Influence System

[Storyteller]

There will be a custom Influence system for Rhode Island by Night. It will be based partly on the books put out by White Wolf for this system, partly based on the system developed by Liz and Jack, the STs of Emerald City Reborn, and partly based on my own nefarious machinations.

You have pull in the mortal community, whether through wealth, prestige, political office, blackmail or supernatural manipulation. Kindred with high Influence can sway, and in rare cases even control, the political and social processes of human society. Influence represents the sum of your political power in your community, particularly among the police and bureaucracy. Some rolls may require you to use Influence in place of an Ability, particularly when attempting to sway minor bureaucrats. It is, of course, always easier to institute sweeping changes on a local level than a worldwide scale (e.g., having an "abandoned" building demolished is relatively easy, while starting a war is a bit more difficult).

There will be five areas in the state where you will be able to exercise your influence as a character. These 5 areas will be roughly equivalent to the 5 counties in Rhode Island. There will be one pool for all of Rhode Island. Warning - this may lead to cross-genre play. There will be 15 influence categories: Bureaucracy, Church, Finance, Health, High Society, Industry, Legal, Media, Occult, Police, Political, Street, Transportation, Underworld, and University. Influence will be like any other trait, measured on a 1 to 5 scale.

Influence will not cost XP. Influence is accumulated through dedication of relevant backgrounds (resources, allies and contacts) on the 1st and 15th of the month.

Golden Influence Rule: Regardless of the levels on your sheet, the success of any given influence often depends on you providing a thorough and well planned action to take place. As a general rule influences that are more richly described and have research, and clear forethought behind them will do better than actions that show poor planning.


Influence inherently can't be willed posthumously to other characters. A character's influence does continue to exist after a character dies, and can be taken over by other characters after his death. A character can give another character a free Trace action on his influence by introducing them to it. (Any such introduction should be documented in the Influences thread in the Character Forum of the character who has been introduced to another character's Influence.) Influence(s) can be given to others or turned over IC.

Influence Limits: You are limited to a total number of influence levels equal to all of your Attributes (Physical, Mental, Social), plus an additional level for every point in the Leadership ability. Garou characters have their cap reduced by their Rage. If you hit your influence limit, you will be given a month to rectify the situation before your influences will begin spinning out of control and the Storytellers will fix the problem for you. NPCs have no such limits.

[Storyteller]

Bureaucracy

You can manage various government agencies and bureaus. By dealing with social programs and public servants you can spend red tape bypass rules and regulations or twist bureaucratic regimentation to your advantage. Bureaucracy is useful in operating or shutting down businesses, faking or acquiring permits and identification papers, and manipulating public utilities and facilities. Government clerks at the city and county level, utility workers, road crews, surveyors, and other civil servants are potential contacts or allies. Carefully drawn lines exist between Bureaucracy and Legal, Police, Finance, and University.

Level 1: Alter/trace utility bills, expedite minor processes that take time, take advantage of minor bureaucratic loopholes, make files on peoples' traceable activity.
Level 2: Alter birth certificates/driver's license; temporarily close a small road or park, get inspectors sent to locations, cause delays in applications, acquire public aid ($250).
Level 3: Create false ID's, death certificates, marriage licenses, passports; close a public school for a day; shut down a small business on a violation; connect/disconnect utilities on a block.
Level 4: Create false land deeds and titles; initiate phone taps; initiate an NEA/BIA/IRS/DOI investigation, get untraceable utility service, bog down a lawsuit or investigation in red tape.
Level 5: Start, stop, or alter a city-wide program or policy; shut down a big business on a violation; rezone areas; destroy records of a person at the city level, stop a federal investigation.
Level 6: Arrange a secret audit of a person or business, destroy all identification records on a single person, get entire departments fired or transferred, gain technical immunity from something.
Level 7: Shut down utilities for one day citywide except for your haven, bulldoze all the blue houses in the county, rezone something as foreign territory, ship truckloads of nuclear waste to friends.

Church

Though the modern church has arguably less control over temporal society than it did in the middle ages, its policies still exert considerable influence over the direction of politics and communities. Knowing the appropriate people allows insight into many main stream religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, Or Buddhism (fringe or alternative groups such as scientology and cults are considered occult influence). When you exercise church influence you can change religious policy affect the assignment of clergy and access a variety of lore and resources. Contacts and allies affected by Church influence would include Ministers, Priests, Bishops, Church sponsored witch hunters, holy orders, and various attendees and assistants. The non-secular world, all faiths.

