Im new to BitD and while trying to make a new crew with my players ran into a few questions that arent actually answered in the rules book.
Firstly what does ‘reputation’ do in terms of the game? It says “You
earn crew XP when you bolster your crew’s reputation” but what does this actually mean and do for the game?
My second question is what does it mean to make a vehicle into a cohort?
When you make a crew, you pick a reputation. At the end of the session when you hand out XP, you all go “hey, were we savvy/fearsome/daredevils/etc tonight?” And if yes, you get Crew XP.
#1: To add to what Alfred said, they create roleplaying cues for the crew which give their work a certain personality. Mechanically, they earn players XP for roleplaying a previously-established reputation and establishing a new one, which are nice guides to things that others might say about them in cutscenes (“Damn those new smugglers are creepy! Better bring a whisper along with us..”). I like this system of awarding XP, as the players tend to get XP for staying in-character as a crew, which lends to the verisimilitude of the campaign’s shared narrative.
#2: Vehicles typically exist as equipment; fictional positioning. They can’t be used as part of teamwork actions to add more dice; but as cohorts they can, and get extra detail (see bottom left of Smugglers for special vehicle-only Edges and Flaws). IE: normally you just roll your own dice to act using a vehicle, but with Like Part of the Family you can roll its quality dice too if you are willing to accept that you will take stress for a low result.