Infamy
Just like Threat, Infamy is another key concept in Hoist the Colors relating to back to Threat and how the PCs are represented in the world. Infamy is a scale that represents the Privateer crew’s reputation among their allies. It also covers how much heat they have earned through working Warrants, which reflects how badly enemies want to hunt them down.
Overall, Infamy serves two main purposes. First, it reflects short-term consequences for the PCs. In this case, it is the Privateer’s earning heat which draws the lethal attention from pirates, rival factions, and similar complications for the crew. Second, Infamy drives long-term progress for the group. In this case, that is growing their base Threat score over time, which in turn unlocks new dangers but also new opportunity.
Tracking Infamy
Infamy itself is tracked on a scale from 0 to 12. Each point represents the entire Privateer crew’s reputation, no matter if its acts of daring heroism, mischief, or outright infamous deeds.
These points are awarded by the GM to the entire crew based on their actions, and are recommended to be awarded at the end of a session. This way, the reward reflects not just every action the crew performs, but how well they handled the main challenge. Since it’s the main challenge of the narrative, the goal of a Warrant or mission, that is the thrust of the story in a session.
Examples of Infamy awards could be:
Escalating Consequences
One important thing to remember is that is risk with every reward. As the Privateer’s Infamy rises, so do the risks they face. Not every point of Infamy brings risk, but reaching certain thresholds of Infamy is recommended to always have a reaction.
Laying Low
Infamy opens many doors and brings new challenges for a rough-and-ready Privateer crew. But as infamy increases, so do the risks. Sometimes, those risks get so high that the Privateers are doing nothing more than running for their lives. That’s when it pays for the Privateers to lie low for a while and let the heat blow over, so they can get back to trying to catch that horizon!
To do that, the Privateers can use their Downtime between sessions to lower their Infamy to a level they can tolerate. They do this by spending their downtime actions by making apologies to guilds, covering their tracks, or any other actions to shift attention away from themselves.
Privateers start by saying what they will do to shift the heat and attention elsewhere, then roll an appropriate action. Maybe you Consort with that Envoy friend you’ve known for years, getting them to help negotiate a quiet, temporary truce with a guild. Or maybe you strike a deal with the Marquee Brotherhood to make some dockmaster reports about the Privateers mysteriously disappear.
Any member of the Privateer crew and spend a downtime action to lower the crew’s Infamy. In fact, multiple members of the crew can spend their downtime actions to take the heat off. Last of all, remember! If there’s no appropriate action for how you want to try to reduce Infamy, use a fortune roll!
No matter if it’s an action or fortune roll, here’s how to check the results:
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