Forum

I've been running my group for a bit now and they've gotten up to some shit but now I'm realizing that I've been shirking reputation a bit and need to backtrack to get an accurate count and some of the details around it are confusing to me.

1. What's a normal amount of reputation for a group to have? I was calculating all their deeds and I got something like 8 gained since we started playing. +1 for defeating Algarod in Weatherstone, +1 for getting Stanengist from him, +1 for getting Rust Bite, +1 for killing Pollmor in The Hollows and altering the site, +1 for getting an artifact skull from a dungeon, +1 for retrieving the Tezaur from the same dungeon, +1 for killing the goblin elder in the ruins above that dungeon, +1 for establishing a stronghold. Is this a silly amount?

2. If an action was primarily lead by one member but the entire group was there, does everyone get +1 reputation or just the person who lead the deed. Example, my players finished a dungeon under some ruins inhabited by goblins. They were hired by the goblins to reclaim a skull that was an artifact. The skull was held by a mummy who the dungeon was a resting place of and instead of fighting and killing the mummy, the peddler made a deal with the mummy that if it gave them the skull, they would bring it sacrifices every month (since the ruins have now become their stronghold). Does the Peddler get the rep bump since he made the deal or does everyone get the rep bump since clearing the dungeon was a group effort? I'd say it's a +1 for the entire group. Referring to my point above, if everyone got +8 rep over the time that we've been playing (obviously not all great rep) then some of the characters are rocking around with 10 Reputation which seems a bit wild to me.

3. Is a stronghold's reputation just a collection of the functions that give +1 rep? Does a stronghold start with 1 rep even if it is a collection of ruins?

Since I'll be rolling for events with reputation being a factor, I just wanna have an accurate picture of what the group is rocking with.

1. What's a normal amount of reputation for a group to have? I was calculating all their deeds and I got something like 8 gained since we started playing. +1 for defeating Algarod in Weatherstone, +1 for getting Stanengist from him, +1 for getting Rust Bite, +1 for killing Pollmor in The Hollows and altering the site, +1 for getting an artifact skull from a dungeon, +1 for retrieving the Tezaur from the same dungeon, +1 for killing the goblin elder in the ruins above that dungeon, +1 for establishing a stronghold. Is this a silly amount?

What normal is, will be up to the GM to decide, but a 'prominent NPC' needs to be important, famous or important for Ravenland, not just the local innkeeper, a monster needs to be feared and dangerous, probably even famous, an average monster shouldn't count, a 'legendary treasure or artifact' needs to be items or treasures that people talk about, that really exists in myths and fairy tales, etc.
But also add that this is reputation, not what actually has happened. The word about the deeds needs to be spread. If tales about the deed is not spread, no reputation is gained. To be recognised can surely be good if you try to manipulate certain people, but in most other situations it can be really bad [Principle #5 Them That Got Shall Lose].

2. If an action was primarily lead by one member but the entire group was there, does everyone get +1 reputation or just the person who lead the deed. Example, my players finished a dungeon under some ruins inhabited by goblins. They were hired by the goblins to reclaim a skull that was an artifact. The skull was held by a mummy who the dungeon was a resting place of and instead of fighting and killing the mummy, the peddler made a deal with the mummy that if it gave them the skull, they would bring it sacrifices every month (since the ruins have now become their stronghold). Does the Peddler get the rep bump since he made the deal or does everyone get the rep bump since clearing the dungeon was a group effort? I'd say it's a +1 for the entire group. Referring to my point above, if everyone got +8 rep over the time that we've been playing (obviously not all great rep) then some of the characters are rocking around with 10 Reputation which seems a bit wild to me.

Those that was took an active part in the scene should get the reputation. For killing a monster that probably is the entire group, in other situations, the reputation only goes to the one that did the deed.

3. Is a stronghold's reputation just a collection of the functions that give +1 rep? Does a stronghold start with 1 rep even if it is a collection of ruins?

Certain functions will reputation to the stronghold owner(s) when they are finished.


