Water - Reputation

Reputation is an optional economic system based on Challenging for economic results.

Reputation

Coin may buy you a nice room at the inn, but it is the power of your word and deed that open the most doors.

Reputation is your standing among other Cultivators. It acts as currency for purchasing favors, equipment, and rare reagents.

You measure your Reputation as a die from d0 to d12. When it comes time to persuade another Cultivator or merchant to part with a reagent, an Art, or some other precious secret, you stake your Reputation.

• Roll CdX, where X is your Reputation die
• Add your Charm to the Result

This Result is how close you are to your goal for free. Compare it with the Difficulty set by the storyteller and decide:

• Walk away – You neither gain nor suffer any ill effect
• Pony up – Bargain additional favors and items to bring the trade to a close

Keep in mind that Reputation cannot force a deal. A man with the last nuget of feathersteel in the Kingdom is not going to sell, no matter how pretty your words! Rather, you use Reputation to buy from what is available on the Cultivator market.

Gaining Reputation

The storyteller awards Reputation when you accomplish Cultivated deeds in keeping with your standing. A powerful master must accomplish greater deeds to gather Reputation than a meager student.

Examples would include:

• Clearing a crystal den
• Saving a ward from danger
• Revealing lost secrets
• Honoring the spirits
• Increasing Harmony
• Looking really, really good doing what you do best

Reputation Duels

Challenge your foes to steal their Reputation!

When performing at the same venue as a rival, you may challenge them to a duel. Your current Reputation determines valid targets.

• If your Reputation is 2 dice strength lower than your target, they may summarily ignore you at no penalty (you worm)
• If your Reputation is 1 dice strength lower, they may Challenge Water against you to ignore your provocation
• The reverse applies if you have the higher Reputation

If both sides agree to the duel, both Challenge Water against the other.

The outcome is contested.

• Both exceed the other’s Defense: A vicious Duel generates Reputation for both
  • Both Boost Reputation
• One exceeds the other’s Defense and maintains his own
  • The victory Boosts his Reputation; the loser Breaks his own
• Neither exceed the other’s Defense: A slow showing bores the audience
  • Neither party gains any Reputation

While an excellent source of Reputation for the hungry bard, this is likely to generate significant enmity from those you defeat. Mind your enemies!

Degradation

Alas, Reputation is fleeting.

Reputation Breaks each season as your fickle contacts forget the good and great deeds you have done.

If you have a Hearth, Reputation stops degrading once it reaches your Hearth’s Renown. This assumes that you an active champion of that Hearth.

If you have no Hearth or are a poor representative, then your Reputation may fall all the way to d0!

Or year(s)

Storytellers, feel free to adjust this rate of degradation. If you have a game with lots of downtime and a leisurely pace, consider doing one Break per year or even one Break per five years.

The purpose of this degradation is simple: to force players to use it or lose it. You can change the timing as you need; remember to let the players know!

Difficulty

When you wish to purchase with Reputation, the base Difficulty varies by the nature of the item

• Mystical reagents that can be resupplied: 5C
• Mystical reagents difficult to come by: 7C
• Cultivated equipment: 8C
• Rare or singular items: 10C

Suggested modifiers

Special:

• If your standard Water value exceeds the Difficulty, you may make the purchase by simply spending your Reputation. No further efforts are required.

Outcome:

• Disaster: You insult the buyer such that the item is no longer available
• Failure: You cannot afford the item. Consider sweetening the pot to even the scales
• Success: You make a trade
• Flourish: You make the trade and do not Break Reputation

Sweetening the deal

The best deals offer both sides something sweet. You may spend your own mystical reagents and Cultivated equipment to bring the deal to a close.

• Minor reagent (Circle less than your current offer): +2 each
• Major reagent (Circle equal to your current offer): +5 each
• Reagent currently in short supply or unavailable generally: Additional +5
• Cultivated equipment valuable to the seller: +10
• Personal favor or promise: +5
  • Should you fail to honor this promise, you (and your allies) suffer two Breaks to Reputation
• Useful secret or intel: +5