City Supplements - What do we like?

[Fenris-77]

So a related topic is things like Reputation mechanics and catch-all skills like Streetwise. I like the former and cordially detest the latter.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So a related topic is things like Reputation mechanics and catch-all skills like Streetwise. I like the former and cordially detest the latter.

I do like having a way to signify that some characters know their way around an environment, whether that's academia, the church hierarchy or the streets, but I think skill points are a pretty blunt tool for that. I think Shadowdark's backgrounds more than cover that (and maybe the Thief class, for street smarts).

I have been thinking about reputation mechanics recently. My first instinct would just be advantage/disadvantage to Charisma rolls, but that's probably not fine-grained enough to differentiate between a legendary figure in a community and someone who has just done a few quests for them.

 

[Fenris-77]

I do like having a way to signify that some characters know their way around an environment, whether that's academia, the church hierarchy or the streets, but I think skill points are a pretty blunt tool for that. I think Shadowdark's backgrounds more than cover that (and maybe the Thief class, for street smarts).

I have been thinking about reputation mechanics recently. My first instinct would just be advantage/disadvantage to Charisma rolls, but that's probably not fine-grained enough to differentiate between a legendary figure in a community and someone who has just done a few quests for them.

My current thought, which I'll actually be working on this evening once I'm done marking, is to begin with a two-level reputation tracker. Reputation can be gained (and lost) on a ward by ward basis. When you help the ward and its inhabitants you get rep, and when you hurt them you lose it (GM discretion). Probably a 1-5 track for the positive side. That Rep acts as a positive mod for social interactions with the inhabitants of that ward. Reputation is also fungible, you can burn a point of rep to get advantage, which would then stack with whatever remaining positive mod you have left. This lets the players play the Do you know who I am? card, which is always fun.

There is also city-wide reputation, which is gained by doing beneficial things for the city as a whole and also for the city-wide factions like the ruler (or lost). This also acts as a positive mod for social interaction but applies in every ward. It can also be burned for advantage for interactions with city-wide factions. A PC would apply either the ward rep of city rep, whichever is higher in a given situation.

The city watch is a city-wide faction, and active in every ward, and doesn't care about your ward rep at all.

The inspiration here is the faction rules from Blades, but shifted to focus on wards rather than specific factions. IDK if it will end up being what I want, but this is where I'm going to start.

I'm undecided about any kind of streetwise equivalent, but I'm leaning to no (for PCs anyway). I want them to actually learn that stuff. I do have some ideas about how to give NPCs levels of ward familiarity that would make them useful as hirelings.