Reputations Dispositions & Renown

Introduction: I sometimes read other tabletop RPG systems for inspiration. This is an amalgamation of other systems, altered for use with Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Included is a new system for social interactions. It also describes a system for gaining fame and infamy, along with proposed benefits. Finally, it expands the Renown system that especially works well for certain types of campaigns.

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Often players develop relationships with particular NPC’s, sometimes positively, and sometimes creating hatred towards the party. This new system allows for greater application of benefits and penalties for making friends, influencing people, and doing things to make people upset with them. It also has rules for affecting whole settlements, nations, and even races. When word gets around about the party and the individual adventurers, will it be beneficial to their interactions, or a detriment? In addition, there is an expanded Renown system designed for longer campaigns or campaigns that revolve around one or more factions. It defines benefits for factions and creates new ways of increasing renown. It also weaves the reputation system with the renown system.

Reputation ......................................................................... 2 Fame ........................................................................................ 2 Infamy ...................................................................................... 3

Disposition ......................................................................... 3 Dispositions ............................................................................. 3 Affectionate ......................................................................... 3 Friendly................................................................................ 3 Amiable ............................................................................... 3 Indifferent ........................................................................... 3 Dislike .................................................................................. 4 Unfriendly ........................................................................... 4 Malicious ............................................................................. 4 Unknown Quantities .............................................................. 4 Recognition ............................................................................. 4 Non-player Character Notoriety ......................................... 4 Sidebar: Managing Dispositions as a Player ....................... 4 Evolving Dispositions.............................................................. 4

Rank 1: Initiate ................................................................... 8 Rank 2: Agent ..................................................................... 8 Rank 3: Stalwart .................................................................. 9 Rank 4: Mentor ................................................................... 9 Rank 5: Recruiter ................................................................ 9 Rank 6: Politician................................................................ 9 Rank 7: Leader .................................................................... 9 Sidebar: The New Renown System .................................... 9 Change Log ............................................................................. 9

Your reputation is determined by the choices you make and how you interact with the world. The people of the world you live in will hear of your deeds, whether positive or negative. A reputation cannot be “good or bad”, “moral or immoral”, etc., as such judgements are relegated to alignment. Each group, faction, race, and organization keep separate reputations for you. For example, you can help out one nation positively increasing your reputation with it, but also negatively with that nation’s enemies. Each choice you make can affect your reputation in the world. Reputation is tracked using two separate numerical values, Fame and Infamy. Both start at 0 and only increase from there and can never lessen. Although both numbers are positive, your overall reputation with a group equals: (Fame) – (Infamy). You can leverage your reputation as a modifier to charisma rolls with your DM, and your DM may require this modifier to apply to a charisma roll at their discretion. A DM who applies many reputation points may also rule that every 5 or 10 points adds a bonus or penalty to Charisma rolls. It is incumbent on the DM to apply a reputation modifier to the player’s roll, either in secret or openly as they wish. Each race, nation, settlement, and individual can have a separate reputation for the party. It is even possible that an individual of a particular race would use both the racial and individual Fame and Infamy scores combined. This is very important for roleplay, because even if the party are heroes in a particular settlement, if you’ve killed Orcs by the hundreds, the half-orc mayor in the settlement may be torn between accepting the positive Fame reputation received for helping his settlement, and the negative Infamy reputation gained for slaughtering his Orc clan.

Variant: Interactive Social Encounters ............................. 4 Sidebar: Player’s Rolling Against Players ............................ 5

Factions and Organizations ............................................... 6 Renown.................................................................................... 6 Gaining Renown ................................................................. 6 Benefits of Renown ............................................................. 7 Loosing Renown ................................................................. 8 Advancement and Benefits ..................................................... 8

You gain fame by completing great deeds for a group that affects them positively. For example, if you help pacify a band of marauding orcs for a village as requested, you may receive 1 Fame with that village. More importantly, if you see the town’s plight and take care of their problem with no promise of a reward, you can gain anywhere from 2-5 2

fame with that village. Fame is expansive, meaning gaining enough fame with one village grants you fame with the region, and gaining enough fame with a region grants you fame with the nation as a whole. The benefits can allow you to leverage contacts, participate in political discourse, or have your voice heard among that group.

