nature of reputation

[LucaCherstich]

I'm quite confused about reputation rules.
I have 4 questions regarding this theme.

1)
If the total score changes according to time and distance, this means that every bloody game I have to re-calculate reputation for all the pcs in my game, keeping a list of all their deed.
Am I wrong?

2)
I've noticed that in the Atlantean Edition there was a paragraph "nature of reputation" which lists all the possible reputation types (brave, etc..) and how the reputation bonus (or penalty) applies to different tests.
In 2nd edition this paragraph disappeared.
I've started playing with 2nd edition where the rules regarding the "nature of reputation" are left obscure.
I'm happy about it (reputation nature changes....Conan was a pirate in the black coast in his youth, but later he became an Aquilonian king).
Furthermore, if the reputation scores gained with different natures all sum together, how can it be that the score gained, for example, with the nature "vile" in Zamora could sum up with the scores gained with, for example, the reputation "trustworthy" in Corinthia?
Probably it is better to leave the reputation "generic" without giving just one single nature.
If I well understood this is the approach of Conan 2nd ed.
Am I wrong?

3)
And furthermore, since there are no reputation natures (with linked bonuses/penalties to specific tests) , does it mean that in 2nd edition it's me (the GM) who have to decide every time how reputation works and whether it appleis as a bonus or a penalty?

4)
And therefore are the new reputations from other sourcebooks (e.g. Argos & Zingara) useless for me (playing the 2nd ed.)?

 

[Ichabod]

I like the concept of reputation. It makes one think of trying to do stuff rather than just power up a character. It roots characters in the world.

But, the rep rules are a mess of tedious accounting. The location modifiers in pre 2E made rep pritnear useless for our players. The nature of rep was inconsistently used and made little sense anyway since you'd have to have a database for keeping track of different sorts of rep. 2E only makes it more insane with tracking individual deeds and rep expiring over time. Realistic, maybe, but a waste of time.

I'd make a list of locations and assign a modifier of -N to +N for each player for each location that affects all social rolls. Obviously, everything would start at 0. If you want to make it extremely complicated for a bit more of realism, you can vary the modifiers between skills.