Reputation in 5E

[One of my players asked for some kind of game structure around reputation and notoriety. Here's my quick version of what I think I'm going to try out this week.]

Reputation exists within a certain context which we'll call a peer group. Everyone in the peer group knows the reputation of everyone else in the peer group. A minor embarrassment (by the standards of that peer group) such as not getting invited to a party costs you 5 reputation (within that peer group), while a minor victory (getting a famous celebrity to attend) earns you 5 reputation. A major embarrassment (clothes catching on fire at a party) could cost up to half your reputation or 100 points (whichever is greater), while a major victory (saving the city) could double it. (DM's discretion here as to magnitude.) The only mechanical effects of reputation are that you can give it away to someone with less reputation, you can spend it to "attack" the reputation of someone who has less than you do (degrading both equally on a 1:1 basis), and everyone knows how much reputation everyone has. The additional roleplaying consequence is that people who want reputation within a certain peer group are likely to cooperate with those with high reputation, who therefore have the power to enhance or destroy other people's reputations. Toadies and flunkies, in-groups, out-groups, etc., all emerge naturally from this simple set of rules.

You can participate in multiple peer groups and have different reputations within each. I might have loads of street cred (Reputation: 500 among the Waterdeep Toughs) but be virtually unknown amongst the nobility (Reputation: 5 for once attending a certain party) and yet be hated and feared by chromatic dragons (Reputation: 200 for killing three dragons). Note that Reputation doesn't have to mean that people like you (the dragons hate me), but if I want to spend my credibility mocking a certain chromatic dragon he has to respond (likely by trying to kill me) or be shamed among his peers. A regular peasant wouldn't have that kind of leverage.

Notoriety is reputation with a peer group of bad guys.

The point of the reputation system is so that players can know in advance, some quantifiable way, what abstract effects their actions will have and thereby increase their feeling of agency. In my specific player's case, last week he rescued some peasants from gnolls and then threatened them afterward when they failed to give him any money. He ended up destroying their house, barn, and prized plow. In the proposed system, that might be -100 reputation among People Who Live Near Adarak, and +5 among Manly Psychopaths Who Live Near Adarak. The gnolls might even be peers within the Manly Psychopath peer group, and those of them who survived undoubtedly would lose reputation (-20 reputation?) if word of their defeat got around. How that affects their behavior depends on how important their reputation is to them, and what they think is the best way of getting it back.

Finally, I might build in some quick handles into every peer group that let you gain some starting reputation. E.g. Street Toughs might give you an initial reputation equal to your Intimidation passive score, and Nobility might let you gain 5 reputation with a week's worth of effort and a successful Persuasion check against 1/5 your current reputation. The purpose of the handles is, again, to empower the players with specific knowledge about their options.

-B.C.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Mrs Palmer's memory

[Excerpt from Mrs. Palmer's account, as published in They Knew The Prophet.]

I remember the excitement stirred up among some of the people over Joseph's First Vision, and of hearing my father contend that it was only the sweet dream of a pure minded boy. One of our church leaders came to my father to remonstrate against his allowing such close friendship between his family and the "Smith Boy," as he called him. My father defended his own position by saying that Joseph was the best help he had ever found. He told the churchman that he always fixed the time of hoeing his large field to that when he could secure the services of Joseph Smith, because of the influence that boy had over the wild boys of the neighborhood, and explained that when these boys, or young men, worked by themselves much time would be spent in arguing and quarreling, which often ended in a ring fight. But when Joseph Smith worked with them, the work went steadily forward, and he got the full worth of the wages he paid.

I remember the churchman saying, in a very solemn and impressive tone, that the very influence the boy carried was the danger they feared for the coming generation, that not only the young men, but all who came incontact with him, would follow him, and he must be put down.

