Rez & Rep Rewards

The PCs’ experiences during a scenario — including their successes, failures, and lessons learned — have a direct impact on their stats, specifically in the form of Rez Points and rep score changes.

Rez Points

Rez Points are a method for measuring your character’s advancement. You use them to define how your PC learns and grows, bringing them into a higher resolution, a sharper focus.

The GM determines when to assign Rez Points. The easiest method is simply to assign them after each gaming session. Alternatively, you can assign them at the end of each scenario, at the break in the action between one adventure and the next. Depending on your style of play and the length of your sessions, this should occur roughly every 2–3 gaming sessions. For long-term campaigns, GMs can break down the action into digestible “chapters” and assign Rez Points after each.

The important thing is to make Rez Points available to PCs when they have downtime. During downtime, players have the opportunity to spend these Rez Points to improve their character.

Rez Point Rewards

Rez Points represent learning experiences and growth. PCs should earn an average of 1–2 per session (assuming 4-hour sessions) or 4–5 per scenario (assuming 2–3 sessions). For shorter or longer periods, adjust the RP rewards appropriately.

Reward 1 Rez Point for each of the following:

• Participation: The PC actively participated in the majority of the scenario.
• Hard Mode: The scenario was extra challenging.
• Objectives: The PC achieved (most of) their objective(s) in the scenario or failed to meet their objective(s) but learned a valuable lesson in the process.
• Winning: The PC accomplished something major in a noteworthy, significant way (i.e., they saved the habitat, defused the bomb under pressure, talked the bad guy into revealing their secret, or otherwise used the right skill at the right time).
• Losing: The PC failed at something in a major, possibly catastrophic way (i.e., they let a friend die, let the enemy get away, embarrassed themselves publicly, or let someone important to them down).
• Motivations: The PC achieved or made significant progress towards one of their motivations or motivational goals. Achieving motivational goals can also relieve stress.
• Staying True: The PC stuck to their motivations or motivational goals even when it was risky or to their detriment to do so.
• Bonus: The player engaged in good roleplaying, moved the storyline forward, or otherwise contributed to the game’s drama, humor, or fun. Take care that this reward is not applied more favorably to extrovert players. One useful way to assign Rez Points for this is to ask players to nominate each other. GMs may also apply rewards as appropriate to the themes of their campaign and the play styles of their players. For example, if you emphasize the duality of technology as a tool for liberation or oppression in your game, then reward PCs who find ways to use technology for liberatory purposes or undermine when it is used for coercion and control. If your players emphasize roleplaying, character development, and relationships with NPCs, then reward Rez Points to players that forge new bonds or delve deeply into their characters.

Individual vs. Group Rewards

Rather than assigning different individual RP rewards, GMs may wish to simply assign the same amount of Rez Points to everyone in the group. This requires less book-keeping for the GM and ensures that the PCs progress at the same rate. In this case, assign Rez Points based on the group’s actions as a whole. Talk to your players when the game begins and choose a course of action that everyone can agree on.

Adjusting the Advancement Rate

If you’re looking to have the PCs improve their capabilities more rapidly, increase the amount of Rez Points you reward. If you’d prefer more of a slow-burn progression, reward fewer points.

Rez Points and Forks

The issue of forks and Rez Points is frankly one of those situations where the possibilities collide with game balance. We suggest keeping it simple: PCs do not earn Rez Points from their fork’s experiences.

If you find this unsatisfactory, that’s fair, but be aware of the complications. If you allow a fork to earn Rez Points from its experiences, then the originating ego should benefit from those experiences/RP if the fork is merged — assuming the merge is good and the fork’s memories are not lost (Merging). If the merge is not good, then some of those Rez Points should be lost. If you go this route, we strongly suggest that the fork only accumulate Rez Points if it is actively roleplayed by the player. If a fork’s actions take place off-camera, they do not count. Likewise, a fork’s experiences only count if they are separate from the alpha PC’s experiences; you cannot benefit doubly from the same source of Rez Points, even if you experienced it from different perspectives. GMs should take care that Rez Points acquired from forking are justifiably earned — a PC should not benefit from spamming forks into the wild to live it up just so they can integrate them and harvest the accumulated Rez Points.

If you allow forks to accumulate Rez Points, then if they are divergent for long enough they could also spend them to improve themselves. While this can create interesting roleplaying opportunities as forks develop separate characteristics and personalities over time, it creates complications if the two forks are later merged. In this case, the GM must decide which of those variant characteristics carry through when merged, based on the success of the Medicine: Psychosurgery Test, keeping in mind that such mergings are difficult and imperfect. We suggest only allowing one Rez Point expenditure to carry over, plus one per superior success.

Rez Points and Resleeving

If a PC dies and is restored from their most recent instance — usually from their cortical stack but also possible from a recent backup — there is no loss of experiences or Rez Points.

If a PC dies and is restored from an older backup, however, they have likely lost memories — and Rez Points. For this reason, it may be useful to keep notes on your current Rez Point total with each backup, as well as a log on when and how you earned and spent your Rez Points. For example, if you are restored from a month-old backup, and in that month you earned 3 RP and spent them on skill points, you will need to revert those skill point gains. The occasional bit of lack and re-versioning is an inevitability given the dangerous lives of Firewall agents.

