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Steal This Rule: Trust
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 7650526" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>Because the Trust stat is associated with the party in general rather than any particular member of it, a sort of democracy takes place. The Baron trusts the party in general, because the party in general has done things for the baron that the baron values. The baron might personally think the druid is a jerk, but if the druid has been fighting orcs all along anyway, then the baron can at least trust the druid to be a competent adventurer with the tasks they are given as a member of the party. It's sort of how you might trust a certain company, even if one of their representatives is a jerk to you. They do good work, and they get the job done, but man that one guy is a hassle. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You could, but that loses some of the strength of the mechanic to tie the PC's interaction into the game world itself, and the groups and people in it. A more mobile group might not really cement that trust, though. There may be a specific quest to get rich, but there's no link between that quest, that reward, and the greater world, necessarily. Goal tracking is kind of more a neat little trick you can do with it. But if the group is a bunch of antisocial vagabonds with only their own mercenary interests at heart, Trust might be best used just to track goals. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>I think organizations can help with some mobility. If there's an international Church of Bahamut, or a cross-planar group like a Planescape faction, or even just a group of knights and town guards under the King, then wherever you go, you can find representatives of that organization. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I like the way you're thinkin'! </p><p></p><p>Like I pointed out above, I think Trust works a little better as a group stat than as an individual stat. One of the other effects of this is that it gives the party a reason to stick together despite their conflicting loyalties: that druid might hate the baron, but if the rest of the party wants to help him out, the druid might go along for the ride because then the party might help the druid with his own issues (There's a Dire Bear who keeps getting his head stuck in a beehive). I imagine there'd be variations within a given trust rank as to how particularly <em>friendly</em> the entity is, but in applying to the group, it keeps everyone on the same general plateau, with the same group goals. </p><p></p><p>That's not to dissuade you from giving it a try like that, though! Could be interesting to see how some groups negotiate those conflicting loyalties. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Quick process:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Come up with an adventure idea. There's hooks and random generators aplenty for this, so just roll one up that seems pretty basic. "Go kill X" or "Collect for me 5 bear bottoms" or "Make a delivery for me" kind of quests make good first-rung Trust 0 quests. Tie it to some reward that corresponds to an average treasure roll, or some median number of GP. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Introduce the NPC with the adventure idea to the party via their normal haunts. Someone looking to hire some dangerous adventurers might hang around in a tavern or in a weapon shop or at an inn -- anywhere the violent and the menacing are likely to hang out. It's especially good if the NPC is out of place there: some minor noble's daughter slumming it in the dirtiest dive bar in the forge district is going to attract some attention. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Have the NPC explicitly approach the party and give them the assignment: "Please, I'll pay money, bring me 5 bear bottoms, I need this." At this point, it's not about the PC's specifically, but about the NPC who needs something done. If not the party, she'll find some other sucker...er...adventurers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> Think about why the NPC might want to do this. Why would a noble's daughter desperately need 5 bear bottoms? Maybe she wants to revenge herself against the bears who killed her fiance. Maybe she wants to craft the softest bear-fur pillow to win her stepmother's favor. Whatever. The idea is to dig deep into what accomplishing this mission does <em>for the NPC</em>. Whatever accomplishing this mission does: treat it only as the first step. After getting 5 bear bottoms, perhaps the noble's daughter also wants the PC's to harvest some rare dire spider silk so that her pillows will be the best. Perhaps after wreaking ursine vengeance, she still wants the SPECIFIC bear who killed her lover slain -- and that bear is a horrible mutant dire bear who has menaced the land for a long time. The idea is to have the PC's help with the next stage of her mission, too. After the PC's complete the first mission, they get Trust Rank 1 with that NPC. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> The NPC's ultimate goal should be broken down into a few steps (that's the 3-5 ranks of Trust), or given a few complications along the way. You can actually take a queue from story-writing here: each entity effectively has their own plot arc, and you can use the ranks of Trust as the acts along that arc. By Trust 5, your noble's daughter should be praised by her mother, or be personally feared by every bear within a 1,000 mile radius. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> </li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 7650526, member: 2067"] Because the Trust stat is associated with the party in general rather than any particular member of it, a sort of democracy takes place. The Baron trusts the party in general, because the party in general has done things for the baron that the baron values. The baron might personally think the druid is a jerk, but if the druid has been fighting orcs all along anyway, then the baron can at least trust the druid to be a competent adventurer with the tasks they are given as a member of the party. It's sort of how you might trust a certain company, even if one of their representatives is a jerk to you. They do good work, and they get the job done, but man that one guy is a hassle. You could, but that loses some of the strength of the mechanic to tie the PC's interaction into the game world itself, and the groups and people in it. A more mobile group might not really cement that trust, though. There may be a specific quest to get rich, but there's no link between that quest, that reward, and the greater world, necessarily. Goal tracking is kind of more a neat little trick you can do with it. But if the group is a bunch of antisocial vagabonds with only their own mercenary interests at heart, Trust might be best used just to track goals. ;) I think organizations can help with some mobility. If there's an international Church of Bahamut, or a cross-planar group like a Planescape faction, or even just a group of knights and town guards under the King, then wherever you go, you can find representatives of that organization. I like the way you're thinkin'! Like I pointed out above, I think Trust works a little better as a group stat than as an individual stat. One of the other effects of this is that it gives the party a reason to stick together despite their conflicting loyalties: that druid might hate the baron, but if the rest of the party wants to help him out, the druid might go along for the ride because then the party might help the druid with his own issues (There's a Dire Bear who keeps getting his head stuck in a beehive). I imagine there'd be variations within a given trust rank as to how particularly [I]friendly[/I] the entity is, but in applying to the group, it keeps everyone on the same general plateau, with the same group goals. That's not to dissuade you from giving it a try like that, though! Could be interesting to see how some groups negotiate those conflicting loyalties. Quick process: [LIST=1] [*] Come up with an adventure idea. There's hooks and random generators aplenty for this, so just roll one up that seems pretty basic. "Go kill X" or "Collect for me 5 bear bottoms" or "Make a delivery for me" kind of quests make good first-rung Trust 0 quests. Tie it to some reward that corresponds to an average treasure roll, or some median number of GP. [*] Introduce the NPC with the adventure idea to the party via their normal haunts. Someone looking to hire some dangerous adventurers might hang around in a tavern or in a weapon shop or at an inn -- anywhere the violent and the menacing are likely to hang out. It's especially good if the NPC is out of place there: some minor noble's daughter slumming it in the dirtiest dive bar in the forge district is going to attract some attention. [*] Have the NPC explicitly approach the party and give them the assignment: "Please, I'll pay money, bring me 5 bear bottoms, I need this." At this point, it's not about the PC's specifically, but about the NPC who needs something done. If not the party, she'll find some other sucker...er...adventurers. [*] Think about why the NPC might want to do this. Why would a noble's daughter desperately need 5 bear bottoms? Maybe she wants to revenge herself against the bears who killed her fiance. Maybe she wants to craft the softest bear-fur pillow to win her stepmother's favor. Whatever. The idea is to dig deep into what accomplishing this mission does [I]for the NPC[/I]. Whatever accomplishing this mission does: treat it only as the first step. After getting 5 bear bottoms, perhaps the noble's daughter also wants the PC's to harvest some rare dire spider silk so that her pillows will be the best. Perhaps after wreaking ursine vengeance, she still wants the SPECIFIC bear who killed her lover slain -- and that bear is a horrible mutant dire bear who has menaced the land for a long time. The idea is to have the PC's help with the next stage of her mission, too. After the PC's complete the first mission, they get Trust Rank 1 with that NPC. [*] The NPC's ultimate goal should be broken down into a few steps (that's the 3-5 ranks of Trust), or given a few complications along the way. You can actually take a queue from story-writing here: each entity effectively has their own plot arc, and you can use the ranks of Trust as the acts along that arc. By Trust 5, your noble's daughter should be praised by her mother, or be personally feared by every bear within a 1,000 mile radius. ;) [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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