Building Bhakashal: Repute in the Game
As I work on my supplement I am discovering that it is a process much like making nesting dolls. Every system I set up draws on other aspects of the setting, things are getting more integrated as I go along, and the fit is getting better and better.
This makes me think I’m on the right track.
Today I’m tackling repute in the setting. From the beginning I wanted Bhakashal to be different. In regular AD&D the wizards cower and hide as they are so vulnerable,so do many thieves. PCs are cautious and any hope of being “important” is put off until very high level when domains are part of the game.
In Bhakashal this dynamic is inverted, the warlocks are bombastic, aggressive and public, so are the warriors, the thieves take on high profile crimes to show off, and the priests seek to convert and grow the power of their pantheons. PCs and prominent NPCs in Bhakashal are exemplars of power and action. These are not your timid, tentative adventurers, they are ambitious, driven, public figures. This is baked into the setting.
To understand how it all hangs together, we need to start with a discussion of the gods.
The gods of Bhakashal were originally AI that became sentient, billions of years before this supplement is set. These AI evolved to a higher level of existence, and left the Earth. They returned several hundred years ago, and have taken refuge in distant, inhospitable corners of the planet, very rarely they will appear in a harmless form near populations, during certain festivals and rare events they might appear in their full manifestations, which take the forms of animal/humanoid combinations. They are inscrutable and strange, but are “in the world”. What the PCs (and most of the game world) don’t know is that the gods have returned as the Earth is nearing the end of its time as the sun reaches its death throes.
The gods have returned to watch their creators die.
Bhakashal is a city built over a sleeping god, Iallus, god of the moon (inspiration, skill, excellence), fertility (creation) and plants (growth). Years ago he won a conflict with a demon but was cursed in the process, cursed to sleep until the end of the Earth, and the city sits atop the sleeping god. This has some strange effects on the game world, in essence, the presence of this multiplanar being beneath the city warps reality.
As a result of this, the city proper is permanently overrun with plant life, on the walls, on the rooftops, between the rooftops in densely populated areas. The marshes around the city are bursting with life, some things the creations of past warlocks from a nation that is long dust but occupied the same area as the city, some are “natural”, but the presence of Iallus causes them to be fruitful and multiply, making the marshes around the city particularly deadly. It also means that healing magic doesn’t work the same way in Bhakashal, while in or near the city only the healing pools maintained by the Houses and temples can heal you. It means that the best practitioners of all things are drawn to this city to do the things they do best (inspiration, excellence, creation). Bhakashal draws the ambitious, the determined, and the skilled, it’s why the city divided into Noble Houses and Guilds focused on skill, ambition and determination. Not everyone in Bhakashal is like that, but the prominent NPCs and the PCs are. It is a conceit of the setting and the game design that both prominent NPCs, some monsters and the PCs all are drawn here by their ambition for power within a city faction.
Alternatively, if you don’t like that explanation, the setting is billions of years in the future, there are many distinct sentient humanoid groups that interact, they will behave in certain ways completely unlike we do today. Just like traditional D&D characters are called to adventure, characters in this setting are called to take their place in the factionalized environment that is the city. If you prefer social explanations than this one will do. It is a reductive assumption, but it fuels a lot of easy and helpful game mechanics, so it is a virtuous reduction.
One qualification to all of this. Another one of the peccadillos of a future society billions of years from now is that the use of power is tempered by the Houses and factions of the city. Achieving personal greatness and power is part of repute, but the most acceptable form of this involves extending the power and influence of your faction by extending your own power and influence. Power accumulated that is not used in some way to advance your faction in its domain is seen as crass, corrupt and dangerous. Death in defense of your faction is seen as honorable, excessive power directed for strictly personal gain will lead to eventual consequences at the hands of one of the city factions, usually the violator’s own.
Repute In Bhakashal
Most people in the setting are not interested in repute, they simply go about their day to day lives, and only through misadventure or greed end up bumping up against powerful factions and their members. The PCs however, are like the NPCs that lead the various city factions, they want power, this is reflected in the fact that they can attain levels and progress. They are classed PCs because they are seeking power and status in the city, otherwise they would be 0-level NPCs.
