Difference between revisions of "Influence"

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Influences

Vampires have lived alongside mortals since antiquity, subtly influencing human civilization. A vampire can easily control a single person, perhaps manipulate a dozen discreetly, but thousands upon thousands of mortals pose a threat too large to be restrained directly. To aid in their dominion over mortal culture, vampires learned to leverage institutions, societies, and other agencies to influence the population to react according to their designs.

The Influence background mechanically expresses the series of social connections, business transactions, and personal favors that make up a vampire’s influence in the mortal world. Utilizing this kind of pull is not the same thing as having direct control. Rather, vampires use a great deal of subtle manipulation, changing patterns of behavior and affecting the nuances of the mortal world rather than beating on it with the hammer of their will. A creature with eternal life has plenty of time to turn small changes into significant control. A vampire who tries to force her will on society in an obvious manner will be discovered – and likely destroyed – by vampire hunters in righteous defense of mortals.

Influence Categories

There are two broad categories of influences: Elite and Underworld. Each influence category is a unique background that must be purchased separately (from levels 1 to 5).

• The Elite: You have influence over the upper crust: those who are wealthy, hold legitimate power, own corporations, or control noteworthy institutions. These individuals live in a world of wealth and affluence.

• The Underworld: You have influence over those who work outside of the law: working class people looking the other way, and those who live on the street, rule gangs and drug cartels, run networks of thieves, or control intricate cultural bureaucracy. These individuals live in a world of rumors, whispers, and lies.

Influence Specializations

For every dot of influence that a character possesses, you must choose one category in which to specialize. These specializations help to define the nature of your character’s social network: the types of people who owe her favors and where she wields her subtle control.

It’s possible to have the same specialization in both influence categories. Having a police specialization in Elite might mean that your character knows the most prestigious detectives, spends time with the head of the Special Operations division, or regularly contributes to the commissioner’s “election fund.” Having a police specialization in Underworld would instead mean that your character knows corrupt cops, undercover agents, or the poor guy who pulls the graveyard shift in the evidence room.

Anything that can be defined as a close-knit, influential society can potentially be a specialization. Storytellers are encouraged to allow a wide variety of influence specializations, but should not allow too broad a generalization. Your Storyteller must approve your influence specializations, and she may deny them if you choose too broad a group.

A few sample specializations are:

• Internet bloggers

• Television stations

• Banks

• Street gangs

• Fashion industry

• City airports

• Steel mill workers

• Theatre

• Teamsters

• The homeless

• Video game companies

• Catholic churches

• Morticians

• Taxi drivers

Storytellers should not allow overly general specializations, such as “doctors,” “government employees,” or “business.” Similar specializations might be allowable if they were narrowed down to “pathologists,” “city hall bureaucrats,” or “the University of Southern California.”

Influence Actions

Each dot of an influence background gives your character one influence action per month, and each influence action requires a downtime. If you have an Elite influence of 3 and an Underworld influence of 2, then you have 5 influence actions to spend within the calendar month. Record these influence actions separately; although influence actions are occasionally interchangeable, the origin often makes a difference regarding how that influence action can be spent.

There are two types of influence actions: targeted and general. Targeted actions affect other influences: your own or those belonging to other individuals. General actions affect the world around your character, providing tangible benefits or causing events to happen (or not happen).

SBM NOTE: Influence Actions may require a check of some kind, set by Staff, depending on what you're doing.

Influence actions cannot be “banked,” or held over from month to month. A character must be able to spend the full amount of influence actions required for a given result within a single month.

Targeted Influence Actions

Targeted influence actions can perform the following activities:

• Attack: Temporarily reduce another character’s total influence levels.

• Block: Prevent other characters from taking certain influence actions.

• Boost: Temporarily loan your influence actions to another character.

• Defend: Lessen the impact of attacks against your influences.

Attack

You may spend influence actions to attack, and potentially reduce, another character’s influence level. To lower an influence in the same category (Elite to Elite or Underworld to Underworld) you must spend 2 influence actions for each point you wish to remove. To lower an influence in the opposing category (Elite to Underworld, and vice-versa), you must spend 3 influence actions for each point to be removed.

