Fame is a stupid resource

[Gingerbread Man]

Most items you can equip after two to three events. From a mechanic standpoint it seems to be there just to be there. It doesn't add much to any depth being pretty static. Would the game change drastically (or at all) if it were removed? The only time I noticed it being there is if I get an equip on my first event and have to wait a couple of events. I really don't understand this addition to the game from the first one. Why have this?

[Lee]

Like the other resources, it becomes a moot point fairly early on in Endless Mode, but fame's impact is felt pretty strongly in the campaign. By putting fame restrictions on powerful end-game equipment we ensure there's still value in deckbuilding with earlier gear, while also allowing for a sense of player progression across an individual challenge. It also gives us an opportunity to provide a tactical reward in encounters where the narrative wouldn't necessarily merit a gold/food reward in response to the protagonist risking their neck. Ultimately it's another lever we can use to build challenges and encounters around, and it's always good to have levers.

[Ratt]

Gold is a stupid resource.

Most items you can get from a single encounter. From a mechanic standpoint it seems to be there just to be there. It doesn't add much to any depth being pretty static. Would the game change drastically (or at all) if it were removed? The only time I noticed it being there is if I get a shop encounter on the first map and have to not buy every good item they have in stock. I really don't understand this retention in the game from the first one. Why have this?

Because it's another resource for a resource management game. It's something to gain, lose, spend, seek out, or wish you had more of (or, for the The Moon campaign challenge, less of). It's one of the few things that murderhobos like Kallas, Isondry(?), and the player would care about amassing, with weapons, wealth, and survival already accounted for.

It's also a human desire more direct than wealth and more versatile than life and sustenance, which helps the world feel a little less artificial. Instead of everything that happens to you contriving to be about money, meals, medicine, murder tools, and the malevolence of the gods so that it can have an in-game effect, the fame resource allows for writing about reputation, virtue, divine favour (less momentous than the outright divine intervention of blessings), and heroism. A victory can be marked as important by tying it to a large fame reward, as happens when you complete the final encounter in any companion quest.

Finally, it helps differentiate Isondry from Kallas. Kallas just wanted to slay the greatest men and beasts the world had to offer so that he could challenge the greatest wizard in the world, steal his power, and rule as an immortal god. He's like an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ version of Hercules; the twelve bosses of Hand of Fate 1 are his twelve labours, but all of them (as opposed to some of them) are about killing something, and none of them (as opposed to all of them) are helpful to anyone besides himself. Kallas didn't care about what other people thought of him, and he was never kind except when there was a reward in it for him.

Kallas cared about that kind of fame, but Isondry's fame resource shows that he cares about what normal people think of him. For example, in A Winding Trail, Kallas' version just has him killing as many bandits as will dare to fight him, then cowing the rest into submission and surrender of their loot. Isondry's version has that as an option, an option that his companion will object to (and Estrella will act against), but it also has the option to let the defeated bandits go home to their starving families, maybe even with a gift for their trouble. These options are rewarded with more fame, encouraging even the most tl;dr murderhobo players to sometimes take the option that sets Isondry apart from Kallas as a human being capable of occasional empathy.

That's just one example of why fame exists in Hand of Fate 2. Others can be found.

[_G_]

Originally posted by Ratt:

Gold is a stupid resource.

Because it's another resource for a resource management game..........etc. ...............
That's just one example of why fame exists in Hand of Fate 2. Others can be found.

Totally agree.

[Emilio]

I think fame has a place in the game. But I wish, oh so wish that some encounters used fame to have a few different things happen depending on if you're unknown, know or famous.

[Ratt]

Originally posted by Emilio:

I wish, oh so wish that some encounters used fame to have a few different things happen depending on if you're unknown, know or famous.

Some do. Anything with the "fame check" attribute in the deck builder does.

[Emilio]

Originally posted by Ratt:

Originally posted by Emilio:

I wish, oh so wish that some encounters used fame to have a few different things happen depending on if you're unknown, know or famous.

Some do. Anything with the "fame check" attribute in the deck builder does.

Well yeah, I know that it exists already.
But I wish it was a bit more dynamic is all. As it is now after a specific amount those cards just give you a single new outcome (being good or bad depending on the card)

But it would be cool if some cards where better/worse or gave different rewards for different fame checks. So for an example 0-19, 20-29 and so forth, just to spice things up a bit.

Seeing as after reaching the fame of 30+ it just makes the resource kinda moot.

But hey, that’s just a little opinion of mine.

[Metro]

It's fine but could certainly use some tweaks/experimenting. I think more options to expend fame in various encounters (or to some new vendors) would be a good start.

[Ratt]

You could mod in some more fame-using encounters if you like.