Level 1: Identify secular members of a given faith in local area, peruse public church records, use a church as a meeting place, find an AA meeting, get a priest's phone number.
Level 2: Identify higher church members, track congregation members; suspend lay members, get coffee/bibles/Mass for 100 people on short notice, meet with a rabbi/imam/priest wherever you want.
Level 3: Open or close a single church/temple/mosque, access private archives of the church, meet with the Bishop, get a house ritually sanctified, manipulate a church-owned charity, steal from the collection plate or dip into church funds ($250).
Level 4: Discredit or suspend higher-level members, find an average church-associated hunter or exorcist, manipulate a fanatic splinter group, start a heresy/witchcraft investigation.
Level 5: Organize major protests/boycotts, manipulate regional branches, access ancient church lore, identify someone with True Faith or a church-associated hunter group without meeting them.
Level 6: Borrow or access church relics or sacred items, give a church-associated hunter false orders or information, get a graveyard desanctified, live safely as a Kindred priest
Level 7: Give cardinals orders, cause a local religious war, get a room at the Vatican, get serious relics shipped to you, acquire a list of all the hunters in the area affiliated with any church.

Finance

Manipulating markets, stock reports and investments is a hobby of many cainites, especially those who use their knowledge to keep hidden wealth. Though your actual available money is a function of your resources, you can use finance influence to start or smother businesses, crush or support banking institutions, and alter credit records. Clearly, such power over money is not to be trifled with - fortunes are made and destroyed with this sort of pull. CEO’s, bankers, stockbrokers, bank tellers, yes men, financiers, and loan agents are found among such work. All loans are amortized over one year to be paid back incrementally every month.

Level 1: Receive a loan ($100,000 - payback $120,000), learn about economic trends, get a dozen accounts all over town, run a credit check on someone, identify whether a bill is counterfeit, get up to $1,000 in cash.
Level 2: Receive a loan ($500,000 - payback $600,000), trace unsecured bank accounts, identify a person's collateral properties, get an insider stock tip.
Level 3: Receive a loan ($2,000,000 - payback $2,400,000), create a secure bank account, access ATM camera tapes, get copies of someone's signature.
Level 4: Receive a loan ($10,000,000 - payback $12,000,000), delay deposits; credit alterations, interfere with specific stock transactions, cause an IRS/SEC audit or investigation.
Level 5: Receive a loan ($50,000,000 - payback $60,000,000), control an aspect of city-wide banking, stop an IRS/SEC audit or investigation, foreclose on a small business.
Level 6: Receive a loan ($100,000,000 - payback $120,000,000), manipulate local banking, stop loans, seize accounts, shut down medium-size businesses, send out repo men.
Level 7: Receive a loan ($500,000,000 - payback $600,000,000), shut down major banks, buy any famous thing, have anything imported or built, take over any corporation in the Domain

Health

Some vampires rely on connections in the medical community to acquire blood. Necromancers and practitioners of arcane arts may also require body parts or medical data for their studies. Furthermore, maintaining the masquerade often calls for alteration of medical records or faking of particular diseases: some cainites even specialize in the study of blood borne ailments. All of these sorts of research and development fall under the purview of health influence. Coroners, doctors, lab workers, therapists, pharmacists and specialists are just a few of the folks in this field. No bioweapons without the OK from all STs.

Level 1: Gain 2 blood traits, fake vaccination records, get medical supplies (latex gloves, biohazard stickers, syringes), be first in line at the ER, get a wheelchair van delivered.
Level 2: Gain 5 blood traits, access to minor medical records, get a copy of a coroner's report, get an ambulance to make a run with no record, get a doctor to make a house call.
Level 3: Gain 10 blood traits, corrupt results of tests or inspections, alter medical records, get a gunshot wound treated quietly, schedule patients for surgeries without their permission.
Level 4: Gain 20 blood traits, instigate a minor quarantine, acquire a cadaver, destroy medical records, have people institutionalized or released, start a CDC/AMA investigation, abuse grants for personal use ($250).
Level 5: Gain 50 blood traits, have a special research project performed, shut down a business for health code violations, stop a CDC/AMA investigation, close a doctor's office or two.
Level 6: Gain 100 blood traits, instigate a major quarantine, shut down a hospital, have mass blood samples taken, have a covert autopsy of a paranormal being performed.
Level 7: Gain 200 blood traits, shut down all area medical facilities, institutionalize VIP's, quarantine the domain, have everyone in the Congressional district named Smith lobotomized.