Example: Sariah has an Elite influence of 4. She wishes to attack Persephone’s influences, and she must decide how best to do that. If Sariah wishes to reduce Persephone’s Elite influence by 1, she will need to spend 2 influence actions. If she wishes to reduce Persephone’s Underworld influence by 1, Sariah will need to spend 3 influence actions. If Sariah intends to reduce Persephone’s Elite influence by 2, she would need to spend all 4 of her influence actions. She could perform any of those attacks.

If Sariah wanted to reduce Persephone’s Underworld influence by 2, she would need to spend 6 actions — two more actions than Sariah possesses in a month. Therefore, Sariah could not perform such an attack against Persephone’s Underworld without help.

To attack another character’s influence, you must have witnessed the target character interacting with her influences within the past month, or you must have investigated the results of that character’s influence action. For example, you can target someone’s influence if you overheard a telephone call between her character and police officers that represent her Underworld influence. You can also target someone’s influence if your own influences were attacked by that character’s influence. You do not need to be able to identify the owner of the influence you are attacking, only that the influence exists.

If your influence is reduced by an attack action, you lose both the appropriate influence levels and an equal number of unspent influence actions. If you possess fewer actions than the total lost, you lose all remaining actions. If you already spent influence actions during that month, you lose levels of influence, but any previously expended influence actions are not affected.

Influence levels (and their associated actions) reduced as the result of an attack are lost for two games or one month, whichever is longer. After that time has elapsed, lost levels of influence return, but actions lost in this manner are lost forever.

Defend

By spending influence actions to defend, you protect your influence from attacks for one month. Each defend action you spend reduces a potential influence loss by 1 level.

Actions spent to defend an influence apply to all incoming attacks during that month. For example, an action spent to defend your Underworld influence would protect against the loss of 1 level from every incoming attack on your Underworld influence for the rest of the month. If an attacker attempts to reduce your Underworld influence by 2 levels, her attack is reduced by your defend expenditure, and your Underworld would only be reduced by 1. If a second individual performed another 2-level attack later in the same month, the results would be identical, as your defend is still active.

An action spent to defend only protects the influence category from which it originates; Underworld actions defend your Underworld influence, and Elite actions defend your Elite influence. Spending an Elite action to defend doesn’t prevent attacks from reducing your Underworld influence. Defend actions must be logged with your Storyteller before attack actions are logged against you; spending an action to defend after an attack has been made does nothing to protect an influence. Storytellers are encouraged to allow a grace period at the beginning of each month, so that players can log defend actions before processing any attack actions.

Block

You can spend influence actions to increase the difficulty of general influence actions. A block action might to make it harder to conceal a crime, acquire black market guns, or to perform occult research about a specific situation. When you establish a block, you must choose one influence category to affect, although actions used to establish a block do not need to originate in the category being blocked.

Each action spent on a block removes 1 action from attempts to use influence to perform the specified activity. If you spend 2 actions to block the acquisition of firearms through the Underworld influence, anyone attempting to use the Underworld influence to acquire a gun would need to spend at least 3 actions: 2 to overcome your 2-point block, and 1 to acquire the firearm. However, a character using Elite influence to acquire a gun would not be affected by your block.

Block actions only affect general influence activities. You cannot block targeted influence actions (attack, defend, block, or boost).

Boost

You can spend targeted actions to temporarily increase another character’s influence level. By working together in this manner, a group of characters can achieve extraordinarily high levels of influence for a short period of time.

To boost an influence, you must spend a number of influence actions equal to the level possessed by the receiving character. For example, to boost a receiving character’s influence from level 5 to level 6, one or more donating characters must provide a total of 5 influence actions.

Players may boost an influence up to a maximum level of 10. To do this, the donors would have to boost the receiver’s influence multiple times, and that requires a large number of donated actions. If the receiver’s Elite influence was naturally at level 5, donating characters would need to provide 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 actions (a whopping total of 35 donated influence actions) to raise the receiver’s influence through the various levels until it reaches 10. The boosted character only receives the actions from her temporary level, not the actions that others spent to get her there. For example, Edward’s coterie boosts him to level 10 in Underworld. This gives Edward 10 influence actions that month.

Boost actions cannot cross influence categories. You cannot spend Elite actions to boost a player’s Underworld influence and vice versa. Further, a character gains no benefit from using influence actions to boost themselves.

All actions to boost an influence must be spent within the same month. Boosting a player’s influence lasts until the end of the month, at which point the receiver’s influence reverts to its normal level.

