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INFLUENCE, n. In politics, a visionary quo given in exchange for a substantial quid.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
The Influence Background
 Influence is earned, replaced, and removed through roleplay. This means your characters' Influences may be lost, taken, or raised through the course of the game. The storytellers will notify you if your Influences have changed based on what your character has or hasn't done with them, in addition to what other characters in the game have done. Influences are purchased at secondary skill cost.
Generally, there are several broad areas that influences are used for:
Acquiring Things - Weapons, Armor, Blood, Books, Havens, Cash, Businesses, Bodies.
Learning Things - Investigating People, Events, Actions, Holdings.
Hiding Things- Covering Up Actions, Holdings.
Stopping Things- Hindering Actions, People, the City.
Investigating Things- Patrolling, Canvassing or Research feats.
Moving Things- Populations (KSPs).
Types of influences:
 Bureaucracy - Bureaucracy represents your contacts within government agencies such as the EPA or IRS.
|  Occult - Occult represents spiritual contacts of a slightly less large and institutionalized nature than Church. You interact with psychics, paranormal investigators, and even voodoo witch doctors. |  Church - With Church, you know people involved with large religious and spiritual institutions such as the Catholic Church |  Police - With Police, you have some friends "down town" that you can call to redirect unwanted attention.
|  Finance - You can use Finance to influence banks, investment firms, and other groups that handle large amounts of money. |  Politics - You know people at various levels of the political process, from local office holders to PACS and special interests groups. |  Health - A Kindred with Health has managed to make some friends in the medical industry, giving him access to hospitals and blood banks. |  Street - Using Street, you can call on a wide variety of unsavory characters, small-time crooks, hobos, and gang members when you need a favor. |  High Society - High Society represents influence within the upper crust of the "social elite". You probably rub elbows with movie stars, wealthy dilettantes, and people who throw great parties. |  Transportation - Important for Kindred, who have a difficult time traversing the countryside, the Transportation influence represents sway in organizations such as, Amtrack, or Delta. |  Industry - You have connections in the industrial sector of society, who will sometimes give you raw materials or construction equipment. |  Underworld - With underworld, you can contact organized crime bosses, drug cartels, arms dealers, and other dangerous people.
|  Legal - Lawyers, judges, legal clerks, and even law students are covered by this influence.
|  University - University represents contacts in the academia, from professors and philosophy students to librarians and deans. |  Media - A useful influence in the "Information Age", Media grants you some sway over what events make it into the public eye, and how they are portrayed. | |
 1. You know generally which key mortals are in the influence sphere. (which Kindred own Influence is not included in this)
2. You can call on a small favor from a representative. (get rid of a speeding ticket, speed up paper work, acquire VIP passes.)
3. You can glean inside tips from sphere insiders.
4. You can call upon larger favors from sphere insiders (erase records of an arrest).
5. You can sway the local institution toward a specific goal (Forget about health codes for your restaurant, nudge votes in one direction, have someone spy on the mayor inside his office).
6+. Influences above 5 simply make it much harder for others to dislodge you from this influence, generally the only way to use above 5 is to gain a Boost from another PC. Some particularly powerful NPCs may have access to Influences above 5, but even this is rare.
 The purpose of this is to explain what you can do with your influences If you are finding that you are still unsure on how this part of the Influence system works, please email the storytellers. Because this influence system is based on MET (Minds Eye Theater) rules, the number of 'dots' you have in an influence will be referred to below as 'traits'.
Based on your rating in a specific influence, you are able to spend those points during the course of a week (per level of action). How you spend them is detailed below. After the weekly period, your influence ratings in the spheres your character has may roll over, be raised, drop, or even disintigrate. This all depends on exactly how your character works with them.
Time
Characters take actions by assigning one or more points of their Influence rating to an action. Assigned points stay assigned for a number of weeks equal to the level of the action (3-point action = 3 weeks those Influence points are unavailable).
"Yes sir, we can do that. A corporate takeover will take a few weeks to get the paperwork rolling, but I've got a lawyer friend that can get the ball rolling for us..."
In some cases, the delivery of said stuff/information/people/etc will be delayed until those weeks are up, in others you'll get the results immediately, but your Influence will still be tied up as usual.
Direct Influence Actions
 Direct influence actions mean your character is physically getting involved in the manipulation of this Influence. A successful Trace of your Influence leads a rival Influence user to your character's name and description. Direct influence actions expose your character to mortals, and can be a strain on the Masquerade if not done well.
"Good, my dear little thing. Now sit. You will hand me the deed to this land. Then you will go sit at your bed and wait for my next instruction. The hour is late and your Mistress becomes thirsty."
