Prestige
Prestige measures how a character is seen by the world, shaped by their actions, decisions, achievements, and failures throughout their journey. It influences their identity, reputation, and ultimately their legacy, affecting how NPCs, creatures, and even other Players respond to them.
Developing Prestige
Prestige begins with a character's appearance, background, and reputation, and evolves through feats, downfalls, choices, and interactions.
Standing & Mission Statement
A Character's relationship with each Individual or Affiliation is measured through Standing. The GM keeps each Standing record with its Individual or Affiliation. An Individual who belongs to an Affiliation shares that Affiliation's Standing, and has no separate personal Standing record while a member. Actions toward a member affect the shared Affiliation record only as that Affiliation's entry specifies. Individuals and Affiliations can love or hate a Character they have never met. A Character's Mission Statement, significant actions, achievements, failures, and known Titles inform how the GM applies the rules that move Standing. Standing is the primary measure of a Character's reputation and relationships in the game world (see Standing Tiers, below).
Titles
Characters earn titles for notable actions, achievements, or infamous deeds. Heroic and Villainous titles are tracked, each with a value that impacts how the world reacts to them. Only one Hero and one Villain title can be highlighted at a time, affecting their recognition and appearance.
Boasted Titles: Boasted titles are prestigious honors earned through Heroic deeds, like achievements and feats, or distinguished actions, which Players may display in their Hero slot to showcase their character's valor and reputation to others.
Shamed Titles: Shamed titles are given to the characters at the GM's will and creation, or by a series of titles the GM may choose from. Shamed titles are always Exposed in the Shamed slot, but they can dissipate over time as the Character performs good deeds. On the other hand, these titles become more difficult to remove if the Character continues bad deeds. There is no unlocking Shamed titles, and the Shamed Title Exposed, is replaced by other Shamed titles that are of a lower negative integer value. Not all NPCs will forget a character's bad deeds, and depending on the LVL of these deeds, they'll have to constantly watch their back.
Titles by Rule Set. Titles do not exist at Core. At Modular, whether the GM tells a Character their Shamed Title is the table's choice, decided before the campaign begins. At Modular, the GM does not tell them. The Title is Exposed to the world, not to the Character; they learn it the way anyone learns what is said about them, from how the world treats them.
Titles are integrated tools to help campaigns remember their deeds, both good and bad. There are archives, journals and other places where this information is kept.
Reputation
A Character's actions and known reputation shape how Individuals and Affiliations respond. Each relevant entry lists the Contribution Point awards for its favors and the Wrongdoing Point Losses for its Lesser and Greater Wrongdoings, or a direct tier result. Values reflect the action's weight to that specific target; the same action may have no effect or a different result for another target. The entry also lists Friends and Rivals, whose relationships can create Praise or Blowback states without changing another record's Contribution Points.
Affiliation
Affiliation is an organization or group of Individuals. A Character may have a Standing record with an Affiliation without belonging to it. Every Individual member shares the Affiliation's Standing toward the Character; actions toward a member affect that shared record only as the Affiliation's entry specifies. Standing sets attitude and combat response, not access. Requirements for interactions, services, quests, and areas—including Level and/or Rank—are listed on the relevant Individual, Affiliation, or story entry.
Individual Disposition
Culture is separate from Race. When a Character is in an area associated with their Culture, matching Individuals and Affiliations default to Liked, and their listed Rivals default to Disliked; each Culture-based default begins with a Contribution Score of 0. Neglect cannot lower a record below its Culture-based default; direct actions can. If no Culture default applies, a new record begins at Neutral with a Contribution Score of 0.
Standing Tiers
From lowest to highest, the nine Standing tiers are Hated, Disliked, Tolerable, Neutral, Liked, Respected, Adored, Cherished, and Exalted.
Standing determines attitude and combat response; it does not grant access. Each Individual, Affiliation, or story entry sets its own social reactions and any requirements for interaction or access.
Tolerable and Neutral: An Individual or Affiliation does not initiate harm. It may retaliate if the Character harms or wrongs it.
Disliked and Hated: An Individual or Affiliation attacks the Character when the Character enters its detection range.
Liked and above: Affiliation members join combat to defend the Character when the Character is attacked. Higher Standing does not increase this combat response; other reactions are specified by the relevant entry.
Standing
Contribution Points
A Favor adds Contribution Points to the current tier's Contribution Score. When the score reaches its tier cap, move up one tier, set the new tier's score to 0, and discard any excess; points do not carry upward. Infamy subtracts Contribution Points from the current bucket. When the score reaches 0, demote one tier and start the lower bucket at half its cap; apply any remaining loss to that bucket, repeating at each zero. A specified direct tier result takes precedence over point calculation. Hated is permanent. Exalted has no cap.
