Rapport

Rapport is mostly Hx with its own awesome new name. I don't think it will tie with experience, since there's no sex move, and it starts out pretty low with everyone.



Working together means getting to know each other pretty well. Or it means making an effort to keep your true self hidden from the others.

When you have rapport with someone, you can use what you know about them to help or hinder them more easily. You know how they think, what they react to, where they’ll be looking, and so on.

For any group that’s going up against the Scourge, it’s nice to be able to work as a team and help each other. But then you have your own personal missions to think about. Are you prepared to let down your guard?

Assigning Rapport

At the start of play, your characters have just met one another, assembled to form a team. You won’t have much shared history, so you won’t have had much insight into one another or opportunity to open up.

On the off chance that you’ve had dealings with a character before, give them +1 or -1 rapport with you, depending on how those dealings went.

If you’re attracted to one of the other characters, give them +1 or -1 with you, whichever suits your personality.

Otherwise give the other characters +0 rapport with you.

If you’re the captain, there’s one crewmember you trust. Give them +2 with you. Everyone else, you maintain a professional distance. Give them +0 with you.

Your Rapport with Others
Whatever each player tells you, write that number down on your sheet.

If you’re the captain, you make it a point to get to know your crew. Whatever they give you, add +1 to it.

Changing Rapport
At the end of a session, choose 1 character. If you want, you can change that that character’s rapport with you by +1 or -1. If you increase a character’s rapport with you to +4 or decrease it to -4, reset it to +0.

If rolling over Rapport isn't going to be a source of advancement, having it reset to +0 might seem like even more of a 'say what?/argh!' deal -- while AW has some dissonance around the reset (why do you suddenly get worse at helping/hindering, when you have previously been getting better at it?) it can be somewhat justified by the advancement tie-in.

And of course there is some explanation in the rules about reaching a 'new baseline' of understanding.

Anyways, do you anticipate that being an issue? What's your read on the +3 -> +0, besides the obvious mechanical problems with allowing +4 and up?

Questions! Can you roll Rapport with NPCs you've just met during the course of the game? Aliens and so on? I guess it would start at -1?

Can you roll Rapport with NPCs you've just met during the course of the game?

There wouldn't be much reason to roll +rapport with someone you've just met, since you'd only do that to call in a favor.

That said, starting rapport with NPCs is an interesting concern -- and with PCs for that matter.