You gain infamy by doing something that negatively affects a group. Committing crimes may be the simplest example, but you can also gain infamy for personal, public affronts to an important member of an organization. Choosing one organization’s goals over another may gain you infamy, especially if the non-player characters feel personally disrespected. Like fame, infamy is similarly expansive. Infamy offers little direct reward and may lead to serious complications. However, as a general rule, gaining infamy with one group will (almost) always raise your starting disposition or fame with members of a rival group. For example, if you rob a particularly snobby noble and get caught, the nobles will regard you as infamous, but it may lead to a prominent thieves’ guild wishing to recruit and train you. Sometimes, gaining infamy is worth it.

A disposition describes a particular outlook as it relates to how one character sees another. It can immediately describe whether a character sees you in a good light or bad, whether he intends you harm or wants to help you. Whereas your reputation is with groups, each character has a disposition with each other character. Dispositions are useful roleplaying devices, establishing parameters about how you might play your character during a social interaction and helping to frame your responses and reactions. It’s far more difficult to convince a person who hates you to help than a person who loves you. It’s rather difficult to mask your disdain when trying to befriend a long-time enemy, just as it’s hard to dupe a person you love. The effects of disposition on your words, body language, and other elements of a social interaction can’t be understated. Therefore, Disposition interacts with your efforts at Deception and Persuasion, by providing bonuses or imposing penalties to your Charisma roll results. Moreover, when a DM allows for opposing Charisma rolls or a Charisma (Deception) or (Persuasion) roll against a PC, it is customary to have the PC take into account their feelings about how they feel about the character, specifically what their disposition towards the character is.

There are seven types of disposition. Three are favorable, three are unfavorable, and the seventh is indifference, neither favorable nor unfavorable. Descriptions of each follow and include the relevant Disposition Rating and modifiers to Deception and Persuasion checks. All of this information is also summarized on the Dispositions Table below. Dispositions Disposition Affectionate Friendly Amiable Indifferent Dislike Unfriendly Malicious

Deception Modifier –2 –1 +0 +0 +1 +2 +3

Persuasion Modifier +5 +3 +1 +0 –2 –4 –6

Deception Modifier: –2 Persuasion Modifier: +5 Affection implies love and adoration, feelings of obligation and strong loyalty such as that shared between most spouses, parents and their children, and so on. A character of this disposition gives in to most requests even if the request is to their detriment. Affectionate characters are likely to overlook faults in the person they adore, and they would give their lives for that person.

Deception Modifier: –1 Persuasion Modifier: +3 A Friendly disposition suggests feelings of kinship and goodwill and is found in most siblings, long-time allies, and members of the same household. Friendly can also serve to define the relationship between knights bound to a common cause and the ties that bind the closest members of the Watch to each other and their commanders. Friendly characters are willing to do you favors and may take risks on your behalf. They won’t betray you, and that’s what counts most.

Deception Modifier: +0 Persuasion Modifier: +1 Amiable characters see you in a positive light and consider you an acquaintance — but not necessarily a friend. Such characters are unlikely to put themselves at risk for you, but they are helpful if it benefits them. A character with an Amiable disposition may betray you if given a good reason.

Deception Modifier: +0 Persuasion Modifier: +0 3

An indifferent character has no strong feelings toward you, one way or the other. He may be convinced to help you, following orders out of duty, and he may consent to other favors if he gets something in return. Indifferent characters won’t take risks to help you unless suitably compensated.

Deception Modifier: +1 Persuasion Modifier: –2 Dislike indicates a general unfriendliness, a certain uncomfortable frostiness. Whether this disposition originates from distrust, reputation, or some past misdeed, the character will not take risks for you and may entertain conspiracies against you.

