Worked Example

An extended example following the canonical archetypes — Angus, Hanako, Priya, and Venlyn — across a single arc, showing how Reputation enters play.

Hanako has Renown: League 3 from her service as a naval officer during the Confederate skirmish two years ago. She needs a private audience with Senator Marlin, a League legislator known for being difficult to reach. Without Reputation, Hanako would roll Presence + Influence: Persuasion against a Risk set by Marlin's staff. With her public profile, she proposes substituting her Renown for Influence: she is not merely talking her way in, she is trading on a name the senator will recognize. The GM agrees. The roll is Presence + Renown 3. The Renown rating is not depleted. She is leveraging her name, not cashing it in.

Two scenes later, Hanako needs to cross into Confederate-held space without raising flags. Confederate patrols would recognize a former League officer of her profile as a threat. The same Renown that opened the senator's door is now a liability. The GM invokes Hanako's Renown: League 3 as additional Risk on her Agility + Stealth check to slip past the patrol. Her base Stealth roll is now made under +3 Risk. Same rating. Same entry. Different audience. The mechanic does not change; the fiction decides which side of the pool the rating lands on.

Meanwhile, Angus has Infamy: Underworld 3 from a decade of profitable smuggling out of the Outer Veil. He needs a contact on Hephaestus Station to smooth the offload of a sensitive cargo, and a roll feels too risky. Angus elects to burn a point of his Infamy. He sends word through the right channels: Angus needs a friend at Hephaestus. The GM agrees the ask is in scale. Angus has the kind of profile where this kind of favor is plausible. A name comes back. The cargo lands clean. His Infamy: Underworld drops to 2. The favor cost a piece of his name; future asks of similar weight will need a different angle.

Priya, the third of the crew, joined a Confederate-aligned salvage operation between acts. The work paid well, but it did not go unnoticed. Priya holds Renown: League 2 from her time as a reactor specialist on a League survey vessel. The Confederate work is opposed to that standing. If she continues in this direction across another act, her Renown will reach 0 and become dormant. A defining act on the Confederate side would then flip the entry to Infamy: League 1. For now, the rating simply slips.

Venlyn, finally, holds Renown: Diplomatic Corps 4 from her work as an embassy attaché during the Lyndri-Terran trade realignment. Mid-act, the party needs a private meeting with a Lyndri ambassador. Venlyn elects to burn a point. The ask is well within the reach of her standing; the GM agrees. The meeting happens. Her Renown: Diplomatic Corps drops to 3. Later in the same act, the party needs to commandeer a Diplomatic Corps frigate for a covert insertion. Venlyn proposes a similar burn. The GM declines: that ask exceeds the plausible reach of her rating regardless of how celebrated she is. The mechanic does not turn Reputation into a license to conjure resources; the GM's adjudication keeps it scaled.

At the close of the act, the GM reviews each character's Reputation. Hanako receives +1 Renown: League for her work resolving the senator's crisis, moving from 3 to 4. Angus receives +1 Infamy: Underworld for the audacity of the Hephaestus run, moving from 2 (post-burn) back to 3. Priya loses her remaining Renown: League down to 1; the Confederate salvage was visible to too many people. Venlyn receives +1 Renown: Diplomatic Corps for the ambassador meeting's outcome, moving from 3 to 4. The GM also notes that Angus has begun building Renown: Hephaestus Station in light of the contacts he made, starting at 1. New entries can appear at act end the same way existing ones change.