Reputation

[Water Bob]

Next game session, I'm going to implement a rule from the Conan RPG core rule book that I've been ignoring (learning myself and teaching a new game system to my players ever so slowly). I read over the rule tonight, and I think it's pretty doggone cool.

It's about a character's Repuation. I think it's really neat how this mechanic is implemented.





BASE REP

A character's base rep is determined by his level and his Charisma modifier. The Silaigne character in my game is a 3rd level character (don't worry about multi-class options, take the overall character level) with a +1 CHA modifier.

Plus, the Base Rep is specially modified, in Silaigne's case, because all of his actions are governed by a strict, though barbaric, Code of Honor.

Thus, Silaigne's base reputation is 6, and he gained that through--

+3 for character level bonus.
+1 for CHA mod.
+2 for Code of Honor bonus.





DEEDS

Each character level, the character's most influential deed is chosen to impact his Repuation. The modifier for this deed ranges from +1 to +5, but as a rule of thumb, a character typically does not pull off a deed worthy of a modifier higher than his character level divided by 4. Silaigne is a 3rd level character, so that means he's going to have to really pull something off ground breaking in order to get a deed modifier higher than +1.

Here's what I've chosen for Silaigne's Deeds. He doesn't have a third level deed yet because he doesn't get that modifier until he reaches level 4.

Level 1 Deed: Ras Croi winner* (+1 to Rep).

Level 2 Deed: Rescue of Mallie** (+2 to Rep).



*The Ras Croi is a race that is run among Silaigne's clansmen. When we did this in the game, the player playing Silaigne was rolling extremely hot and blew the other participants away, PCs and NPCs. It was like winning an olympic event. Thus, this brought fame to the 1st level character.

**The largest, most deadly adventure the character has experienced so far occured at level 2 when Silaigne, accompanied by his brother, went off on their own to rescue a little girl that was kidnapped from the village. This was a multi-session, extremely tough scenaio that the character lived through. And, he did, in deed, bring the little girl, Mallie, back home.



Taking Silaigne's base rep and adding in his level deeds, Silaigne's rep becomes 9.

But...we're not done.




SOCIAL STANDING

A character's rep can be affected, up or down, by his social standing. Silaigne is a barbarian, living among his own people. So, his Social Standing modifier is +0.

This feature of reputation is more important when the character travels to civilized areas.



TIME

Deeds are also affected by time. Each year, a deed modifier drops by one point. Thus, next year, the Ros Croi level 1 modifier will mean little to people. That modifier will drop to +0. And, the rescue of Mallie will drop from +2 to +1.

Of course, the character may have newer deeds if the character advances to 4th level and beyond within that year.



DISTANCE

Distance also affects the power of the deed modifiers. If the Silaigne character follows in Conan's footsteps and leaves his village for the southern civilized lands, then his repuation will drop as no one will care the he set a record with the Ras Croi or rescued a little girl from an enemy clan. The distance modifier is either +0 (meaning the character is in an area relevant to his deeds) or a negative modifier. The farther the character gets from where the deeds took place, the harder the distance modifier.





SILAIGNE'S REPUTATION

If I used Silaigne's reputation right now, with Silaigne in his home village, he'd have a Rep 9. That's his 6 base plus 3 for his recent deeds.

What is the Rep score used for?

#1 - It provides a modifier to Silaigne's social interactions. The Rep 9 gives Silaigne a +1 modifer on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Gather Information throws. Higher rep scores provide stronger bonuses.

#2 - I can have a NPC throw a check to see if they recognize Silaigne because of his rep. This is a d20 + rep throw against DC 25. So, to check to see if Silaigne is known, the throw is d20 + 9 for 25+.

#3 - Silaigne's rep can hurt him if he attempts a disguise. So, the higher Silaigne's rep, the bigger the penalty on disguise throws.




So, let's say the player wants Silaigne to convince the villagers to band together and attack the enemy clan in retalliation for kidnapping the little girl. Silaigne's rep would come into play (probably modifying a Diplomacy check).

Or, let's say Silaigne tries to highten morale among his fellow warriors. That's a situation where his rep would come into play.

If Silaigne were hiring mercenaries, again his reputation would come into play.

It's a pretty cool system.





I'm going to have some fun using this in my game. There's a provision for Aliases, too. So, should the PCs start masquarading around using a different name, we would have rep scores individually derived for each of the PC's personas.

 

[Greenfield]

Hmm. Interesting.

I'm currently running a Bard who is very, very good at telling tales.

What impact would you give to Reputation if someone, such as a skilled Bard, decided to turn an adventure into an epic tale or grand saga?

I ask because we recently had a sort of conflict on this very subject. The party was returning the body of a dead PC, the Clan Chief's son, to his family.

