Influence Rules
Blood Oaths: An Old World of Darkness VtM LARP :: Out of Character Discussion :: Rules and Clarifications
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Influence Rules
by Aaron S Sun Apr 24, 2016 2:22 pm
Mortal society builds on institutions. As humans raise their cities, they form gatherings of expertise that are manipulated by the Cainites hiding in their midst. If you have Influence, you can sway the direction of some ares of mortal society, pushing cities to grow as you direct. Your Influence can be used to strike indirectly at your foes while protecting your own assets, or to gain information and special resources.
Growing Influence
Once a character is in play they can work on Growing their influence, but this takes time. A player must inform the STs in their downtime that they are going to Grow one of their Influences, and the ST will make a note of it on their character sheet.
It takes a number of games equal to the trait level they are trying to achieve before they can gain the new level, IE to Grow from Occult 1 up to Occult 2 would take 2 games. Now the majority of the Growing action takes place between games as your character spends their nights working the scene, making connections, and learning the lingo; and with, that some amount of focus.
In addition to the time it takes to Grow an Influence, getting the higher traits is difficult and requires some help. In order to Grow the 4th and 5th trait the character needs some In Game help. This can come in a few forms but the most common is a character (PC or NPC) that already has the 5th trait or higher in the given Influence. The help comes in the form of mentorship in the workings of the field or maybe a lead to the “right people”; either way this help often comes at a price, often in the form of Boons, as giving others that kind of power can be dangerous.
Finally, grow actions are not automatically successful. The STs will respond in your down time why the action was declined and how to change it if you can. Other times, you will be unable to grow your influence because there are too many people already working on that sphere of influence. The cities infrastructure can only support so many outlets of influence. The last reason that an influence may not be grown is that something is occurring within plot to not allow this.
Trait Maximum
A character can only have as many Influence traits as they have Physical, Mental, and Social traits; IE a player with 7 Phys/Ment/Soc traits each could have up to 21 total Influence traits.
In Game Influence Use
During game play there will come situations where characters will use their influence to effect the game around them. Following the Influence trait descriptions in the core book, the character can achieve such things but only so much of them, due to the current trait they possess. A character with an Influence at 4 traits could use it to perform the actions listed for that influence, but only 4 total traits worth. That means that could perform a 4 trait action one time, a 2 trait action twice, or so on. When used an ST will make a note on the Influence log. This limiting factor is here as you again can only get so much done in a night.
Teamwork can be used in such cases as while not as good as a person skilled with the right level of influence, a large number of characters working together can achieve a greater result. It take 3 separate characters working together and spending the appropriate number of Influence traits to generate an action the next level up. Meaning 3 characters with Police 2 could work together and spend all their traits to create a Police 3 action.
Other Ways to Use Influence
- Attack: You can use your influence to attack another player's influence hold in the city. You will have to have done a trace action and know who you are going after and describe in detail what it is you are doing. The duration of damage to another player’s influence is dependent on the attack being done.
Ex: Sam has figured out that Gwen is in the way of him growing his Street Influence. He attacks her using his Influence and has some success that causes a temporary loss of her Influence. If Sam continues his assault over several months and continues to win, it will eventually cause a permanent loss of her influence level.
- Defend: You can defend when you fear that someone is going to attack your influence. 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.
Ex: Gwen knows that Sam is trying to attack her Street Influence. She alerts her Influence contacts and they defend against the attack making it more difficult for Sam to win his attack.
- Trace: You can use a trace action to see who else is moving in the same Influence as yourself. You may be able to see what they are doing as well, depending on the target(s) level of Influence. This can be a good way to keep an eye out for possible attackers. You can also use this action to watch an Influence to see what actions are being made into it.
Ex: Bruno wants to know who else is moving in High Society. He uses a trace action to find out who owns the gallery downtown and his Influence contacts report back to him with details depending upon the level of Influence Bruno holds vs the gallery owners.
Growing Influence
Once a character is in play they can work on Growing their influence, but this takes time. A player must inform the STs in their downtime that they are going to Grow one of their Influences, and the ST will make a note of it on their character sheet.
It takes a number of games equal to the trait level they are trying to achieve before they can gain the new level, IE to Grow from Occult 1 up to Occult 2 would take 2 games. Now the majority of the Growing action takes place between games as your character spends their nights working the scene, making connections, and learning the lingo; and with, that some amount of focus.
In addition to the time it takes to Grow an Influence, getting the higher traits is difficult and requires some help. In order to Grow the 4th and 5th trait the character needs some In Game help. This can come in a few forms but the most common is a character (PC or NPC) that already has the 5th trait or higher in the given Influence. The help comes in the form of mentorship in the workings of the field or maybe a lead to the “right people”; either way this help often comes at a price, often in the form of Boons, as giving others that kind of power can be dangerous.
Finally, grow actions are not automatically successful. The STs will respond in your down time why the action was declined and how to change it if you can. Other times, you will be unable to grow your influence because there are too many people already working on that sphere of influence. The cities infrastructure can only support so many outlets of influence. The last reason that an influence may not be grown is that something is occurring within plot to not allow this.
Trait Maximum
A character can only have as many Influence traits as they have Physical, Mental, and Social traits; IE a player with 7 Phys/Ment/Soc traits each could have up to 21 total Influence traits.
In Game Influence Use
During game play there will come situations where characters will use their influence to effect the game around them. Following the Influence trait descriptions in the core book, the character can achieve such things but only so much of them, due to the current trait they possess. A character with an Influence at 4 traits could use it to perform the actions listed for that influence, but only 4 total traits worth. That means that could perform a 4 trait action one time, a 2 trait action twice, or so on. When used an ST will make a note on the Influence log. This limiting factor is here as you again can only get so much done in a night.
Teamwork can be used in such cases as while not as good as a person skilled with the right level of influence, a large number of characters working together can achieve a greater result. It take 3 separate characters working together and spending the appropriate number of Influence traits to generate an action the next level up. Meaning 3 characters with Police 2 could work together and spend all their traits to create a Police 3 action.
Other Ways to Use Influence
- Attack: You can use your influence to attack another player's influence hold in the city. You will have to have done a trace action and know who you are going after and describe in detail what it is you are doing. The duration of damage to another player’s influence is dependent on the attack being done.
Ex: Sam has figured out that Gwen is in the way of him growing his Street Influence. He attacks her using his Influence and has some success that causes a temporary loss of her Influence. If Sam continues his assault over several months and continues to win, it will eventually cause a permanent loss of her influence level.
- Defend: You can defend when you fear that someone is going to attack your influence. 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.
Ex: Gwen knows that Sam is trying to attack her Street Influence. She alerts her Influence contacts and they defend against the attack making it more difficult for Sam to win his attack.
- Trace: You can use a trace action to see who else is moving in the same Influence as yourself. You may be able to see what they are doing as well, depending on the target(s) level of Influence. This can be a good way to keep an eye out for possible attackers. You can also use this action to watch an Influence to see what actions are being made into it.
Ex: Bruno wants to know who else is moving in High Society. He uses a trace action to find out who owns the gallery downtown and his Influence contacts report back to him with details depending upon the level of Influence Bruno holds vs the gallery owners.
Aaron S- Admin
- Posts : 6
Join date : 2016-04-16 -
Blood Oaths: An Old World of Darkness VtM LARP :: Out of Character Discussion :: Rules and Clarifications
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