Reputation for higher-level starting PCs

[Der Rote Baron]

The way I understand the rules regarding Reputation is this: As soon as you advance a level the player and gm decde on the acquired reputation for that level, based on the exploits of the pc and the perception of the public. Based on the grandness of the exploit the pc gets a bonus from +1 to +5, also based on the level reached.

But what do I do if I have to introduce a 10th level pc - fresh from the drawing board? - One of my regular players lost his pc and ha sto start anew, but since the rest of the gang is already level 12-14 it makes no sense to give him a first level character.

What I really don't want is to "make-up" past adventures (10 at least) and give him bogus reputations for make-believe accomplishements.

How do you handle that?

BTW: Who else thinks that the whole reputaion machanism in CONAN is maybe not "broken" per se, but rather clumsy and not adding a whole lot to the game? (And, no, I don't wnat to "Do away" with the reputation thing in the middle of a campaign.)

[Ichabod]

Depending upon what you consider "made up", you can have the player write up backstory fiction of the character's exploits. To lend some verisimilitude, I've even rolled out combats I've put into campaign fictions.

As to 2e Reputation rules, base reputation is level + CHA modifier (page 83). Biggest deed and social status are added. In most cases, the deed isn't going to have any impact on what range the character falls in, though, of course, if the base Rep is close to a top of a range, it may end up having a significant marginal benefit.

As for the Rep system, I prefer 1e's, though neither has worked for us. It's a shame because I'm interested in mechanics that aren't purely tied to level or attributes. Oh, and there's good flavor in it.

I believe you can have a functional system. Not that it's a particularly functional system either, but L5R has Glory, which works much the same way (3e, in 4e, I'm not sure it does anything). It can't be like 1e, which was way too much accounting. It can't be like 2e, where what you do doesn't matter much and where your exploit bonus is overly mechanical.

As to defining a Rep level in a 1e framework, pretty much just have to pick a number, which is what I did for NPCs.