General Influence Actions

In addition to targeted actions, players may also use their influences for general actions. Each influence category has its own list of general actions, delineated by the level of influence required to perform specific activities. To achieve the result for a specific level from a general influence category, you must expend 1 influence action. For example, if you have 5 levels in Elite, you get 5 influence actions to spend. If you wish to achieve the results of Level 3: Bureaucratic Errors, you must expend 1 of those influence actions.

Because the two influence categories are distinct, a certain task may require different levels of influence based on which influence category you use. This variation reflects each influence’s sphere of authority.

Each influence category allows you to perform a number of special actions based on your total influence level. You may perform one of these actions only if you have equal or more levels of influence. When a character’s influence has been boosted by donated actions, those temporary influence levels count for the purpose of determining the level of general actions you may perform.

If you can justify an activity as appropriate for your influence specializations, your influence is considered 1 level higher when performing a general action. For example, it is easier for you to get tickets to the policeman’s ball if you have an influence specialization defined as “police.”

General influence actions cannot be spent across categories. Actions from one influence category, either Elite or Underworld, have no effect on general actions in the other category.

Indirect Influence Attacks

General influence actions are best used when interacting with plots, but players will occasionally use the benefits of general influence actions to cause trouble for other characters. This type of indirect attack is different from a targeted attack action. When a character is targeted by an indirect influence attack, the Storyteller may choose to roleplay the results in a side-scene with the affected player, or she may simply apply a mechanical penalty to the affected character.

If the Storyteller chooses to apply a mechanical penalty, the target of an indirect attack loses 1 downtime action for every 2 levels of influence used for the general action. If the affected player does not have enough downtime actions to pay this penalty, she loses all of her available downtime actions. For every 2 levels of influence that were not paid in this manner, the Storyteller may reduce one of the targeted player’s other backgrounds by 1 dot (choosing the most appropriate background based on the circumstances of the indirect attack). If the character has no other backgrounds to reduce, the Storyteller may lower that character’s starting Blood supply by 3 Blood points.

The effects of indirect influence attacks last for two games or one month, whichever is longer.

Elite Actions

Level 1: A Friend in Need

You’ve got a reputation for having lots of money and influence, so naturally people want to give you stuff for free. Or at least, they feel comfortable letting you borrow some of their stuff on occasion, as long as you say nice things about them.

You can spend 1 influence action to “borrow” the resources of a wealthy friend, a corporation, or the government up to the maximum rental value of $1,000 per level of Elite influence you control. For example, you might want to borrow someone’s fancy yacht to host a party, a penthouse for a private meeting, or an art gallery to impress your sire for the evening.

Level 2: Gossip & Insider Trading

Whispers swim like koi fish in the elegant pond of the upper crust, tracing the ebb and flow of high society. These are people in the know, and a few “useful tips” can make the difference between living on the cutting edge and being rendered obsolete.

By spending 1 influence action, you gain information about any recent use of the Elite influence (within the last 3 months) that touches on your Elite specializations. You will discover the name of any mortal institutions or individuals that were involved, as well as how the actions were spent. However, you do not learn the identity of any character (or characters) responsible for that influence expenditure. You may use this knowledge to assault those influences with a targeted attack action. Storytellers may also choose to pass along information about local plots or unusual events within the area.

Level 3: Bureaucratic Errors

The workday’s hell when your 9-5 job is something more like 6-12: mountains of paperwork, power meetings over expensive dinners, handshake agreements, and knows-too-much nods. Don’t worry, I’m sure we can do something about that little problem of yours. You’d do the same for me...right?

By expending 1 influence action, you manipulate the system, acquiring expensive (and mostly legal) favors. You can alter government paperwork, “modify” incident reports, detain a mortal on trumped-up charges, cause a major police effort to investigate a locale or individual, gain a legal (registered) weapon, acquire falsified identification or other paperwork, or otherwise use the system to your advantage.

Level 4: Smooth Over

Trouble comes in all shapes and sizes, but cold, hard leverage clears up any problem. Hey, everybody’s got secrets. I’ll hide yours, if you hide mine. It’s just a favor between old friends. Right?

By spending 1 influence action, you can smooth over inconvenient or embarrassing problems, making them disappear. Witnesses get paid off, news stories get squashed, alibis materialize, and Masquerade breaches simply disappear.

