Influence Guide

Okay, here's everything you need to know about how we're going to be handling influences. We're adapting these rules from Dark Epics, along with the rules used in Walking Shadows. This does not mean these are the only influence actions you can take. This is simply the rules we are going to use in situations where influence between characters may clash.

Influence may be used for the actions listed in Faith and Fire (my Street Influence x 2 provides me with some small-time weaponry), or for other actions with Storyteller approval (my Transportation Influence x 1 gets me safely to and from France to meet with Lord de Montroy), or specific effects listed below (Street x 2: Grow).

General Rules

1. Your influence is refreshed at the start of every game.

2. Your influence expenditures must be into the ST'ers on the Sunday before game. That would be the first Sunday of each month, when the clock strikes midnight . If something happens (the plague strikes your household, you had finals to study for), let as know as soon as you can, and we'll try to accommodate you. You can submit your influence actions by email or by writing your actions on your sheet (and making sure your sheet is turned back into us).

3. Every influence action you take will be based in a single category. Even if you are combining influence across categories (see below), there needs to be a primary category where the action is going to take place.

4. You can purchase influence as a merit, using the cost system for merits. Alternatively, you can Grow your influence, as is detailed below.

5. You may not spend more total Influence traits in a game than the total of all the attributes your character has. Retainers can raise this limit, if they are not doing any other tasks for you during that game.

6. Permanent influence traits are those traits recorded on your character sheet. It represents the actual amount of influence you control. Temporary influence reflects influence that has been traded between players or moved across categories for a specific game, and is therefore much more fluid.

7. No character may have more then 5 permanent traits in each Influence category. There is not, however, a limit in how many temporary traits a person can use in a game.

8. The influence categories in the Dark Ages are: Church, Court, Health, Learning, Occult, Political, Street, and Transportation.

9. There is a finite amount of influence in Navarre, and thus each influence category is capped.

Influence Descriptions: When starting with influence at character generation or acquiring it in game, please provide the Storytellers with a descriptor of what your influence represents for each category. This is not meant to be the only source of your influence, nor does it limit what you can do with your influence. We use this to help the Storytellers create better rumors and clearer results of influence use. It also gives you the chance to help build the world that is Conspiratus Angelourm.

Example: Joe Brujah starts the game with Street Influence x 2 and Learning Influence x 1. His player decides that Joe, being a former street thief, exercises his Street Influence through a street gang in Roncesvalles called the Thief Gang and his Learning influence through a few monks he knows at St. Christian Monastery.

Contacts, Allies, and Mentor : Contacts can be used to receive rumors as described in Faith and Fire. In addition, they may be used to perform Watch, Trace, and Follow actions (see below).  However, your contacts will favors in return for
taking these actions; in addition, it exposes your Contacts to being Traced, Watched, Followed, or even Attacked as well.

Allies can carry out influence actions on your behalf, or loan you their influence. The number of influence actions they can take on your behalf is equal to your ally rating. The number they can loan you is half of your ally rating, rounded down. Expect your allies to ask for something in return, however.

Mentors can loan you influence as well. They can do so at a rate of half your mentor rating. The use of Contacts, Allies, and Mentor in this manner is up to the storyteller discretion. If you have questions, it's best to ask before sending in the Influence request instead of after.

All use of Allies, Contacts, and Mentors in regards to influence is subject to ST discretion.

Example: Joe Brujah has Contacts x 3, Allies x 2, and Mentor x 2. He has decided to try to track down some dirt on his arch nemesis, Jane Toreador. He has this three contacts Watch Politics and Court (x2). He then decides to send his allies out to spread some rumors about Jane Toreador, and he asks them to use Court x 2 to hamper business at an upscale Tavern in Pamplona he knows Jane Toreador owns. And finally, he has his mentor loan him Street x 1, which he can then use with his own permanent Street influence to strengthen the actives of the Thief Gang.

Rumors: Some of the rumors about happenings in the mortal world will be given to players based on their levels of Influence. This will happen automatically, and does not require Influence to be allocated to it. If you wish to use your Influence to get more rumors in a category, you may do so as an action. Some Influence actions may generate rumors as well, depending on how public and wide-spread they are, and how much Stealth has been used.