Indirect Influence Actions
 Indirect influence is what a character controls through a Retainer, Ghoul or Contact represented by Background traits on your character sheet. An example of this may be a vampire with a blood bond over the editor of a local newspaper, or a rich investor of a successful company. Indirect influence may be altered by the Retainer, Ghoul or Contact who actually controls the influence. It is harder to trace indirect influence to its root though, making it ideal for a person who wishes to conceal their character's actions as a successful Seek (trace) action by an influence rival will only result in them getting the name of your character's Retainer, Ghoul or Contact. The disadvantage of this is that if your character's Retainer, Ghoul or Contact is is killed, your character loses all of their Influences traits bought under them.
For specifics about purchasing Influences for your Retainers, Contacts or Ghouls, see the Character Creation section of the House Rules.
Using Alternate Identities
 Players may purchase secret identities via the Background Alternate Identity. Like Contacts, a character may have more than one Alternate Identity. If you want to wield your character's Influence through one of their Alternate Identities the Influence Sphere must be linked to that identity. All interactions with that sphere from the beginning of your character's dealings must reflect this. It's no use changing the identity that your Influence minions know in the middle of things. Keep this in mind when you decide to start a new foray into an Influence Sphere. When someone performs a Seek: Trace Action on your character's Influence Actions in that particular sphere they will only learn the assumed name and description of the Alternate Identity. They may then choose to investigate your character's Alternate Identity, which can only bear as much scruitiny as the dots you have invested in it.
"You heard me Marty. Buy all shares. Yes, I know what that means for next years budget. I think you're just going to have to trust me. Inside tip? Heh, well, something like that."
Using Influences with Investigations
 Influences may be used [Utilize Action]: (specific influence sphere) to gain extra successes on an investigation check. Every two Influence traits spent equals one auto-success on any Patrolling, Canvassing or Research feat. (This is a Utilize Action, and as such is treated the same as any other Influence Action in terms of tying up Influence points or being seen through Seek Actions.)
The difficulty for these feats depend on the size of area (for area searches) or the length of time (for individuals/events) being investigated, however no matter the size of the area investigated, difficulty doesn't matter. You're always assumed to be searching the entire domain and successes are automatic.
For additional details on Investigation checks, see the Craft & Seek rules page.
Using Influences to Affect Feeding
 You can wield your character's Influence to affect how easy it is for Kindred to feed in a group of neighborhoods. This is a "Use" action, and you can find these effects on the Influence Grid.
In general, you can either wield Influence to change feeding in a group of neighborhoods dramatically but temporarily, or slowly but permanently. There are limits as to what you can do -- don't expect to empty Downtown permanently, for example, but your Kindred can make it much less hip to be there.
Keep in mind that when one neighborhood's KSPs go up, another neigborhood's KSPs has to go down and vice versa. This represents people flocking to the new hotspot or fleeing from the "killer rampaging bear on speed" or whatever danger your Kindred has sold to the press.
Dramatic and temporary KSP changing Influences types are: High Society, Street, and Media. For additional details on using Influences to affect Feeding, see the Feeding rules page.
Below are the seven types of Influence Actions:
The actions on the left can only be countered by the actions on the right. Conflicts are resolved by comparing the relative strengths of the parties involved. Ties go to the defender. The actions on the left are "offensive" and the actions on the right are "defensive". There are never any tests for wielding Influence. Now, to the Samurai!
 Utilize: Get stuff. Meet people. This is the most common thing you'll do with your Influence. Everything on the Influence grid is a Utilize action. Meeting more people in your Influence sphere in order to increase (see grow below) said Influence is a Utilize action.
- Grow: Growing influence is a subcategory of Utilize. In order to Grow an influence, you must spend a Utilize action at 1 level lower than what you are growing to. So, to grow from 2 to 3, you must spend a 2 pt Grow action in the appropriate influence. Additionally, you must have a story as to how you are growing influence in the sphere, something as simple as dropping money, or visiting certain stores, or being introduced around by someone else. Blocks might be blocking this, and might require you to get a Boost. Growing from 0 to 1, is a very simple story. The growth changes when you are attempting to get levels 4 and 5 of influence. In these cases, you must still spend the appropriate levels of influence… but now, instead of registering a story, when you spend the influence you will get the name of a mortal who is high up in the influence sphere you are growing in. You must then arrange a meeting with this fellow, and perform a "task" to impress them to help grow your influence. This will be a scene with an ST. If you spend other influences to boost this grow, the task may be easier. You will have a period of time to perform this task successfully. Should you fail, or anger the contact, you can come to the table to get a different name to try again. Note, these names aren't unlimited, there will be at most 3 mortals in a sphere, so don't piss them all off.
 Block: Keep a rival, or the city in general, from getting stuff or meeting people. This can be used specifically (block getting guns, block extending influence) or generally (block all utilize actions).
 Seek: Learn about what other characters are doing in the Influence sphere. This is broken into three steps, listed in the order they must be performed: Watch, Trace, Follow.
- Watch what's happening: Watching gives you all actions performed in a sphere of influence by characters who have spent less on hide than you have in Seek(watch). Note that this gives you only *what* happened, never *who*. This also gives you major events in the sphere. Think: big media snafus, etc.
