[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Reputation

[RogerBW]

One important aspect, I think, is that a negative Reputation is not "people don't like you"; it's "people are less likely to do what you ask them". When Butch the Five-State Spree Killer waves his famous machete at you, you are more likely to comply with his requests if you know who he is. That is therefore a positive Reputation ("merciless killer"). Ditto the scary crime boss – if a trait makes things more likely to go your way, that's a positive point value for the trait.

There's one PC in my WWII game with some mixed Reputations: roughly, "he's going to drag us into some crazy dangerous plan" and "but there might be medals in it". When the group requests aid from allied forces, the reactions tend not to be neutral.

[Ezra]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

One important aspect, I think, is that a negative Reputation is not "people don't like you"; it's "people are less likely to do what you ask them". When Butch the Five-State Spree Killer waves his famous machete at you, you are more likely to comply with his requests if you know who he is. That is therefore a positive Reputation ("merciless killer"). Ditto the scary crime boss – if a trait makes things more likely to go your way, that's a positive point value for the trait.

There's one PC in my WWII game with some mixed Reputations: roughly, "he's going to drag us into some crazy dangerous plan" and "but there might be medals in it". When the group requests aid from allied forces, the reactions tend not to be neutral.

Would Status have more influence over the control you can exert on others than Reputation? B27 of the Basic Set says that Reputation cost is governed by the bonus or penalty to Reaction modifiers.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Ezra

Would Status have more influence over the control you can exert on others than Reputation? B27 of the Basic Set says that Reputation cost is governed by the bonus or penalty to Reaction modifiers.

Status is an overall measure of regard in your society.

Butch the Killer has negative Status.

Al the Crime Boss may have Status if he's trying to buy his way into respectability, but not necessarily much of it.

My point is that people may help you because they find you appealing, or because they find you terrifying; but either way, if they're helping you, that's a positive trait.

[Phil Masters]

I seem prone to giving my PCs a whole bunch of low-level Reputations for chrome. Terry "the Idaho Kid" Norris had both positive and negative reps among boxing fans, both on 10 or less ("Coulda been a contender"/"Dirty fighter"), plus minor positive reps among the underworld and the fae as someone who knew what he was doing, a bit, while Lieutenant-Colonel Kingsthorpe has modest positive reps in the occult community and Fleet Street, because he knows some useful things and can write about them, and a -1 rep among devotees of Alistair Crowley (as "a blundering dabbler with the soul of a suburban bank manager"), which has never come up as such that I know of, but which is a key part of his characterisation

I also still have fond memories of the proto-Dungeon Fantasy character I had who had a negative Reputation among "people he'd been anywhere near in the recent past". He was an archetypal adventuring warrior (and Longsword stylist) who had a long trail of smashed-up barrooms in his past.