I am working on a game that is very heavily based around street dueling and the relative honor of various factions. It is a little bit like the Onderon or Alderaan Civil War, but with an old-school Medici vibe.

The first thing I need is a tracker for the players' (and others) honor. This would be a measure of how well respected their word is among the community and a general mark of trust and respect, I figure it will be very similar to the current morality system with a few tweaks and to what counts on each side (suffering slights would be a bad thing, winning duels and wise judgements would be a plus).

The other one that I am struggling a little more is a Glory or Renown. I figure this would be how well word of their deeds has traveled. It is probably tied more to things like daring exploits and facing challenges and martial prowess. As it increases they are invited to more esteemed gatherings and tales will be told of them as they become celebrities, but they will also be challenged by other glory-seekers (I brought down the legendary Zarr Three-Blades!).

Does anyone have some suggestions for implementing either (or both) of these kinds of mechanics? Has anyone tried something like this before?

Does anyone have some suggestions for implementing either (or both) of these kinds of mechanics? Has anyone tried something like this before?

Honor and Glory systems? What you want is in Legend of the Five Rings, because, you know, samurai and bushido.

But essentially, in L5R, Honor is a scale from 0 (Honorless Dog) to 10 (Soul Above Question), with values up to 1 decimal point.

So 0.1 = 1 point of Honor and 1.0 = 1 Rank of Honor. A character's Honor Rank determines his general level of honor, with most Samurai at 3.0-4.9 as the level where "I try to follow Bushido but still have human failings." Whereas lower than 3.0 is generally "untrustworthy", and lower than 2.0 is generally "dishonorable", while 5.0 and above is generally "trustworthy," with those 7.0 or higher being touted as "paragons of honor".

Do note, however, that the samurai ideals of honor do not directly apply to Star Wars. You can still use the scale, but it would be up to your setting's ideals to set how many points or ranks an individual gains or loses with every action.

As for Glory, every character in L5R starts at 1.0 (effectively only renowned as "a recent graduate of X School"), then goes up if they do bigger and better things (the bigger and the better, the more points are awarded). But, of course, "bad" bigger and bigger things are awarded negative points, though this is mostly due to the setting as the setting considers shunning someone or completely ignoring their existence as honorable ways to protest against that person's "bad" actions. Many playgroups houserule this by just giving each character a separate Fame and Infamy scale, so that people can recognize them for any actions attributed to them, and react accordingly.

Hope this helps.

I'd suggest tow scales: Respectability and Fame.

Every action should increase fame. Inaction should lower it. The higher the fame, the faster word spreads of their actions, deeds, words. This is a two-sided sword, though. It makes it easier to get bad publicity, too, and makes rumors very easy to begin. Rumors and misdeeds will lower ones respect meter.

This is a simple gauge of how people perceive the characters'... character. If they're a good egg or not.

Alternatively, if you want minimal house ruling, you could co-opt FFG systems that are already in place and apply a few tweaks.

I like using Honor like Morality. Maybe avoid the "Strengths" and "Weaknesses" and simply say dastardly deeds/dishonor/losing duels gives Conflict, whereas doing an action that increases honor provides a +1 (or more) to the d10 roll, counteracting losses of face or increasing their standing. You could argue that the variability of the d10 rolls account for gossip, slander, spin-framing, etc. Say they get +2 to the roll, but only end up with a 3 (they rolled a 1). Despite taking action that increases their honor, maybe a different house is busy coloring your actions in a way that is technically not untrue but makes you look cowardly or underhanded. If you got a bunch of Conflict but a solid increase in honor, maybe a different house member NPC performed great actions that somehow reflect well on you or extolled your virtues at a social gathering. You could stick with the standard "start at 50" mechanic and say "Dark side" is equivalent to "untrusted" and "Light side" is "well-respected". Or you could start them at 0 and expect them to build their honor through actions.

For Glory/Renown, I would simply reskin duties. Have each player pick a "Glory Seeking" attribute that acts as a Duty - "Victory in Dueling", "Saving Face", "Social Combat", or whatever, instead of "Combat Victory", "Personnel", or "Counter Intelligence". And, tied to Duty, Contribution ranks are very, very close to what you're talking about when you say:

As it increases they are invited to more esteemed gatherings and tales will be told of them as they become celebrities, but they will also be challenged by other glory-seekers (I brought down the legendary Zarr Three-Blades!).

Consider the description of Contribution ranks:

"Contribution rank represents the general level of respect and recognition the party receives for their lifetime achievements for the Alliance. As the party's Contribution rank increases, it is trusted with more important missions, recognized and respected by more Alliance members, and hunted by more dangerous Imperial agents."

Good catch on the Duty mechanic, AoR is the book I am least familiar with and, in fact, never picked up in full version.

I'd suggest tow scales: Respectability and Fame.

Every action should increase fame. Inaction should lower it. The higher the fame, the faster word spreads of their actions, deeds, words. This is a two-sided sword, though. It makes it easier to get bad publicity, too, and makes rumors very easy to begin. Rumors and misdeeds will lower ones respect meter.

This is a simple gauge of how people perceive the characters'... character. If they're a good egg or not.

Yeah, I reckon two tracks. Fame, how well you are known (this would be Infamy for bastards). Respect, how much people who know of you see your abilities.

If you're doing this kind of stuff, don't forget risk/reward ideas in implementation.

Doing flashy stuff, sledging or tagging a foe in combat to embarrass or humiliate a foe will earn you extra renown if you win. Doing so and then failing to win will loose you even more.