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Social Rules
(Christopher Loh)
PIETY
I personally feel that the alignment concept in AD&D is akin to a strait jacket... I wonder if you guys feel the same. Yet there are times it is good to have a sense of WHO are good guys? HOW good are the good guys? Players can choose to starts with Piety between 7-13 depends on the background story. Higher or lower piety levels should be "earned" and not "given".
Piety is gain or lost through the actions of the players. If the player does anything honorable or good in the general sense, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is higher than the current PIETY then 1 pt is added. If the number is equal or lesser then none is added. An easy action such as keeping ones word despite the situation being tough or sparing a hated foe in a fair fight will give a single roll. A tough action like covering the retreat of the rest of the party ALONE in a suicidal mission against a few Malgash (another example is Sturm’s sacrifice in Dragaon Lance) will give five rolls. If the player do anything dishonorable or evil in the general sense, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is equal or higher, then the current PIETY then 1 pt is reduced. If the number is lesser then none is deducted. A minor infraction such as petty theft will give a single roll. A serious infraction like combined rape and mass murder will give five rolls. Thus it is possible for one to have a PIETY score between 0 and 20...
The "benefits" of having extreme PIETY (0 or 20) will be shown later. The mechanics makes it difficult for someone to go to extreme spectrums on the piety. This is done on purpose as most people are not totally evil or good. There are always shades of grey.
The benefits of having a PIETY that is 20 is listed below.
- The player will have a +3 bonus against evil creatures determined by the GM. These could include demons, devils, ogres and etc. The bonus includes to ATTACK, DEFENCE, MAGICAL ATTACK, MAGICAL DEFENCE, EVASION and ABR.
- The player will need to maintain the PIETY of 20 in order to take advantage of these benefits. He will be held in the strictest code of behavior to maintain his PIETY of 20. Even a selfish thought will warrant at least a single roll to test if he fall below that standard. The benefits of having a PIETY that is 0 is listed below.
- The player will have a +3 bonus against good creatures determined by the GM. These could include angels, characters with piety of 13 and above and etc. The bonus includes to ATTACK, DEFENCE, MAGICAL ATTACK, MAGICAL DEFENCE, EVASION and ABR.
- The player will need to maintain the PIETY of 0 in order to take advantage of these benefits. He will be held in the strictest code of behavior to maintain his PIETY of 0. Even a kind thought will warrant at least a single roll to test if he fall below that standard.
- Demons and Devils could appear to try and cut a deal with the character... Of course, whether it is generally not a wise thing to agree...
Fame/Infamy
Fame/Infamy will affect the degree of how RENOWN is being viewed. Whether the character is view as villain or a hero, to be loved or to be feared.
A score of 13 and above will be considered to be the good guys. A score of 7 and below is considered to be the bad guys.
What happens if someone impersonates the player and starts committing rape & mass murder which reduce his Fame/Infamy score in the eyes of the general population? Well, it sucks to be that player.
In game mechanics, the player will have to prove his innocence to use his original Fame/Infamy score. Otherwise the general population will see him as the guy with the reduced Fame/Infamy score.
Generally the circumstances that increase Piety will result in increase in Fame. Anything that decreases Piety will result in Infamy as well. However in order to change Fame/Infamy then the action must be seen or publicise by alot of people. Fame/Infamy is like your jacket. Piety is like your inner clothes. One can hide the true intention (Piety) behind Fame/Infamy score. However it is only a matter of time that the two scores become in sync when actions that were done in private is being made known...
RENOWN
RENOWN is like reputation and stuff like that... "Look, that is the Sir Balin who sacked the castle of Merkyn!" This could help the characters to have a sense of achievement rather than just the plain old xp and treasures. It also help with the RP aspect with NPCs. Piety is what the character moral alignment compass is like. This is not your AD&D alignments. Basically there are some situations where we a numerical gauge will be useful in measuring how "good" is the character, e.g. Sword of Vallandar.
The other aspect is to determine what kind of RENOWN the character has. Is he a Mother Theresa or Hitler reincarnated? Everyone starts with 0 at 1st level. For characters starting at higher level characters, the GM will assign a number between 0 to the max of their levels based on the background story that the player provides. If the character begins with a social class that has a basic RENOWN, then he will use the base from the social class until he exceeds that with adventuring. The higher number will be used. Renown is gain by completing quest or any appropriate juncture (e.g. being crowned as king). At the end of the quest or any appropriate juncture, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is equal or higher then the current RENOWN then 1 pt is added. If the number is lesser then none is added.