Deception Modifier: +2 Persuasion Modifier: –4 Unfriendly characters simply do not like you. These feelings may be grounded in good reason or not, but regardless, they hold you in disdain. Such characters will not seek to actively hurt you, but they won’t interfere with those who would and can be easily convinced to conspire against you.

Deception Modifier: +3 Persuasion Modifier: –6 Malicious characters actively work against you, doing what they can to harm you, even if it means putting themselves at risk. Malicious characters would wage war against you, harm your family, and do just about anything else they can to destroy or discredit you. Such characters are your dire enemies.

Whenever you engage a character in a social interaction for the first time, dispositions usually start at Indifferent – unless you are unusually abrasive or trusting by nature of your first impression. The reason is simple: you haven’t had any prior dealings with the character and likely know nothing about the character’s personality, history, or motivations. Of course, some characters are public figures, and such individuals’ reputations can color how others see them. A figure’s image can very much shape how you see them, and when dealing with such an individual, your disposition should change accordingly. Similarly, others may also inform their dispositions based on your reputation, which can be a boon or a bane depending on your previous deeds and actions.

The default assumption is that players and the DM will pick appropriate dispositions based on the story elements in the game. While perfectly suitable, it can sometimes be

hard to assess the effect notoriety has on an individual character’s reputation. To address this potential complication, you can always make a Wisdom (Insight) check to see if you can recognize their disposition towards you. A warning, other characters can make the same check to determine your disposition towards them.

Some individuals may have reputations that already span throughout the world. You may draw upon your knowledge and the reputations of characters you meet to modify your disposition appropriately. After all, if amiable reverence for a political figure should be how you respond to the character, making this known is beneficial. A character can make an Intelligence (History) check to determine who the individual is, and what the legends and deeds attributed to them are. A success improves or worsens the opponent’s disposition by one step per degree of success. The character decides how impressive the character is, based on the reputation the Intelligence (History) check returns.

Over the course of a social interaction, characters dispositions are bound to change. The events of a campaign coupled with roleplaying allow players and the DM to adjust their characters’ dispositions in response to what happened during the social interaction. At the start of every new social interaction, each character may have improved or worsened their disposition. Using intimidation almost always causes their disposition towards the intimidator to worsen.

Using this new system, a DM can change some social interactions into encounters that are like sparing matches. A system such as this only works if an NPC or PC would be capable of being persuaded, deceived, or intimidated. If the side being “attacked” is capable of or willing to be convinced, a social encounter can be initiated by the “attackers”. This system is well designed 4

for when one persuasion roll doesn’t cut it and some advanced coercion is called for. 1) To begin, each side decides upon starting goals. The PC’s can choose a goal, for example, “get an NPC to give up their ally”. The DM chooses a goal for the NPC’s, in this case, “a magic item worth at least 1,000 gp”. The goals can be as mundane or complex as the DM wishes to trigger using this system. Often times, this is used when a DM wants to have the PC’s work for it. 2) The DC’s for both sides are determined. Typically, the starting DC is a character’s Charisma ability score. Using this ruleset, disposition must always apply. It is incumbent for the DM to ask the player’s disposition towards the NPC as well. Similarly, a player’s or party’s reputation score modifier usually also applies. 3) Separately, determine intimidation DC’s. A general rule for PC’s is Charisma ability score +10, but NPC’s always changed based on the DM’s will. A DM can also rule that any condition that gives advantage, or immunity, on becoming feared would provide a +5 bonus on their DC for becoming intimidated. Similarly, a DM’s NPC’s and each player should choose a “hot button” fear, usually tied to their bond, that if applied in an intimidation check, would provide a +20 bonus on the roll. 4) Multiple individuals can participate on both sides, but only one may speak during their side’s turn. An ally of the speaker may take the “help” action, but only if they are proficient in the skill they are attempting to help with. If there are people within the area that have a stake in the outcome, they are automatically part of the social encounter, even if they don’t ever participate. If one side doesn’t wish to be overbalanced, they would be best to leave extra individuals at home if they cannot contribute to the social encounter. 5) The two sides take speaking turns, rolling either persuasion or intimidation and attempting roleplay making the check. Depending on content and context, the check either falls flat, i.e. “misses”, or “hits” and deals “damage” in the form of the “defenders” side loosening their position. An individual can also roll a deception “attack” when it is their turn in the encounter, and this is always a contest against a defender’s “insight” roll. 6) A social “attack” is performed on a whole side, but a special type of attack exists when one side has less participating individuals than the other. While it seems logical that a side should gang up on a smaller group of individuals, or a single individual, the side with most individuals has a major weakness. The side with the lesser number of individuals can make an attack on a specific individual on the other side. If an “attack” on a single individual is successful, they ‘switch sides’ technically speaking, and find an in-character

