HEAT/WANTED LEVEL
When I initially was spitballing this in my head a long time ago, I was thinking Legacy, Renown, or Doom. It needs to be something where the Company's (and I may call this Companions...still not sure) actions have earned them notoriety and, in turn, that notoriety has earned them trouble.
However, @Fenris-77 brought up the idea of Legend. That is clearly better than all 3 because (a) it captures everything in 1 and (b) it flat out sounds cooler.
So, then.
Legend is acquired just like Heat is in Blades; at Payoff and during the Adventure in the form of Complications or Devil's Bargains (still thinking on what to call this...Destiny's Price?).
Wanted Level is possibly where Doom will go (Impending Doom).
So, for instance:
The Company/Companions are returning from an Adventure in the wild (vs in the town). They just met a horde of barbarian raiders that have been assailing caravans/hunters outside the city and who are trying to unit the other tribes for a siege on the Town. The parley was successful but complicated. The leader of the horde swore an oath to have his 2nd in command have the tribe move on if one of PCs could slay him in single combat. If the PC is slain then the other PCs will have to swear allegiance to the Barbaric Horde (and there are no takesy-backsies here...this would mean that the Companions (a) gain +3 Faction with the Horde - allies and (b) become -3 Faction with The Town).
The PC slays the Barbarian Warlord. In the process, they hit Impending Doom 2 due to the Legend accrued with 2 Legend rolling over. So their Entanglements (will likely sub Encounter for this) roll on the journey back (the journey is elided except for this) might look like this:
Impending Doom 2 = 2d6 rolled
Legend 0-3 Table (1st entry is wild, 2nd is town)
1-3 = Cohort/Gear/Travel Trouble or Salty Watchmen
4/5 = Hunted or Secrets of the City
6 = Favors of the Worst Kind
So lets say the 2d6 resulted in a 4; Hunted. Go to Entanglement Menu:
Hunted: A beast or bandits beset you on the way back. One PC takes 2 Harm (Saving Throw for 1 Harm) or play it out and see what happens.
REP (LEGEND), HEAT (DOOM), AND WANTED LEVEL/ENTANGLEMENTS/INCARCERATION
At the start of the playtest I'm going to begin soon, below will be the initial iteration of the configuration/interactions of all of the above:
* Rep is
Legend (not Folklore).
* Heat is
Doom (not Legend).
* There is
no Wanted Level or Incarceration as per standard faire Blades, but there will be a Post-Adventure
Entanglement rolled. The procedure and thinking on this is below:
1) Legend and Doom fit on the same 12 point track; Legend from left to right and Doom from right to left. Like orthodox Blades, these will be accrued primarily due to Adventures (but Entanglements will intersect here as well).
2) Getting your Legend meter filled to 12 + requisite Coin will be the requirement for
Tiering up (like Blades).
3) Doom will obviously be an obstacle to that (occupying the meter from the opposite direction).
4) Unlike Blades,
there will be no Downtime Activity to Reduce Doom. Doom will only be reduced by a special
Doom Adventure that targets a Menace (these are Fronts). These will not earn Doom. They will
earn reduced Legend which is exchanged for Doom reduction at an exchange rate of 2:1 (the same exchange rate of liquidating Stash to produce tangible Coin in Blades).
So, for instance, the Adventure earns 2 Legend + 1 per Tier above Company. Tier 2 Menace is Adventured against. 4 Legend is earned. 4 or 2 of that can be exchanged for Doom reduction or 2 Legend + 1 Doom Reduction or 0 Legend + 2 Doom Reduction.
Coin gained is as normal.
5) The procedure for
Post Adventure Entanglements will work like this:
* A Fortune Roll is made to determine which PC will have a targeted thematic Entanglment which takes place either on the journey back (if Adventure is in the Wild) or in the Town (if Adventure is in the Town).
* The GM will pick one of the PC's Bonds or their Alignment (one that has not been interacted with in this game session) to frame a conflict around.
* The GM will reference the Company's present Doom to determine the level of Menace faced.
0 Doom = Tier + 0 Menace
1-3 Doom = Tier + 1 Menace
4+ Doom = Tier + 2 Menace
* The conflict will either be elided (with a decision-point/cost paid) or it can be played out (perhaps the player doesn't want to make that decision-point or doesn't want to pay that cost and feels they can pay a lesser/different cost in the playing out of the scene); player's choice.