For a scripted event, its Module specifies the Favor or Infamy level and the affected Individual or Affiliation record. For an action outside a scripted event, the GM decides whether Standing changes and, if so, chooses a level from the chart. Apply the value to the affected record only; the same action can have different consequences for different targets. A direct tier result written for an entry replaces the chart value.
| Favor | Contribution Points added | Infamy | Contribution Points lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Token | +325 | Negligent | −325 |
| Considerable | +650 | Deceptive | −650 |
| Generous | +1,625 | Spiteful | −1,625 |
| Invaluable | +3,250 | Malicious | −3,250 |
| Lifesaving | +6,500 | Treasonous | −6,500 |
These are standard values. A GM may adjust them for the campaign in Modular Rules.
Keep a separate Standing record for each Individual who is not a member of an Affiliation, and for each Affiliation. Every member shares the Affiliation's record; a member has no separate personal Standing while affiliated. An Individual or Affiliation may love or hate a Character they have never met. The GM keeps each record with its Individual or Affiliation, and a Character knows its tier or current Contribution Score only if they are tracking it.
User Space organizes records under eight headings: Family, Individual, Affiliations, Companions, Campaign, Fellows, Neighbours, and Wellness. Standing records belong to Individuals or Affiliations; Companion Mood and Wellness use their own rules and scales.
Family: The Character's own kin. Each member carries their own Character Sheet and stats. A Family member who passes or is lost remains part of the record. Family is recorded separately from Home: a Home is a place, a Family is people, and Wanderers with no Home at all still keep a Family.
Individual: A single person with a Standing record of their own when they are not a member of an Affiliation. An Individual who belongs to an Affiliation shares that Affiliation's Standing.
Affiliations: Organizations or groups of Individuals. A Character can have Standing with an Affiliation without belonging to it. Every member shares the Affiliation's Standing; actions toward a member affect it only as the Affiliation's entry specifies.
Companions: Pets, Guardians, mounts, pack animals, and Cohorts bound to the Character. A Companion's Mood remains its own record, following its separate rules.
Campaign: The people the Character has partied with. Standing remains with each Individual or Affiliation record across campaigns.
Fellows: The Character's Fellows, the friends on their list and the parties they ride with regularly. Standing is recorded with the relevant Individual or Affiliation.
Neighbours: Those whose plot or Home shares, or borders, the Character's own coordinates. Neighbour Standing is recorded with the relevant Individual or Affiliation.
Wellness: Wellness is the Character's self-care record, shaped by rest, diet, activity, and Practitioner care. It runs on its own scale described under Wellness, pg. 2; it does not award Contribution Points.
Contributions are recorded with the Individual or Affiliation they concern; their Contribution Points remain on that record and do not become a Character-wide score.
Refer to the Journal booklet or Online Journal for the full record. Show the current tier and its Contribution Score; show an em dash for every inactive tier. A Character knows the displayed tier and score only if they are tracking that record. Other records may be shown or hidden by category at the Player's discretion. The Home itself, its rooms, land, and Trophy Room, is displayed separately.
Praise & Blowback
Praise and Blowback are separate states, not Contribution Point changes. Each relevant Individual, Affiliation, or story entry lists its Friends and Rivals and defines the effect. Individuals in an Affiliation share any state received by that Affiliation.
When an Affiliation's Standing is Liked or higher, its listed Friends receive Praise. When it is Disliked or lower, its listed Rivals receive Blowback. These threshold states are triggered by an Affiliation's Standing, not by an Individual's Standing.
Helping an Individual gives Praise from that Individual's Friends and Blowback from their Rivals; harming an Individual gives Blowback from their Friends and Praise from their Rivals. Helping an Affiliation gives Praise from it and its Friends; harming an Affiliation gives Blowback from its Friends.
A recipient's own Standing changes independently of a Praise or Blowback state. An event-triggered state ends when the Character's Standing with its source changes.
Contribution Score
Each Individual or Affiliation's record displays its current Standing tier and that tier's Contribution Score. The relevant entry lists the scripted Favor or Infamy level and affected record, or a direct tier result. A Character knows the tier or score only if they are tracking that record.
Legacy
Over time, a character's Prestige creates their lasting legacy, remembered well beyond their life. Become a †legend or die a †pauper, the choice is theirs. †See rank. More on Prestige (link pending). See Mortality, Immortality, and Retirement under Time, pg. 4, for how reaching Legend before retiring turns this legacy into monuments, statues, and songs in the world itself.