Reputation

Basic Information

Reputation is how a person, group of people, or organization is perceived by other people or society at large.

See Also

• Fastest Gun In The West
• Legend

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia entry

Game and Story Use

• Once the PCs complete some adventures in which they haven't been able to stay anonymous, they will soon acquire a reputation of their own. The GM should make sure that every deed of the PC - for good and for ill - affects how others react to them, and in this way can make reputation into one of the most powerful reward mechanisms beyond experience points.
  • A good reputation will cause others to be friendly to the PCs - give them goods and services at low prices or even for free, render minor assistance, giving them access to higher levels of society and otherwise provide all sorts of minor or even major benefits. On the other hand, a good reputation also means that all sorts of people will come and ask them for favors, which can become a major nuisance.
  • A bad reputation will often help them with intimidating others to get what they want. But it also means that people not immediately threatened by them will react hostilely, harassing them and possibly even sending people to attack them (such as bounty hunters).
• Some game systems provide game mechanical benefits for reputation. In those cases, consider adjusting the reputation of the player characters independently of experience points. If the players have to choose between a "Good Reputation" advantage and some combat-related power, most will choose the latter since it is something inherent to the character that can't be lost as easily.
  • Consider making acquiring a good reputation a major campaign goal. For example, the PCs might have to acquire a certain "reputation level" to have a possibility of attaining a noble title from the King. Give some rough guidelines for how to increase their "reputation points", and then leave it up to the PCs just how they want to reach that level…
    • If you want to make it somewhat more complex, write up all sorts of social and political groups in the relevant region, and determine what the PCs can do to influence each of them positively or negatively.
• In Twenty Minutes Into The Future settings where Internet-based social networking tools are prevalent, there might actually be systems in place to track one's reputation numerically, with other members of the same network being able to vote on particular individuals at all time.
  • Trying to get a high "reputation score" in such networks might be a major activity of many people.