Not until Joseph had had a second vision and begun to write a book which drew many of the best and brightest people of the churches away did my parents come to a realization of the fact that their friend, the churchman, had told them the truth. Then, my family cut off their friendship for all the Smiths, for all the family followed Joseph. Even the father, intelligent man that he was, could not discern the evil he was helping to promote. My parents then lent all the aid they could in helping to crush Joseph Smith; but it was too late. He had run his course too long. He could not be put down.

There was never a truer, purer, nobler boy than Joseph Smith, before he was led away by superstition.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Harriet Tubman

I found these accounts moving. (From http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bradford/bradford.html.)

         It has been mentioned that Harriet never asks anything for herself, but whenever her people were in trouble, or she felt impelled to go South to guide to freedom friend or brother, or father and mother, if she had not time to work for the money, she was persistent till she got it from somebody. When she received one of her intimations that the old people were in trouble, and it was time for her to go to them, she asked the Lord where she should go for the money. She was in some way, as she supposed, directed to the office of a certain gentleman in New York. When she left the house of her friends to go there, she said, "I'm gwine to Mr.--'s office, an' I ain't gwine to lebe there, an' I ain't gwine to eat or drink till I git enough money to take me down after the ole people."

         She went into this gentleman's office.

         "What do you want, Harriet?" was the first greeting.

         "I want some money, sir."

         "You do? How much do you want?"

         "I want twenty dollars, sir."

         "Twenty dollars? Who told you to come here for twenty dollars?"

         "De Lord tole me, sir."

         "Well, I guess the Lord's mistaken this time."

         "I guess he isn't, sir. Anyhow I'm gwine to sit here till I git it."

         So she sat down and went to sleep. All the morning and all the afternoon she sat there still, sleeping and rousing up--sometimes finding the office full of gentlemen--sometimes finding herself alone. Many fugitives were passing through Now York at that time, and those who came in supposed that she was one of them, tired out and resting. Sometimes she would be roused up with the words, "Come, Harriet, you had better go. There's no money for you here." "No, sir. I'm not gwine till I git my twenty dollars."

         She does not know all that happened, for deep sleep fell upon her; but probably her story was whispered about, and she roused at last to find herself the happy possessor of sixty dollars, which had been raised among those who came into the office. She went on her way rejoicing, to bring her old parents from the land of bondage. She found that her father was to be tried the next Monday, for helping off slaves; so, as she says, she "removed his trial to a higher court," and hurried him off to Canada. One more little incident, which, it is hoped, may not be offensive to the young lady to whom it alludes, may be mentioned here, showing Harriet's extreme delicacy in asking anything for herself. Last winter ('67 and '68), as we all know, the snow was very deep for months, and Harriet and the old people were completely snowed-in in their little home. The old man was laid up with rheumatism, and Harriet could not leave home for a long time to procure supplies of corn, if she could have made her way into the city. At length, stern necessity compelled her to plunge through the drifts to the city, and she appeared at the house of one of her firm and fast friends, and was directed to the room of one of the young ladies. She began to walk up and down, as she always does when in trouble. At length she said, "Miss Annie?" "What, Harriet?" A long pause; then again, "Miss Annie?" "Well, what is it, Harriet?" This was repeated four times, when the young lady, looking up, saw her eyes filled with tears. She then insisted on knowing what she wanted. And with a great effort, she said, "Miss Annie, could you lend me a quarter till Monday? I never asked it before." Kind friends immediately supplied all the wants of the family, but on Monday Harriet appeared with the quarter she had borrowed.

         But though so timid for herself, she is bold enough when the wants of her race are concerned. Even now, while friends are trying to raise the means to publish this little book for her, she is going around with the greatest zeal and interest to raise a subscription for her Freedmen's Fair. She called on Hon. Wm. H. Seward, the other day, for a subscription to this object. He said, "Harriet, you have worked for others long enough. It is time you should think of yourself. If you ask for a donation for yourself, I will give it to you; but I will not help you to rob yourself for others."

