While Chapters measure the length of your story, Pathways and Roles define its very essence. They are the world’s answer to the question: who have your actions shown you to be? Your Role, also known as your Title, is the most visible sign of your character’s status and reputation within a specific community. Earning a new one is a sign of significant character development.
This article breaks down exactly how these powerful titles are earned, changed, and mastered.
The Dual Requirement: Experience & Action
Earning a new Role is not just about time served; it’s about focused, thematic action. Think of it like this: a legendary figure needs both a long life full of experience and a history of specific, defining deeds.
- Experience (Chapters): This is your character’s overall life experience. Every Role has a minimum Chapter requirement, ensuring that a character has the necessary narrative weight to justify their reputation. You cannot become a seasoned ‘Felon’ overnight; the world needs to see that you have the life story to back up that title.
- Action (Building Your Reputation): This is the measure of your focused, thematic roleplay. Your standing in a Pathway is built by taking actions that align with it. Committing crimes builds your
Criminalreputation; surviving them builds yourVictimstanding.
A Tale of Three Cities: Community-Specific Identities
Your character’s identity is not monolithic. It changes based on the environment and the unique pressures of each community. The Pathways available to you are different depending on where you are telling your story.
- In the Crack Den: Life in Hathian is a brutal duality. You will walk either the Criminal Pathway as a predator, or the Victim Pathway as prey. A third, gated option, the First Responder Pathway, is available for those who join a law enforcement or rescue faction.
- In the Backwaters: The bayou presents a thematic choice between the Lurker Pathway for those who thrive in its shadows, and the Lost Pathway for those who are ensnared by them. The gated Deputies Pathway is a unique route for those who enforce the bayou’s corrupt order.
- In the University: The core conflict on campus is between the Faculty Pathway for those who wield knowledge as power, and the Student Pathway for those who seek it, often at a great personal cost.
The Weight of Your Legend: The Legacy Floor
The world has a long memory. The highest Role you have ever achieved in any Pathway is recorded as your Legacy Role. This is your badge of honor, and it functions as a permanent “floor” for your reputation.
Your displayed Title can never fall below your Legacy Role.
Even if your character has a crisis of conscience and their Criminal standing drops, the streets will still remember them as the ‘Felon’ they once were. Your reputation is a floor, not a revolving door. Should your actions take you down a different path for a time, the system recognizes your history. When you return to your old ways, you will receive a powerful Catch Up Boost to your progress, helping you quickly and seamlessly reclaim your hard-earned status.
Changing Your Story: How Pathways Evolve
Reputations are sticky. To change the world’s core perception of you — to shift your “true” path from Victim to Criminal, for instance — a brief flirtation with a new identity is not enough. You must demonstrate a significant and sustained shift in your actions. The system is designed so that your influence in a new Pathway must substantially outweigh your standing in the old one before your core identity shifts. This makes narrative changes feel earned, meaningful, and monumental.
Wearing the Mask: The “Lock Path” Feature
Your “true” path is what the world whispers about you based on your raw actions. But you have the power to control what it says to your face.
The Lock Path feature on your Character Card allows you to choose a Role — the last ten per Pathway — you have ever earned and display it as your public Title. This is a powerful tool for nuanced roleplay. It’s perfect for the undercover cop maintaining their ‘Criminal’ cover, the ‘Survivor’ who inwardly refuses to let the world see them as a ‘Victim’, or any character publicly committed to one path while secretly walking another. Your locked title is the mask you wear; your true pathway is the face underneath.
Your Title is more than a label. It is the sum of your choices, a testament to your history, and a weapon in your arsenal. Forge it wisely.
