Recently I have been dabbling with a reputation system in game, where there was a complex relationship between level of skills and how well known you were. As this got stupidly complex, I reversed my thinking on it and ended up handing it over to the players to choose what they wanted for their characters and I created a mechanism for them to do it.

Basically we currently have a secondary reward system along side experience points and for want of a better name we have been calling Prestige Points. Basically I have been rewarding (and penalising) any activity of the players that effects their reputation (Heroic/Villainous activities, shameless self-promotion through hiring/using bards/etc).

They then can use these points to purchase a variety of 'titles' that suit their needs, with certain titles on tracks so they require large effort to obtain.

These titles typically give the players some sort of bonus in related social situations. Some give income, land and retainers (mainly the nobility tracks). Also since some players wish to remain anonymous ingame, there is a method to use the Prestige Points in a straight hand in for cash and services (in this case, the player who was responsible for bringing this about wanted to be a unknown hero who pissed his winnings up against the wall, so he burns his points all on free tavern stays and wenches).

In playing terms, where I would have rewarded my players with a specific title as a reward during the game, now I give them a choice, the title or the points and let them spend the points accordingly.

My concern of the points interrupting roleplay has been so-far unfounded as the players have used it to enshrine their activities and take the good and bad with the titles. In fact I have found the idea to be ridiculously popular with my playing groups, with the players co-opting the idea and generating cool lists of (scenario-specific) titles using the framework of costing I supplied. But I am curious to see what others think of it... hence my posting here

Next step for the idea is to possibly use it to generate more of the player economy with this .. just yet to figure a nifty way to do it.

This sounds like a very good idea.

I'd like to see an RPG where this was the main aim, rather than gaining more skills and powers.

7th Sea works in a similar way - you get reputation points for deeds which have some passive use as higher payment or invitations into secret societies, and reputation points finally stack up to reputation dice which can finally be used to actively pursue such actions such as finding followers or gaining favours.
However, it's more tacked on than the main attraction of the game, and as the reputation rules fill only about 3 pages it isn't worth to buy 7th Sea for these rules alone.

Quote from: Age of Fable;229681This sounds like a very good idea.

I'd like to see an RPG where this was the main aim, rather than gaining more skills and powers.

This is for a game system I am writing for myself and oddly enough it has reshaped the gameplay in such a way that the skills (and by extension adventuring) are just a mechanism to gain the prestige points. And suddenly in the fantasy game, the bard has become an integral character or at least trusted employee

Quote from: tellius;229704This is for a game system I am writing for myself and oddly enough it has reshaped the gameplay in such a way that the skills (and by extension adventuring) are just a mechanism to gain the prestige points.

Even better. I really like how this is developing "naturally" through your playtesting.

I have two questions: how detailed are your rules for skills? I find that some games which try to de-emphasize "adventuring" mechanics go way too far, especially (as with the Mountain Witch) where the "non-adventuring" mechanic isn't really very substantial itself. On the other hand some games bury the nifty/innovative stuff under a level of detail in other areas that makes it hard to get into the game.

Second: aside from social situations, does advancing in the social tracks provide any benefit? I'm thinking particularly of stuff like having followers on adventures, or access to better equipment, or even being able to send underlings off on independent tasks.

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Quote from: Elliot Wilen;229737I have two questions: how detailed are your rules for skills? I find that some games which try to de-emphasize "adventuring" mechanics go way too far, especially (as with the Mountain Witch) where the "non-adventuring" mechanic isn't really very substantial itself. On the other hand some games bury the nifty/innovative stuff under a level of detail in other areas that makes it hard to get into the game.

I originally started the project with the emphasis on skills, admittedly that got entirely too heavy (with enough skills and pages to sink your average Rolemaster player). So I pared that back to the essentials, but the mechanics are still there and haven't changed at all since the introduction of the new reward system. I am impressed that, in my limited playtesting groups, suddenly characters are starting to plan their actions to build their fame or notoriety with roleplay rather than just a straight hack and slash adventuring.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;229737Second: aside from social situations, does advancing in the social tracks provide any benefit? I'm thinking particularly of stuff like having followers on adventures, or access to better equipment, or even being able to send underlings off on independent tasks.

Yes, yes and yes
Currently one group is playing on the shady side. One player has purchased the title "Mercenary Band Leader". Here they have a pool of NPC followers to choose from for adventurers, they can allocate the followers to do tasks outside of the party adventuring and he gets a portion of that as income accordingly.

I am also seriously considering a re-write of the economy side of things to have the players use these points and/or titles to gain access to different levels of equipment, although keeping stuff obtainable from adventuring with the likelihood of the unique stuff being only attainable in this method.

Well, it sounds very interesting. Are you planning on releasing/publishing your system at some point?

Yes, I would be interested in releasing or at the very least putting up some information for wider play options. I am struggling to find the time to track down all copyright information and implications of doing this. I am interested in publishing but I need a few months to write instead of work (which is well paying but also very time consuming).

Currently I am going through a live-fire test-drive/play-test phase. I have all manner of ideas that don't survive actual usage so I think I am a while away from any release