A easy quest such as rescuing a barmaid from a bunch of bandits will give a single roll. A tough quest like rescuing a princess from the pits of hell will give five rolls. An additional dice of RENOWN could be rewarded to a SINGLE player for exceptional RP efforts. The mechanics makes it easier for someone with 0 RENOWN to gain fame but progressively harder when he is becoming more famous. He needs a bigger and bigger act to top off the previous one. The other aspect is that some players may get more glory then the others due to a lucky break on the dice... which is completely normal. Fame is not shared equally for all who participates in the quest.
Those who are sharp will see that it is possible to gain a RENOWN of more than 20. The benefits will be explained later. Gaining a level will result in a 1d20 roll to test for gain in RENOWN. The benefits of RENOWN is that the player can declare that he is using his RENOWN when interacting with the NPCs. The GM will roll 1d20 to see if it is equal or lesser then the number, the NPC will react in a more positive way. If higher, the NPC could be just unimpressed or react in a more negative way... "Are you trying to threaten me punk?"
Appropriate penalties on the roll will be distance and how the character presents himself. The further the distance, the higher the penalty. Say -10 for 200miles apart... Beyond 200 miles, the reputation will be considered to be 0. Being famous also has its own set of problems. Swarmed by fans, besieged by request, being impersonated and framed... Not to mention that some nobles are likely to react negatively to someone who is of “inferior stock” being more famous than them.
Fame is lost through the passage of time. For every year that the character has not make a single RENOWN roll for completing any quest will have to see if his fame reduced. 1d20 will be rolled and if it is equal or lesser then the current RENOWN then 1 pt of RENOWN is lost. If it is higher, then the player is still as famous. The benefits of having a RENOWN that is higher than 20 is listed below - For every point that is higher than 20, the roll to test for reduction in fame is delayed by 100 years. After 100 years, RENOWN will dropped by 1 point. When RENOWN reach 20 then normal rules applies. So in theory, King Vallandar could have a fame of 30+ in his primetime. Thus the characters in book 1 still heard about him.
- For player characters who are unlikely to be played for 100+ game years... He can exchange the point to exchange for a +1 to any ability score. This represents the bigger then life aspect of the character...
- Alternatively, the character can convert it into a fate point which basically allow him to declare a successful action (Auto hit, auto save and etc...) despite whatever overwhelming circumstances...
Ideally a credible witness (e.g. the priest in bk 1) will give more weight to the stories. Alternatively some proof of completion of the quest, such as the head of the bandit leader, is also acceptable. The other possibility is the incident is being viewed by many people and becomes credible through sheer numbers. However at times a sufficiently high RENOWN character could be his own witness. It could be erode if there is some way to frame the character of lying about their exploits. Example, people found out that the real bandit leader is still alive and the "head" of the dead bandit leader actually verified to belong to a common thug. Whatever RENOWN earn for that exploit will be lost.
GM could also introduce other situations where RENOWN is being lost. Such as lies ... "That was not the head of the frostgiant. It is only a head of an orc!" GM can make the final decision on that.
The ideal scenario is that the characters are only active in a village. The further the character moved off from the village, the higher is the penalty. Say -1 for across village, -2 for across towns, -3 for across country and etc. The likely scenario is that the character travel around. Example, the character complete the scenario in bk 1 and earn 3 points of RENOWN. Subsequently, they move to serve Baron Aldred in his castle. Thus they are considered to be only RENOWN 1. Assume that they complete several quest for the Baron, they increase their RENOWN to 5. In this case, the characters will have two separate RENOWN scores. RENOWN 3 in village and RENOWN 5 in the castle of Baron Aldred. The highest RENOWN score will be used to calculate on the RENOWN 20 rule.
If the character goes to a new area, then the GM will determine the highest RENOWN score if there are overlapping concentric circles from 2 separate bases of RENOWN.
