Character Reputation

Star Trek Adventures
81

“Punitive Assignment” is a known thing in the real world.

Put them in a slot where there authority is limited, where they’re above grade for the slot, and where their training can be put to good use.

For example, a USN Capt MD of my acquaintance was incompetent as an administrator & CO, while holding the rank of Cdr, and found himself punitively assigned as CMO on a Destroyer, supervising 3 ratings (enlisted). He was much happier… his wife wasn’t… and was even promoted to Capt while in that billet.

There’s quite a difference between the various kinds of incompetence.

  1. Some lack the skills for the assigned billet, but have useful skills for other billets.
  2. Some have the skills, but lack either the wit or the will to use them.
  3. Some lack the willingness to delegate, and so overwork themselves.
  4. Some lack skills in general
  5. Some are skilled but fail to document properly, or to explain extraordinary circumstances.
  6. Those who never try because they can delegate, and do so too liberally.
  7. Those who ignore the tasks assigned to pursue other goals.

Of those #4 & #6 are the only ones that are worth cashiering readily.
#4 because they usually cheated in some manner to get where they are at.
#6, because they are so bad for morale that they incite mutiny. And usually, they also blame the delegated individuals…

#1. should be reassigned to somewhere in their competence.†
#2. needs to be watched, and directed better. (TNG Example: Reg Barclay)
#3. needs counseling. (DS9 Examples: Bashir and O’Brien.)
#5. needs observation and retraining.
#7. needs reevaluation. A demotion, followed by counseling. Cashier upon repeat. If the action is really a total &&&&-up, cashier may be in order initially.

† Currently, for the most part, they just quietly get shoved out in the US military. Missed too many promotion opportunities, bye-bye!

82

How do you manage reputation when a PC has one negative reputation and no positives ?

83

In the original Reputation rules from the first corebook, you lose 1 Reputation: by rolling 0 (zero) dice, you score fewer successes than the number of negative influences.

In the revised Reputation rules from the Klingon book, you gain 1 Shame for scoring one success less than the Difficulty (which is equal to the number of negative influences), which is then spent on options from the list on page 134.

In either case: as you have no positive influences, you roll no dice, and by rolling no dice, you can score no successes. This isn’t a problem if you’ve got no negative influences either, as 0 successes vs 0 difficulty is fine.

84

My campaign has begun before the arrival of the new reputation rules so we keep them. Thanks for your answer :smiley:

85

My main concern is that once the reputation goes up it’s easier to continuing going up and once the reputation goes down it’s easier to continuing going down. A player with a réputation of 6 will likely going down even if he saved the day.
My idea, partly inspired by klingon rule book):

  • rolling (positive influences)d20 against (10 +number of positives influences) difficulty (negative influences)