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Old 08-15-2020, 06:37 PM   #1
OldSam
 
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Göttingen, Germany
Default Reputation / Popularity

Hi,
I'm thinking about Reputation / Popularity of characters, especially heroes and would like to have a little brain storming...

(1) - Basic p. 27 about Reputation (People Affected) gives multipliers for Large (x1/2) and Small (x/3) classes of people. Would you say it is fair to take two small classes, too, with the same reputation (same topic "in one package"), if points are paid for one large class? Or is that over- / under-priced or otherwise a bad idea?

(2) - Does anyone of you often assign new "reputation" advantages / disadvantages in a running campaign? (Gained through actions of the characters). What are your experiences? Any hints?

Thanks! :)

Last edited by OldSam; 08-17-2020 at 03:31 PM.
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Old 08-15-2020, 07:48 PM   #2
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

A Popularity Score that ranged from -20 to 20 could be a possibility. Each -+/-1 Popularity could represent +/-1 CP in overall Reputation. For example, a character with Reputation +4 (Women Only) would equal 10 Popularity while Reputation-2 (Christians Only) would equal -5 Popularity (and combining to two would equal 5 Popularity).
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Old 08-15-2020, 08:00 PM   #3
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

Quote:
Originally Posted by OldSam View Post

- Basic p. 27 about Reputation (People Affected) gives multipliers for Large (x1/2) and Small (x/3) classes of people. Would you say it is fair to take two small classes, too, with the same reputation (same topic "in one package"), if points are paid for one large class? Or is that over- / under-priced or otherwise a bad idea?
I'm going to go with "otherwise a bad idea". Two unconnected small groups simply aren't going to have the exact same idea about a person unless that idea is simply wider spread than those two groups.
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Old 08-15-2020, 08:37 PM   #4
Donny Brook
 
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Join Date: Aug 2014
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Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

My reading of the text is that the size of the affected group is the defining feature, not any connectedness or homogeneity. So I would let you assemble any descriptive small groups to make up a large group as long as the group size is right. I think it would be okay to define two or more small groups and still be in the small category. The duke was respected by both the Capulets and the Montagues.
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Old 08-15-2020, 09:07 PM   #5
Ejidoth
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

The best way to do this is to find a way to describe the two groups so that they're one group, and then price Reputation based on how big that combined group is. If there's two groups that have the same opinion of you, they probably have something in common you can use to define them.

If they're really completely disparate and it doesn't feel right or fair to combine them like that (like if one of the other players has reputation with only one of the two groups), and you're not averse to house rules, you could probably price it as a +20% enhancement on reputation per extra, similarly-sized group.

This is absolutely a house-rule and not an instance of Alternate Abilities, since those have a lot of their own specific rules that would be very strange with Reputation, but the broader logic of 1/5 price for alternate versions of an advantage you already have--due to diminishing returns, and because simply buying it twice is clearly overpriced--probably still holds, more or less.
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Old 08-15-2020, 09:24 PM   #6
David Johnston2
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

Quote:
Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
My reading of the text is that the size of the affected group is the defining feature, not any connectedness or homogeneity. So I would let you assemble any descriptive small groups to make up a large group as long as the group size is right. I think it would be okay to define two or more small groups and still be in the small category. The duke was respected by both the Capulets and the Montagues.
Except that the Capulets and the Montagues weren't unconnected small groups. They were both noble families of the city of Verona. So you give him a reputation with "noble families of Verona".
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Old 08-15-2020, 09:25 PM   #7
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

Which is actually a pretty small group, even in Verona of that time, so it would have been 1/3 value.
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Old 08-17-2020, 04:24 AM   #8
Celjabba
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

Quote:
Originally Posted by OldSam View Post
Hi,
I'm thinking about Reputation / Popularity of characters, especially heroes and would like to have a little brain storming...

- Basic p. 27 about Reputation (People Affected) gives multipliers for Large (x1/2) and Small (x/3) classes of people. Would you say it is fair to take two small classes, too, with the same reputation (same topic "in one package"), if points are paid for one large class? Or is that over- / under-priced or otherwise a bad idea?

- Does anyone of you often assign new "reputation" advantages / disadvantages in a running campaign? (Gained through actions of the characters). What are your experiences? Any hints?

Thanks! :)
The size of the group is what matter.
As long as you can clearly define it, I don't think the class need to be homogenous.
The GM will have to decide in each cases whether 2 "small class" still count as a small class or become a large class.

I do sometimes assign reputation (good or bad) for free in my campaigns, according to the players actions (or lack of, in some cases).
In most cases, never more than a +1 for small classes of people.
Often following a critical success/failure.
Success or failure at a task is not enough to gain a free reputation. It must have been truly memorable.
Players can still buy/increase/reduce reputation with cp if they want, of course.


As for using reputations, I have at time used the area knowledge Geographical and Temporal modifiers to the recognition roll, for geographical based reputations.
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Old 08-17-2020, 02:12 PM   #9
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
Except that the Capulets and the Montagues weren't unconnected small groups. They were both noble families of the city of Verona. So you give him a reputation with "noble families of Verona".
Or the group could just be "Capulets and Montagues", with all the other nobles of Verona indifferent to or even ignorant of the reputation-holder.

Group sizes are relative and approximate, and the comparison is non-transitive. It's perfectly possible for "Capulets" to be a small group, "Verona nobles" to be a medium group, and "C+M" to nevertheless still to be a small group, even though it's bigger than another known small group and smaller than a known medium group. Or the GM could rule that C+M is a medium group. Either way is legal. The most-for-my-points players will certainly demand "all Verona nobles" for their positive rep to get as much as they can cram into the medium group they paid for.

But just on its own, the concept tells you what the group actually contains, while the size is a secondary concern, a derivative judgement call, not the primary meaning of the group's membership.
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Old 08-17-2020, 03:17 PM   #10
Anders
 
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Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Default Re: Reputation / Popularity

I'm thinking about a modifier for the power of the group you have a reputation amongst. Being popular among nobles should be more worth than being popular among dung-rakers, even if there are as many nobles as dung-rakers.
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