justification for doing so. They attempt to convince the rest of their side that their tactics are morally wrong, won’t work, etc., but if an in-character reason seems unlikely, the ‘switched’ individual tries to convince their side that they should just give into the other’s full demands, just to make this go quicker (they use the “help” action for the other side). This ‘switched’ individual is not actually on the other side, so the lone speaker or smaller group of speakers can still make attacks in this way. Once the one side with the least number of individuals has the majority of speakers on their behalf, no matter what side they are on, they lose the ability to make attacks on specific individuals. 7) The social encounter lasts for as many rounds as it takes for a combined total of 3 points to be scored. To win, a side must get three points. If they do so, they meet their goal entirely, without having to give anything up. If they are somewhere in the middle after the three rounds, the DM chooses an intermediary compromise. For example, if the NPC in our example has the most points, they will be granted a magic item worth less than 1,000 gp. Remember that both sides agreed to honor the goals of the other out of character. If the players want this information, they will fork over the magic item. Nothing else will get this NPC to willingly share the information they seek, period. In fact, if attempted murder or magic is used following such a social encounter, the individuals on the side that won the encounter have a +10 bonus to any check to save or evade such an attempt. If the PC’s have more points however, the NPC will certainly settle for coin, probably at less than the 1,000 gp ask. a. A DM can always extend out the number of required points to win to 5, 9, even 21. It just depends on the stakes. If a Kingdom is at stake, the conversation would certainly last for much longer than 3 measly rounds. 8) Some “attacks” are really incompetent, or touch on a key point, and “miss” as described above. In this case, the “defender” of a badly roleplayed “attack” would roll persuasion against the attacker’s roll persuasion or intimidation roll, as a reaction, or ‘counterpoint’ in a contest of wills. If the “attacker” had advantage, so too does the “defender” making this contest roll. The “defender” can then either use their normal DC or the result of their contest roll. If the defender’s contest check is successful, they gain one point towards their total, then get to take their own turn as normal.

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Temples, guilds, orders, secret societies, and colleges are important forces in the social order of any civilization. Their influence might stretch across multiple towns and cities, with or without a similarly wide-ranging political authority. Organizations can play an important part in the lives of player characters, becoming their patrons, allies, or enemies just like individual non-player characters. When characters join these organizations, they become part of something larger than themselves, which can give their adventures a context in the wider world. Adventurer organizations are also a great source of special rewards beyond experience points and treasure. Increased standing in an organization has value in and of itself, and might also come with concrete benefits such as access to an organization's information, equipment, magic, and other resources.

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At the end of a social encounter, it is very likely that dispositions change. If deception was caught, chances are this will drop disposition towards the liar. If intimidation was used against a side, individuals on that side have a guaranteed drop in disposition by at least 1 step per time intimidation was used against them. If a “hot button” fear was used in this intimidation, their disposition drops by at least 2 steps per intimidation used, but possibly more. Typically, if such a social encounter would otherwise push an individual’s disposition past Malicious, they become an active enemy/rival and will work to kill or bring down the individuals in the side that used “intimidation” against them. A DM could also rule that using a “hot button” fear in an intimidation would automatically create an enemy/rival, regardless of their starting disposition. Even if it’s your mother who is Affectionate towards you, and you threaten to kill her other beloved son to get something you want, chances are she will despise you for the rest of her life.

