Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Does social standing have a place in your game?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 3650583" data-attributes="member: 1465"><p>Yes, if the players are interested, but most of the times they are not.</p><p></p><p>Also social standing is not directly dependent on level: the strongest fighter in the world doesn't automatically become a high-standing officer, he could just as well end up working in a circus as an underpaid brutal attraction. And even the 20th level wizard could have no social standing, if all he can do is blasting cities with meteor swarm. </p><p></p><p>At the same time the ruling lord of the land can be a 1st level character, if he is an excellent leader and administrator of the country but has never fought a battle.</p><p></p><p>It rather depends on what you do to work towards the social role, not your sheer firepower. But of course, if you have the firepower that you can use it to your advantage!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>When I am a player, usually the other DMs require a background, but if we start at low level they also require a low social standing. Personally I don't think it's really clever, but since it's a common staple I have no problems playing like that (and anyway it's easier). So typically as a PC I always have something like one handwritten page of background, but with near-zero social standing. For NPCs I don't officially write or publish a background... in my own notes the NPCs are usually very schematic-ked (few lines of most important info, some stats but not full stats) and of course contain mention of their social standing too.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. It's free, although there's the unwritten rule that it should be reasonable.</p><p></p><p>I sometimes remind the players to take a look at the backgroung rules in UA, but I don't think they are really usable as such! OTOH they can give suggestions of certain PC ideas that may not often come to mind to players.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Absolutely I don't... I used to reward good roleplay during the adventures (now I don't even do that anymore),</p><p>but I never rewarded "extra work" that is done during preparation. I believe that if you like doing the extra work, you are already rewarding yourself.</p><p></p><p>The other DMs I play with don't reward this either, but I suspect that if one player insisted enough they might give up...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Tough question. The other DMs probably won't. I certainly would think about it... While I would be tempted to choose the easy route (i.e. ban the idea), I think it might be possible to make it work without significantly break the game with an advantage to such player.</p><p></p><p>I think the solution implies somehow to (1) limit the advantage so that it doesn't have a straight usefulness in most situations, and (2) make it so that the advantage affects the whole party and not just one character.</p><p></p><p>So for example the prince could have an army, but the army is not useful to follow the PCs around the world in search for dungeons and treasures. It would be useful to wage a war against the forces of evil, if the players want the game to go to an army-scale. However that would maybe cause the game to become something else than D&D, up to a point where maybe the PC are not fighting anymore and there's just armies fighting and PCs watching...</p><p></p><p>Maybe the prince is rich and can afford much more powerful magic equipment than the others? Because that could break the balance, if this is allowed then some other basic statements of the game will be changed. There won't be many people able to craft so powerful magic items for example. Furthermore, as a DM I would probably declare that, just as treasure has to be generally equally split, so would the extra money from the prince, otherwise the party of PCs is not really a party but a leader + his underlings. If this would be the net result, then as DM I would conclude to ban the idea, period.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Li Shenron, post: 3650583, member: 1465"] Yes, if the players are interested, but most of the times they are not. Also social standing is not directly dependent on level: the strongest fighter in the world doesn't automatically become a high-standing officer, he could just as well end up working in a circus as an underpaid brutal attraction. And even the 20th level wizard could have no social standing, if all he can do is blasting cities with meteor swarm. At the same time the ruling lord of the land can be a 1st level character, if he is an excellent leader and administrator of the country but has never fought a battle. It rather depends on what you do to work towards the social role, not your sheer firepower. But of course, if you have the firepower that you can use it to your advantage! When I am a player, usually the other DMs require a background, but if we start at low level they also require a low social standing. Personally I don't think it's really clever, but since it's a common staple I have no problems playing like that (and anyway it's easier). So typically as a PC I always have something like one handwritten page of background, but with near-zero social standing. For NPCs I don't officially write or publish a background... in my own notes the NPCs are usually very schematic-ked (few lines of most important info, some stats but not full stats) and of course contain mention of their social standing too. No. It's free, although there's the unwritten rule that it should be reasonable. I sometimes remind the players to take a look at the backgroung rules in UA, but I don't think they are really usable as such! OTOH they can give suggestions of certain PC ideas that may not often come to mind to players. Absolutely I don't... I used to reward good roleplay during the adventures (now I don't even do that anymore), but I never rewarded "extra work" that is done during preparation. I believe that if you like doing the extra work, you are already rewarding yourself. The other DMs I play with don't reward this either, but I suspect that if one player insisted enough they might give up... Tough question. The other DMs probably won't. I certainly would think about it... While I would be tempted to choose the easy route (i.e. ban the idea), I think it might be possible to make it work without significantly break the game with an advantage to such player. I think the solution implies somehow to (1) limit the advantage so that it doesn't have a straight usefulness in most situations, and (2) make it so that the advantage affects the whole party and not just one character. So for example the prince could have an army, but the army is not useful to follow the PCs around the world in search for dungeons and treasures. It would be useful to wage a war against the forces of evil, if the players want the game to go to an army-scale. However that would maybe cause the game to become something else than D&D, up to a point where maybe the PC are not fighting anymore and there's just armies fighting and PCs watching... Maybe the prince is rich and can afford much more powerful magic equipment than the others? Because that could break the balance, if this is allowed then some other basic statements of the game will be changed. There won't be many people able to craft so powerful magic items for example. Furthermore, as a DM I would probably declare that, just as treasure has to be generally equally split, so would the extra money from the prince, otherwise the party of PCs is not really a party but a leader + his underlings. If this would be the net result, then as DM I would conclude to ban the idea, period. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Does social standing have a place in your game?
Top