High Society

The glitterati at the top of society move in cirlces of wealth and elegance. Many Cainites find such positions alluring, and they indulge in the passions of the famous and wealthy. Access to famous actors, celebrities and the idle rich grants a certain sway over fashion trends. Combined with Fame, a modicum of of high society influence turns a vampire into a debonaire darling of of the most exclusive circles. Among these circles, one finds dilettantes, artists of almost any stripe, old money families, models, rock stars, sports figures and jetsetters.

Level 1: Obtain hard-to-get tickets for shows, get the lowdown on obscure subcultural trends, be the first to get that CD/DVD, hear about parties, learn about who's who.
Level 2: Track celebrities and luminaries, be a local voice in the entertainment field, get invited to the right parties, sit in the front row, get the sneak preview.
Level 3: Crush promising careers, get backstage passes to anything, have rich people ask you for trend advice, be well-known in a subculture or social scene.
Level 4: Achieve temporary minor celebrity status (Fame x1), skip lines, get VIP treatment everywhere, get hit on by beautiful people, know who is doing what with who, set minor trends.
Level 5: Appear on a talk show, ruin a new club/gallery/festival/other high society gathering, have an annual must-attend party with everybody there, meet visiting celebrities in their hotel rooms.
Level 6: Give temporary minor celebrity status to others (+1 level of Fame), have visiting celebrities visit you at home, be the #1 person to sleep with to get ahead.
Level 7: Gain blackmail material on everyone, summon anyone you've heard of to your home, remove celebrity status from people (minimum 1 Fame, static Social tests for more).

Industry

The grinding wheels of labor fuel the economies and markets of the world. Machines, factories and blue collar workers line up in endless drudgery, churning out the staples of everyday living. Control over industry sways the formation of unions, the movements of work projects, locations for factories and the product of manufacturing concerns. Union workers, foremen, engineers, construction workers, manual laborers and all manner of blue-collar workers exist among these ranks. All union thugs are mortals with 6 physical, 3 social, 4 mental, 1 willpower, a craft skill, and 2 brawls.

Level 1: Learn about industrial projects and movements, union membership, borrow portable tools, learn a trade, get a night job, get your car fixed cheap.
Level 2: Have minor projects performed by small crews, arrange small 'accidents' on the job site, get an expert welder to do a job for you, be known as a good member to a single union, dip into union funds or embezzle petty cash ($500)
Level 3: Get a union thug to break something, organize minor strikes, appropriate a blast furnace for a short time, get some silver bullets/vehicle armor/torture devices made.
Level 4: Get a pair of union thugs to burn something down, close or revitalize a small plant, take over a small plant for two weeks, get anyone booted out of any union, initiate an OSHA/EPA inspection.
Level 5: Get half a dozen masked union thugs to kidnap/terrorize someone, manipulate a large local industry, organize a major area strike, manufacture a hundred of anything, stop OSHA/EPA inquiries.
Level 6: Get a dozen union thugs with diesel equipment to demolish a building, cut off production of a single manufactured resource in the Domain, build a preposterous custom haven.
Level 7: Have every plant in the county switch to arms manufacturing, turn the day into night with smoke emissions, kick a multinational corporation out of the Domain.

Legal

Since many of the operations that Cainites undertake are at least marginally illegal, a good amount of sway over judges and lawyers are indispensable. Those Cainites who dabble in law often pull strings in the courts to make sure that the questionable practices of Cainite society go unnoticed and unpunished. Of course, a little legal influence is also excellent for harassing an enemy’s assets, too. Such influence ranges from law schools and firms, to lawyers, judges, DA’s, clerks and public defenders.

Level 1: Get free representation for small cases, have a lawyer who answers his phone, sue people for messing with you, learn about someone's holdings/legal status.
Level 2: Avoid bail for some charges, have minor charges dropped, get a quiet settlement when being sued, get a lawyer to build a complete file on someone, create a screen to slow investigations, acess public or court funds ($250).
Level 3: Get good representation, manipulate legal procedures (wills, contracts, etc), start a state investigation, have a lawyer with assistants drown someone in legal briefs.
Level 4: Issue subpoenas, tie up court cases, have most charges dropped, cancel or arrange parole, start a federal investigation of some sort, stop a state investigation.
Level 5: Close down a federal investigation, have deportation proceedings held against someone, get warrants revoked, hide ownership of anything, find a legal weakness to exploit.
Level 6: Close down any investigation, arrange for a court case to be decided however you please, get attorneys disbarred, get judges investigated, seriously threaten anyone with a custom lawsuit.
Level 7: Handpick area federal judges, arbitrarily decide all cases in the Domain, sue anyone and win, get any law declared unconstitutional, manufacture custom legal loopholes.