The Big Bad of the adventure had been trying to undermine the Clan Chief's position, and one way he was doing it was to spread rumors that his dead son had been a coward. He had hired Bards to do this, and had a year to work on it between the time of the son's death and the return of his body.

The Dm sort of played out the conflict as my character began singing the ballads he'd written about the Chief's late son, and his heroics. The counter effort on the part of others suddenly highlighted who was dedicated to spreading the false rumors.

When I say "sort of played out", I mean that we had a few gestures at a conflict, but with no clear mechanism to resolve it it was a gesture only.

So, with that experience in recent memory, and more conflict probably in the future, a good solid rule set for reputation doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Also, how would you relate this rule to the Leadership feat? That's going to come into play soon enough as well. (The dead PC came back to life, after a trip to the underworld and a *looong* nights dealings with the Wild Hunt.)

 

[Water Bob]

What impact would you give to Reputation if someone, such as a skilled Bard, decided to turn an adventure into an epic tale or grand saga?

Interesting idea!

This is mentioned in the Reputation rules. What you'd do is simply increase or decrease the benefit of the deed modifier.

For example, a 1st level fighter kills a hatchling wyvern. This is his +1 Deed for his level.

Then, a bard comes along and sings of how the great warrior slew a dragon.

The GM would need to inflate the Reputation bonus for the deed.



Now, the rules do caution that the tall tale has to be believed by a wide number of people. Otherwise, the truth is out, and the Deed bonus is normal.

Also, the deed needs to be witness by people, otherwise people tend not to believe. Maybe the 1st level fighter really did kill a full grown wyvern by getting lucky. But, nobody saw him do it. And, he can't lead anybody back to where the body fell.

So, what would probably be a +3 deed modifier for the reputation for that fighter has become a +1 modifier because nobody believes him.



Much of this Reputation system from the Conan RPG is strongly guided by the GM.

If this bard you speak of is known for tall tells, then I'd say that while people might enjoy his entertainment, nobody really takes him seriously. Thus, no effect on the fighter's reputation.

But, if this bard has a reputation himself for reporting the truth, and somehow, he's mistaken about the 1st level fighter and thinks that the low level dude really did take out a full grown dragon, then the 1st level fighter would, in deed, have a boosted reputation (with a bigger modifier than the deed deserved) predicated on the lie.

Still, if someone actually meets the 1st level Fighter and sees him for what he is, they'll probably doubt the tale. So, still, those false rep points may mean little in the long run.




Another way a bard might effect reputation is distance that the rep travels. In the Conan game, a character's rep loses points the farther from the deed's source the character goes. A rep suffers a -1 modifier if the character travels to another country. A -2 penalty to rep is leveled if the character moves to an entirely different region (say, from the barbaric north to the civilized south). And, a -4 penalty is applied to Rep if the character travels to an extremely different region (say, from the civilized south to far off, mythical Khitai).

Given that the rep is sustained for the character's entire country or kingdom that he inhabits, and only takes a -1 hit if the character moves directly outside of that area, I'd say that a single bard would have a hard time of changing a character's rep all by himself.

But, let's say it does happen. What I'd do, instead of modifying rep, is make the area where the rep takes no penalties larger than normal. For example, a bard of Brythunia might be singing the tales of a certain Cimmerian Barbarian. Instead of taking the -1 hit to rep when in Brythunia, I'd allow the Cimmerian to still be considered "within his own kingdom" because of the bard.





The GM needs to get a "feel" for the system, and once he does, he can change basic modifiers to affect character's reputation.

Like the bonus to rep that a character gets by following a Code of Honor, the GM could place modifiers on the character's base reputation based on game events.

In your game where the lies of cowardice were being spread, the GM might put a -1 or -2 modifier on the base rep for the character.

Remember that many people have to believe what is being said about the character. Plenty could hear he's a coward, but if the character already had a strong reputation, people aren't going to buy some rumor about cowardice. Thus, in my game, the cowardice rumor would have to be pretty doggone convincing in order to affect reptuation. And, even if it did, a -1 or -2 modifier might not tarnish the good name of a mid or high level character all that much. Repuations are built over time, and this system reflects that.

If I told you that Patton actually retreated too early, leaving his men to die, during the Battle of the Bulge, you wouldn't believe me because of what you know about Patton and the battle. In game terms, Patton is a high level character with many positive deeds boosting his repuation.

So, it's hard to change some characters' rep with just one rumor. You're going against everything they've done in their lives--that people have heard for years.

So, with that experience in recent memory, and more conflict probably in the future, a good solid rule set for reputation doesn't sound like a bad idea.

There are some other d20 Reputation systems out there. I haven't found one that I like as much as I like the Conan version. But, there may be some mechanics out there to suit your game.

Do a google for "d20 Reptuation". You'll get some hits.

Also, how would you relate this rule to the Leadership feat?

I'm not sure about that. I know little about that Feat, and it's not mentioned in the Conan Reputation rules.