This idea is a bit half-baked. Maybe you can help me fill it out.
The idea is to have "Fame Points" (FP) and levels of fame. Similar to Renown, Fame would track how widely known your party is in the world. Would everyone spanning an entire continent know your name, or only in certain circles? Would even a few people from across the seas know of your deeds?
I'm not sure if these would come with any in-game mechanical benefit, but simply by tracking it, players would be motivated to optimize it. It might simply affect role-play. How easy is it to recruit help or get special do-gooder discounts. Depends on your fame. Recently my paladin tried to negotiate a "saving the city" discount on a magic spear. He only got a small one, because lots of people were fighting in the battle and might also want the spear. If his party was more famous, the shopkeeper would have said, "Certainly, for a member of the Vicit Venators."
Or, what in-game benefits might you give?
Charisma ASIs?
Bonus feats?
A small gold income representing fan club donations, a stipend from the Church for your order holy knights, taxes from the subjects of your fiefdoms, or allowance from your group patron
Sounds interesting. I might use this. Instead of increasing Charisma, I would have the number of fame points they gain whenever they gain them depend on their Charisma modifier (minimum 0), as we all know that generally-known history is far less than totally accurate.
On another finger, shopkeepers have a business to run. Full price without a Charisma check is always the case. I might lower the DC of the check, though, if they invoke that being famous will draw business.
This reminds me of something I've designed (not for a D&D campaign per se, but a tabletop roleplaying game nonetheless) called the Adoration System. It's its own kind of renown or fame points thing, but it really controls how the party's story plays out and what opportunities/outcomes happen. Basically, every major decision in the campaign (the tabletop game was specifically modeled around the consequences of one choice or another, like an extremely player/roleplay-focused homebrew version of D&D) results in Adoration loss or gain in one of two groups: Church or State. For instance, the party decides to kill a prominent church official (-Church Adoration) who was going to overthrow the king (+State Adoration). Depending on the person the party is dealing with, high or low Adoration in either or both categories changes the possibilities for how the NPC behaves. It also helps to guide the DM on the eventual outcome of the story by measuring their two Adoration levels. For instance, after killing the church official and doing several other tasks which raises their State Adoration, the party is promoted to royal guards, etc.
What I am trying to suggest in this reply is refining this Fame Points idea into two or more categories of Fame. Simply because a group of heroes saves a city from a goblin army does not mean everyone loves them. What if the heroes were careless in defending the citizens? What if they were reckless when they sent allied soldiers into the horde to slow them down? What if they only did it in exchange for a huge sack of gold? Rather than simply diminish the Fame Points granted, I would separate Fame Points into a few different areas so different people could have different reactions to the party's reputation. Alternatively, if you are in a campaign with multiple nations or regions involved, you might divide Fame Points by area, and perhaps gaining Fame in one causes you to lose Fame in another. I think this would be more realistic, because: just because you guys save a few towns from a dragon and help stop a famine doesn't mean people everywhere are going to love you. Even the best heroes have their haters.
Yeah, ok, I suppose it's more or less just a magnified version of faction renown then. But I don't think there's renown which relies more on individual personalities than factions? That might be a point of difference to consider for your Fame Points mechanic, is what I'm suggesting. Even if your party is famous throughout the realm, some people might still regard you with infamy if you have been known to work more for wealthy clients or have a reckless streak, etc. Just depends on their own view of your deeds more so than their organization or country, and that view could be one of several archetypes that Fame Points tracks. Idk. That's just my thought on how to distinguish it. Like, renown = groups, fame = people.
This idea is a bit half-baked. Maybe you can help me fill it out.
The idea is to have "Fame Points" (FP) and levels of fame. Similar to Renown, Fame would track how widely known your party is in the world. Would everyone spanning an entire continent know your name, or only in certain circles? Would even a few people from across the seas know of your deeds?
I'm not sure if these would come with any in-game mechanical benefit, but simply by tracking it, players would be motivated to optimize it. It might simply affect role-play. How easy is it to recruit help or get special do-gooder discounts. Depends on your fame. Recently my paladin tried to negotiate a "saving the city" discount on a magic spear. He only got a small one, because lots of people were fighting in the battle and might also want the spear. If his party was more famous, the shopkeeper would have said, "Certainly, for a member of the Vicit Venators."
Or, what in-game benefits might you give?
Charisma ASIs?
Bonus feats?
A small gold income representing fan club donations, a stipend from the Church for your order holy knights, taxes from the subjects of your fiefdoms, or allowance from your group patron
Sounds interesting. I might use this. Instead of increasing Charisma, I would have the number of fame points they gain whenever they gain them depend on their Charisma modifier (minimum 0), as we all know that generally-known history is far less than totally accurate.
On another finger, shopkeepers have a business to run. Full price without a Charisma check is always the case. I might lower the DC of the check, though, if they invoke that being famous will draw business.
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This reminds me of something I've designed (not for a D&D campaign per se, but a tabletop roleplaying game nonetheless) called the Adoration System. It's its own kind of renown or fame points thing, but it really controls how the party's story plays out and what opportunities/outcomes happen. Basically, every major decision in the campaign (the tabletop game was specifically modeled around the consequences of one choice or another, like an extremely player/roleplay-focused homebrew version of D&D) results in Adoration loss or gain in one of two groups: Church or State. For instance, the party decides to kill a prominent church official (-Church Adoration) who was going to overthrow the king (+State Adoration). Depending on the person the party is dealing with, high or low Adoration in either or both categories changes the possibilities for how the NPC behaves. It also helps to guide the DM on the eventual outcome of the story by measuring their two Adoration levels. For instance, after killing the church official and doing several other tasks which raises their State Adoration, the party is promoted to royal guards, etc.
What I am trying to suggest in this reply is refining this Fame Points idea into two or more categories of Fame. Simply because a group of heroes saves a city from a goblin army does not mean everyone loves them. What if the heroes were careless in defending the citizens? What if they were reckless when they sent allied soldiers into the horde to slow them down? What if they only did it in exchange for a huge sack of gold? Rather than simply diminish the Fame Points granted, I would separate Fame Points into a few different areas so different people could have different reactions to the party's reputation. Alternatively, if you are in a campaign with multiple nations or regions involved, you might divide Fame Points by area, and perhaps gaining Fame in one causes you to lose Fame in another. I think this would be more realistic, because: just because you guys save a few towns from a dragon and help stop a famine doesn't mean people everywhere are going to love you. Even the best heroes have their haters.
If you grant fame points in different categories, that's basically faction renown. Your factions are Church and State, among others.
Yeah, ok, I suppose it's more or less just a magnified version of faction renown then. But I don't think there's renown which relies more on individual personalities than factions? That might be a point of difference to consider for your Fame Points mechanic, is what I'm suggesting. Even if your party is famous throughout the realm, some people might still regard you with infamy if you have been known to work more for wealthy clients or have a reckless streak, etc. Just depends on their own view of your deeds more so than their organization or country, and that view could be one of several archetypes that Fame Points tracks. Idk. That's just my thought on how to distinguish it. Like, renown = groups, fame = people.
Shadowrun and Cyberpunk both have similar systems. You may find some useful stuff by looking into how those systems handled it.
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