Level 5: No Party Crashers

It’s a private party. Very exclusive. Unless you’re on the guest list, you just can’t get in. The upper crust take security very seriously, especially when it comes to things they’d rather keep secret. The guards won’t ask questions, and no paparazzi need apply.

With the expenditure of 1 influence action, you can secure an area the size of a manor house or small office building. For one 24-hour period, you control all security protocols, the amount (or lack) of police response to the area, and general access within a half-mile radius of the site. Helicopters cannot fly over the area, nor can unknown persons pass through without the use of supernatural powers such as Obfuscate. With your go-ahead, the location can be made almost completely Masquerade-safe and protected from hostile incursions. Further, anyone using influence to cause trouble in the area must overcome a level 5 block.

Level 6: Everything Has a Price

Pulling strings, buying integrity, sabotaging innocent lives for a small advantage — those are just the breaks, kid. The world is divided into “haves” and “have-nots,” and you can guess which one I am....

You can spend 1 influence action to manipulate the mortal world, acquiring a major favor that isn’t necessarily legal. Through your control over the wealthy and the powerful, you can arrange things like jail breaks, acquire a large amount of illegal drugs, plant a false news article (with evidence and witnesses to back it up), gain an illegal weapon (no serial number), or cause someone trouble on a personal scale.

Level 7: Private Collection

Arranging a “private showing” of the world’s most coveted and protected items is no easy task. Fortunately, you know the right people to manipulate, and they’re more than willing to do as you say.

By spending 1 influence action, you gain temporary access to a rare or unique item. For example, an artifact might disappear from a museum for a few days with no questions asked. If you lose, steal, or damage the object, your influence is reduced by 2 levels for the next four games or two months, whichever is longer. This action cannot be used to acquire items owned by player-characters, although it can be used to acquire items from important NPCs with the Storyteller’s permission.

Level 8: Pop Star Meltdown

One minute, everything’s fine. The next, it’s like the whole world descended on this place, scratching at an itch and yelling for attention. It’s like a train wreck; they just can’t look away.

Expending 1 influence action allows you to arrange for a city-wide incident. You can distract news agencies, focus philanthropic attention, or cause significant disruption. You might persuade an influential businessman to sell a popular sports team, have the city planners construct an enormous statue, cause the police to go on strike, arrange for the health department to quarantine a large area, or any other such concentration of mortal attention.

Level 9: The Power Behind the Throne

If you don’t do exactly as I say, the “pooled resources of the Brujah clan” won’t be enough to buy a doughnut in this town! Do you understand?

By using 1 influence action, you arrange a situation with significant, long-term effects. You could choose the next mayor; cause nearly all of the city’s police to go off duty at the same time; prohibit fire departments or other emergency responders from answering a call; indelibly frame someone for a crime they didn’t commit; close down all major highways; have a rival’s home, haven, or office building demolished; or other such manipulation.

Level 10: Regional Influence

Those with tremendous pull can shift culture and society on a wide scale, manipulating thousands of individuals through a chain of circumstance that begins and ends with their will.

With this amount of influence, you can change the world in a significant and long-term manner. You can choose to have the results of your general influence actions applied to the entire region (typically a large state, a major territory, or small country). This ability has no effect on targeted actions.

Underworld Influence

Level 1: Free Travel

Robberies, muggings, drug deals: some parts of town are simply too dangerous to walk through without friends.

You can spend 1 influence action to freely travel through any part of the city without being harassed by gangs or the criminal element. As a bonus, law enforcement will generally look the other way, giving you relatively safe and unmonitored passage through the slums.

Level 2: Word on the Street

Whispers flow through the gutters and churn in the streets, keeping tabs on the goings-on of the common man. Secrets thought to be hidden, shredded by circumstance, can be rediscovered with some invisible tape and a little patience. If you know who to ask, you can always get a useful answer.

By spending 1 influence action, you gain information about any recent use of the Underworld influence that touches on your Underworld specializations. You will discover the name of any mortal institutions or individuals that were involved, as well as how the actions were spent. However, you do not learn the identity of any character (or characters) responsible for that influence expenditure. You may use this knowledge to assault those influences with a targeted attack action. Storytellers may also choose to pass along information about local plots or unusual events within the area.