Renown rules are used to track an adventurer's standing within a particular faction or organization. Renown is a numerical value that starts at 0, then increases as a character earns favor and reputation within a particular organization. You can tie benefits to a character's renown, including ranks and titles within the organization and access to resources. A player tracks renown separately for each organization his or her character is a member of. For example, an adventurer might have 5 renown within one faction and 20 renown within another, based on the character's interaction with each organization over the course of the campaign.

A character earns renown by completing missions or quests that serve an organization's interests or involve the organization directly. Renown is awarded at the DM’s discretion as player-characters complete these missions or quests, typically at the same time as experience points. Advancing an organization's interests increases a character's renown within that organization by 1. Completing a mission specifically assigned by that organization, or which directly benefits the organization, increases the character's renown by 2 instead. For example, characters with connections to the noble Order of the Gauntlet complete a mission in which they free a town from the tyranny of a blue dragon. Because the order likes to punish evildoers, you might increase each character's renown within the order by 1. Conversely, if killing the dragon was a mission given to the adventurers by a senior member of the order, completing the task might instead 6

increase each character's renown by 2, showing the adventurers as effective allies. Meanwhile, the party's rogue might have looted a box of rare poisons from the dragon's hoard and sold it to a fence who is secretly a Zhentarim agent. You might increase the rogue's renown within the Zhentarim by 2 since this action directly increased that group's power and wealth, even though the task was not assigned by an agent of the Zhentarim.

Variant: Epic Missions There are several ways to implement secret missions. The simplest is to have a NPC member of the faction give quests. Any quest, no matter how mundane or easy, assigned by any NPC such as this within the faction grants extra renown. This might rob players and DM’s from something epic, where players can impact the course of faction politics forever. Instead, consider using the subsystem below for assigning renown. Petitioning for Renown. Any quest completed that advances the cause of a faction can award renown to a character, as long as they petition a high-ranking NPC faction member for this. A player gains 1 renown if the petition is successful. Standard Missions. Any quest that is assigned directly from a NPC counts as a standard secret mission. It could be as simple as rescuing another member from jail or as difficult retrieving a magical ring from a dragon. Regardless, a player gains 2 renown for successful completion of such a quest and each standard secret mission counts as one “secret mission” as described in the advancement table in a later section. Epic Missions. An epic secret mission is a special affair. It is a significant quest, one that advances the faction’s plot, requires above average amounts of planning on the DM’s part, and has significant consequences for the party, whether its a success or failure. It might even involve several standard secret missions’ worth of planning and execution. An example of an epic secret mission for the Harpers would be to expose and bring down a corrupt King. An example of an epic secret mission for the Zhentarim would be to rob the royal coffers of Waterdeep. An example of an epic secret mission for the Emerald Enclave might be to find a lost bit of magic that has the ability to permanently awaken beasts, giving them consciousness. As one might imagine, these types of epic missions would undoubtedly alter the course of the campaign’s world and cause great upheaval in the faction itself. Who would protect the power to cause beasts to have consciousness and who would use it, or even who would use it indiscriminately? If they did use it everywhere, where would humanoids find protein? So much of their economy and nutrition comes from hunting, wouldn’t some settlements hunt and kill intelligence beasts, or even resort to cannibalism? If your proposed epic secret mission has

these types of potential consequences, you’re on the right track. Conversely, failing such a quest would have dire consequences. The corrupt King may become totalitarian, stamping out opposition and killing off all Harpers in the city. The city guard may flip Zhentarim members, causing the party to become wanted fugitives, unwelcome in any settlement with ties to the Lord’s Alliance, or the party members were just captured outright and jailed for 10 years. The awakening magic might fall into the hands of the unseelie Fey, who use it to corrupt animals and turn them rabid. Therefore, it is best to warn your players beforehand that an epic secret mission will have these types of potential consequences. A player gains 6–8 renown for successful completion of an epic secret mission and each count as 3–4 “secret missions” as described in the advancement table in a later section.