| Class | Social Status | Current Social Status | Base Renown | Current Renown |
| Emperor | 14 | 18 | ||
| King | 13 | 16 | ||
| Prince | 12 | 14 | ||
| Duke | 12 | 12 | ||
| Marques | 11 | 11 | ||
| Earl | 10 | 10 | ||
| Count | 10 | 10 | ||
| Viscount | 9 | 9 | ||
| Baron | 8 | 9 | ||
| Gentry with land | 7 | 3 | ||
| Gentry without land | 6 | 3 | ||
| Professional (Famous) | 6 | 3 | ||
| Craftsman (Famous) | 6 | 3 | ||
| Freeman | 5 | 2 | ||
| Professional (Average) | 5 | 2 | ||
| Craftsman (Average) | 5 | 2 | ||
| Craftsman (Apprentice) | 4 | 2 | ||
| Tradesman | 4 | 2 | ||
| Menial | 3 | 0 | ||
| Villein | 3 | 0 | ||
| Cottar | 2 | 0 | ||
| Rifraff, outcast, barbarian | 1 | 0 |
| Piety | Current Piety | Fame/Infamy | Notes | Current Fame/Infamy | Renown | Current Renown |
| 20 | 20 | 20 | ||||
| 19 | 19 | 19 | ||||
| 18 | 18 | 18 | ||||
| 17 | 17 | 17 | ||||
| 16 | 16 | 16 | ||||
| 15 | 15 | 15 | ||||
| 14 | 14 | 14 | ||||
| 13 | 13 | 13 | ||||
| 12 | 12 | 12 | ||||
| 11 | 11 | 11 | ||||
| 10 | 10 | 10 | ||||
| 9 | 9 | 9 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | 8 | ||||
| 7 | 7 | 7 | ||||
| 6 | 6 | 6 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | 4 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 1 | 1 | 1 |
PIETY
I personally feel that the alignment concept in AD&D is akin to a strait jacket... I wonder if you guys feel the same. Yet there are times it is good to have a sense of WHO are good guys? HOW good are the good guys? Players can choose to starts with Piety between 7-13 depends on the background story. Higher or lower piety levels should be "earned" and not "given".
Piety is gain or lost through the actions of the players. If the player does anything honorable or good in the general sense, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is higher than the current PIETY then 1 pt is added. If the number is equal or lesser then none is added. An easy action such as keeping ones word despite the situation being tough or sparing a hated foe in a fair fight will give a single roll. A tough action like covering the retreat of the rest of the party ALONE in a suicidal mission against a few Malgash (another example is Sturm’s sacrifice in Dragaon Lance) will give five rolls. If the player do anything dishonorable or evil in the general sense, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is equal or higher, then the current PIETY then 1 pt is reduced. If the number is lesser then none is deducted. A minor infraction such as petty theft will give a single roll. A serious infraction like combined rape and mass murder will give five rolls. Thus it is possible for one to have a PIETY score between 0 and 20...
The "benefits" of having extreme PIETY (0 or 20) will be shown later. The mechanics makes it difficult for someone to go to extreme spectrums on the piety. This is done on purpose as most people are not totally evil or good. There are always shades of grey.
The benefits of having a PIETY that is 20 is listed below.
- The player will have a +3 bonus against evil creatures determined by the GM. These could include demons, devils, ogres and etc. The bonus includes to ATTACK, DEFENCE, MAGICAL ATTACK, MAGICAL DEFENCE, EVASION and ABR.
- The player will need to maintain the PIETY of 20 in order to take advantage of these benefits. He will be held in the strictest code of behavior to maintain his PIETY of 20. Even a selfish thought will warrant at least a single roll to test if he fall below that standard. The benefits of having a PIETY that is 0 is listed below.
- The player will have a +3 bonus against good creatures determined by the GM. These could include angels, characters with piety of 13 and above and etc. The bonus includes to ATTACK, DEFENCE, MAGICAL ATTACK, MAGICAL DEFENCE, EVASION and ABR.
- The player will need to maintain the PIETY of 0 in order to take advantage of these benefits. He will be held in the strictest code of behavior to maintain his PIETY of 0. Even a kind thought will warrant at least a single roll to test if he fall below that standard.
- Demons and Devils could appear to try and cut a deal with the character... Of course, whether it is generally not a wise thing to agree...
Fame/Infamy
Fame/Infamy will affect the degree of how RENOWN is being viewed. Whether the character is view as villain or a hero, to be loved or to be feared.
A score of 13 and above will be considered to be the good guys. A score of 7 and below is considered to be the bad guys.
What happens if someone impersonates the player and starts committing rape & mass murder which reduce his Fame/Infamy score in the eyes of the general population? Well, it sucks to be that player.
In game mechanics, the player will have to prove his innocence to use his original Fame/Infamy score. Otherwise the general population will see him as the guy with the reduced Fame/Infamy score.
Generally the circumstances that increase Piety will result in increase in Fame. Anything that decreases Piety will result in Infamy as well. However in order to change Fame/Infamy then the action must be seen or publicise by alot of people. Fame/Infamy is like your jacket. Piety is like your inner clothes. One can hide the true intention (Piety) behind Fame/Infamy score. However it is only a matter of time that the two scores become in sync when actions that were done in private is being made known...
RENOWN
RENOWN is like reputation and stuff like that... "Look, that is the Sir Balin who sacked the castle of Merkyn!" This could help the characters to have a sense of achievement rather than just the plain old xp and treasures. It also help with the RP aspect with NPCs. Piety is what the character moral alignment compass is like. This is not your AD&D alignments. Basically there are some situations where we a numerical gauge will be useful in measuring how "good" is the character, e.g. Sword of Vallandar.
