Raising Standing

[Majestic]

Raising one's Standing seems tough for new PCs to do, based on the accumulation (and then spending) of Treasure.

Wouldn't it make sense to sometimes reward PCs for great deeds done, if it occurs for their own people?

The new Undertaking 'Receive Title' is for one who "performed appropriately valiant deeds during the Adventuring phase within the territory or realm of another Culture", but what about the character who does something significant for his own people?

For example, at the end of "Words of the Wise", it says "Radagast makes sure that the characters’ deeds are
widely known. If that Orc-band had taken Woodland Hall, then a long and bitter war would have set the western eaves of Mirkwood aflame. End on a victory feast, with a Woodman singing a new tale - the Saviours of Woodland Hall." Wouldn't something like this be enough to raise a Woodsmen of Wilderland character up to Standing 1?

The reason this question has come up for me is that my players have done really well at four adventures, gaining Treasure multiple times. Yet they still don't have enough - even if they spent it all - to raise their Standing from 0 to 1. I've got a player that wants to select Beorn as a Patron, but - even with him being a Woodsman - this isn't supposed to happen unless he's got a Standing of 1.

Would any of you consider this something that falls under Loremaster's discretion? Where when the party accomplishes something of renown in their own native lands they might have earned a point of Standing?

[zedturtle]

The entirety of the rulebook is in your discretion. I have, in the my games, allowed discounts to the cost to improve standing, and allowed successful task to generate "virtual treasure" that could only be used for standing. That is intended to indicate the effort, instead of the money, being spent.

[Majestic]

Thanks, zed, that makes sense. And yes, I know that everything really comes down to Loremaster discretion (I've been GMing regulardly for almost 35 years). I was just curious what a few of you here thought about this issue.

[doctheweasel]

I posted some alternate standing rules a while back that address this very issue (without rewriting the whole system).

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2113

[Falenthal]

Doc's and also Rich H's Renown rules are of great help here.
I use them and they are really intuitive:

The basic idea behind is something like "You helped the dwarves, so your Renown among dwarves rises 1 point for a year. Only if you spend your next Fellowship Phase in Erebor doesn't the Renown among dwarves go down."

Renown has the same mechanical effects as Standing, only in foreign cultures to yours.

[Majestic]

Thanks, all. There's a lot of great stuff in that other thread!

[Beran]

I have taken to using Rich H's Renown rules in my PbP game. I've never understood the accumulation of wealth thing for a ME game.

[Pangea]

I've never understood the accumulation of wealth thing for a ME game.
The Standing mechanics are the only set of rules in TOR that I do not like, in that they do not fit what I read in the books (but, that, of course, is my take).
I mean, although Thranduil rewards Bilbo with the title of Elf-friend when Bilbo gives him the necklace at the end of the Hobbit, Bilbo is not just giving Thranduil a gift, he is "paying" Thranduil for the food and such he stole when Thranduil had the dwarves locked up. So it is more a gift to say "you locked us up and were harsh, and I stole stuff from you and put egg on your face by getting your prisoners out, but let us forget all that and remain friends etc.", rather than just giving Thranduil a kind of cash bribe to be liked by him.
And then, in the end, although Bilbo returns to the Shire filthy rich, and is said to spend and help people, his reputation goes down, and people forever see him as a crazy guy not to be taken seriously.

Anyhow, just to say that I too use deeds done to raise reputations (and money spent, but not as "gifts" for people, but when it is spent on specific things, like if the players spend their Treasure to help rebuild a village ravaged by Orcs and such) ; as well as allowing one to raise Reputation that way with other cultures if they interact a lot with them...