D&D General d20 Reputation System (it's actually fun!)

[M.T. Black]

I adapted this system from a Luke Gearing idea and have been using it for a few weeks. I'm pleased with it so far. It particularly suits a campaign featuring a lot of social interaction.

Take a blank table numbered 1 to 20—this is the reputation table. At the end of each adventure (or other significant milestone), have the players nominate a heroic event from the recent sessions. This event could be a successful boss fight, the discovery of a great treasure, or anything else that paints the characters in a positive light. Have the players roll a d20 and then write this event in the reputation table at the place indicated. If there is something already there, overwrite it.

Repeat this exercise for an infamous event from the recent sessions. This event could be a spectacular failure, something funny, or a ruthless act. Have the players roll a d20 and add the event to the reputation table, as above.

Now, whenever the party interacts with someone, roll a d20 and consult the reputation table. If an entry is there, the person has heard of the event, which influences their behavior. Don't worry too much about how the person learned that specific news — gossip travels more quickly than we realize. Also, it's possible that the information recorded in the reputation table is not strictly accurate, as gossip is often distorted.

Over time, you fill in more entries in the reputation table, meaning there is a greater chance that someone they encounter has heard of the party. You can use it for intelligent monsters as well.

I've been using this system for a few weeks, and it has worked well--and, unlike most reputation systems I've tried, it's actually fun! Asking the players to nominate the heroic and infamous events is a cool little mini-game in itself. And having concrete information when someone recognizes the characters opens up roleplaying opportunities.

As an example, following is the reputation table for the characters in my Iskandar campaign:

1. Blank
2. In combat, Jarrah the druid miscast a spell resulting in a rain of snails.
3. During All Fools Day, the god of tricks asked Whip the fiendspawn to "share a tale" with him. Whip agreed - and the god took his tail!
4. Blank
5. Blank
6. Blank
7. The party broke up a bloodthirsty cult operating in the village of Vamech.
8. Blank
9. Blank
10. The party fed a huge gang of Redcloak bandits to a zombie crocodile in an ancient temple.
11. Blank
12. Jarrah the druid entangled a group of skeletons in an old cairn, and then Cammie and Whip absolutely destroyed them.
13. Blank
14. Blank
15. Blank
16. Cammie the vila got really drunk after they raided a crypt and threw a drink at Captain Toriel of the March Guard.
17. Blank
18. Blank
19. Blank
20. Blank

Please let me know your thoughts, or any alternative systems you might use.

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Check out my work at M.T. Black Games

 

[Shardstone]

I've been doing something similar as a Lore Bonus that the party has loved. Going to work this in as well. Great idea!

 

[overgeeked]

I stole the reputation system from Cyberpunk Red and used that. Works great.

 

[Theory of Games]

Pathfinder has a similar but more advanced system.

 

[ezo]

Our system is very simple:

If the NPC is in a profession or area related to the PC, roll a d20.
If the NPC is NOT in such a profession, etc., roll a d100.

If the roll equals the PC's level or less, the NPC has "heard" of the PC and knows something of the PCs exploits, influencing their behavior.

 

[Shardstone]

I stole the reputation system from Cyberpunk Red and used that. Works great.

what is it?!

 

[overgeeked]

what is it?!

Rep is rated 0-10. Starting characters get 0. The 1-10 scale goes from "you had to be there" to "world-wide reputation." Referee assigns rep rating. You can have a negative rep for being famously cowardly.

Rep is mostly used for Facedowns. A kind of social combat-avoidance check. When you come to an impasse you're rolling to see who backs down, basically.

Roll COOL + Rep + 1d10. High roll wins. Loser has to either back down or suffer a -2 to checks against that person.

It's quick and simple and works a treat.

 

[Xeviat]

This mechanic is really neat! It makes me want to run a social heavy game that takes place in the big city.

 

[Charlaquin]

I love this idea! The only bummer is that I feel like the process of nominating these heroic and infamous actions kind of spoils the potential for it to be surprising when an NPC has heard of one of these actions - the players will know what they’re likely to be famous or infamous for, if anything. I wonder if there’s a way to resolve that. I mean, certainly the could just pick heroic and infamous actions themselves, but they don’t necessarily know if those will be actions the players deem memorable.

Maybe you could tie it to inspiration. Give each player the ability to award Inspiration to another player for a heroic action their character takes once per session, and the DM secretly (perhaps randomly) picks one of them to add to the table? That lends some unpredictability to which actions will be remembered, but insures they’re chosen from among things the players considered memorable.