The other aspect is to determine what kind of RENOWN the character has. Is he a Mother Theresa or Hitler reincarnated? Everyone starts with 0 at 1st level. For characters starting at higher level characters, the GM will assign a number between 0 to the max of their levels based on the background story that the player provides. If the character begins with a social class that has a basic RENOWN, then he will use the base from the social class until he exceeds that with adventuring. The higher number will be used. Renown is gain by completing quest or any appropriate juncture (e.g. being crowned as king). At the end of the quest or any appropriate juncture, a roll of 1d20 is used. If the number is equal or higher then the current RENOWN then 1 pt is added. If the number is lesser then none is added.
A easy quest such as rescuing a barmaid from a bunch of bandits will give a single roll. A tough quest like rescuing a princess from the pits of hell will give five rolls. An additional dice of RENOWN could be rewarded to a SINGLE player for exceptional RP efforts. The mechanics makes it easier for someone with 0 RENOWN to gain fame but progressively harder when he is becoming more famous. He needs a bigger and bigger act to top off the previous one. The other aspect is that some players may get more glory then the others due to a lucky break on the dice... which is completely normal. Fame is not shared equally for all who participates in the quest.
Those who are sharp will see that it is possible to gain a RENOWN of more than 20. The benefits will be explained later. Gaining a level will result in a 1d20 roll to test for gain in RENOWN. The benefits of RENOWN is that the player can declare that he is using his RENOWN when interacting with the NPCs. The GM will roll 1d20 to see if it is equal or lesser then the number, the NPC will react in a more positive way. If higher, the NPC could be just unimpressed or react in a more negative way... "Are you trying to threaten me punk?"
Appropriate penalties on the roll will be distance and how the character presents himself. The further the distance, the higher the penalty. Say -10 for 200miles apart... Beyond 200 miles, the reputation will be considered to be 0. Being famous also has its own set of problems. Swarmed by fans, besieged by request, being impersonated and framed... Not to mention that some nobles are likely to react negatively to someone who is of “inferior stock” being more famous than them.
Fame is lost through the passage of time. For every year that the character has not make a single RENOWN roll for completing any quest will have to see if his fame reduced. 1d20 will be rolled and if it is equal or lesser then the current RENOWN then 1 pt of RENOWN is lost. If it is higher, then the player is still as famous. The benefits of having a RENOWN that is higher than 20 is listed below - For every point that is higher than 20, the roll to test for reduction in fame is delayed by 100 years. After 100 years, RENOWN will dropped by 1 point. When RENOWN reach 20 then normal rules applies. So in theory, King Vallandar could have a fame of 30+ in his primetime. Thus the characters in book 1 still heard about him.
- For player characters who are unlikely to be played for 100+ game years... He can exchange the point to exchange for a +1 to any ability score. This represents the bigger then life aspect of the character...
- Alternatively, the character can convert it into a fate point which basically allow him to declare a successful action (Auto hit, auto save and etc...) despite whatever overwhelming circumstances...
Ideally a credible witness (e.g. the priest in bk 1) will give more weight to the stories. Alternatively some proof of completion of the quest, such as the head of the bandit leader, is also acceptable. The other possibility is the incident is being viewed by many people and becomes credible through sheer numbers. However at times a sufficiently high RENOWN character could be his own witness. It could be erode if there is some way to frame the character of lying about their exploits. Example, people found out that the real bandit leader is still alive and the "head" of the dead bandit leader actually verified to belong to a common thug. Whatever RENOWN earn for that exploit will be lost.
GM could also introduce other situations where RENOWN is being lost. Such as lies ... "That was not the head of the frostgiant. It is only a head of an orc!" GM can make the final decision on that.
The ideal scenario is that the characters are only active in a village. The further the character moved off from the village, the higher is the penalty. Say -1 for across village, -2 for across towns, -3 for across country and etc. The likely scenario is that the character travel around. Example, the character complete the scenario in bk 1 and earn 3 points of RENOWN. Subsequently, they move to serve Baron Aldred in his castle. Thus they are considered to be only RENOWN 1. Assume that they complete several quest for the Baron, they increase their RENOWN to 5. In this case, the characters will have two separate RENOWN scores. RENOWN 3 in village and RENOWN 5 in the castle of Baron Aldred. The highest RENOWN score will be used to calculate on the RENOWN 20 rule.
If the character goes to a new area, then the GM will determine the highest RENOWN score if there are overlapping concentric circles from 2 separate bases of RENOWN.
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