Reputation

Table of Contents

Reputation
What follows is an attempt to codify a character's relationships to various organizations. It is based on the World of Warcraft reputation system, as that's one less thing for me to keep in my head. It's been modified slightly in order to keep the numbers involved a bit more manageable.

This Reputation system can be used to track a person's reputation with an individual, an organization, a city, or a state. In the basic rules, each reputation is tracked separately; in the advanced rules, a character's reputation with a larger governing body might influence his reputation with smaller bodies, and vice versa. Thus, a character who becomes the exalted hero of a city might find himself friendly with the king, while a character who proves himself the exalted hero of the king might well find that status enjoyed throughout the kingdom.

The advanced rules build on the basic rules; thus, the basic rules are presented first.

Basic Reputation
Each individual reputation is measured on a scale, from -100 to 100. Earning reputation is generally accomplished through doing good deeds for a particular organization; losing reputation happens through acting against the interests of that organization.

Reputation is divided into eight categories, each corresponding to a numeric range, as follows:

By default, a character's reputation with a given party begins equal to his Charisma modifier. A character's reputation with a given individual depends on the result of the NPC's initial attitude: every attitude corresponds to the lowest value on the chart, with the exceptions of Helpful and Zealot, which have no corresponding value. An initial attitude of Helpful results in a Reputation of 45, and an initial attitude of Zealot results in a Reputation of 90.

It is not worthwhile to track Reputation for every NPC that the players encounter, nor is it necessary to track it for every inn, tavern and small town the players journey to. Reputation is intended to track the characters' arc over a period of time; thus, only important NPCs and organizations, and frequently-visited locales, are worth tracking.

Effects of Reputation
Each category of reputation comes with its own effects. In addition, there may be other benefits or consequences specific to a given nation or organization; consult your Narrator for details.

Gaining Reputation
As noted above, in general, gaining reputation is a matter of performing services for the individual, organization, or political body that you are attempting to improve your reputation with. For an individual, this can be as simple as taking that individual out on the town or doing minor chores, or as major as tracking down stolen property or saving his life from an assassin. For an organization, a much wider range of possibilities exists, though gaining reputation will always involve advancing the mission of that organization in some way.

It is worth noting that, the higher you climb in an individual's or organization's opinion, the more they will expect and demand from you. Gaining reputation generally becomes harder the better-liked you are by a group.

Reputation, in general, is awarded in the same way as experience. That is, reputation increases will take place at the end of sessions.

Losing Reputation
Acting against a person or an organization, whether deliberately or accidentally, will almost always result in reputation loss -- provided that person or organization is aware of what took place. It is certainly possible (and even commonplace, though unethical) to maintain a stellar reputation with a given organization whilst simultaneously undermining that organization.

Reputation losses are awarded in the same fashion as gains.

Reputation does decay over time, but only to a point. Once a significant amount of time has passed since your last contact with a given entity (a year, at least, and even longer at the Narrator's discretion), your reputation resets to the lowest value for your current bracket. Your overall record will be remembered and attitudes will be preserved, but the personal touch fades over time. Thus, if you are partway into Honored with a certain group, and you journey abroad for five years, upon returning, you'll still be Honored with that group, but you'll have lost any "extra" reputation you'd built up.

Reputation Checks
To make a reputation check, first apply any situational modifiers to your Reputation score (as determined by the Narrator). Then roll a d100. If the die roll result is greater than your modified Reputation score, you fail the check. If the die roll is less than or equal to your modified Reputation score, you succeed at the check.

Note that, given a high enough modifier, it is possible to succeed a Reputation check even with a hated faction.