Media

Directing media attention away from vampire activities is a key component of the Masquerade. Putting specific emphasis on certain events can place an enemy in an uncomfortable spotlight or discredit a rival. With media, you can crush or alter news stories, control the operations of news stations and reporters and sway public opinion, with DJ’s, editors of all varieties, reporters, cameramen, photographers and broadcasters at your disposal. At the Storyteller’s discretion, media influence may also allow access to the more technical areas of television, radio or movies.

Level 1: Learn about breaking stories early; submit small articles, know a few reporters to tip, be on college radio, get a letter to the editor published in an underground free press.
Level 2: Suppress small articles or reports, get investigative reporting information, get a photographer to show up, have a reporter in your pocket, get research done on a subject, trace personal ads.
Level 3: Initiate news investigations and reports, access media production resources, start a major investigative story, get a TV news crew to show up with satellite feed, make an independent film.
Level 4: Initiate a fake story with local attention, influence story selection, get an editor to kill a story, get a TV series to do a local episode, get radio personalities fired, kill an underground 'zine.
Level 5: Initiate a fake story with statewide attention, get newspaper people fired, affect the storyline of a TV show, change a radio station's format, own an unaffiliated local TV station, stop any one story.
Level 6: Initiate a fake story with nationwide attention, get TV personalities fired, control a local newspaper or TV affiliate, create a television show, create a major Hollywood picture locally, cancel local coverage of a sporting event, obtain and squander public funding ($250).
Level 7: Create a massive and pervasive ad campaign, make someone a celebrity against their will, give your major Hollywood picture a very good shot at an academy award, destroy a newspaper or affiliate TV station (except New York Times and Wall Street Journal).

Occult

The hidden world of the supernatural teems with secrets, conspiracies and unusual factions. Obviously, a vampire is aware that there are strange things out there by dint of his very existence (after all, if vampires exist…), but hard knowledge of such things is a function of abilities. By using occult influence, you can dig up information to improve your knowledge, get inside the occult community and find rare components for magical rituals. Even parts of the elusive Book of Nod are available to those with the right connections. Cult leaders, alternative religious groups, charlatans, occultists, New Agers and a few more dangerous elements can be found here.Note: Rituals are generally easier to learn through negotiation with other PCs or NPCs, rather than via Occult Influence. Blood Magic Rituals are also easier to learn when you have the applicable Lores.

Level 1: Contact common occult groups and practices, join a fringe religion, learn about new trends or dangers to the occult subculture, acquire candles, bones, crystals, etc. of decent quality, acquire common ritual components (galangal oil, tamarisk, feathers, shiny stones, etc...), research up to the second level of an inaccurate "outsider" Lore (Lore: Vampire, Lore: Cathayan, Lore: Fairy, Lore: Lycanthrope, Lore: Willworker).
Level 2: Acquire uncommon ritual components (alchemicaly pure metals, specifically prepared woods, century old finger bones etc...), research up to the third level of an inaccurate "outsider" Lore, research up to the first level of a common "insider" Lore (Demonology, Lore: Kindred, Lore: Numinae, Lore: Spirit, Lore: Wraith)
Level 3: Acquire uncommon ritual components (objects gotten under very specific astrological/magical conditions, a "true" mandrake, etc...), occult tomes, and writings, research up to the fourth level of an inaccurate "outsider" Lore, research up to the second level of a common "insider" Lore, research a Common Ritual relating to your particular brand of Blood Magic when you have NO IDEA what you're doing (Lore: Thaumaturgy, Lore: Necromancy and the Occult ability can make this easier - see notes above), manipulate a local cult, get a loremaster to answer a question
Level 4: Know where to find certain supernatural entities, research up to the fifth level of an inaccurate "outsider" Lore, research up to the third level of a common "insider" Lore, research up to the first level of a rare lore (Lore: Kuei-Jin, Lore: Mage, Lore: Fae, Lore: Werewolf), research an Uncommon Ritual relating to your particular brand of Blood Magic when you have NO IDEA what you're doing
Level 5: Access minor magic items, research up to the fourth level of a common "insider" Lore, research up to the second level of a rare lore, research up to the first level of a ridiculously rare lore (Lore: Bygone, Lore: Deep Umbra, Lore: Things STs Haven't Even Bothered To Put on the Lores Page - will require you to already have a lot of appropriate broader lores a very good action. Higher levels require mini/mega-quests and a lot of work), research a Rare Ritual relating to your particular brand of Blood Magic when you have NO IDEA what you're doing, meet with a demon/mage/spectre.
Level 6: Research and unearth new or unheard of rituals or rites from tomes or writings, research up to the fifth level of a common "insider" Lore (with appropriate research, justification and time - such as might occur within a summer action), research up to the second level of a ridiculously rare lore, research a very Rare Ritual relating to your particular brand of Blood Magic when you have NO IDEA what you're doing, get local occult practitioners to do Domain-wide rituals, acquire minor magic items.
Level 7: Get occult experts to come from afar to trade secrets, research up to the third level of a ridiculously rare lore, acquire any occult tome not actually in the Vatican, acquire powerful magical items.

