Originally Published February 7th 2021
I plan on running a game where an expansionist empire will be a somewhat central problem. What is an expansionist empire if it doesn’t have military leaders vying for power and glory along with their conquest?
To help facilitate that I have created a simple numerical system to track how much glory one person has gained to the people of the empire.
The Count
Each General has a renown score, the score represents the abstract public image of them as a person. Their score can only change once they have returned from the front line.
There are five brackets of renown one can have.
Unknown (1-15)
While they are an accomplished general the people do not know much of you.
Respected (16-30)
Talk of their exploits has reached the public. The people respect their military might
Renowned (31-45)
The people hear fables of what you do. People will sometimes walk up to them to thank them for their service to the empire.
Revered (46-60)
Considered one of the greats of the empire. The people love them dearly, some consider them the best general of this generation
More loved than the Emperor (61+)
The people love them so much they would gladly accept them as their new Imperial Leader
At renown levels 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75 the character gains a new title reflective of the actions they have undertaken on their Campaigns.
The Modifiers
These are some of the actions a general can take of events that happen to change their score.
Boones
Bring back a Monster unknown to the Empire (Alive) 7
Bring back a Monster unknown to the Empire (Dead) 6
Bring back an Animal unknown to the Empire 5
Bring back an Artifact 3
Bring back a Religious or Magical Artifact 6
Conquer a City 8
Conquer a Town 4
Describe an Animal unknown to the Empire (Deceitfully) 3
Describe an Animal unknown to the Empire (Truthfully) 4
Establish an Outpost 5
Gain a minor Scar 1
Prove you are Innocent of Treason 8
Win in a Duel to an Equal Opponent 4
Banes
Be accused of Treason -4
Be revealed to be a liar -5
Disobeying high Command and Failing -8
Disobeying higher Command -4
Fail to Defend a City -6
Gain Major Scarring -3
Loose Imperial Flag -4
Loose in a Duel to an Equal Opponent -4
Loose in battle to another Empire -5
Loose in battle to an Unworthy Opponent -7
Plotting Against the Empire -20
Refuse to Duel -6
Team Work
When two generals work together on a campaign there is a role made to see who gets the lion's share of the glory. Two opposing roles are made by the generals using a d8 with a modifier based off of what bracket they are in.
Being Unknown provides +0
Being Respected provides +1
Being Renowned provides +2
Being Revered provides +3
Being More loved than the Emperor provides +4
The general with the higher result gets all of the renown points.
The Sheet
I have made a simple sheet to help you keep track of the standing of any specific general.
The 0.9
while I believe the basic concept of this is down I don't think this is finished at all. These numbers are just ballpark estimations. This is a system that would need a fair amount of use via playtesting an entire campaign and that is somewhat hard to do so I am releasing it in it's unfinished state to be updated later.