What are Influences?
This is how your characters manipulate the mortal world within the game to do what you want.

How does my character do that?
Read the Influences section.

So, once I do stuff (grow, dedicate, trace, block, attack, hide etc…) what happens then?
That depends on what it is you are doing. At the influence table, the ST will tell you when your action will go through and when your used influence will be able to be back in play.

How much do influences cost?
Influences are purchased at Secondary Skill cost.

When do I get my Dedicated Watch Influence information?

• If you have a dedicated watch, it is focused on a particular domain.
• If something happens in the middle of game that would ping that influence, a storyteller will have your influence contact call you right then.
• If someone is doing something passive influence-wise (grow, trace, block, etc) in that watched domain and has not hidden it, a storyteller will email you the Sunday after the game and you will have until EOD Tuesday (as in when I get up on Wednesday morning) to respond if you want.
• If someone is doing something passive influence-wise (grow, trace, block, etc) in general and has not hidden it, you will have information on it in your game envelope the next game day.

What's the difference between a Dedicated Watch and "Influence Rumors"?
A dedicated watch is an active action and happens every week to your specifications. Influence Rumors are a passive thing that happens once a month—on the first game of the month (along with resources and herd). Vampires do not live in a bubble world. Their actions and the actions of mortals cause all sorts of interesting ripple effects.

If you have any influence at all—dedicated or not—in use or not—you will get rumors (if there are rumors to be had) based on the level of influence you own. People talk. You hear things. These things may be directly related to something another kindred did, related to something a mortal influence did or may just be something interesting going on in that influence arena. You may read and ignore (or not ignore) them at your whim.

Where is my influence envelope?
It is the same envelope that you get your resources and your herd blood from. It is always located on the paper table next to the paper person. Please return your game envelope to its spot after you have taken all of the goodies out of it.

Are Hide/Defend/etc tied to a particular Action?
Nope. If you Hide at level 2, it's a 2-point Hide for everything you do in that Influence for the next 2 weeks.

Can I Block an Attack?
No. You must Defend against it. You can Watch for Attack actions, though.

Can I Defend someone else?
Not directly. You must Boost their Defend action. If they don't have the points to Defend, you can't help them -- their people don't have time to talk to your people.

Can I watch for something specific?
Sure, but there's no point. The system doesn't distinguish between a Watch action targeting everything, and a Watch action targeting something specific like "getting guns". Note that finding out what someone does is a Follow, not a Watch.

Will my Watch watch other Watchers?
Yep. Asking around for whoever else is asking around works just fine. Maybe you want to Hide your Watching?

If I Watch an action done by someone I've already Traced, will I know who it is?
No. Watch never gives you names, just actions. That's what Follow is for.

If I'm Attacked, is that a free trace?
Nope. But it is a free watch, since you're aware of the action. This applies whether your Defend was successful or not. Same goes for a blocked Utilize.

Does Blocking a single aspect of an Influence carry more/less weight than Blocking the whole sphere?
No. Blocks are blocks, and the math is the same on all of them. Blocking an entire sphere is probably more likely to get peoples' attention and encourage them to work against you, though.

What if more than one person in a sphere Blocks? Do those blocks stack?
Unless they're Boosting each other, no. Only the highest Block level for an action applies. Do not circumvent the Boost action. Do not taunt the happy fun ball.

If my Utilize action is Blocked, do I get the points back immediately?
Nope. Your Influence peeps are still busy 'smoothing over' your attempt at ... whatever you were doing.

What happens if I Boost with only one dot?
Nothing. It takes a minimum of two dots to Boost. Even if you spend a dot and someone else spends a dot, neither of you accomplish anything.

Go to the next Rules section: Humanity