Police

“To protect and serve” is the motto of the police, but these days, Kindred and Kine alike may have cause to wonder who is being protected and served. That said, police influence can be very handy to assist with the masquerade, to protect one’s holdings or to raid the assets of another. After all, attitude won’t save the Anarchs whose haven is the target of a daylight raid. Police of all ranks, detectives, clerical staff, dispatchers, prison guards, special divisions (such as SWAT or homicide) and local highway patrol makes up these ranks.

Level 1: Gather police information and rumors, avoid traffic tickets, understand a scanner, find incarcerated people, ask a patrolman what he's noticed on his beat.
Level 2: Have license plates checked, avoid minor violations, get a cop to keep an eye on your haven, know a desk sergeant at a precinct house, get rap sheets, learn about current investigations.
Level 3: Find bureau secrets, get copies of an investigation report, have police hassle, harass, book, or detain someone, initiate a local or state criminal investigation, call in a major helicopter search.
Level 4: Access confiscated weapons or contraband; start an FBI/ATF/DEA investigation; have serious charges dropped, frame someone for a felony, call in a SWAT team, make a police station your haven, obtain money, either from the evidence room or as an appropriation ($1,000)
Level 5: Institute major multi-branch investigations, arrange setups/stings, have officers fired, stop a local FBI/ATF/DEA investigation, frame someone for a series of felonies.
Level 6: Paralyze departments for a short time, close down any investigation, get someone put on or taken off the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, create a secret illegal task force.
Level 7: Call in EVERYONE, paralyze a precinct for a short time, move precincts around, write departmental policies, make someone Public Enemy Number One, make someone immune to arrest.

Political

Deal making is second nature to most vampires, so they can get along very well with other bloodsuckers- that is, politicians. Altering party platforms, controlling local elections, changing appointed offices and calling in favors all falls under the purview of political influence. Well-timed blackmail, bribery, spin doctoring or any sundry tricks are stock and trade on both sides of this fence. Some of the likely contacts and allies include pollsters, lobbyists, activists, party members, spin-doctors and politicians from rural zoning committees to the mayors of major cities or Congressional representatives.

Level 1: Minor lobbying, identify real platforms of politicians, find out about major donors to campaigns, get campaign signage, buttons, stickers, etc.
Level 2: Meet small time politicians, have forewarning of laws forthcoming, get appointments with your representatives, get demographic information, use a slush fund or fund-raiser to get funds ($1,000)
Level 3: Sway or alter political projects, manipulate local committees, lunch with a suburban mayor or judge, get a quick passport or permit, identify agendas of any elected or appointed official.
Level 4: Enact minor legislation, dash careers of minor politicians, be a major player in a suburb, run a local party PAC, be a City Councilor, start a federal bar inquiry.
Level 5: Get your candidate in minor office, enact more encompassing legislation countywide, control a block of votes on City Council, be a major obstacle to any candidate in the Domain.
Level 6: Block the passage of major bills, suspend a major law temporarily, use state bureaus or subcommittees, write a new state law.
Level 7: Get a state of emergency declared, get a major federal project built in the Domain, handpick officials throughout the Domain, hand out tax deferments.

Street

Ignored and often spat on by their “betters,” those in the dark alleys and slums have created their own culture to deal with life and any outsiders who might come calling. When calling on Street Influence, you use your connections on the underside of the city to find the homeless, gang members of all sorts, street bikers, petty criminals, prostitutes, residents of the slums or barrios, and fringe elements of so-called “deviant” cultures.

