Player characters often interact with many people before they take up the adventuring life (or at least before they begin play at the table), and these people can manifest in various ways in the course of adventuring. These people are represented as "known associates", and give the player an additional avenue to direct the story, inject more roleplaying into the game, and add more depth to their background.
Associate Points
Each player character begins play with a number of associate points. To determine this value, roll 1d6, plus an additional point for each point of
Charisma bonus. Any time an NPC is introduced, or the option to interact with an NPC occurs, you may spend an associate point to have your character "know" that NPC. This point should be spent as (or before) the NPC is introduced.
Once an associate point has been spent, it is now your perogative to describe who that NPC is (can include physical description, mannerisms, and so on), and how your character knows them (are they an old friend, a childhood bully, distant relative, etc). The DM will provide any assistance requested in presenting them, but it is ultimately in your hands who this NPC is (within reason, the DM still holds veto privalages).
Your character's association with this NPC may prove to be benefitial or detrimental to you or the party; gaining an advantage is less the goal of this system than creating interesting and dynamic storytelling opportunities. This provides an excellent avenue for creating the kinds of roleplaying and storytelling events that call for the distribution of
Luck Points and
Hero Points.
To encourage the use of associate points, any character who has no remaining points when they level up gains an additional 1d4 points.
Additionally, characters living an extravagant lifestyle (see
Wealth) gain one associate point per month, to a maximum of the character's level + their
Charisma modifier.
This is an experimental system, and feedback is encouraged to make it benefitial to both the players and the DM.
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