Obviously not every adventure yields reputation, but it feels like a cheap option to put it on the same level as vis or books for a reward- perhaps a die roll to determine whether or not the adventure resulted in an increase in reputation. Of course reputation could also be a consequence, so maybe two rolls which get modified by a social ability...
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I have no answer to your question, but since you ask me specifically, solo play is not for me. It is too artificial, and too encouraging to play the system.
You just have fun without me 
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I treated it as asset that could be factored in once per adventure to a roll (prior to rolling), much like a virtue.
Each Rep was separate, so maybe multiple Reps could be used in one adventure, but doubtful
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It's been a while since I played with these rules but I never cared much about reputation when I did. Or at all.
Reputations anyway had always involved more roleplaying and ad hoc determination according to what happened in the game than fixed rules, and Solo Play sometimes threw results of epic scale. So I guess you should just get yourself some reputations XPs whenever one of these times happens. And then I totally see some reputations being added or substracted from social stories, when they seem like they should apply.
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Honestly, I'm not very happy with the reputation rules in 5th Edition (or any other edition, tbh). So I haven't really given much thought to it regarding the solo play rules. That said, I feel that almost every adventure in solo play should yield 1xp to a reputation, and the outcome of the adventure should determine if that was a positive or negative reputation.
But I haven't played with the solo rules in quite a while, so these thoughts are rather untested.
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Quick idea: the outcome of each challenge generate a number of reputation XPs equal to the difference between the ending roll and the difficulty; if you succeed by 3 points, then 3 XPs.
These reputation XPs shouldn't be assumed to go to the magus anyway: they could well go into a grog or companion or even to an NPC but to any character the story narrative suggest. For example if you success on a social or political challenge by playing subtle and indirectly then the reputation XPs could end going to a NPC. You tricked the Count to solve the problem with that errant Knight on your behalf by playing politcal games with his confessor and had the dice exploding so you did it superbly right? Then the confessor might well had burnt the errant knight on charges of heresy and gain a reputation of cruelty, or of being the one pulling the strings of the Count in the context of the court.
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It's a really cool system! Thanks for sharing it!
That being said, I do have some changes that I've made to it and would like to suggest as alternative rules in a couple places to anyone interested in them. Multiple characters, possible multiple quests per year, more even distribution of stories, and a rewards system that more closely mirrors the rulebooks with regard to modifying boons and hooks in play, and also gives increased rewards for more difficult adventures. Elective adventures, in which one or more characters set out to improve the state of the covenant, are also possible for characters not otherwise occupied.
Having experimented with it some, my variation allows multiple characters to participate in an adventure, as they do in a normal game, provided it makes sense for the hook or flaw in question. I also don't use virtues to build stories, as a full covenant has toooo many hooks and character's story-provoking flaws as it is.
I roll for ALL stories, in random order, one roll at a time until all possible adventure seeds are eliminated or chosen. This way, multiple characters can have stories in one year, and there aren't so many unused hooks and flaws. Personality flaws are usually restricted to just the character who has them. Covenant hooks can be attempted by any and all companions and magi, but they still can't double tap an ability within the same segment. ie, If character A uses a spell to solve part, character B can't re-use "spell" as a solution.
I converted the rewards for boons and eliminating hooks to 1 POINT towards them, as the rulebook says resolving a hook "usually takes several stories." To that end, I require 3 points of reward towards removing a minor hook, and 9 points to remove a major hook, although it downgrades to minor after 6 if applicable, or the penalty is reduced, if applicable. Boons mirror this behavior, adhering to the core rulebook principle that adding a boon requires adding a flaw to balance it, representing the world's reaction to the covenant's improvement.
Along with that change, the boon/hook rewards no longer make sense as written, and in particular it never made much sense that only difficult scenarios can result in major change, as this means that higher level characters can advance MORE quickly than younger ones, which is not intended to be the case. That's why arts and abilities scale up in xp costs per level. That's why every single game requires more and more xp to level up the higher you go. So, the difficulty requirements on buying boons and buying off hooks are erased. It might even be prudent to start lowering the rewards over time, say with each 50 years of age, or each decrepitude,.subtract one point from xp, build points, or hook/flaw/virtue/boon point, to a minimum of 1. It is, after all, harder to learn from your experiences when you've already experienced a lot, because fewer situations are novel.
