I did have some ideas along similar lines as you where being with people would benifit your standing and maybe even diminish it at times.

I was thinking along a scocial contact lines where you'd need to forge links and networks to move in scociety and subsequently gain the benifits from that. Initaly this would happen though NPCs however once you get the players going the NPC's would quite easily sink into the background.

The base idea was that you'd be able ot gain better benifits from knowing or having contact with more powerful people, for example if you knew farmer X the rewards would be quite small as he has little, however knowing the king would be far greater as he has huge power and influence. However you couldnt simply walk up to the king as you wouldnt get pass the castle guard, so you'd have to network maybe first with famer X then maybe from him you could get to the land owner or lord then via him to the king. Once you have the contact you would be able to reap the benifits influnce, wealth but you'd also have to maintain it especialy if the person was of higher standing than you and so more scocialising would be needed. The king may want a new painting and so ask do you know a good painter? if you do you introduce them bonuses for hte painter being introduced (as you were once) and bonuses for you for making the contact. It would also cover the point i said eariler about not knowign what would be thrown up in life and keeping networks and contacts that may not yeild benifits right away.

The main flaw i saw was that there always needed to be an entry point for the game to give out the bonuses, once they are out in the player domain they would get deceminated.

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Eos: Sornasian: Gregory Patell

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