A way of showing constant shifting status

[Tessen]

I need a way in gurps to accurately show the constantly shifting status and support for various members within a group , court or cabal.

So I have a group of industrialists , scientists and military all have status within the party but their value changes due to:

The visible successes and failures they have , who they're buttering up , who they're bullying etc

Each member of the nazi party rolls every month to see their current status level with the following modifiers added:

Minor / major success in their business / military / scientific field (+)
Minor / major failure in their business / military / scientific field (-)
Created scandal for the party (-)
Created rumour against the party. (-)

Anyone got an idea how to frame it in Gurps terms?

[whswhs]

Sounds like Reputation.

[Michele]

I see what you are getting at, but I don't know whether that's a constantly shifting Status level in GURPS terms.

First thing, I'd recommend you to take a look at GURPS WWII: Iron Cross, the Characters chapter. It gives you a good idea of how to make Status work in Nazi Germany, providing a couple of tweaks to the system.

Real power in that government came from patronage, but true Patrons always support their men, if they can be reached, which was certainly not necessarily the case in the Nazi power structure. But we have the Minimal Intervention limitation, which seems very appropriate. With that limitation, a Patron provides some help - and only if you get a decent reaction from him.

You should then add Reputation, Favors, Contacts, Allies, and Groups of Contacts and Allies. Favors and Reputation can indeed be fleeting as you desire.

This would seem a campaign steeped in the social dimensions of roleplaying, so you would probably find further inspiration in the GURPS supplements dealing with that sort of things.

And for a militarized society like Nazi Germany, you would probably get some good mileage from GURPS Social Engineering: Pulling Rank. Ranks were a byzantine, confusing world to the Nazis themselves, and sometimes they provided more, or less, power than they seemed to. Powerful people typically held multiple ranks, in the armed forces, the party, specialized party organizations, the SS, and the civil administration. This supplement gives you a chance of tailoring the ranks.

[Michele]

Oh, and I forgot Enemies. It was very much a dog-eat-dog environment.

Suppose you're a scientist working on a new magnetic sea mine in 1938. You happen to state, during an official dinner, that such devices should be the Kriegsmarine's affair, even in the air-dropped version. You support your opinion with reasoned arguments and seem to gain the approval of those listening.

Well done, you gained some cookie points with your Patron or Allies or friends in general, might give a +1 Reputation among the naval service's upper ranks.
OTOH, you just also made yourself obnoxious to Goering. Anything that flies, or that is loaded on something that flies, is his.
That amounts to a rarely appearing, but very powerful Enemy, and given his MO, it's not just one very powerful individual, it's the Luftwaffe. Maybe just at the Rival level (they'll try to embarrass and discredit you, not to outright kill you), but it might get worse.

[Tessen]

Thanks for the response. I was thinking of trying to add the influence of the wives into the mix with more scandal and cover ups and how much Eva Braun could influence Hitler, putting more crazy ideas in his head.

I suppose a bit like the Stepford wives meets the Kennedys meets the Borgias type of vibe when someone's in favour being listened to and others who were suddenly on the outside being punished for some type of social crime and having to toady their way back in.

[ericthered]

You might be able to frame it in terms of loyalty rolls. I ran a game in which the loyalty of different groups in relationship to the PC's regularly changed, and the concept here is pretty similar.

[Alden Loveshade]

I don't want to do a Ditto response, but it sounds more like Reputation than Status to me too.

A quick change in Status generally represents a major, life-changing event: a slave was freed, someone won the big lottery, a nation's president's term in office ended, a king was deposed.

A quick change in Reputation can certainly be due to something really big as well, but it doesn't have to be.

Your concept does sound like it would involve a lot of extra bookkeeping, but that of course is up to you.

[Donny Brook]

Maybe this could be Reputation (Lg. Group: Party Members) with Preparation Required (half-power without prep) and your list of elements are what define the nature of the Preparation.

[Tessen]

When you say list of elements do you mean current activities which could be un / favourable to their Reputation level? i.e

The minister of armaments has managed to increase the production of Tiger tanks by 5% which would be a plus to his reputation of how good a arms minster he is.

Versus

Tiger tanks production has fallen by 10% what's this fool doing being left in charge?. Then his wife might step in and try to smooth things down by making excuses or pointing the finger at other people.

The wife could be a real enhancer to his rep or be really detrimental.

[Anders]

I would make a Favor statistic, which varies between 3 and 18. Power struggles are resolved as Quick Contests. I don't think any of the existing traits are suitable for this - they're too permanent.