Level 3: Illegal Favors

Nobody pays attention to the scum that drifts in the shadows, and even fewer people care when things go wrong or break the law — as long as nobody gets caught. If you need something done, you know just the people to do it.

You can spend 1 influence action to manipulate the mortal world, acquiring a major favor that isn’t necessarily legal. Through your control over the wealthy and the powerful, you can arrange things like jail breaks, acquire a large amount of illegal drugs, plant a false news article (with evidence and witnesses to back it up), gain an illegal weapon (no serial number), or cause someone trouble on a personal scale.

Level 4: Airing Dirty Laundry

Folks love reality television. They’ll stick to it like glue, even as their stomachs churn. There are plenty of idiots, ingrates, and incompetents who will do anything for attention; the trick is knowing which piece of meat to throw in front of the dogs.

Expending 1 influence action allows you to arrange for a city-wide incident. You can distract news agencies, provoke civil rights marches, and cause significant disruption. You might persuade a major mafia leader or gang head to start a war against rivals; cause a series of unexplained arsons; convince corrupt officials to shut down area-wide utilities; re-appropriate vaccinations, donated blood, or other medical supplies from the needy; assassinate a Stock NPC (rated 4 or less); or any other sort of shady affairs.

Level 5: Lockdown

Gangs control territories, mafia dons claim cities, and even the homeless maintain areas where common citizens fear to tread. You know who “owns” what in the shadows of the city, and you can make deals to ensure that certain areas are under a complete protection.

With the expenditure of 1 influence action, you can secure an area the size of a large warehouse or small office building. For one 24-hour period, you control all security protocols, the amount (or lack) of police response to the area, and general access within a half-mile radius of the site. Helicopters cannot fly over the area, nor can unknown persons pass through without the use of supernatural powers such as Obfuscate. With your go-ahead, the location can be made almost completely Masquerade-safe and protected from hostile incursions. Further, anyone using influence to cause trouble in the area must overcome a overcome a level 5 block.

Level 6: Pulling Strings

Through a combination of cunning manipulation and suave business acumen, you can gain expensive favors and moderate benefits. You’ve heard the expression “friends in low places,” right? Well…you’re that friend.

With the expenditure of 1 influence action, you manipulate the system, acquiring expensive (and mostly legal) favors. You can make sure money flows in the right direction, sway a city council vote, target a major police effort to investigate a locale or individual, gain a legal (registered) weapon, arrange raves and major urban events and festivals, or otherwise use the system to your advantage.

Level 7: Look the Other Way

Survival in the city means knowing when to stay the hell out of things that aren’t your business. You’ve got people trained not to ask questions and not to volunteer information when the authorities come sniffing at their doors.

By spending 1 influence actions you can smooth over inconvenient or embarrassing problems, making them disappear. Witnesses get paid off, news stories get squashed, alibis materialize, and Masquerade breaches simply disappear.

Level 8: Want. Take. Have.

There’s always a hole in security systems: a person willing to take a bribe or look the other way. You know the right palms to grease and the right blackmail to use to open doors. It’s not hard for you to get what you want, even at someone else’s expense.

By spending 1 influence action, you gain access to a rare or unique item. For example, an artifact might disappear from a museum for a few days with no questions asked. You may lose, steal, or damage the object, with no detriment to your influence — although such misappropriations may gain the unwanted attention of authorities. This action cannot be used to acquire items owned by player-characters, although it can be used to acquire items from important NPCs with the Storyteller’s permission.

Level 9: An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Look, pally, this situation goes a whole lot deeper than you can imagine. You got a nice unlife, great childer, plenty of rank and status. Are you sure you want to cock all that up by messing with me?

By using 1 influence action, you arrange a situation with significant, long-term effects. You could make prostitution or gambling legal in your state (or repeal such a law), discredit religious leaders with scandal, create widespread riots, indelibly frame someone for a crime they didn’t commit, move jobs or corporate headquarters overseas, fix the outcome of major collegiate-level athletic events, or other such manipulation.

Level 10: Regional Influence

Those with tremendous pull can shift culture and society on a wide scale, manipulating thousands of individuals through a chain of circumstance that begins and ends with their will.

With this amount of influence, you can change the world in a significant and long-term manner. You may choose to have the results of your general influence actions applied to the entire region (typically a large state, a major territory, or small country). This ability has no effect on targeted actions.

Elite vs. Underworld Actions: a Chart

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