Shared Rules
Prestige
How much weight a name carries in the world, and what the world remembers about it.
Prestige measures how much weight a name carries in the world. It measures significance, not approval.
“Prestige measures significance, not approval.”
Prestige is not morality, wealth, Authority, a Quality, or raw power. Someone can be infamous and still have very high Prestige. Characters, Houses, and Factions use the same broad framework; the reasons their names matter can differ.
An open-ended measure
Prestige has no maximum
Prestige may accumulate across a lifetime, dynasty, institution, or centuries. These descriptive bands help communicate the scale of a reputation. They are not caps or advancement levels.
Why the name matters
Prestige Sources
Prestige Sources explain why a name matters and together make up its Prestige score. Record the source, its context, and its contribution where useful. The following are loose GM guidance, not a rigid formula:
- Minor Source
- +1–2
- Significant Source
- +3–5
- Major Source
- +6–10
- Historic Source
- +10 or more
Sources may arise from accomplishments, offices, ancestry, scandals, associations, discoveries, victories, institutions founded, public failures, or other publicly meaningful events. Infamous Sources count: Prestige measures significance, not approval.
A Source may be especially relevant in a martial, scholarly, religious, underworld, or other context. That context does not create a separate Prestige track. Prestige remains one score whose Sources explain its meaning.
How a Source lasts
- Enduring: its significance remains part of the name’s history.
- Conditional: it depends on a current office, alliance, or circumstance.
- Fading: its public significance may lessen with time or changing attention.
For example, Royal Chancellor +5 may disappear when the office is lost, while Former Royal Chancellor +2 may remain as residual Prestige.
Actions and reputation
When deeds become memorable
Players do not spend a Deed or Endeavour to buy Prestige. Deeds and Endeavours create opportunities to earn Prestige when their outcomes become publicly meaningful.
Examples include hosting a tournament, holding a grand court, founding an institution, winning a battle, negotiating an important settlement, making a major discovery, or becoming involved in a famous scandal. An outcome is more likely to matter when it is public, significant, difficult, relevant, distinctive, and witnessed or reported. It is the outcome and what the world makes of it that matter.
“History records what happened. Prestige records what the world remembers.”
History records events and accomplishments; Prestige records the weight those events carry in public memory. History can explain a Source without automatically increasing Prestige.
Different kinds of standing
Prestige and Assets
Prestige and Assets describe different things. A House may hold rich estates, ships, and a large treasury yet remain little known beyond its region: high Assets, low Prestige. A celebrated exile or famous scholar may have almost no property or staff: high Prestige, few Assets.
“Prestige gets you into the room. Bonds help determine what happens once you are there.”
“Prestige creates attention; it does not create obedience.”
Prestige may bring recognition and access, but it does not grant permission, ownership, loyalty, or control. See Authority for recognized powers and Bonds for meaningful relationships.
The burden of being known
Attention has consequences
High Prestige can create complications as well as opportunity: recognition, rumors spreading farther, public expectations, known enemies, loss of anonymity, requests for aid, scrutiny, and scandals carrying farther. A famous name attracts attention even when its bearer would rather be left alone.