In my campaign, I was a little bit more restricted when it comes to reputation than you, especially regarding if it is known or not. My players made a deal with Algarod and also got the sceptre, but they didn't want people to know this and since no one have sent them there, they decided to say anything and also not show the sceptre. Several sessions later, the players used the sceptre and there where witnesses there and I gave them the reputation. My players had a reputation of 12-13 when they finished the campaign. Although I should say that none of the PCs that started the campaign made it to the end of the campaign. If they would have, the repuation would be a bit higher.

1. I would say it is normal. I don't hand out just as much reputation, I try to limit it.
One of my players that have survived for over 200 xp worth of gaming has:
+1 for saving a village, +1 Have important stronghold named after you, +1 Been seen with artifacts, +1 friend of the Merromanians (honorary dwarf by now, as they have help them 3+ times with crucial tasks), +1 defeated General Archa of the Roka clan in battle, +1 Held the biggest party in Ravenland, +1 Reclaimed hollows from the Rust Brothers with 100+ troops involved, +1 known for clearing an adventure site (note that most adventure sites have not given bonus reputation, as the word that they did anything just wasn't spread around).
So that gives him a total of 8 reputation.
Then on top of this we have the Strongholds... RAW that would be +12 from their first "Vralhalla" and +10 from their second "Hollows". 30 reputation is insane, even if we were to ignore the Hollows, it would still be 20 dice, an insane amount of dice.
So... I don't do this. I use the house rules I wrote in Reforged Power that adds half of the biggest Strongholds reputation and a quarter of the second biggest. So 8+6+2=16 more manageable, and they are actually by now a force to be reckoned with in the lands, so it is kind of fitting.

2. Is the group getting famous for the actions? Then I would give all the reputation. If only one person, like in my case one person got to name their Stronghold "Vralhalla", after his name "Vral", then I only gave him that extra reputation. But I try to give all players equal reputation, as they are more or less known as "that group of adventurers" together.

3. A Stronghold starts with 0 reputation. And actually in the CORE rules, a Stronghold doesn't really have a reputation: "REPUTATION: The increase to the Reputation score of all PCs once the function is completed, if applicable.". So it is the players and not the Stronghold that gets the reputation. I wrote house rules for this in Reforged Power, so that the reputation bonuses actually goes to the Stronghold, and the players gain half of this (half of the half and so on for every extra Stronghold they control beyond the first). This means that a Stronghold itself can both be more or less famous than the players that control it. RAW, even if you would say that a Stronghold would have a reputation score, than the rulers are strangely enough always more famous than the place itself.
And come to think of it, I think the reputation score for major power players in Raven's Purge is wrong because of this. For example Vond alone would add A LOT more reputation to Zytera than he has. The same goes for Zertorme. And probably for others as well.

Since I'll be rolling for events with reputation being a factor, I just wanna have an accurate picture of what the group is rocking with.

You mean the "Events at the Stronghold" on page 12+ in the GMG? That table is.. not usable as it is written. Rolling 10s of dice to pick the highest as the tens-die, will almost always result in a score of 61-66. I wrote an alternative for that too in Reforged Power. Make a reputation roll, for every 6, add +10 to the table and start at -10. That will with 12 dice average around 21-76, but that is still better than rolling 61-66 almost all the time. I also introduced that forces further lower this amount. This is still a bit much though, my players have rolled 71+ I think around 5 times now.

I treat 71+ as Nemesis events: First time Roka were interested in taking over and it was more of a "we think you will comply, yes?", second time they sieged them for a week and then attacked - but players prevailed, third time was the week after that(!) so a company of Aslene nobles attacked, but they just attacked the fleeing orcs, and have not yet returned. But I will have them as a looming threat for the future. 4th time they meet an envoy of Rust Brothers and insulted them. Then the 5th time, the Rust Brother surprised them by taking over an allied settlement (the Hollows) instead of attacking them. Hah, they where fooled
But they traded some artifact to the orcs to lend out soldiers (they are on good terms with the Orcs as well), and also hired mercenaries from nearby villages an attacked the Hollows. I think they had around ~10 dice vs the Rust Brothers around 6-7 dice in the Hollows (they only left around 35 men). They were lucky with their rolls so now they control the Hollows too.

Alright I've obviously been doing some stuff wrong. Time to go back and retroactively change some reputation.