         Harriet's charity for all the human race is unbounded. It embraces even the slaveholder--it sympathizes even with Jeff. Davis, and rejoices at his departure to other lands, with some prospect of peace for the future. She says, "I tink dar's many a slaveholder 'll git to Heaven. Dey don't know no better. Dey acts up to de light dey hab. You take dat sweet little child (pointing to a lonely baby)--'pears more like an angel dan anyting else--take her down dere, let her nebber know nothing 'bout [Negros] but they was made to be whipped, an' she 'll grow up to use the whip on 'em jus' like de rest. No, Missus, its because dey don't know no better." May God give the people to whom the story of this woman shall come, a like charity, so that through their kindness the last days of her stormy and troubled life may be calm and peaceful.

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Joseph Smith's own Bible

Reading the JST (Joseph Smith's "new translation" of the Bible) in some ways feels a lot like reading someone else's scriptures, with their own highlights and notes. It's interesting to see what he flags as important or not important. Let me give you a specific example. Rev 2:18-19 says:

18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.

 

In some cases, repetition in the scriptures is significant. Is it doctrinally significant in this case that "thy works" appears both at the beginning and the end of the list? Joseph Smith didn't think so, after consulting with the Holy Ghost. I know because in the Bible he was using he crossed out the second occurrence, "and thy works." That means that "the last" means patience--thy patience will be more than thy works. That fits with the rest of what the Lord tells those in Thyatira: "I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come." You may not outwardly appear to accomplish much, he seems to be saying, but if you just endure to the end as saints I will be happy with you. Be humble and be faithful, and I will comfort you when I come.

-Max

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

Paradox of Leadership

There's a tension in the gospel which almost looks like a paradox: we are instructed to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth, to invite others to come to Christ. But we are also told that the Church is a hospital for sinners, not a cathedral (or whatever) only for saints. That is, everyone is welcome no matter where they are in their spiritual progression.

This means that there may come a time, or many times, when you see people around you even at church who embarrass you. Don't be shocked or disappointed or disillusioned. It's part of the plan. When this happens, you need to:

(1) Exercise charity. Do not judge them too harshly for their weaknesses.
(2) Realize that maybe you are the spiritual adult in the room. Be the light for them. Do not contend, but do not compromise your integrity either. Just do what is right.

In short, the answer is individual virtue. We're called to be the light of the world not only to the world but to each other. You'll know you're living the gospel right when you sometimes feel alone.

"The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"

~B.C.

--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Suddenly

Aiath/Migron/Michmash/Geba/Ramah/etc. are all places on the way to Jerusalem. I infer that Nob is where Isaiah 37:36 occurs, when the angel smites them. But don't read this too literally--Isaiah isn't JUST talking about the Babylonian invasion, he's talking about a pattern that occurs throughout history, including today, where the mighty are suddenly humbled by the Lord. That general principle is presumably why Nephi included this chapter of Isaiah in 2 Nephi 20.

~Max


Isaiah 10: 28-34

28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:

29 They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.

30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.

31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.

32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.

34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.

--
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not Honor more.

Supreme Court history

Some interesting factoids here:

For example, at the beginning of our Republic, only six justices served on the Supreme Court. In the decades that followed, Congress passed various acts to change this number. For many years, there were only seven Supreme Court justices; during the Civil War, there were as many as 10. It wasn't until Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1869 that the number of justices was fixed at nine.

Consider Justice Robert Jackson's leave of absence to serve in the Nuremberg Trials in 1945. His hiatus left the Supreme Court with only eight justices on the bench for an entire year. But having an even number of justices in no way inhibited the Court's business. As Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, Jackson's absence did not "sacrific[e] a single interest of importance" because the Supreme Court could simply reschedule any cases that resulted in split decisions.

When tie votes occur today, the Supreme Court has the same ability to reargue cases at a later date or simply let the opinion of the lower court stand. But rarely is either option necessary because ties are so uncommon.  That's because the vast majority of the Court's decisions are either unanimous or split along non-ideological lines. This holds true even for some of the most high-profile, controversial cases. For example, after Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from Fisher v. University of Texas—a 2013 affirmative action case with far-reaching implications for college admissions—the Supreme Court still reached a near-unanimous decision with only eight justices.