Reputation Gain and Loss

Your PCs' reputation scores may be impacted by actions taken during gameplay — or even by the events unfolding around you. For simplicity, these can be applied at the end of each session or scenario, though if you prefer a more dynamic play style you can apply rep score changes in game, as the PCs’ peers judge them according to their actions (or lack thereof) and news about them in real time.

It is important to keep in mind that rep score adjustments are an abstraction based on multiple pings and dings — hundreds or more — from a wide assortment of people. Each of the social networks has sophisticated algorithms in place to counteract attempts to gain the system. A single thumbs up from an NPC is not enough to impact your score, nor will a hundred 5-star reviews from your best friend — but a few dozen negative comments from weeks of pissing off all sorts of people might.

Rep adjustments should only be made as a result of NPCs responding to your PC with positive or negative feedback on various social networks. Events that happen in secret, without anyone ever knowing, should have no effect; likewise, NPCs may not be able to provide feedback if they are isolated in an unconnected brinker outpost, a Jovian prison, or a remote exoplanet. PCs cannot meaningfully ping or ding each other’s rep scores, though they could in theory mount social media campaigns to convince others to do so. Rep modifications also only apply to rep scores tied to your character’s known identities; if you are operating under a fake ID at the time, that ID gets the rep boost/hit.

You may gain and lose rep in any social networks — including those you don’t actively participate in. Your PC may have 0 r-rep, but if you help release a major scientific discovery that is shared with the Solar System’s scientific community at large, you may gain a few points of r-rep. You might never hang out with Argonauts or scientists, but anyone that looks up your RNA profile will see the feedback you’ve accumulated.

Keep in mind that every rep network has different values. Your actions may sometimes result in you gaining rep in one network while losing it in another. For example, if you prank a major hypercorp figure in public, you might gain some @-rep from the anarchists while losing an equivalent of c-rep from hypercorp disapproval. Likewise, some actions may result in hits or boosts to more than one rep score at a time, if it creates waves in multiple social circles/networks.

Rep Net Values

Every social network values and rejects different things.
Here’s a rough breakdown of things to which each attaches importance.

Rep Network	Values	Rejects
@-rep (Circle A-List)	Autonomy, mutual aid	Authoritarianism, coercion
c-rep (CivicNet)	Security, capitalism, self-responsibility	Crime, disorder
f-rep (Fame)	Sensationalism, creativity, freedom of information	Mediocrity
g-rep (Guanxi)	Strength, dominance, loyalty	Legalities, snitching
i-rep (The Eye)	Security, competence, secrecy	Risks, incompetence
r-rep (Research Network Associates)	Discovery, scientific method, education	Ignorance, cheating
x-rep (eXploreNet)	Discovery, security, experiences	Risks, abandonment

Rep Consequences

Rep changes are an excellent tool for GMs to introduce roleplaying opportunities, expand upon the Eclipse Phase universe, and incorporate plot hooks. Your rep fluctuations may expose you to short bouts of fame or public derision, may inspire faction representatives to approach or shun you, and may grant you new opportunities as others approach you for equipment, favors, and information.

Rep Score Boosts

You acquire rep score bumps for helping others, aiding factions, noteworthy creative expression, major discoveries, successful publicity stunts, winning competitions, and otherwise being a respectable mensch. Some suggested examples:

• Minor Reward (1–2 points): Make a worthy contribution to free/open source projects, throw a good party, exceed your quota, do the job no one else wants to do, deliver a kick-ass or moving performance, make a minor contribution to science, shield people from trouble, win impressively at some public event, create the meme everyone talks about for a week and then forgets, stop a minor threat, make the news for something positive, do a major favor for someone important.
• Moderate Reward (3–4 points): Close a major deal, lead the winning side in a decisive engagement, risk serious injury or death for others, design the new tool everyone wants, solve a mystery, expose a crime, recover an alien artifact, discover exceptional new xenofauna, make a deal with the Factors, stop a major threat, free a group of indentures, get new legislation passed, get endorsed by a celebrity, corner a market, recover a relic from Earth.
• Major Award (5+ points): Throw an impressive planetoid-scale event, earn a degree, win an election, complete an extensive project (1 year’s work or a few months of difficult/specialized work), start this year’s hot fashion trend, make a major scientific discovery, drive your opposition into the ground, start (or put down) a revolution, save an entire habitat, make first contact with an alien species, sacrifice your life for others.

Rep Score Hits

You lose rep by being incompetent, failing to render aid when needed, losing professional credibility, making major or public blunders, doublecrossing allies, and otherwise being a jerk, menace, or problem. Some suggested examples are noted here:

• Minor Loss (1–2 points): Inconvenience others, get involved in a public professional dispute, embarrass yourself at a public event, publicly insult a group of people, fail in your responsibilities, endanger someone’s safety, ignore people in need, let a minor threat get away, piss off somebody important.
• Moderate Loss (3–4 points): Put a group of people at risk, make the news for something negative, become the star of a joke/outrage meme, ruin an event for everyone, screw up a major mission or activity, become accused/implicated in a major crime, damage or lose something irreplaceable, fail to stop a major threat via incompetence, get caught cheating in a competition or faking your work.
• Major Loss (5+ points): Endanger an entire habitat, accidentally or purposefully kill someone, associate with hated rivals, get convicted of a major crime, snitch on fellow criminals, start (or put down) a revolution, betray a faction to its rivals or enemies.