Does social standing have a place in your game?

[Felix]

For those of you that allow a social standing, does it give you an edge at character creation in your games you play or DM?

No, absolutely not. I refuse to give "edges" to players for something like that.

Well, if the DM uses a PC's background as a plot hook (which I do all the time), then that adventure to one degree or another is focused on the PC with that background.

So I suppose the edge is that your character is more central to the plot; you have leverage to determine the course of action to a greater degree...

 

[Brazeku]

In D20, not so much with the background unless the campaign is based upon intrigue and so on. In this case, I'll be discussing roles, powers and responsibilities with my players.

I do actually have a system I use for background- background is one of the 'big three' in character generation- it is divided as physical/intellectual/environmental. Obviously background is included in environmental.

How it works is that each character gets a set number of 'background points' that they can use to purchase:

-memberships
-additional wealth
-additional training
-NPC allies
-legal immunities
-travelling companions
-boosted stats

They can also take enemies, lower statuses, responsibilities, and mental drawbacks to gain bonus points. The kicker is that the points you gain from a drawback must be used in a way that is relevant to the drawback. For example, a character who has an enemy could use his points to gain equipment that, say, he stole from that enemy. In this way, the background tends to be internally cohesive.

All disadvantages actually have an ironclad number of times they must come into player per session and/or definite mechanical impact. The same is true of the more nebulous background advantages.

 

[SavageRobby]

Yes, social standing can have a place in my games if the player wants their character to have some sort of special standing. In fact, we've built some pretty cool plotlines around different character's and the ramifications of their social standing. The trick that my players haven't figured out (yet) is that it is almost invariably worse in the long run to be some sort of nobility or royalty in my games.

 

[Tian Zi]

Does social standing have a place in your game?

When you make up a background for your character how much depth do you put into it?

Do you have rules set in place for backgrounds?

Does your DM give you bonus skill points of feats to help flesh out a background?

Will your DM allow you to play a prince?

1: Social standing does have a place IMC. One PC is a priestess of a rare goddess, essentailly a sect, and she wields great power. She also seems to fit many prophecies, and that gives her more social power. She sits on the Ruling Council, rebuffed the "president's" advances, and was greated as an angel by the "Indians" who shared the same prophecies. One PC is the leader of his Dwarf clan (all 12 of the remaining survivors. Another Dwarf PC was a nobody in his clan, until his adventuring garnered him social standing. He later managed to use his Forgery ranks to fleece the humans, and was then elevated further to Ambassador. Another is a general of the human army (but he's now a NPC) who advanced by marriage into a noble family. The last PC is a mercenary angel (Aasimar) who cares little for the affairs of the mortals.

2: I try to do a give and take w/ PC's or my DM. Generally on the low side w/ in-game development.

3: Nothing firm, but often will award skill points like Craft or Profession. One DM in our group assigns a NPC class depending on background. We frequently use the Wealth rules from Game of Thrones. Mostly we just dislike nitpicky paperwork (What? No chalk on your character sheet?)

4: Yes. Usually minor.

5: Yes, but we don't get very political in our games, so even if a prince, we'd steer clear of court drama. A Prince that kills dragons...

***Edit: More important is the social TIES in our game. The social PC's have a social tie to some extent. Priestess has a flock and a few paramours. Dwarf Clan Chief has his clan, a wife, and twins. The General has a young wife and a newborn... plus a meddling father-in-law. The Aasimar has his angel buddies. The former lowly dwarf has his Clan Chief. All the social ties work into the game and provide role-playing opportunities... like when the Forgery Dwarf dropped his bomb on the Ruling Council... which blind-sided the other PC Priestess. Wow that was some role-playing. And evil, evil girl-hate eyes at the Dwarf's player.

 

[jdrakeh]

Honestly, it depends on the game.

In most D&D games that I run, not so much. Economy and social standing aren't big parts of the rules by default -- you're either a "have" (i.e., royalty) or a "have not" (i.e., everybody else), typically. This being the case, that's how my games tend to go, too.

In historical games based on real societies (e.g., Ancient Rome), social status is pretty important. Arete is everything (or nearly everything) in my Roman private eye thriller, for example (thank S. P. Somtow for that).

In games of pure fantasy (e.g. The Dying Earth, Legends of Alyria, etc) it really depends, on the assumed default setting. For example, in TDE, there are parts of the world where social standing means squat and other parts of the world where it's everything.

 

[fusangite]

For those of you that allow a social standing, does it give you an edge at character creation in your games you play or DM?

If I'm doing character creation for a D20 game, my concern is balance not edge.

Would it if there where rules for such a thing?

No. The rules I would want would be rules that would give equal power to characters of low birth not rules that would make a particular character choice inherently better.

 

[Thurbane]

Does social standing have a place in your game?

When you make up a background for your character how much depth do you put into it?

Do you have rules set in place for backgrounds?

Does your DM give you bonus skill points of feats to help flesh out a background?

Will your DM allow you to play a prince?

Not social standing as such, but I am a big fan of the Honor and Fame rules in UA...

 

[Dagger75]

In my Warhammer game it sure does. Durning Character creation you can roll up a noble, lots of wealth and nice equipment. Plus you get treated better then the common riff raff.

And during one game a player actually became a noble. Lord Ludo (The Limp, cause of a limp he had after contracting a nasty a disease) At first it was nice, free drinks and stuff then they put a Sword Tax into affect. Walking around armed when you are peasant gives you a sense of security. When you are a rich noble, armed peasants are scary. They also hated the secret police that the former noble had in place in town. After they became lords of the lands they rooted it out.
When the evil Choas Cult infiltrated the city they wished they had it to root out evil. Was actually neat to hear them say they wished they had a secret police arresting unsavory who collabrated against them.
They also had to deal with mobs and entainers making fun of them in bawdy plays at bars and taverns.

 

[haakon1]

Does social standing have a place in your game?

YES

When you make up a background for your character how much depth do you put into it?

UP TO EACH PLAYER. I GENERALLY KEEP MINE UNDER 1 PAGE.

Do you have rules set in place for backgrounds?

NO

Does your DM give you bonus skill points of feats to help flesh out a background?

NO, AND AS A DM, I EXPECT EVERYONE TO BE TELL ME (AND HAVE SPENT THE POINTS TO BACK IT UP) HOW THEY SURVIVED BEFORE THEY BECAME ADVENTURERS.

Will your DM allow you to play a prince?

AS A DM, I WOULD ALLOW THIS, BUT I WOULD NOT ALLOW IT TO HAVE EASY "CRUNCH" EFFECTS. ARAGORN IS COOL. MONEY AND PROTECTORS FOR NOTHING IS NOT ALLOWED.

 

[jdrakeh]

Incidentally, while I'm thinking about it, both Legends of Excalibur and Legends of the Samurai have good, serviceable, systems for social standing based on honor/actions.