The benefits of increasing renown within an organization can include rank and authority, friendly attitudes from members of the organization, and other perks. Rank. Characters can earn promotions as their renown increases. There are certain thresholds of renown established that serve as prerequisites (though not necessarily the only prerequisites) for advancing in rank, as shown in the Faction Advancement table later. For example, a character might join the Lords' Alliance after earning 1 renown within that organization, gaining the title of cloak. As the character's renown within the organization increases, he or she might be eligible for further increases in rank. There are often other rank prerequisites. For example, a character affiliated with the Lords' Alliance might have to be at least 5th level before becoming a stingblade, at least 10th level to be a warduke, and at least 15th level to be a lioncrown. These thresholds of renown can be set by the DM to any numbers that work for their game, creating appropriate ranks and titles for the organizations in their campaign. Dispositions of Organization Members. As a character's renown within an organization grows, members of that organization are increasingly likely to have heard of the character. You can set thresholds at which the default disposition of an organization's members toward the character becomes indifferent or friendly. For example, members of the Emerald Enclave – a faction dedicated to preserving the natural order – might be amiable toward characters who have not cultivated at least 3 renown within that organization, becoming friendly by default only when a character has gained 10 renown within the Emerald Enclave. Likewise, a druid may have a natural bonus to dispositions of members of the Emerald Enclave. These thresholds apply only to the default disposition of most members of an organization, and such dispositions 7

aren't automatic. NPC faction members might dislike an adventurer despite that character's renown – or perhaps because of it. Perks. Earning a rank within an organization comes with certain benefits, as defined by the DM. A character of low rank might gain access to a reliable contact and adventure leads, a safe house, or a trader willing to offer a discount on adventuring gear. A middle-ranked character might gain a follower, access to potions and scrolls, the ability to call in a favor, or backup on dangerous missions. A highranking character might be able to call on a small army, take custody of a rare magic item, gain access to a helpful spellcaster, or assign special missions to members of lower rank. Downtime Activities. Characters can spend downtime between adventures building relationships and gaining renown within an organization. For more information on downtime activities, see chapter 6, "Between Adventures", of the Player’s Handbook. In addition, each faction has a special downtime activity that players can participate in which usually are unique and grant significant rewards.

Variant: Party Renown Sometimes, having several different party members each with their own goals may cause faction conflict within a party. More importantly, if one PC wants to do a Harper quest, and another PC doesn’t, there may be problems with assigning renown or conflict at the table. Additionally, as PC’s may die all renown they accrued would naturally be lost if they were the main point of contact between the faction and the party. Instead of assigning renown individually, consider creating a list of party renown, which tracks with the adventuring company/party the players represent. This way, new PC’s will automatically have the relevant renown with an organization. Players may still gain extra renown on their own, in addition to the party renown, adding the values together. If a PC wants to do additional quests with a faction on their own, consider DM’ing outside of the table, or assigning downtime for them to use the “Gaining Renown” downtime activity with a bonus.

Disagreements with members of an organization aren't enough to cause a loss of renown within that organization. However, serious offenses committed against the organization or its members can result in a loss of renown and rank within the organization. The extent of the loss depends on the infraction and is left to the DM’s discretion. A character's renown within an organization can never drop below 0, but consider adding infamy if the infractions continue after the drop to 0.

