NPCs Who Remember That One Time
Reputation you never see as a number. Just people who treat you differently than they did last week.
A playtester came back to a district they had not visited in a few in-game days. A guard who had waved them through before now stopped them, asked where they were headed, and looked in their bag.
The playtester sighed and said, “he is still mad about the gate thing.” I had never told them a “gate thing” was being tracked. It just was.
No reputation bar
Most games hand you a meter and let you manage it. I do not show one, because a single number is not how people actually hold a grudge. Grudges are specific, they are personal, and they fade at different speeds depending on what caused them.
So instead of a global score, each NPC carries their own sense of you. The innkeeper’s opinion and the guard’s opinion are separate things, and neither of them is a slider you can watch move.
How it reaches the conversation
When you talk to someone, the engine gives the model a short read on where you stand with that person. Warm. Wary. Owes you a favor. Has not forgiven you yet. It does not replay your whole history; it just sets the temperature.
The model does the rest. The guard does not read your rap sheet aloud. He is simply short with you, and searches the bag he would have waved past a week ago.
It fades, and it spreads
Some of it cools off on its own. Some of it does not. And some of it travels: the guard mentions it to the other guard, and now you are dealing with two people who have heard a version of the same story. That second part deserves its own post.
What it feels like to play
You cannot grind reputation, because there is no bar to grind. You just end up with a history with people, the same way you do anywhere.
Walking back into a place you left on bad terms feels different, and you cannot un-feel it. The upside runs the same direction: sometimes someone you helped weeks ago greets you like an old friend before you have quite placed their face.