Level 1: Have an ear open for the word on the street, identify most gangs and their turfs and habits, know your way around homeless shelters, read graffiti and understand it.
Level 2: Live mostly without fear on the underside of society, access small time contraband/drugs, identify any illicit substance, know the Survival obstacles of any given neighborhood.
Level 3: Arrange some services from street people or gangs, get pistols or melee weapons, get a building staked out by homeless watchers, put a rumor out on the street.
Level 4: Mobilize groups of homeless, have a word in almost all gang operations, get shotguns or rifles, get a gang to protect someone, plant drugs on someone with a pickpocket.
Level 5: Initiate drive-by shootings, identify regular police informants, start a small two-gang shootout, use the homeless as couriers/information networks/infiltrators.
Level 6: Instigate large scale gang riots, organize homeless demonstrations, target businesses for looting, identify someone as an enemy of the poor, boycott a homeless shelter.
Level 7: Redraw gang turf boundaries, create a street martyr, script a citywide riot, make someone constantly watched, create custom-named gangs, create the drug-of-the-month.

Transportation

Most Cainites make their havens in defensible parts of cities. Traveling across the wilderness is difficult, with the problems of daylight and marauding lupines. Without this influence, the vampiric world shrinks into islands of “civilization” with dangerous wasteland in-between. Getting access to special supplies and services can also take a measure of transportation. All of these things can be controlled with a bit of sway over truckers, harbors, railroads, airports, taxis, border guards, pilots, and untold hundreds, as well as more mundane aspects like shipping and travel arrangements.

Level 1: Know what goes where and why, know a cabbie/subway conductor/airport employee/chauffeur, recognize shipments that are unusual or unscheduled, get tickets for sold-out rides.
Level 2: Track a target who's using public transportation, arrange passage within the Domain safe from mundane threats, get specific information from transportation companies, have a limo available.
Level 3: Seriously hamper a single individual's ability to travel for a few days, travel inconspicuously, smuggle one package every two weeks, have an armored lightproof limousine available.
Level 4: Shut down one form of mass transit for a few hours, have an entourage with chase cars available, arrange trucker/pilot/shipping strikes, smuggle one shipping crate every two weeks.
Level 5: Smuggle with impunity, keep a helicopter on station, make someone fitting a description unable to catch a cab for one day, route money your way ($500)
Level 6: Extend control to nearby areas (one county at a time), have a private Learjet at every area airport, permanently close an airport/train station/dock/truck yard.
Level 7: Keep anyone fitting a description out of the Domain for two weeks, open every container bound for a destination (in sunlight), have half a dozen alternate routes prepared for any personal travel.

Underworld

The world of crime offers lucrative possibilities to strong willed or subtle leaders. Guns, money, drugs, and vice - such delicious pastimes can be lead by anyone talented or simple viscous enough to take them. Underworld influence lets you call upon such favors for all manner of illegal dealings and its ranks are filled by the Mafia, La Cosa Nostra, drug dealers, bookies, Yakuza, tongs, hit men, fences, and criminal gangs.

Note: Does not include smuggling or street gangs (Transportation and Street respectively). All thugs are mortals with 6 Physical Traits, 4 Mental Traits, 3 Social Traits, 2 Willpower, Brawl x2 and Firearms.

Level 1: Locate minor contraband, find an illegal card game, know a hooker that's not a cop, get someone's car stolen and chopped, know what to do with a stolen credit card, fence loot and skim from illegal dealings to get cash ($1,000)
Level 2: Obtain pistols on short notice, go and get serious drugs, go and get stolen cars, know a wiseguy, send someone a free prostitute, go and get a few stolen credit cards.
Level 3: Get 2 amateur local thugs to rough someone up for you, obtain a rifle, shotgun, or submachine gun, know where a fence/chop shop/whorehouse/illegal casino is.
Level 4: Get 4 amateur local thugs to shoot a place up for you, have white-collar crime connections, control a single crime ring for 2 weeks, get a place immunized from organized crime.
Level 5: Get 8 amateur local thugs to make someone disappear, arrange gangland assassinations of non-made guys, get a professional firebug to burn something down, get someone's car wired to blow up.
Level 6: Get teams of local amateur thugs to tear 4 places apart at the same time, get extensive organized crime connections, be the local Don, call in a world-class professional hit man from Europe.
Level 7: Get all the Japanese cars in the county stolen and chopped, control the crime statistics in the Domain, make false front businesses pop up and then disappear, steal anything.

