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Originally Posted by RogerBW
Having a negative Reputation makes you less intimidating. It makes your life harder, because people don't help you. And therefore it costs points. None of those things is true of the examples I gave.
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Having a negative reputation doesn’t necessarily make you less intimidating. All it says in this regard under Modifiers for Intimidation skill is “Appropriate Reputation modifiers (positive or negative) certainly count!”
While it is generally true that a negative reputation is a disadvantage and hence generally a hindrance, a specific negative reputation like “town bully” or “feared chief of secret police” certainly seem ripe for treating the negative reputation penalty as a bonus rather than a penalty for the specific purpose of Intimidation.
The problem with treating “town bully” or “feared chief of secret police” as positive reputations for purposes of the reaction table is that it gives incongruous results. Let’s consider “town bully" as +2 and “feared chief of secret police” +4 for reputation under your scheme and see where that gets us on a Neutral roll (say 12).
For the “town bully” it pushes him up to a Good reaction. For a general reaction, it pushes the NPC from ignoring the bully as much as possible to liking him and being reasonably helpful. In a potential combat situation rather than him going his way and the bully going his, he finds the bully likeable or too formidable to attack. Commercial transactions go from routine to pleasant and the merchant will volunteer useful information or small bits of help. Requests for aid go from being granted if simple to being granted if reasonable, the NPC is helpful and will give helpful advice even if he can’t grant actual aid. Requests for information go from getting sketchy information about complex questions to getting accurate information. The NPC’s loyalty goes from seeing the bully as “just another boss” to liking him or the job. He’s loyal, hard-working and will accept any reasonable hazard the bully will.
The “feared chief of the secret police” gets pushed up to a Very Good reaction. Generally the NPC thinks highly of him and is helpful and friendly. In a potential combat situation, the NPC is friendly to the chief and will find an excuse to let the chief go for now
even if they’re sworn enemies (italics mine). In commercial transactions he’ll sell at 80% of the fair price or buy at 150% of the fair price and he’ll offer help and advice. Any requests for aid are granted unless they’re totally unreasonable and any useful information is offered freely. Requests for information answered in detail and any related information is volunteered. The NPC works very hard, risks his life and puts the chief’s interests ahead of his own.
Sorry, it just doesn’t wash with me. Treating the values as negative and the Neutral roll as 10, the town bully now gets pushed down to a Poor reaction and the chief to a Bad reaction.
For the town bully: generally if the NPC sees a big profit or little danger, he will be hostile. In a potential combat situation the bully will be subject to shouted threats or insults (from a safe enough distance, though if the bully’s big enough, the NPC may pass on the opportunity) and asked to leave. If the bully stays, the NPC may attack or flee (It says if outnumbered but if the bully is formidable enough in Attributes, a single opponent or small group might consider themselves outnumbered by a lone bully.) Merchants will ask 120% of the fair price or offer 75% of the fair price. Requests for aid are denied but bribes, pleas or threats might work. Requests for information will have the NPC claiming not to know or giving incomplete data. The NPC considers himself overworked and underpaid and will betray the bully if offered enough.
For the chief: The NPC cares nothing for him and will act against him if he can profit from it. In a potential combat situation, they’ll attack the chief if they outnumber him and flee if they don’t. Merchants will ask twice the fair price or offer half the fair price. Requests for aid are denied. Requests for information are denied. The NPC will lie maliciously or demand payment. If paid the information will be true but incomplete. The NPC is a sluggish worker and will leave or betray the chief given even moderate temptation.
Now, you can, and probably should, substitute Intimidation to get what you want if you’re the bully or the chief and that will, assuming their skill is high enough, get you Good and Very Good reactions as long as they keep it up but Poor and Bad, not Good and Very Good, should be the normal reaction of others to these people when they aren’t successfully Intimidating people.
One other point, the Reaction Tables are for those occasions where there’s some uncertainty about how people will react. If your PC is Town Bully: -2, all the time, large class of people, or Feared Chief of the Secret Police: -4, almost everyone, all the time, you can bake some reactions in. Locals at the pub know to steer clear of Bad Bill, especially when he’s belting them back because “he’d as soon break your arm or leg as look at you, sooner actually.” Ordinary citizens restrain their Bad reactions to the chief because “he doesn’t like it and he’ll disappear you, then your family, then your pets, then your friends and maybe even a couple of casual acquaintances just because.”