In short, classed PCs and NPCs are assumed to be interested in moving up and through the factions in the setting, just like traditional adventurers in D&D are assumed to be interested in adventuring, that is why they are able to advance through levels. The individual player can interpret this desire in any way they see fit, but the assumption is that the PCs are looking to participate in the setting to gain power and influence. PCs who don’t want to do this, or more precisely players who aren’t interested in it, can certainly use the setting, but there will be no need to use the repute system mechanics in the game.
“Repute” in Bhakashal essentially means your reputation for achieving goals that have an impact on the city, the noble Houses and the various factions in the setting (see Goals and Factions below). These goals are chosen by the ref (Patron) and the party (players), the party, or individual members of the party. The goals are ranked in terms of difficulty, and scores are given based on level of success. When enough successes have been achieved, you gain a level. This is the method of advancement in the game.
With each level you get a +5% bonus to your repute.
So, in short, the game advancement mechanic is tied to repute directly, achieve your party and ref set goals and you will grow in repute.
Metrics of Repute
There is no need to track reputation/prestige for NPCs, you can have the game world react to them in any way you like, or use encounter reaction rolls with suitable modifiers based on the power level you feel is correct for that NPC. For PCs in the setting, repute is part of their interactions with others.
To start, the basic mechanism for deciding how NPCs/Monsters react to PCs is the encounter reaction roll. When the party attacks there is no need for this, but if the party does not attack, and communicates with their opponents, the ref uses the encounter reaction roll. Sometimes this roll will be bypassed, e.g. the keep’s soldiers are trained to not parley with intruders, but to slay them, but this should be fairly rare, encounter reaction rolls are a good role playing tool. They ensure you don’t fall into patterns and they challenge and excite both the players and the ref, refs like surprises too!
So yes, city guards are going to be suspicious of a group of adventurers approaching a building at night, but an encounter reaction roll will sometimes produce a guard who is willing to cooperate with the PCs, e.g. a guard on the take who is willing to let the party through, that’s a lot more fun.
It is also important to remember that the PCs, in an urban setting, will be having a lot of encounters. When they go to the blacksmith to get armor, when they go to the thieves guild, when they hire out a ship, etc. Most of these interactions will be non-lethal, but will still involve modifiers as the PCs will likely be part of factions, and so will the shopkeeper, So the threat of violence is there, but not strong given the table’s structure (only results of 0-5 generate a violent reaction).
All PC’s/NPCs/Monsters in the setting are part of a faction, and the encounter reaction roll is used when the PCs interact with members of their factions and other factions to see how their reputation/prestige influences the reaction. Because of this, repute is of significant importance to the game, as the PCs will be continuously interacting with NPCs/Monsters in the setting.
As a general rule check for encounter reaction at minimum once during an encounter, usually when the conversation hits a “bump”, e.g. the PCs make an unusual request, challenge an NPC’s beliefs/ideas/actions, or otherwise do things that would lead the ref, in the role of the NPC, to consider opposing the PC/party in some way.
When this happens, a roll is in order.
Encounter Reaction Table
01-05 - Violently hostile, immediate attack
06-25 - Negative, immediate action
26-45 - Negative, no action
46-55 - Neutral, uninterested, uncertain
56-75 - Friendly, no action
76-95 - Friendly, immediate action
96-100 - Enthusiastically Friendly, immediate action
Standard Modifiers
PC is member of the same faction as NPC/Monster: +5%
PC is a member of an allied faction: +2%
PC is a member of an opposed faction: -5%
PC’s patron is aligned with NPC/Monster patron/group: +2%
PC’s patron is aligned against NPC/Monster patron/group: -2%
PC’s or party’s goal is in direct opposition to the NPC/Monster: -20%
Level: +5%/PC’s level
When the PCs are new, eg 1st level, they will have a +5% modifier for being level 1, that’s just the air a classed character has about them as someone from the outside world, even if they are new to the city. From then on the repute you get is tied to your exploits while in or around the city. If the PCs join a faction there will be standard modifiers based on factional rivalries and alliances. Note that all of these modifiers are small, as they are meant to accumulate over time, increasing and decreasing based on the PC’s achievements in the game.
