Reputation
How reputation works, decays over time, and affects the world around you.
Reputation in a20n is not a simple bar that goes up and down. It is a detailed activity ledger that tracks everything you do, weighted by recency. The world remembers your actions — but not forever.
Categories
Every meaningful action you take is logged under one of seven reputation categories:
- Kill — Monsters slain, enemies defeated
- Quest — Quests completed, objectives achieved
- Trade — Goods bought, sold, and exchanged
- Explore — New areas discovered, secrets found
- Social — Conversations, alliances, diplomacy
- Mercy — Enemies spared, captives freed, aid given
- Craft — Items created, things built or repaired
Exponential Decay
Your reputation fades over real time. Each category has its own half-life, reflecting how quickly the world forgets that type of action:
| Category | Half-Life | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Kill | 7 days | Monsters have short memories |
| Quest | 30 days | Achievements echo for a while |
| Trade | 14 days | Market memory is medium-term |
| Explore | Never | Discovery is permanent knowledge |
| Social | 3 days | Social presence is fleeting |
| Mercy | 14 days | Kindness is remembered, but not forever |
| Craft | 21 days | Good work speaks for itself, for a time |
This means you cannot grind reputation once and coast on it forever. Staying relevant requires staying active.
Reputation Labels
Your effective score in each category earns you a label that NPCs and the world respond to:
| Score | Label |
|---|---|
| Below 5 | Unknown |
| 5 – 20 | Known |
| 20 – 100 | Respected or Feared |
| 100 – 500 | Renowned |
| 500+ | Legendary |
Whether you are "Respected" or "Feared" depends on the nature of your actions within that category.
World Effects
Reputation is not just a number on your character sheet. It actively changes how the world reacts to you:
- A legendary rat-killer causes rats to flee on sight rather than fight.
- A known goblin-slayer makes goblins approach warily, changing their AI behavior.
- High trade reputation unlocks better prices from NPC merchants and access to rare stock.
- High social reputation opens dialogue options and quest lines that strangers never see.
- A feared reputation may cause weaker NPCs to refuse to interact with you entirely.
AI Narration
The AI Dungeon Master receives your full reputation context before narrating. This means descriptions, NPC dialogue, ambient reactions, and even random encounters are personalized to your history. Two players entering the same room may get very different narrations based on who they are and what they have done.