Family fame is largely unimportant from what I've seen.
Oh, bless ;-) It's the little things. Having more fame than families established around the same time as yours means your successful and powerful and people know that. Getting oodles of fame means no-one can ask your young nobles to mix with peasants or other sordid things: people the world over know your blood bleeds blue without your even saying a word. New nobles in your house start with a little bit more honour and prestige than your standard younglings. Not to mention that others respect you simply for the name. It lends weight because they know all members of that House have a stellar upbringing and can be relied upon in the best and worst of times. Fame is wonderful. The game within a game every one of us ought be playing ;-)
Thoughts, comments, criticisms, the usual -
I'm of the Heroes are for roleplay faction here. In the early days of my playing all those years ago, I had three characters that I made heroes at the same time as each other. This was in early 2005. One character was killed in battle quite soon after. A second was killed later on in the year in farcical circumstances. The third, Malice, still lives today. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered just pushing 'delete' on him once or twice for similar reasons of dead realms and wanting a new start with someone new. I can't tell you how glad I am I've kept at it because I've enjoyed some very good times since.
I don't want to cut Malice' tale short or to take that final battle away from him. I have, if anything, enjoyed the slow descent in to decrepitude where Malice' greatest glories are behind him and each battle gives another minor wound that sees him longer with the healers. Makes for some interesting RP when I get the time and where once players got to know Malice as this dashing young General with a penchant for a good drink, now they meet an old bitter has-been living in the past.
I don't think any other class gets across the passage of time, of ageing even as close as well as the Hero class where you can no longer make the journey's to battle as easily, your skills start to whither, your hours become ever more precious and harder to use for even basic martial tasks like foraging battlefields or scouting, leave alone using hero skills. The hero class should be perfectly preserved as is. Stage management of one's death should not be allowed. It's better for the atmosphere and you can't abuse any of it, only live with it.