So they are influential over the long run, but not dominant in regular play, they are an aid, but not decisive, they can help in some cases but in others negative modifiers will drown them out, and thus they are a perfect addition for fun, exciting role play. Note that the encounter reaction roll can be bypassed by the ref as appropriate. So in some cases violence will not be avoidable, or a positive reaction will be assured. But in most cases the repute of the PC will impact things, and the net effect of a repute mechanic will be to increase the odds of either non-violent or helpful responses to potential disputes.
Finally, note that the repute of the party and the repute of individual members may not be the same. In these cases, use the repute of whomever is the spokesperson for the party in the encounter, unless one party member has a significantly higher repute than all of the others, in that case use it for the roll. Having a rock star in the party can help.
Goals
So the goals the group sets are the basis of their in game progress as classed PCs, and thus repute in the setting. What are typical goals, and how do they impact repute?
Information
Magic
Wealth
Alliances
Combat
Resources
Taking risks and overcoming challenges draws positive attention in Bhakashal. Defeating a monster in battle adds to your repute as Bhakashal is a city that values bravery and combat prowess, stealing treasure from a monster / prominent NPC does the same. Getting crucial information that helps your faction/patron, finding magic items, finding loot, forging alliances, restoring honor, or securing vital resources for your faction/patron all represent achieved goals that lead to leveling, and increase in repute. As the party achieves goals, they level. This reflects the building of their repute over time. You don’t get the repute bonus the moment you do something, you get it later when you level, by that time word has gotten around.
As you get higher repute modifiers, NPC reactions to PCs become more positive, and even helpful, and can lead to much more interesting faction play. It also reduces the possibility of violence in many cases as the party levels, the powerful in this game deter violence through their power, that is the result of gaining power in the setting. This game mechanic bakes this premise into the game. Of course, the ref can have the NPCs react in whatever way they want, but the default is to push encounters for PCs towards more alliances and non-conflict options as they become more powerful. In this way the mechanic of repute shapes the game world against violence as a “default”.
How Does Repute Spread?
This assumes that the PCs successes and failures are somehow coalescing into a “repute” for the PCs that impacts their encounters with NPCs in the setting. The setting is huge, how is this possible? There are several possible in game explanations based on what was discussed above, pick the one that best fits your idea of how the setting should work.
One is the presence of Iallus beneath the city, perhaps that makes everyone in the setting in some instinctive but non conscious way aware of repute. Or you can interpret it as a social convention, that people, billions of years from now, have evolved to take note of, pick up on and keep track of people who achieve success or excellence in their actions, who achieve their goals through bold action, perhaps it was an advantageous evolutionary adaptation. People find out about the exploits of exceptional NPCs and PCs in various ways:
Through them talking about their exploits
Through others seeing their exploits and talking about them. Bhakashal is a very public game setting, it has its sewers, temples and barracks, but also its streets and canals, and none are deserted all the time. So many PC exploits will be observed and passed on.
Since PCs work for a patron, they will wear the colors of their patron’s noble House on themselves somewhere most times, and know symbols, words and rituals associated with their patron for others, to identify themselves if needed. Many of the PCs actions will take the form of public challenges where all are known, or fights in the arena.
The PC’s patron will speak of them amongst trusted aides, this information will spread.
Remember that classed PC and NPCs are the vast minority of the population, so it is not beyond reason that classed, leveling PCs might draw attention in such a vibrant, over the top setting.
Or perhaps it is a manifestation of hyper-specialization and factionalization, the obsession over achievements and excellence in its most developed, future institutional form. It’s not hard to see the trends to hyper-specialization and factionalization today, so the future may just have exaggerated versions of what we see now.
Choose whatever in-game conceit works best for you and your table, but the net effect of the mechanic will be that as the party achieves their goals, they will get more positive reactions due to their repute.
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