Society and Happiness

Society and Happiness
In this game, a society's happiness is measured on four axes that are rated from +10 to -10. These extremes are so rare as to be considered utopian or dystopian; most civilizations hover between +3 and -3. Note that this is a general rating for the entire culture-individuals may be happier or sadder than this, but on average the culture's rating indicates how happy you are likely to find the inhabitants. There are two contributors to happiness. The first is the civilization's traits. The second are major events.

Traits include values, areas of skill, and areas of disinterest and avoidance. Traits can positively or negatively influence different axes of happiness, and when they do they more the score two points. Skills and disinterests can similarly positively or negatively affect each axis, and when they do it is worth 1 point. Events can cause happiness to move in positive and negative directions. There are at most three events that affect happiness. Adventures can result in events, and the scope of that change is defined in the table below. Note that events do not require adventures; it is possible for an event to affect the civilization that doesn't involve the players at all. If a fourth event happens within a civilization, it will replace another event. Events are scaled in terms of the absolute value for the change. A triumph is equivalent to a catastrophe, a breakthrough to a crisis, and a success to a problem. A new event removes the previous event that is the highest event that is not higher than the new event. A catastrophe can only be replaced by another catastrophe or a triumph. If there are no events then the new event does not have any effect on happiness. If a culture has three breakthroughs then a problem doesn't register on their happiness.

Removing the impact of an event is easier than replacing it. With an adventure one level of difficulty less than the chart above, the impact of the event can be reduced by one level. In this way, with a hard adventure the party can change a catastrophe into a crisis. A problem or success can be eliminated entirely this way with an easy adventure.

See the section on spending culture to learn more about how to set up adventures that add or change events that contribute to happiness.

Reputation and Happiness
Any mission that grants reputation is really creating an event that has a positive impact on the civilization whose reputation goes up. Easy adventures improve reputation only by generating the story of the team, so the happiness is unaffected, but more difficult adventures adhere to the chart above. If the players are blamed for changes to happiness they didn't do, their reputation is similarly affected. There is one exception: if you change the traits or skills of a civilization through a quest (see spending culture) you do not gain any reputational benefit or detriment. Finally, if the adventure is successful but the event doesn't impact happiness due to there being three greater events already tracked, the players still gain the reputation bonus.