Making Friends and Losing Them- Privileged Reputation Dice

During my years of running Victoriana, I’ve noticed my players prefer to invest in raw dice-power stats like attributes or skills. If they do take some of the other character options, they gravitate towards the special rules of Talents and the material resources of Assets. Privileges get very little use. I have also seen that Reputation dice (which are rolled to see if people have heard anything about you) don’t very often get to pull the story in interesting directions. It takes a long time to accumulate enough dice through adventuring to cause offended gasps at the mention of your name or grateful glances toward you in the street. I say let’s point these problems at each other and make a house rule.

Some of the Privileges and Complications give Reputation Dice to a player character. If you are using my house rules for Complications, those Reputation Dice are gone, making the problem worse. So, I’ve gone through the Privileges in the 3^rd Edition Victoriana Core Rulebook and assigned each a Propriety or Notoriety Reputation Dice. When a Player Character gets the Privilege, they get the Reputation Dice attached to it. This represents their “public face” based on their social circles, uniforms, and titles, as opposed to Reputation Dice gained by their actions through play. If a Privilege already gives Reputation Dice, that text can be ignored. Those dice have been factored in the following list:

Privileges

Artificer’s License-Propriety 1

Barrister- License- Propriety 1

Blackguard- Notoriety 2

Ear of the Street- Notoriety 1

Engineering License- Propriety 1

Friend of the Library- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Gang Member- Notoriety 2

Hero- Propriety 1

Higher Station-Propriety 1

Knighthood-Propriety 2

Livery Company-Propriety 1

Local Hero-Propriety 2

Maleficium- Notoriety 2

Medical Practitioner’s License- Propriety 1

Military Commission- Propriety 1

Museum Trustee- Propriety 1

Noble Tinkerer- Propriety 1

Notary Public- Propriety 1

Peer- Propriety 3

Police Officer- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Political Legacy- Propriety 1

Private Club Membership- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Private Club Membership Elite- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Pub Regular- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Public Carriage License- Propriety 1

Scrap Yard Source- Notoriety 1

Second Family- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Social Anomaly- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Society Friends- Propriety 1

Street Informant- Notoriety 1

Street Informant- Peeler’s Pet-Notoriety 1

Thaumaturgical Degree- Propriety 1

Theatre Box- Propriety 1

Theatrical Patron- Notoriety 1

Warrant Card- Either Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1

Certain Privileges listed come with the option of Propriety 1 or Notoriety 1. When a Player Character takes the Privilege, they choose whether this is seen in a notorious or proper light in society’s eyes. If a Private Club has a reputation for being full of Libertines with shocking vices, taking the Privilege gives your character a Notoriety die. Similarly, if polite society knows the Private Club for its charity work and stable political connections, the Privilege gives a Propriety Die.

Privileges aligned with Propriety heavily outnumber those with Notoriety dice, which is understandable. Most Privileges were built to fit upper-class characters, reflecting societal connections handy during an adventure. Only a handful could be considered scandalous enough to warrant a Notoriety point.

Remember, Notoriety is not a bad thing. It just means you get along better with the shadier or less accepted people in the Empire. A stage actor connected with revolutionaries won’t be keen to open up to a respectable citizen with close ties to the police. Of course, the respectable citizen won’t be pleased with it either. For the Rules for Reputation Dice see pages 190-193 in the Victoriana 3^rd Edition Core Rulebook. For the Rules for Privileges see pages 119-122.