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I am putting together a game that will be quite difficult to handle: an empire building campaign. The PCs (who start as level 5 gestalt characters) will be memebers of one of the many organizations/orders trying to repair and country in the aftermath of a devastating war. Dungeon-crawls will still take place, but they will be the exception to the rule.

As the PCs gain rank, prestige, and troops in the organization, they will reforge shattered alliances, liaison with groups that may aid them, and try to, essentially, create a land in their image over the course of the campaign - which will run to level 15 (most likely) over a course of twenty in-game years.

This is what I need help with: handling NPC organizations and companies. If the PCs so choose, they will be able to form their own companies/business ventures, ally with/fight against similar organizations, and basically have a large part in the reformation of a new world. Now, I don't want to kill my players with massive dice rolls to figure out how much pull they have with an organization, but I don't want to boil it down to a single Charisma check, either. To realistically handle NPC organizations (whether they are a coven of druids or a trade company of merchants), I wish to implement a system outlining how much influence the players have with these people. I have it broken down to this:

REPUTATION: Through their exploits, the party will gain three different kinds of reputation points, whether that rep is positive or negative.

Local Reputation is how people in small towns or cities view the PCs.
National Reputation is how the governments and powerful orders view the PCs.
Mover/Shaker Reputation is how epic-level druidic orders, extra-planar liaisons, and ancient dragons view the characters.

Each area will be rated 1-20, 1 being the equivalent of a 1st level character (barely a blip on the radar), whereas 20 will be household name. A reputation of 20 with a government, for example, means that the PCs can drop by for a spot of tea with the king and talk to him on a first-name basis.

Reputation is earned by adventuring, doing good things for NPCs, and pulling off feats of excellent roleplay. For example, making a Knowledge (nobility) roll on a duke to find out his family history and then having the bard compose a song about his father's exploits would give instant reputation awards. Walking up to that same duke and saying, "Which dungeon do you want me to crawl through?" would not.

POWER RATING: Each organization will be given a power rating of (you guessed it) 1-20. A power rating of 5 would be a professional rating (small trade company, city government, a cabal of seven mid-level elven wizards living in the woods), whereas 10 would be the cream of the crop in their field. Anything above 10 is pretty much legendary.

Each organization will require that a party has at least as much reputation for them to even be considered. A party with reputation 2, for instance, would not be able to get past the front door of a noble's estate if said noble has a reputation of 8 or 9. Any diplomacy checks against that noble will suffer massive penalties.

Now, getting in a company's good graces isn't just about numbers. A druidic order may value natural conservation, and so if the PCs happen to be admant about preserving nature and killing her enemies, the organization will notice the PCs' congruent values. Conversely, if a thieves guild witnesses the PC's doing many lawful, righteouss things, they won't help the PCs regardless of how much rep they have... unless there's something in it for them.

ON THE INSIDE: Once the party is recognized as an equal or potential equal by whatever NPCs they are trying to influence, -then- they may begin making their diplomacy checks and such to sway that organization's opinion. They will need to prove their worth further, however, usually by questing in said people's names ("Ya know, guys, I'd love to let you use my company's ship to cross the Black Death Sea of Despair and Horribleness, but first I was wondering if you'd take care of that ogre who's been harassing my niece. She's a pure girl, you know.").

This is what I got so far. What do you think? Think it has promise?

Wow.

I totally missed the "Foot in the RPG Door" thread. Whoops.

I had someone who had their heart set on playing a paladin of Wee Jas. Being a kind-hearted DM, I acquiesced, and let them. Being that a holy-roller isn't really the kind of divine champion I imagine when I think of the Lady of Death, I tweaked the character.

Here is the variant I came up with - let me know if you think it is appropriate and balanced.

SKILLS: Replaced Knowledge(nobility), Ride, Heal, and Handle Animal with Knowledge(arcana) and Use Magic Device.

ABILITIES: I replaced a paladins summoned mount with the +2/level damage on a charging smite attack, and also changed the smite to only include evil outsiders, undead, and wizards in direct opposition to the will of the paladin's deity. Rather than Detect Evil, the paladin receives Detect Magic.