University

Institutions of learning and research are the purview of university influence. Access to the halls of learning can help you with any number or resources, from ancient languages to research assistants to many impressionable young minds. School boards, students from kindergarten through college, graduate students, professors, teachers, deans, Greek orders, and a variety of staff fill the ivory covered halls.

Level 1: Access to low level university resources; obtain copies of school records, get students' social security numbers, identify experts in various fields.
Level 2: Know a contact or two with useful knowledge or skills, get keys to some buildings, fake a registered class schedule, identify the dorm rooms of any type of student.
Level 3: Faculty favors, fix grades, discredit a student, get a term paper written, get an expert to spend time researching for you, 24 hour library access.
Level 4: Organize student protests and rallies, discredit faculty members, get tenure, have a team of grad students attempt your strange project, send in the campus cops.
Level 5: Falsify an undergraduate degree, run of facilities, get a fraternity banned from a campus, change campus policy, access rare books, call it a snow day.
Level 6: Arrange major projects, alter curriculum institution wide, rearrange facilities, fire tenured people, eliminate programs, have buildings built.
Level 7: Hand out honorary doctorates, access relics/rarest books, permanently close campuses, direct the research of prominent professors in directions you like.

Sources:
Thanks to Liz and Jack of Emerald City Reborn

[Storyteller]

Allies, Contacts, and Resources

Allies, Contacts and Resources can all be used to bolster an influence action.

Example: William Gilroy has 4 in Contacts, 3 in allies, and 4 in Resources. He chooses to Bolster his Trace Action by 3 (2 Allies, 1 Resources) in Bureaucracy trying to track down the person who attacked his influence in that category two weeks ago. He uses 5 (1 Allies, 3 Contacts, 1 Resources) to bolster another action the same time period. He has three dots (1 Contacts, 2 Resources) to perform other actions, or to use in ways outside the Influence System during the next two weeks.

Mentor

Mentor is not directly usable in the Influence System. Your mentor may be able to lend you one of the above resources, however.

Retainers

Traits of the Retainers background allow you to exceed your influence limits. This does not gift you with additional levels of influence, abilities or actions. This use of the Retainers background effectively ties them up and they are unable to watch over locations, perform menial functions, etc.

[Storyteller]

Attack

You can ATTACK another's influence with your own, provided that you have a TRACE on the target influence. To ATTACK, you assign a number of influence levels, and that number becomes the level of the ATTACK endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim's DEFEND level, the victim loses a level of his or her influence and any traits set to GROW.

ATTACK requires an explanation as to how ATTACK is being deployed.

Block

You may BLOCK a specific character's influence, disrupting their actions in that influence category. However, you must have a TRACE to BLOCK a specific individual's influence. Any action may be BLOCKed, provided that your influence level is at least equal to the endeavor's level. The BLOCK's effective level is the total number of levels spent toward it. A BLOCK will affect all attempts at the selected endeavor during that cycle; anyone attempting the BLOCKed action will not succeed unless they have used enough levels of the influence category to overcome the BLOCK attempt, or if they are BOOSTed by someone else in a similar manner. Multiple BLOCKs against the same endeavor type are not cumulative in effect, though BLOCKs can be BOOSTed. If more than one BLOCK is put in place in the same category, only the highest level will be used when calculating the success of those attempting the endeavor.

BLOCKs cannot be BLOCKed.

Boost

BOOST is used by other players to add to the possible success of someone's action. BOOSTs will come in handy if someone has put up a BLOCK that needs to be overcome. If the actions spent in a BOOST action plus the initial action equal or exceed the level of the BLOCK, the action is successful. The BLOCK does not go away if one action beats it, though. It can still be effective against any additional attempts at that endeavor in that time period.

BLOCKs can also be BOOSTed.

Combine

COMBINE allows you to join the influence endeavor of another character to create effects that are beyond the capability of either of the characters individually.

