Here’s Negan: The Board Game – what is Reputation?
20th Nov 2018
Rob Burman
Today we’re kicking off a series of blogs running through some of the main gameplay elements of Here’s Negan: The Board Game. We’ll be guiding you through how Negan himself works, what events you can expect to uncover, combat and exploration. However, today we’re focusing on one of the key elements in Here’s Negan: Reputation!
Before we go onto how that works, it’s worth explaining a little bit about how Reputation came about. When we started creating Here’s Negan, we originally had Negan as one of the playable characters. However, when it became clear that everyone wanted to be the baseball bat-wielding tyrant, we took development back to the drawing board.
The result was that instead of Negan being a playable character, he was a third party that players had to impress. If you piss off Negan or get in his way, then he’s going to get a little cheesed off and will start punishing the players. Instead, you’ve got to clear a path for him, make sure there are no Walkers in his way and achieve various objectives, which will earn you Reputation.
EARNING REPUTATION
You track Reputation using a clip at the side of your character’s card. Throughout the course of a game it can go up and down and there are a number of ways to gain Reputation points:
- Removing Walkers from play – if you manage to take out a Walker, you’ll earn some Rep. So, it’s worth pushing yourself to (re)kill as many Walkers as possible
- Holding your nerve – sometimes you’ll need to lower the threat and calm everyone down. If you manage to do this successfully, you’ll impress Negan and earn a Reputation point
- Securing a room – ensuring a room is safe for Negan and the other Survivors involves ‘securing’ a room. If a room is clear of Walkers and fire markers, a player can attempt to secure it. The player rolls a white die and adds an extra white die for every other Survivor in the room. If the score is equal to or greater than the current security level, you’ll secure the room. The player that made the action gains Reputation equal to the current security level (to a maximum of 4). What’s more, any other Survivors in the room also gain a Reputation point
LOSING REPUTATION
Unfortunately, it’s not all plain sailing for Negan and his gang of trusted lieutenants. Occasionally you’ll actually lose Reputation points during the game. Here’s how you can lose Reputation:
- Call Negan – if you’re really stuck and need Negan to take out some Walkers for you, he’s happy to oblige. However, he’s not going to be too impressed and you’ll lose a blue die’s worth of Reputation. As a result, calling in Negan is really a last resort
- Negan gets injured – if Negan takes any damage from a Walker every Survivor in play loses one white die of Reputation. So try to keep him safe at all costs!
- Negan’s Rage! – if the Survivors haven’t successfully clear the way for Negan or make him get his hands dirty, there will be consequences. If Negan becomes enraged, the Survivor(s) with the highest reputation lose a blue die’s worth of Reputation
- Negan action cards – each turn you’ll need to draw a Negan action card. Some of these will tell you to perform an action (e.g. move 2 spaces towards Negan) but if you refuse you’ll lose a point. Or you might be required to discard a supply card and gain Reputation instead. We’ll be looking at Negan action cards in more detail for a future blog
WHY EARN REPUTATION?
The amount of Reputation you earn as a group will dictate how successfully you clear a mission. Earn only a handful and you’ll get the ‘Practically Dead’ rating. But impress Negan and he’ll say “%$*!#^& Good Job!” However, it’s not really about the team effort because everyone is competing for Negan’s attention and respect. The Survivor with the highest Reputation at the end of the game is declared ‘Top Dog’.