Example: Joe Brujah's actions against Jane Brujah end up creating the following Court x 1 rumor: "It would appear that Tavern has been having some problems - rumors about rats on the floor and bugs in the soup have begun to spread." Considering the scale of the assult, it's quite possitble that Joe Brujah's actions would also lead to other rumors in other areas. These are, however, just rumors.

Research: Many rumors contain information that you will want to investigate, potentially uncovering information that may give you a Lead on Influence that has been used. You can always try to research something that appears in rumors (or any topic that interests your character) to get more information about it, even if you have not been told that you have a specific Lead to someone's Influence. Stealth can be used to make it more difficult to research. At the ST'ers discression, it will become harder to investigate rumors as time passes - people eventually forget who said or did what.

Example: Jane Toreador is upset about the rumors that have been spread about her Tavern. She spends Court x 2 to research what is going on.

Combine: You may temporarily lend your Influence to someone else, or use your Influence across categories.

Mechanics: Influence is Combined at a two-for-one ratio; for every two levels you use, the target gains one trait's worth of temporary Influence that can be used immediately. The recipient may use the Influence however they see fit; the loaning character will be informed automatically of what the loaned traits were used for.

Example: Joe Brujah has agreed to loan Bob Gangrel his street influence in order to aid Bob Gangrel's attempts to arrange some services from a few local pickpocks. Joe Brujah loans Bob Gangrel Street x 2, which means Bob Gangrel now has 1 temporary Street Influence he can use with his own.

Bob Gangrel also has Transportation x 4. He wants to combine that with the Street x 1 he received from Joe Brujah, rationalizing that he can use his transportation influence to bring in contraband that he can use to bribe ruffians on the street. Transportation x 4 will combine with his Street x 1 to give him a total temporary Street x 3.

Growth: You may use your Influence to garner more Influence.

Mechanics: Points spent on Growth accumulate. When you have three times as many accumulated points as you have Influence traits in that category, you gain another permanent trait. You can only gain one trait in each category by Growth every three games. (Note: this does not effect the amount of xp you can spend on influences.) If your Influence is successfully Attacked while you are Growing it, the Storytellers will randomly determine how much of the accumulated Growth in that category is lost. If your last trait in a category is lost to an Attack, so are all points of Growth in that category.

Example: Having combined to a temporary Street Influence x 3, Bob Gangrel puts all three Traits into Growth. He now has a permanent Street Influence x 1, but he can not increase his street influence again for another two games.

Conceal: Conceal can be used to hide your Influence from uses of Trace.

Mechanics: Spend a number of influence actions to hide your influence from someone else tracing it back to you. Note: conceal hides a category of influences, not a specific action taken with influences.

Example: Jane Toreador has heard a rumor that Joe has plans to trace her influences. She has Court x 4, and so she spends Court x 2 to conceal her influence, and Court x 2 to continue on with her own plans. Unless Joe Brujah has spent Court x 3 or more to trace her, it will be unsuccessful.

Trace: Once you have felt the effects of someone's Influence or have leads on their traits, you may Trace that Influence back to its source, learning enough information to let you Follow, Block, or Attack those traits.

Mechanics: You must have a Lead to Trace - an Action you Watched, an Attack on your Influence, a Block against something you did, a Lead gained from investigating a rumor, or even information you discovered in play about someone's Influence. If you spend more points on Trace than your target did on Conceal that game, you learn who was behind that Influence, will be told the descriptor associated with their category (if you did not already have it), and you may now Attack, Follow, or Block that person's Influence category. Otherwise, you get nothing. If you successfully Trace an action where other Influence was Combined to help, you will get both a successful Trace on the primary Influence used, and a Lead on each source of Combined Influence. If you have a question as to whether or not you have enough information to Trace something, ask the Storytellers.

Example: Joe Brujah has a lead on Jane Toreador's Court influence, and wants to fully trace it. He wheels and deals and eventually gets a Court x 2 to use to trace. However, because Jane Toreador has spent Court x 2 to conceal, it gives him nothing. The next month, Joe Brujah wheels and deals some more, and ends up with a Court x 3 to trace. This time, he is successful, and he can now spend influence actions directly against Jane Toreador's influence.

Block: You can prevent people from using their Influence for that month, either by directly blocking a specific person, or attempting to block a specific action.