SPELLS: I completely removed spells and the lay on hands ability. Rather than healing points, the characters receives points of distributable Spell Resistance - thus a 9th level paladin with a charisma bonus of +2 has 18 points of Spell Resistance that she can besotw (no more than her CL + charisma bonus on a single target).

Is it too weak? Too powerful? Should I throw in Extra Turning as a bonus feat?

I'm running a game online that will end up having a very caster-heavy party. It looks like two clerics, a spirit shaman, a paladin, and a scout. Other than the paladin, there's nothing that's really heavy-hitting in the melee department (even then the paladin fails due to lack of combat customization).

If the "rules of balance" holds true for 3.5, I should be able to manage fine - should I just cut back on the total number of encounters per day, so that the casters are over-taxed and thus let the party down? Should I fill the gabs that combat leaves with more skill/class specific quests? Religious mysteries, perhaps, or quests that require comprehension and delving into the lore of forgotten religious sects?

Any help would be appreciated.

There are some gamers who like Big Numbers. They are the kind of gamers who play Half-Orc barbarians and use their starting gold to buy every possible damage upgrade they can. Their character has minimal personality and likes to kill people mid-exposition because they talk too much. Ha! That'll teach the DM.

There is nothing wrong with this. People have fun playing RPGs with these rules. If they wish to have Big Numbers then, by God, let them have big numbers!

Some thought, however, needs to be given to people like myself, the gamers who prefer story over Big Numbers, the gamers who would like to see broader, more customizeable classes that could fit into any fantasy setting rather than a class tailored for endless dungeon crawls. I would like to see rules where skills were just as important as a base attack bonus.

Perhaps they could make an alternate rule set for gamers like myself... a set of DnD rules that still has the familiarity of the game (because I do really like the game and would be sad to break from it) with rules that are more role-playing centric. If I play a figher, I don't want to be doomed to be some sword-swinging dolt with two skills... I want to be a knight who rises through the ranks and becomes a general, marshal, or warlord, who commands troops and liaisons with other leaders, offering the services of myself and the members of my party to change the course of history. I want to see rules for this kind of RPG, where adventures are not just about crawling around a dungeon or finding the demon lord after slaying 1,587,234 of his minions. I want adventures that call for a group of heroes to rebuild a failing city, to act as an emissary and convince two nations to stop warring, and, if necessary, lay down the law with sword and spell (because combat it truly fun).

Perhaps, if we generate enough interest, they will create a 4th Ed with these ideas in mind, assuming that the Powers that Be read these forums.

This is an idea I've been playing with for a long time, and I would like to see the interest it generates.

I have run a total of three very successful campaigns (creating my own setting each time), one not-so-successful campaign (my first), and am currently on my fifth. I wanted to try something different, breaking from the typically high-fantasy settings and Dark Age pulp of most DnD games. I created an early Rennaissance world with the game happening in a number of large cities where politics, trade, and low technology are the ultimate powers, rather than sword and spell.

The gameplay is not typical in that it is investigative. The party works for an underground organization called the Shadow Savants who are dedicated to defending the city from insidious and subtle evils (and often lock horns with the United Church and city-guard investigators). Rather than typical quests, the party receives adventures revolving around finding things out. "Something very strange is happening in Stranolm Port. Soon, we fear it will spill from the shadows and attack the city's people. Find out what the problem is but do not let anyone in the city know why you are there."

I have made use of many, MANY variant rules (defense bonuses due to the implementation of flintlock weaponry making typical armor useless, limited weapons [heavy maces and battle axes are now irrelevant], and classes such as Urban Ranger, Urban Druid, Thug, and cancelling the fighter class in favor of a house-ruled warrior/rifleman class), but the DnD rules are still unsuited for a later, investigative campaign.

This brings me to a number of questions:

1.) Is there a good rule supplement guide, other than Unearthed Arcana, for this sort of game?
2.) Is there a way to spread out skills to investigative ends (rather than just Gather Information) by perhaps cutting back on other skills? (i.e. Spot, Listen, and Search as an Awareness skill, or Climb, Jump, and Swim as an Athletics skill)
3.) Do you think that a variant of the DnD rules for more urban/investigative/modern games would generate any interest?

Please, share ideas, comment on this, or provide advice. I'd like to hear the ideas of other DMs who have tried to do something similar.