Honor, Glory, and Status
Texto
Samurai dramas focus on characters’ internal conflicts as much as external ones. While external foes and challenges frequently drive the plot, a samurai’s principal battle is often fought within their own heart.
In the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, characters have three social attributes (honor, glory, and status) to help players weigh the societal forces constantly pulling upon a samurai.
Value and Rank
A character’s honor, glory, and status attributes each have a value between 0 and 100. When an effect calls for a character’s honor, glory, or status rank, the rank is determined by the tens digit of the value (or 10, if the value is 100).
Shosuro Makoto has an honor value of 28. Therefore his honor rank is 2. He has a glory value of 31. Therefore his glory rank is 3.
Increasing Social Attributes
These three attributes can increase over the life of a character, usually via an honor, glory, or status award from the GM. See the section beginning on page 300 for recommendations on ways social attributes increase.
Decreasing Social Attributes
Any of these three attributes can also decrease over the life of a character. Rather than being arbitrated by the GM, a decrease to a social attribute always occurs because the character’s player chooses to forfeit or stake it to achieve some end the character desires—or because their player feels that it is good storytelling.
Decreasing any of these attributes should be a conscious choice on the part of the player, not a penalty imposed by the GM.
Forfeiting Social Attributes
To perform a dishonorable, inglorious, or sacrilegious deed, a character must forfeit honor, glory, or status, reflecting the fact that the character is deliberately disregarding the Code of Bushidō, damaging their reputation, or abdicating political responsibility. The GM should inform the character’s player of the amount of honor, glory, or status their character must forfeit before a proposed deed takes place, giving the player the chance to rethink their character’s actions (even if this requires “rewinding” the scene by a few seconds).
If the player decides to make the forfeit, they reduce their character’s honor, glory, or status value by the required number of points (to a minimum of 0). Then, the character undertakes the deed.
Staking Social Attributes
Sometimes, a character has nothing to put on the line but their honor, glory, or status, and they must take a risk and hope the dice fall favorably. In these cases, the character stakes a social attribute on an event, such as swearing to protect someone, boasting of a future deed, or risking a position on a gambit. This shows others that they are serious, and can help win people's support or trust when convincing them might otherwise be impossible.
If a player decides to stake their character’s social attribute on something, they and the GM should note the amount staked and the conditions under which the character loses their stake. If these occur for any reason, the attribute decreases by the staked amount.
Honor
Honor represents a character’s personal investment in the concept of Bushidō and that character’s belief that they are upholding the values it entails.
Honor increases when a character makes a hard choice in the name of Bushidō, and decreases when a character acts in opposition to these values, loses faith in their code, or stakes their honor on an oath that they break. A high or low honor attribute results in a character gaining virtue advantages or flaw disadvantages (see Table 7–2: Honor Scores, on page 302).
Glory
Glory represents society’s view of a character’s success in their mandated role. It reflects the reputation they have as an effective agent of their lord, as well as a general consensus on how they uphold Bushidō.
Glory rises from a character’s heroic deeds, and decreases when a character disparages Bushidō, lets their reputation suffer, or stakes it on a boastful claim they fail to fulfill. A high or low glory attribute results in a character gaining fame advantages or infamy disadvantages (see Table 7–3: Glory Scores, on page 304).
Status
Status is an attribute that reflects a character’s social standing, based on both their political sway and the mandate of the Celestial Order. Status changes infrequently; instead, it is mostly used by the GM to measure the comparative social standing of the PCs and various NPCs, as well as by the PCs to know the proper etiquette they should use to interact with a given NPC (see Table 7–4: Status Scores, on page 305).
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Core Rulebook · Chapter 1: Playing the Game › The Character › Honor, Glory, and Status · p. 32 p. 37
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Samurai dramas focus on characters’ internal conflicts as much as external ones. While external foes and challenges frequently drive the plot, a samurai’s principal battle is often fought within their own heart.
In the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, characters have three social attributes (honor, glory, and status) to help players weigh the societal forces constantly pulling upon a samurai.
Value and Rank
A character’s honor, glory, and status attributes each have a value between 0 and 100. When an effect calls for a character’s honor, glory, or status rank, the rank is determined by the tens digit of the value (or 10, if the value is 100).
Shosuro Makoto has an honor value of 28. Therefore his honor rank is 2. He has a glory value of 31. Therefore his glory rank is 3.
Increasing Social Attributes
These three attributes can increase over the life of a character, usually via an honor, glory, or status award from the GM. See the section beginning on page 300 for recommendations on ways social attributes increase.
Decreasing Social Attributes
Any of these three attributes can also decrease over the life of a character. Rather than being arbitrated by the GM, a decrease to a social attribute always occurs because the character’s player chooses to forfeit or stake it to achieve some end the character desires—or because their player feels that it is good storytelling.
Decreasing any of these attributes should be a conscious choice on the part of the player, not a penalty imposed by the GM.
Forfeiting Social Attributes
To perform a dishonorable, inglorious, or sacrilegious deed, a character must forfeit honor, glory, or status, reflecting the fact that the character is deliberately disregarding the Code of Bushidō, damaging their reputation, or abdicating political responsibility. The GM should inform the character’s player of the amount of honor, glory, or status their character must forfeit before a proposed deed takes place, giving the player the chance to rethink their character’s actions (even if this requires “rewinding” the scene by a few seconds).
If the player decides to make the forfeit, they reduce their character’s honor, glory, or status value by the required number of points (to a minimum of 0). Then, the character undertakes the deed.
Staking Social Attributes
Sometimes, a character has nothing to put on the line but their honor, glory, or status, and they must take a risk and hope the dice fall favorably. In these cases, the character stakes a social attribute on an event, such as swearing to protect someone, boasting of a future deed, or risking a position on a gambit. This shows others that they are serious, and can help win people's support or trust when convincing them might otherwise be impossible.
If a player decides to stake their character’s social attribute on something, they and the GM should note the amount staked and the conditions under which the character loses their stake. If these occur for any reason, the attribute decreases by the staked amount.
Honor
Honor represents a character’s personal investment in the concept of Bushidō and that character’s belief that they are upholding the values it entails.
Honor increases when a character makes a hard choice in the name of Bushidō, and decreases when a character acts in opposition to these values, loses faith in their code, or stakes their honor on an oath that they break. A high or low honor attribute results in a character gaining virtue advantages or flaw disadvantages (see Table 7–2: Honor Scores, on page 302).
Glory
Glory represents society’s view of a character’s success in their mandated role. It reflects the reputation they have as an effective agent of their lord, as well as a general consensus on how they uphold Bushidō.
Glory rises from a character’s heroic deeds, and decreases when a character disparages Bushidō, lets their reputation suffer, or stakes it on a boastful claim they fail to fulfill. A high or low glory attribute results in a character gaining fame advantages or infamy disadvantages (see Table 7–3: Glory Scores, on page 304).
Status
Status is an attribute that reflects a character’s social standing, based on both their political sway and the mandate of the Celestial Order. Status changes infrequently; instead, it is mostly used by the GM to measure the comparative social standing of the PCs and various NPCs, as well as by the PCs to know the proper etiquette they should use to interact with a given NPC (see Table 7–4: Status Scores, on page 305).