Sympathy

Hero's Guide Preview #2

This June, Wizards of the Coast will release the Hero's Guide, a 160-page, full-color hardcover accessory for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. The book features new prestige classes, feats, combat tactics, equipment, Force traditions, and character options for players. It's designed to help players create memorable Star Wars heroes and customize their characters' abilities. The Hero's Guide also includes variant class abilities, multiclass character archetypes (a concept first introduced in Star Wars Gamer magazine), alternative uses for skills, and rules for cybernetics and martial arts.

This second Hero's Guide preview introduces the rules for Sympathy and factions.

Sympathy

In the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, some of the benefit of good relations and fame within an organization is represented by a character's Reputation bonus. A positive Reputation grants a bonus on skill checks involving interaction with other characters (Bluff, Diplomacy, Entertain, Gather Information, and Intimidate). This bonus can become a penalty in some situations, when the character is better known for disreputable deeds than for good ones. (See Chapter Six of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game for more information about Reputation.)

Sympathy, on the other hand, determines how strongly affiliated a character is with a given faction or organization. The higher the Sympathy with a given faction, the more trust and aid that faction affords the character. Sympathy and Reputation are related in terms of effect. The following system explains how to award and apply Sympathy bonuses.

Gaining Sympathy

A character gains a point of Sympathy whenever she completes an adventure. The player can apply that point of Sympathy to any of the factions with which she interacted positively during the adventure. A character's Sympathy score for any given faction can never exceed +5. Each player needs to keep track of his Sympathy bonuses for each faction with which he has Sympathy.

Sympathy works the same as, and stacks with, Reputation. Whenever a character interacts with a member of a faction with which he has Sympathy, and would normally get to add his Reputation bonus to a roll, he can also add his Sympathy bonus.

For example, Verius the smuggler is a 7th-level scoundrel, with a Reputation bonus of +2. He has just completed his first spice-running contract for a Hutt, and he gains a Sympathy point. He dealt positively with the Hutt criminal syndicate, so he decides to apply this point of Sympathy to that faction. He can now add his +1 Sympathy bonus as well as his Reputation bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Entertain, Gather Information, and Intimidate checks when dealing with members or representatives of the Hutt criminal syndicate. Verius now has +3 total bonus.

Intimidate interacts differently with Reputation, and this difference applies to Sympathy as well. Characters with a bad reputation (such as characters with the Infamy feat) add the full Reputation bonus, and thus the full Sympathy bonus, to Intimidate checks. Characters who are not considered infamous only add half their combined Reputation and Sympathy bonuses, rounded down.

For example, Verius tries to browbeat a Hutt's Rodian majordomo. But Verius has a fairly good public image (he's not infamous), so his combined Reputation and Sympathy bonus of +3 is halved to +1.5, rounded down to +1. Verius adds only +1 to his Intimidate check against the Rodian.

Conflicting Sympathies

Characters can develop Sympathy for more than one faction, and sometimes these Sympathies conflict. What happens when a character has, for example, both Rebel and Imperial Sympathies? When the GM judges that a conflict of interest exists -- for example, the character is negotiating with the Empire to buy weapons, which may or may not be intended for the Rebel Alliance -- apply the appropriate Sympathy as a bonus and the conflicting Sympathy as a penalty. In effect, the difference between the two Sympathies is the total modifier.

For example, Verius has developed a good working relationship with both sides in the Galactic Civil War. He has a +2 Sympathy bonus for the Empire and a +4 Sympathy bonus for the Rebellion. When dealing with the Rebel Alliance in matters involving the Empire, he gains only a +2 bonus (+4 Rebel Sympathy, minus +2 Imperial Sympathy). Conversely, when dealing with the Empire in matters involving the Rebel Alliance, Verius suffers a -2 penalty (+2 Imperial Sympathy, minus +4 Rebel Sympathy). If Verius were trying to use Intimidate, though, remember that the total bonus provided by his Reputation and Sympathy scores is halved (giving him a +1 bonus for dealing with the Rebel Alliance, and a -1 penalty for dealing with the Empire).

Table 5-1: Faction Alignments gives the factions covered in this chapter, showing any conflicts between them. In addition, the GM can rule that factions conflict depending on circumstances and events in the campaign. For example, the Bothan Spynet and Hutt criminal syndicate don't normally conflict, but if the circumstances of a given adventure pitted them against one another, the GM could rule that their Sympathies conflict.

Losing Sympathy

Sympathy bonuses are not permanent, like Reputation bonuses are. Characters can lose Sympathy bonuses with a faction in two different ways: by overtly working against the faction, or by neglecting the faction.

Betrayal: When a character works against a faction with whom she has Sympathy, at the end of the adventure she automatically loses a point of Sympathy with that faction. For example, a character with Rebel Sympathy who hijacks a Rebel supply ship during an adventure loses one point of Sympathy with the Rebellion.

This Sympathy loss is cumulative. A character who actively opposes a faction multiple times in the same adventure can lose multiple Sympathy points. Sympathy scores can never drop below zero, however.

Neglect: When a character stops working with a faction, the faction begins to lose interest in working with the character. Every time a character advances a level, the player rolls a d20 for each faction and adds the character's Sympathy score for that faction. The player does not roll for the highest-rated one. The character's highest Sympathy score sets the DC. (If two or more scores are tied for highest, the player chooses which sets the DC; the player must then roll for the others.) If the check fails, the character loses a point of Sympathy for that faction.

For example, after an adventure, Verius adds a point to his Rebel Sympathy score, and advances a level. He now has a +5 Hutt Sympathy, a +4 Rebel Sympathy, and a +2 Imperial Sympathy. His Hutt Sympathy score sets the DC for the checks at 15. He rolls 1d20 and adds +4 for his Rebel Sympathy, and gets a 12, for a total of 16 -- just enough. He repeats the process for his Imperial Sympathy, and gets a 7, for a total of 9 -- short of what he needs. Verius loses a point of Imperial Sympathy, but maintains his good relations with the Rebellion.

Joining a Faction

A character can officially join a faction or organization. Doing so usually requires the organization's approval, and such approval often only follows a period of observation or a test of loyalty (see the individual faction descriptions). There may be a minimum Sympathy bonus requirement as well.

Joining a faction offers a number of advantages. For starters, the character gains 1 point of Sympathy for that faction. Also, he can take faction-specific feats and prestige classes.

However, there is a down side. When a character joins a faction, he loses 1 point of Sympathy for all other factions with which he has Sympathy. A character can also only join one faction at a time and must leave his current faction before joining a different one. Leaving a faction often has its own set of disadvantages.

You'll need all the Hutt Sympathy you can get to do well in our latest free mini-adventure, "The Kitonak Connection," a sequel to last month's "Positive ID."