- Trace who did it: Once you are aware of an action (either through a Watch or through roleplay), you may execute a Trace on that watched action. A successful Trace will give you the name of the character that performed the action, and allow you to Follow (or Attack) that Influence in the future. Traces must be initiated quickly, within two times the level of the watched action weeks. (Tracing a level 1 action must start within 2 weeks, Tracing a level 2 action within 4, etc.)
- Follow what someone is doing: Once you have Traced a character's influence, you may set your own Influence to know what they are doing. This is different from Watch, because you know both what they've done, and that they have done it.
- Dedicate: Dedicating an influence is designed to allow you to protect a small sub-section of the city. In order to use this, you must spend an amount of influence to dedicate towards a small portion of the domain, such as The Rack, or Brujah clan domain. What this does for you… A dedicated influence will provide you with the same information that a Watch would. Typically, a watch takes at least a week to provide you with information. For a dedicated action, if something occurs in the domain you have dedicated your influence, you will be called that very night and given the opportunity to do something about it before it becomes visible to the general public. A dedicated influence can be moved, immediately, to a Utilize or Hide action, to cover something up. Unlike normal actions, which take time to happen, an action that occurs as a response to something your dedicated influence tells you, will happen immediately ( provided it is within reason.) If you swap the dedicated influence to a use or Hide, it no longer provides the "Watch" aspect of dedicated influence. A dedicated action also counts as "defensive" if you are attacked. Dedicated influence takes 2 weeks to undedicated if you decide you need to use it for something else.
 Hide: The single defensive Hide action counters all the different applications of the Seek action. Hides all of your character's actions in an Infulence Sphere from all of the different applications of the Seek action.
 Attack: If you have successfully executed a Trace, you may attack your opponent's Influence. A successful attack will decrease (by one) the Influence rating of your opponent. A character's Influence may only decrease by one level in a given week (even against multiple attackers) The number of points spent on Attack must exceed the 'defense value' of your target. Points used in defensive Actions or not used at all count one point, with points set to Defend worth an additional point.
 Defend: Action points that are not assigned automatically resist attacks at one point each. Points assigned to Defend resist attacks at two points each. Defend actions, like all others, can show up on the Watches of others, however. You may abort other Influence actions to Defend. This is the only time you can change an Influence action once it has been set in motion.
 Boost: By spending Influence dots at rate of two to one (in even increments only), you may increase the rating of an Action in another of your Influence spheres, or of another character. Both dots for a Boost action must come from the same sphere (for example you cannot use one Street and one Legal to Boost your Police, you must use two). Boost can be offensive or defensive, depending on what Action you're Boosting. Actions can only be Boosted if you have spent at least one dot of the primary shpere on the Action (except Hide, which can be Boosted from zero as long as you are spending dots in that sphere on another Action). Note that all influence involved in the action is tied up for however long the *target* rating is. This includes boost actions from yourself and other characters.
Boosting with Disciplines:
Since the game of influence is all about manipulating the mortal world, and since there are disciplines that are specifically designed to manipulate mortals, some disciplines can be used to Boost your influence Actions. When Boosting an Influence with a discipline, you may not use more than 1 discipline at a time on the same Action in the same Influence Sphere. Characters can simply add one level of boost for every two levels of Dominate or Presence they have, (round up)with 5 equalling three 'boosts'.
Note, because this system represents using these disciplines on many people within the influence sphere, you may not spend willpower on this discipline for an extra success.
 Influence Centers
Influence Centers are locations within the Emerald Domain that have control over the given influence. Each influence has at least one center. If a Clan domain has an Influence Center within it, any clan member utilizing that influence will win all ties in influence actions. Ties normally go to the defender. Your character may not know they have an influence center in their Clan or Personal Domain. The storyteller will take these effects into account regardless of your in-character knowledge.
 Seek Influence Cernter
In order to locate an Influence hub or hotspot within the Emerald Domain, (known as an Influence Center), it takes more than just a simple knowledge of who's who in your Kindred's influence(s) of choice. Getting a feel for the thready heartbeat of the city itself is a complex and difficult affair that requires masterful maniplation of a Kindred's influence among the Mortal world.
"Madame, as you requested, I have prepared a financial profile for the next district we discussed. It appears ripe for investment of our... resources. If you approve it, I'd like to move some of our people in for a first-hand look."
Move Influence Cernter
 Moving influence centers, while possible, is very very difficult, and the results of such a massive marshalling of Influence are not predictable in-character or out. The ripples of such an action will move through Kindred and Kine society, causing many effects. As a result, this kind of action will be handled with story, not system.
"Good news. The new University has recieved it's accredation, and with the financial 'troubles' at the UW, it looks like their class lists are dwindling and ennrollment has taken a dive. I suppose that's what happens when their backers flee, their media contacts dry up and all of their most well-known professors come to work for the competition. Shall we tour your new campus my Master?"
 Go to the next Rules section: Influences: Influence Grid
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