Prestige (Fame/Reputation/Notoriety, Merit, and Status)

Story Hook ++

This presents a good opportunity for adding Character Story elements to the Character.

Prestige is tracked using Points of Merit. It operates off a baseline spectrum of assumed ‘average’ value and then negative and positive reflections as it progresses away. Its value depends on what it relates to, such as a liege or an Institution.

Common Standards: Social Standing/Status is reflected directly in a Standard of Living and indirectly in Clothing and signifiers such as Prestige in Places as well as Items and Marks. Conversely, such things may also be used to reflect or even present a specific level of Prestige fame, etc. A certain measure of such things may be required in Social Dealings and leveraged by Social Features and expected by Contact and shared bond of culture. All of these may vary by Availability and culture within a Setting and/or specific Properties of a Locale/Settlement.

Measures of Prestige
Measure Description _Baseline_ %
Cost Portion
Pariah (Extreme) MERIT POINTS = 1
Poor (Extreme) MERIT POINTS = 2
Lower MERIT POINTS = 4
Middle (Average) MERIT POINTS = 8
Upper MERIT POINTS = 16
Privileged (Extreme) MERIT POINTS = 32
Elite (Extreme) MERIT POINTS = 64

Individual and Group Reputation

As characters (and organizations, institutions, groups, etc.) develop, they gain a level of notoriety based on their actions with significant impact. With each action that causes a great stir, they gain an amount of Fame according to the GM or as designated in the Reward section of a published Adventure. When characters perform such acts showing great hostility and intimidation to others, the fame becomes Infamy. If they have more Infamy than Fame, it engenders fear, hostility, and anxiety. Global Reputation is the widest area possible in which word of the character’s deeds may reach. This depends on modes of communications, speed of travel, remoteness of a person or place, etc. The GM must make this determination ultimately.

Reputation Score: Add both, divide that total by 10, rounding down, to achieve their reputation score.

This is a representation both of awareness and quality, measured in levels:
Pariah [-4] / Poor [-1] / Common [0] / Familiar [1] / Established [4] / Popular [8] / Prominent [16] / Privileged [32] / Elite [64]

Signifiers (of Pedigree/Membership)

Prestige Signifiers are signature possessions, capabilities and behaviors which custom dictates those associated with the pedigree in society should possess. For example, the type and style of clothes reflect the typical levels of Social Standing in a culture or membership in a group along with the ability to speak a language, literacy, knowledge, dance, riding, formal education, etc. – it varies by setting and locale. Without these, a character may not be seen by the members of the society as of a particular pedigree; even peers may count them less. This could have great impact on their starting status, even continued benefits for their standing. Additionally, one of the signs of pedigree and standing is obligations to the place, item or institution providing the pedigree, as well as the mitigation and handling of affairs of those lower in standing. Characters may have certain ones they must uphold that they inherit to gain anything from their pedigree.

Pedigree (inherited prestige)

Characters can also gain prestige from family, institution, place, or some other association which has built prestige in the past. For example, in a world with nobles and peerage, the prestige of their family name from whence they came. In essence, it represents how a culture or person perceives their lineage, background, and upbringing. A higher value pedigree indicates a longer, and usually more important, history.

Family Pedigree

You can either assume the pedigree is the same as social standing, or add additional flavor to their background by determining it randomly. Assuming that this will be generated randomly for a character, a player will make a check to generate a level when is then checked against to determine pedigree. Characters with a personal high standing and low pedigree are assumed to have families which have fallen from favor or are in ruin economically – the story for this can be worked out between player and GM.

Need ideas for role-playing this? See the Roleplaying your Character's Capabilities or ask the Game Master how it is best expressed in your Setting.No matter what restrictions exist in the setting you use, many GMs will allow anything with the right context or character backstory.