So, we have been playing S&S for a while now, we are about halfway through book 4, and one of the things we have pretty much been ignoring are the infamy and disrepute rules. They party gained it at ports as per the rules, but they haven't bothered spending any of it, but I have some questions on it.
1. I know once you gain infamy up to 5 per tier you can gain no more in that port until you go up a tier, but can you keep gaining disrepute at the port after you spend some, or do they need to go find different ports?
2. If that is so why do the favored Ports matter, apart from gaining you some infamy slightly faster?
3. Has anyone added things to spend disrepute on? Most of them deal with ship to ship combat and weather. My party is very good at dealing with both.
In the one S&S I run, the group is great at using both Infamy and Disrepute.
1 ~ I allow them to keep gaining Disrepute at Ports they have maxed out their Infamy. Keeps them coming back to the big ports more where we can interact with NPCs and get more options on gear.
2 ~ I will allow the group to spend Disrepute to alter some Port Encounters and NPC reactions. I mean if you get enough folks spreading the word about you, you should be able to influence things besides just getting perks while at sea.
In the other game, they have never used either mechanic, don't care about them and think that them keeping track of it is a waste of their time. So, I don't use it. I just try to role-play the encounters as best I can to keep the intent of the mechanics while not bothering their immersion.
Have Fun Out There!!
~ W ~