While Democrats would have us believe that an even number of justices hamstrings the Court and results in myriad split decisions, the statistics paint a different picture. Since I was first elected to the Senate nearly four decades ago, the Supreme Court has heard more than 500 cases with only eight justices—either due to recusal or vacancy. Less than seven percent of these cases resulted in a tie.

The current Court vacancy is unlikely to last longer than a year. Yet throughout history, numerous vacancies have stretched for longer periods of time. For example, the seat vacated by Justice Abe Fortas in 1969 remained empty for nearly 400 days, and numerous vacancies in the 1800s sat open for more than two years. It is worth noting that in none of these cases was the Court unable to function without a full contingent of justices.

I think six is a pretty good number. I loathe 5-4 Supreme Court decisions decided by a single swing voter. I think that if you can't convince a few people from the other side of the aisle to see your perspective, the decision doesn't deserve the weight of precedent. A 4-2 vote on a six-person court has legitimacy in a way that a 5-4 decision on a nine-person court does not.

-Max

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.

LINQ IQueryable.ToDictionary

The normal ToDictionary() method is built off of IEnumerable. If you use it with EntityFramework and IQueryable you have potential perf problems because it's using a bunch of bandwidth to select fields that just get thrown away.

Here's a smarter ToDictionary method that's built off of IQueryable and not IEnumerable. It integrates with EntityFramework to ensure that you select only the minimal number of columns needed, instead of fetching them all and projecting out only two columns after everything's in memory.

Usage:

var colorDictionary = this.Db.Items.ToDictionary(x => x.Id, x => x.Color); 
// results in the following SQL:

// SELECT 

//     [Extent1].[Id] AS [Id], 

//     [Extent1].[Color] AS [Color]

//     FROM [dbo].[Item] AS [Extent1]

Code:

    public static class IQueryableExtensions

    {

        public static IDictionary<KeyType, ValueType> ToDictionary<T, KeyType, ValueType>(this IQueryable<T> input, Expression<Func<T, KeyType>> keySelector, Expression<Func<T, ValueType>> valueSelector)

        {

            // deconstruct keySelector and valueSelector as member expressions

            var keyAccess = (keySelector.Body as MemberExpression)?.Member; // discard the "x => x" part of x => x.Name, retain .Name

            var valueAccess = (valueSelector.Body as MemberExpression)?.Member;

            if(keyAccess == null || valueAccess == null)

            {

                throw new ArgumentException("keySelector and valueSelector must be of the form 'x => x.MyProperty'");

            }

            var keyType = (keySelector.Body as MemberExpression).Type;

            var valueType = (valueSelector.Body as MemberExpression).Type;

            // Make a new expression, x => new Pair<keyType,valueType> { Key = x.Key, Value = x.Value }

            var pairType = typeof(Pair<,>).MakeGenericType(keyType, valueType);

            var xParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T));

            var newExpression =

                Expression.Lambda(

                    Expression.MemberInit(

                        Expression.New(pairType),

                        Expression.Bind(pairType.GetProperty("Key"), Expression.MakeMemberAccess(xParam, keyAccess)),

                        Expression.Bind(pairType.GetProperty("Value"), Expression.MakeMemberAccess(xParam, valueAccess))),

                    xParam)

                as Expression<Func<T, Pair<KeyType, ValueType>>>;

            var pParam = Expression.Parameter(pairType);

            return input.Select(newExpression).AsEnumerable().ToDictionary(kv => kv.Key, kv => kv.Value);

        }

        private class Pair<K, V>

        {

            public K Key { get; set; }

            public V Value { get; set; }

        }

    }

--

If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way.

I could not love thee, dear, so much,

Loved I not Honor more.