Reputation

The Reputation module is an optional ruleset for tracking how factions, organizations, and individuals regard a character. It is a parallel resource to skills and abilities — a measure of who knows you, what for, and how strongly.

This module is additive. The core engine does not change. Tables that do not use Reputation can ignore it; nothing elsewhere depends on it.

What This Module Covers

• Entries — the data on a character sheet: target, rating, and one of two named types (Renown or Infamy).
• Invocation — the four ways Reputation enters play at the table: roll as skill, contribute to Risk, GM-imposed burn cost, and player-elected burn for auto-success.
• Rating Changes — how Reputation grows, shrinks, and flips type. Includes the GM's end-of-act duty to review every character's entries.
• Worked Example — an extended in-fiction example following the canonical archetypes across an arc.

When to Use This Module

Use Reputation when a campaign meaningfully turns on faction politics, individual standing, or the consequences of public deeds. Cold Stars, with its competing factions and multi-allegiance parties, is a natural fit. A campaign focused on a tightly-bonded crew operating outside any institutional structure may not need the rule.

Renown and Infamy Are Not Positive and Negative

Renown and Infamy are two named flavors of being known — celebrated deeds versus transgressive ones. Either flavor can help or hurt a character depending on the audience. A war hero with Renown: League 4 is a celebrated figure when speaking with League officers; that same Renown is a liability when sneaking past Confederate patrols who remember the war on the other side. A smuggler with Infamy: Underworld 3 is a known fixer at criminal hangouts; that same Infamy is a problem when meeting a respectable banker.

The mechanic does not encode "good" or "bad." The fiction does.