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ideasmith
2011-08-22, 11:46 PM
What is Needed to Use these Rules

To use these rules the DM will first need to determine:

What cultures exist in the campaign world, and which of them are available to PC’s, with what restrictions.

Whether each culture is land-based, sea-based, or self-sufficient.

Which prestige classes are favored each given culture.

Which culture each NPC belongs to.

Affects of Status:

In a complain that uses these rules, status has these effects.

Income

Once a character has spent 30 consecutive days in a community, each subsequent day the character remains, she accrues (status-5) * (status-5) * (status-5) silver pieces per day, just for being considered important to the community.

Leadership

When using these status rules, Leadership Value is determined as follows:
Status, -2 if character has a familiar, special mount, or animal companion.

Interaction

If two characters are different in status by more than 5 points the lower in status will be reluctant to approach, attack, or make public statements about the higher status character (except as defined in the Leadership feat). Doing so requires a Will Save (DC 20+Status Difference). If such a Will save is failed, the character may make no more such attempts for 24 hours.

Skill Modifiers
If two interacting characters are different in status by more than 5 points the higher in status will gain +4 bonus to Intimidate checks and a +2 bonus to Diplomacy checks. The lower in status will gain a +3 insight bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive Checks.

Protégés

A character with a status of at least 5 may have a number of protégés in a community equal to her Charisma bonus. The same character may be a protégé in more than one community. Changing protégés in a community requires an hour spent interacting with the locals in that community. Protégés have increased status, as listed below.

Determining Status Value:

Determine this separately for each culture the character has interacted with.

Level
Hit Dice + Level Adjustment (if any)
-1 per 4 levels in Adept, Expert, and Warrior
-1 per 2 levels in Commoner and Unfledged

Charisma
Add Charisma Modifier

Prestige (these are cumulative)

+1 per favored prestige class character has the prerequisites for (whether or not the character has any levels in the class).
+1 per favored prestige class character has maximum pre-epic progression in.

Property

For purposes of this requirement, each culture is land based, sea based, or self-sufficient:

+2 if culture is land based and character has a stronghold, base of operations, guildhouse or the like.
+1 if culture is land-based and character has at least one level of aristocrat.
+3 if culture is sea-based and character is captain of a ship.
+3 if culture is self-sufficient and character has no more property than she can carry by herself or on her mount while riding it.

Stranger

Divide above total by two if character does not belong to the culture.

Associates

If you are a cohort, follower, or protégé of a higher-status character, your status is, at minimum, 5 less than that of your master or mentor. In the case of a protégé, this bonus only applies if the character is a protégé in that particular community.

Kuma Kode
2011-08-23, 05:56 AM
So your average commoner makes 1 silver per day for being considered important to the community? The friendly farmer with 12 charisma gets 8 sp per day? Do these rules somehow not apply to them?

ideasmith
2011-08-23, 09:35 AM
So your average commoner makes 1 silver per day for being considered important to the community? The friendly farmer with 12 charisma gets 8 sp per day? Do these rules somehow not apply to them?

Fixed, hopefully without causing new problems.

Alefiend
2011-08-23, 11:51 AM
My criticisms:

1. PCs are adventurers, and thus spend most of their time outside the normal social order. I don't see how this applies to them at all, and there's little sense in having a detailed mechanic like this for NPCs.

2. Hanging out on a street corner for a month doesn't earn you money unless you're a prostitute, dealer, or beggar. Your system doesn't account for effort, or lack thereof. I'm not throwing a fistful of sp every day to Baron von Nipplehair just because he decided to come for an extended visit.

3. This can all be avoided with a little roleplay—the thing the game is supposed to be about—and application of the Craft and Profession income rules. Some of your rulesmaking attempt could be cannibalized and used as modifiers to those rolls.

Constructive criticism: There's something useful here, as long as you don't tie it explicitly to money. Use this (or something like it) as a Reputation/Influence modifier to rolls on social skills. I can also picture it being used (sparingly) to get loans or credit in a community, with the assumption that the character will repay and replace once the need has passed.

ideasmith
2011-08-23, 12:57 PM
My criticisms:

1. PCs are adventurers, and thus spend most of their time outside the normal social order. I don't see how this applies to them at all, and there's little sense in having a detailed mechanic like this for NPCs.
Whether PC’s “spend most of their time outside the normal social order” is campaign-dependent. I find that having PC’s relate to their communities adds to the game.

2. Hanging out on a street corner for a month doesn't earn you money unless you're a prostitute, dealer, or beggar. Your system doesn't account for effort, or lack thereof. I'm not throwing a fistful of sp every day to Baron von Nipplehair just because he decided to come for an extended visit.
Hanging out on a street corner for a month also doesn’t provide the training needed to gain a level in a new character class. D&D characters can nevertheless gain a new class with each level gain, without explaining where the training came from. In D&D, some things are simply assumed and spelling out exactly where the money came from doesn’t obviously add to the fun.

3. This can all be avoided with a little roleplay—the thing the game is supposed to be about—and application of the Craft and Profession income rules. Some of your rulesmaking attempt could be cannibalized and used as modifiers to those rolls.
I prefer making status a number visible on the character sheet. I makes it more ‘real’ to the players, and allows factoring cultural differences in , and making those more ‘real’ to the players.

Constructive criticism: There's something useful here, as long as you don't tie it explicitly to money. Use this (or something like it) as a Reputation/Influence modifier to rolls on social skills. I can also picture it being used (sparingly) to get loans or credit in a community, with the assumption that the character will repay and replace once the need has passed.
You seem to be making a big deal about a small amount of money. Though adding in skill modifiers is a good idea.

Edit: Added skill modifiers.