Renown

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Renown measures how well known a character is—their fame, notoriety, or infamy— following the Western Reaches rules (page 233).

The Shadowdark system stores the raw number on the character sheet. This module provides the band ladder that gives that number mechanical meaning, a single auditable write path for awards and penalties, and a reaction roll modifier for when the party encounters someone who might recognize them.

Opening Renown

Route	How
Crawl Bar	Right-click Forge & Loot → Renown
API	`game.shadowdarkEnhancer.renown.open()`

The Renown window is GM-only because adjustments record directly to the session recap.

Where renown lives

Renown is stored in system.renown on Player actors. The core Shadowdark system ships both the property and a sheet input for it. This module reads and updates that exact field. Any value you edit manually on a character sheet is recognized immediately.

Negative values are supported: A character starting with a negative Charisma modifier begins below zero, and serious blunders can push renown into negative numbers.
Starting value: By default, new characters start with renown equal to their CHA modifier.

The four renown bands

Renown score	Status band	Modifier
3 or less	Unknown	—
4 to 7	Locally known	+1
8 to 11	Known name	+2
12 or more	Celebrity	+3

By the rules, this bonus applies to reaction rolls and carousing event rolls.

Reaction rolls: Automated directly in the Encounter Roller via the Recognised here toggle.
Carousing rolls: If you run the optional Shadowdark Extras module, it reads this exact ladder and applies the bonus automatically. If you run without Extras, you can apply the bonus manually when rolling carousing from the book.

Renown bands appear in three places:

The Renown dialog (party roster with scores, bands, and bonuses).
The Downtime window purse header (beside the crown icon).
The Encounter Roller reaction breakdown when a bonus is active.

Reaction rolls

The Encounter Roller rolls 2d6 + CHA for reaction checks. Renown adds an optional, situational bonus.

Under the CHA modifier stepper in the Encounter Roller:

Recognised here: Toggle off by default. Enable this when the encounter takes place in a town, tavern, or region where the character is known.
Character picker: Select which party member's reputation applies. Defaults to the most renowned character in the party.

When enabled, the reaction roll displays the full calculation:

Reaction   2d6+CHA = 7 + (0) + 2   →   Neutral
           Renown +2 — Eliara is Known name here (9 renown)

The breakdown posts directly to chat so the table can see why the reaction landed where it did.

Double 1s are always hostile. Rolling double 1s on reaction dice always results in a Hostile reaction regardless of CHA modifiers or renown bonuses.

Awarding and docking renown

Because most renown changes are table rulings, the primary interface is a dedicated GM dialog.

The dialog includes:

Party Roster: Current scores, status bands, and modifiers for all PCs.
Award Form: Select the character, enter the Change (negative numbers dock renown), and provide a Reason.
Trigger Suggestions: Quick-fill common book triggers as you type.
Renown Log: Collapsible per-player ledger of all past changes.

Suggested triggers from the book:

Gains	Losses
Gained a level	Public humiliation
Honoured in public	Trouble with the law
Lavish public spending	A fashion misstep
A major triumph	A cultural blunder
—	Offended someone grander

Automatic starting seed

When a new player character is created, their starting renown is automatically set to their CHA modifier.

Runs once per character.
Won't overwrite existing non-zero renown or existing log entries.
To re-seed an older character or reflect an updated CHA modifier, click the Start at CHA mod button in the Renown dialog.

You can disable automatic seeding under Settings → Starting renown from CHA.

Automatic level-up awards

When a character reaches level 2 or higher, the module automatically awards +1 renown per level gained.

Reaching level 1 is excluded so new characters don't receive double awards alongside their CHA modifier seed.
Disable automatic level awards under Settings → Renown on level-up.

Downtime renown awards

Activities in Downtime that award or dock renown (such as gaining favor with a church or spreading rumors) route through this same write path, logging the event automatically.

What gets recorded

Every renown change is tracked in three locations:

The character's renown log: Stored on the actor document (flags["shadowdark-enhancer"].renownLog), preserving the last 50 changes even across exports.
Public chat card: Posts the character name, change, new score, band, and stated reason to chat.
Session Recap: Logged to the XP & Renown tab during active sessions and included in Discord recap exports.

Changes made outside the module

If renown is edited directly on a character sheet, by a macro, or by another module, the enhancer detects the change automatically and logs it as Changed outside the module.

When external tools (such as Shadowdark Extras carousing) send structured awards through the enhancer API, the log stamps the specific cause (such as a Carousing tag) without double-posting chat cards.

API helpers:

game.shadowdarkEnhancer.renown.history(actor): Returns a character's full log.
game.shadowdarkEnhancer.renown.historyByPlayer(): Returns the party log grouped by player.

Troubleshooting

The Renown dialog says there are no player characters.
Renown tracks Player actors assigned to a player owner. Assign character ownership in Foundry's user configuration.

The "Recognised here" toggle is missing in the Encounter Roller.
The toggle appears only when player characters are in the world and only on monster/NPC results that require a reaction roll.

Levelling up did not award renown.
Verify that Renown on level-up is enabled in settings, that the character reached level 2 or higher, and that the new level was saved to the actor.

Renown changed, but nothing appeared in the Session Recap.
Recaps record only while a crawl session is actively running. Start a crawl from the Crawl Bar.