To be able to perform a certain level of ability with your COMBINE, the players COMBINing must produce double the levels of influence needed to accomplish an ability one level lower than the ability they are aiming for. The influence contributed to a COMBINE for such purposes, needs to already be in two units of the equivalent lower level (i.e. two level x3 influences can Combine to achieve a level x4 ability, but six level x1 influences cannot - you need 8 level x1 influences instead)

The table below gives a rough reference for how many levels of influence are needed to combine for a given target action:

Target Level Influences Required
2 2 level x1
3 2 level x2, 4 level x1
4 2 level x3, 4 level x2, 8 level x1
5 2 level x4, 4 level x3, 8 level x2, 16 level x1
6 2 level x5, 4 level x4, 8 level x3, 16 level x2, 32 level x1
7 2 level x6, 4 level x5, 8 level x4, 16 level x3, 32 level x2, 64 level x1

Conceal

CONCEAL can be used to hide your influence from uses of TRACE. The number of actions spent toward CONCEAL generates CONCEAL level for that two week period, which you pit against attempts to Trace it.

Defend

You use the DEFEND endeavor when you fear that someone is going to ATTACK your influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of actions as the level of the DEFEND. The level of any ATTACK directed at that influence must exceed the DEFEND level in order to be successful.

Follow

If you want to keep an eye on what someone is doing with his influence, you can attempt to FOLLOW them with your own. FOLLOW is similar to WATCH, except that it only keeps a lookout for actions performed by a single influence. To FOLLOW someone's influence, you must have a successful TRACE on it already. To use FOLLOW, assign a number of actions to establish the level of the endeavor. The FOLLOW endeavor will reveal all activities performed by the targeted influence, unless any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of STEALTH.

Grow

To raise an influence with GROW you need to earn 3 times the amount of GROW points as the influence level you are are currently at. So if you want to GROW an influence to level 2, you need to earn 3 GROW points because you are at lvl 1. You can earn 1 point per influence level used for GROW, and points carry over from cycle to cycle until you reach the maximum amount of GROW points for that level, then the whole thing starts over again.

GROW requires that the player explain how the character is GROWing their influence. This is because you earn GROW points depending on whether or not the character is doing something for their influences to make them more powerful. So you may not actually receive all the points for levels spent if what the character is doing is not actually enough. Thus, GROWing becomes more difficult for the higher levels of influence.

For example, Sally has a level 3 influence. To fully GROW to lvl 4 she will need 9 GROW points. She uses 2 levels on GROW during her first cycle. Her explanation about what she's doing earns her a total of 2 GROW points, which gives her a total of 2 out of 9 GROW points. (If she used all 3 levels of her influence, she could have earned a total of 3.) She will repeat this process until she can get to 9 points. To get to level 5, the process will start again, except she'll need to get to 12 GROW points.

Steal

Influences can be stolen. To STEAL, you must have completed a successful TRACE Action on the influences that you are attempting to STEAL. When you STEAL someone's influences, you must win a contested roll against the other player's influence, plus any Defend actions that may contest it. For each success, you gain one level of influence in that category, whereas the other player will lose a corresponding number of Influence Levels in that area.

Stealth

STEALTH is added to endeavors to counter the use of FOLLOW and WATCH. If the number of action levels spent to add STEALTH to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the FOLLOW or WATCH, the endeavor remains undetected. STEALTH can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to BLOCK, FOLLOW, TRACE or WATCH.

Trace

You can use this endeavor to establish the identity of a character whose influence you have come into contact with. You cannot simply guess that a character has an influence in a particular category and then attempt to TRACE it. You must first have come into contact with it in one of the several ways. This can be accomplished by noticing one of the target's endeavors with the use of WATCH, by stopping one of the target's endeavors with a BLOCK, by having one of your own endeavors stopped by the target's use of BLOCK, or by having your influence ATTACKed by theirs. Additionally, if someone ever COMBINEs their influence actions with yours, you can TRACE them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in detail about his/her influence, you can perform a TRACE action. If the level of this TRACE exceeds the highest level of CONCEAL put up to guard the Influence that cycle, the TRACE is successful. Success tells you the Influence owner's identity, and whether their Influence level is higher than your own or not. You also receive enough information to be able to ATTACK if you so choose.

If you have succeeded in a TRACE on an influence, you may not simply relay that information to someone else. The information is too complex for them to relay to their own influence contacts without them actually performing a TRACE themselves. If you have performed a successful TRACE, you can relay enough information for someone else to perform a TRACE with his or her own Influence.

Watch

You use WATCH when you want to notice any actions taken in a particular influence area. A WATCH action of a certain level will notify the owner of actions taken where the STEALTH level is below that dedicated by the player to WATCH. A WATCH will let you know when and how often an action is attempted. The total number of levels spent on the WATCH define its level. You can also use WATCH to look for the following endeavors: BLOCK, FOLLOW, and WATCH.

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