also want different play styles and they plan to carry custom builds into new wars as protected builds.