As a character allied with one of the factions goes on adventures, he or she earns renown for accomplishing tasks that align with the faction’s goals. This is expressed in the awarding of renown points at the end of an episode or adventure. As previously mentioned, completion usually earns 0 renown (no interest to the faction), 1 renown (some interest to the faction), or 2 renown (great interest to the faction). Each faction can award different renown points to adventurers. As characters earn renown, they progress in the ranks of their factions, granting them greater authority and additional benefits. The Faction Advancement table below is a summary of requirements. Faction Advancement Rank Renown Other Requirements 1 0 — 2 3 — 3 10 5th level, 1 secret mission 4 25 11th level, 3 secret missions 5 50 14th level, 10 secret missions 6 100 17rd level, 25 secret missions 7 200 20th level, 50 secret missions, additional requirements (see below)

This is the rank a character receives when first joining a faction. It is available at character creation or any time the character wishes to join. Participate in Faction Activities. You can participate in any activities that are considered faction-specific for your faction. Earn Renown. You can earn renown points in your faction and advance in rank. Receive Your Faction’s Insignia. All new faction members receive an insignia of their faction, fashioned into a wearable or held item. Faction Insignias Faction Harpers Order of the Gauntlet Emerald Enclave Lords’ Alliance Zhentarim

Item Pin Pendant Leaf clasp Signet ring (symbol palm side) Gold coin (stamped symbol)

Rank 2 characters have shown that they’re aligned with the faction’s goals, and are able to take on more responsibility. Secret Missions. During certain adventures, you might be given the opportunity to undergo a secret mission on behalf of your faction. 8

Completion of these missions might earn you additional benefits. Apprenticeship. Your character can be apprenticed to another higher-ranking adventurer from your faction. You can now utilize something important that only trusted apprentices of a faction are able to. This can be such things as a high-interest earning bond, a secret slave market, or discounted fast travel.

Rank 3 characters are reliable faction members, entrusted with many secrets and deserving of additional support during adventures. Faction Downtime Activity. You gain access to a factionspecific downtime activity that gives you additional benefits when you use it. The specific downtime activities for each faction are detailed in the Adventurer’s League.

Rank 4 characters are trusted voices within the faction’s leadership. They are looked upon as champions of the faction’s beliefs, and as mentors by those of lower rank. Become a Mentor. You can designate other rank 2 or 3 NPC characters as your pupil. You can have multiple pupils if you wish, up to 1 pupil per 10 points of renown. You send these pupils on secret missions, and they succeed or fail based on the difficulty of the mission and a d100 roll. For example, a mission may be to steal an object; it takes a tenday and has a 61 percent chance of success. After a tenday, you roll a d100 and if the result is 61 or below, you gain the rewards of the mission. This can be items, coins, experience, or something much greater.

Rank 5 characters have one directive, to advance and swell the ranks of the faction. No longer are you constrained by regional issues, rather you are dealing with the main branch of the faction. Headquarters. You gain the location of the main base of operations of the faction. You can visit it at your leisure, but cannot bring unapproved guests. Each faction’s headquarters are highly different, but all are designed with efficiency in mind. The entire base has a single, driven purpose which you are now a part of. Chances are, there are curiosities available here that are not available elsewhere in the realms. Also, you can attend, but not influence, political debates of the faction at large.

minor branch that you do not have immediate credentialed access to. Access. Where ever you go within the faction’s holdings, you are greeted with the respect afforded to your status. You earned this access, with hard work, and, possibly, blood. You are present for all major debates, and time is reserved for you to share your opinion on the issue. You are also granted the ability to politically use your power to shift supplies, acquire resources, deal in favors, and all other types of backroom deal making. Influenced Dispositions. Depending on your political stance the dispositions of the members of the faction either increase or decrease. As a generally public figure, even members of other factions may adjust their disposition based on your political opinions.

Rank 7 characters are ensconced within the leadership of the faction and have a great degree of influence, guiding faction decisions. Different factions may have different rules for advancing to this rank. For example, you may have to become elected, appointed, or complete some ritual. Become a Faction Leader. You gain the ability to make decisions on behalf of your faction and influence current and future faction direction. Your voice is the most recognized within the faction, but not necessarily the only voice. Many factions will require joint leadership (possibly with your party), but some will raise you as a single visionary leader. The full benefits of this are only constrained by your DM.

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Initial release. Yay!

Rank 6 characters become involved with the direct political decisions that affect the faction as a whole. There is no non-personal room that you do not have access to, and no 9