A character may undergo voluntary quests if they have none rolled that year. Undergoing a voluntary quest may be taken for points to eliminate hooks and flaws or buy boons and virtues, or to acquire covenant features using the build point system with the build point rewards.
Each level of difficulty beyond average increases the reward scale by one step, for all success levels (not failure) but it still never rises above the maximum success level listed, ie, reward +5 xp. Hard would mean two or three successes nets a reward and 5 xp, instead of only 3 successes. Contrariwise, particularly easy challenges max out at 2 successes.
Character flaws and virtues may be removed or gained at a rate equal to boons and hooks, that is, three per minor and 9 per major, but as a character must always have a personality flaw and a story flaw, buying off the last of either is done for half price, rounded down. So 1 for minor and 4 for major. Then, a replacement is chosen.
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I appreciate you found the system worthy of such detailed thoughts.
My concept behind the Boon/hook reward system is narratively, big changes require big actions and big risks.
It didn’t make intuitive sense that beginning characters can generate major advantages.
But the core concept is a way to organically (even randomly) do character advancement, it’s a way of telling a story. If you think your method make more logical sense an enables you to tell a better story then I cheer you on.
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If you've written up your changes we'd love to see them documented.
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I agree with Heaven’s Thunder. From your explanation it sounds like some of the changes I was thinking of making but never really got around to fleshing out or playtesting. Particularly the bit about rolling for each hook and story flaw separately rather than as a dice pool. Then I was thinking they should have some cooldown period because any particular hook is only really supposed to generate a story every 5-ish years.
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The problem with a dice pool is it revokes the story connection to the flaw.
If you roll for each flaw then you must relate the adventure to that flaw. This forces the player to tell a story using preset elements.
I suppose you could use a pool and then randomly determine which flaw applies.
It really depends if you want to use the Solo Play in “story mode” or as a means of advancing characters
an obvious possibility is to roll for each individual, and then let them ask for help of their companions...
That is a good idea. Although the cool down idea also has merit
The other consideration is for Omen or botch dice, and how they are created. Would this then mean that only major hooks or flaws generate extra botch dice?
That is an interesting thought.
Perhaps we could involve a “risk mechanic”
Obviously some story flaws are long term slow burn kinds of stories, such as being Wanted for some crime years ago in a land far far away.
Compare this to being Wanted for a serious crime you committed last week, committed in the next village.
Perhaps if there is an urgency or immediacy of the flaw then perhaps away a couple extra botch dice
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Clarification Request: Under rewards, where it says that a Non-Hermetic effect to study requires "Difficulty 18+, 3+ Challenges for a single effect," does that mean it costs three rewards to get this? Or that you can only get one per adventure?
EDIT: Further request for clarification: If you acquire a Non-Hermetic effect to study, is it presumed that you have everything needed to start attempting an Insight? For example, for Folk Witch stuff you only need one example of an effect (such as a potion) per Insight, but for Defixio Magic you need both a Defixio and a Formula. If I got a reward of a Magnitude 6 effect to study, would that mean that I have both Defixio and Formula?
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Dunno, got me there. I wrote the original solo play so I’m better with the basic concepts.
To me this is a way to generate stories and inspiration.
If you character concept is a mage who studies non hermetic abilities and that’s the type of campaign you want to play, then yes, one insight is enough.
It’s no different than in a traditional game. If you built a character with that focus you would expect a Story Guide/GM to run adventures with those kinds of opportunities.
Obviously others can tell you how the more refined version of solo play do RAW.
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I wrote this reward with some ambiguity so that players could decide on how tough they wanted to be on their PC. (Edit, not sure if I added this reward or edited what was already there. Been too long.)
My recommendation is to allow one Non Hermetic reward per adventure and assume it's everything you need, if you meet the 3 challenges requirement at difficulty 18+.
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So does that mean that it costs all three rewards? Or that you can only have one, and the other two rewards need to be something else?
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That part is up to you. So 1 Non Hermetic source of research and 2 other rewards for 3 challenges is "easy mode" and no other other rewards is "hard mode."
Over time of using the solo play rules, I personally derive more fun from hard mode, but whatever is fun for you. There are no rpg police to break down your door and arrest you for "bad wrong fun."
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