Mechanics: Declare whether you are Blocking an action from being performed city-wide, or whether you are blocking a specific person's Traced traits from being used at all. You cannot Block the following actions city-wide: Attack, Defend, Follow, Stealth, Watch, Reorganize. Multiple efforts to Block the same target are not cumulative; only the highest level Block will be used. For each point of Block on a target the cost to succeed at that effort is one point higher. Note that Blocking actions does not give you any information on whether or not the actions were attempted, or by who.

Example: Having developed a successful trace of Jane Toreador's Court Influence, Joe Brujah decides to gather up Court x 2, and manages to block her court influence for that month. However, now Jane Toreador has a lead on Joe Brujah's influence and can attempt to trace it for herself. Meanwhile, Bob Gangrel decides he wants to prevent people from being able to arrange safe passage through the countryside, and spends Transportation x 2 to install a 2 point block.

Boost: Boosting your Actions counters potential Block attempts.

Mechanics: For each point spent Boosting an action, one point of Block is overcome. If all the levels of Blocking are overcome, the action succeeds. If only some levels of an Influence attempt are Blocked, partial success may result at Storyteller discretion.

Example: Jane Toreador realizes her attempts to use her Court influence have been blocked. The next month, she uses Court x 3 to boost her action, and Court x 1 to trace back to try to find out who blocked her.

Follow/Watch: If you have Traced someone's Influence, you can Follow their Influence to see what they use it for. You may also use your Influence to Watch for any and everyone attempting a specific use of Influence in that category.

Mechanics: If you want to keep an eye on what someone is doing with his Influence, you can follow his actions - but only if you have already successfully traced his Influence. The more actions devoted to following someone's influence, the more successful you are likely to be. You can attempt to hid your actions by using Stealth (below).

Example: Now that Jane Toreador has a trace on Joe Brujah, she decides to spend Court x 2 to follow Joe Brujah's influence to see what else he might be up to. Meanwhile, Bob Gangrel has decided to use Transportation x 2 to watch for anyone who might be attempting to Grow Transportation Influence.

Stealth : Stealth is used to hide from people Watching or Following your actions (not from Tracing the details of your traits).

Mechanics: Stealth is added to endeavors to counter the use of Follow and Watch. If the number of traits spent in Stealth equals or exceeds the level of the Follow or Watch, the action remains undetected. This means the action will not generate rumors - if you attack someones influence the action will still generate a lead.

Example: Tom Ventrue combines enough influence from different sources to develop a temporary Transportation x 5. He puts Transportation x 3 into Grow, and then Transportation x 2 into Stealth. Bob Gangrel, who is watching with a Transportation x 2, does not see what Tom Ventrue is doing.

Attack/Defend: Once you have Traced someone's Influence traits, you may use your Influence to Attack those traits. If you suspect someone may try to Attack your Influence, you can Defend it.

Mechanics: If the number of points you spend on Attacking someone's Influence traits is greater than the amount of Influence in that category plus the amount they have allocated to Defend that category, they lose one point of Influence from that category permanently. Any Growth your opponent had been working on in that area also has a chance to be lost. (Note that traits must be preemptively spent on Defend. You cannot wait for someone to Attack you, and then respond afterwards with Defend. If you don't have traits Defending you beforehand, you didn't see it coming).

Example: Joe Brujah decides that blocking Jane Toreador's Court influence isn't enough: he gathers up a large pool of temporary Court Influence and uses a Court x 5 action to attack her influence. Since Jane didn't spend any influence to defend her Court, Joe Brujah is successful and Jane Toreador now has a Court x 3 instead of a Court x 4.

Reorganize: You may reorganize your power structure to make it harder for others to keep tabs on your Influence.

Mechanics: Points spent on Reorganize accumulate. When you have three times as many points in Reorganize in a category as you have Influence traits, you lose a permanent trait and give the storytellers a new Descriptor for your Influence. All past Traces of your Influence category will be lost. Anyone Tracing a Lead to your Influence that was generated prior to the Reorganization will be unable to Trace your category, but will still be told that you were behind that Lead. (After all, just because you sold off your interest in the Casino doesn't mean that the Casino won't know that you used to run the place last year.)

Example: Jane Toreador decides she's had enough of Joe Brujah. Each game she spends a Court x 2 into the Reorganization of her Court Influence. Once she has a Reorganization of 9, she spends a permanent Court Influence to complete the task. She now has a permanent Court Influence of 2, but Joe Brujah no longer has any trace or lead on her Court Influence.