Influence is one of the seven modules that make up the Off-Screen System
The Influence system describes 15 areas of influence that characters can tap into to achieve certain effects. This can be done via either Allies or Status.
Allies and Status offer different advantages and disadvantages with regard to four categories. See the tabs "Allies" and "Status" for more information.
- Quantity: number of actions that they can initiate
- Level: the maximum level of the actions that they can initiate
- Upkeep: upkeep requirements to keep the merit (see Assets)
- Restrictions: Status can be used to take legal actions that are part of the status' realm of influence.
- Duration: How long 'persistent' effects last
Allies and Status also have a number of similarities:
Teamwork: Influence Merits assist your character to do things, they don't replace you. Whether you initiate an action yourself (Status), via a retainer (with Status of their own) or via a favor (Allies), the action generates Teamwork successes equal to the level of the merit in question. As is always the case for Teamwork, these successes become additional dice for the primary actor. For example, if you call in a level 2 favor with your level 5 Allies to solve a crisis in a territory, the action will net you 5 additional dice toward solving the crisis, even though the action was only level 2.
On-screen consequences: If an action has consequences on the On-screen (RP) level, appropriate NPCs will be portrayed.
Resistance: Actions by mortal spheres of influence easily overcome resistance; in cases such as destroying a feeding ground, the Allies or Status group's successes are reduced by only half the resistance that would normally apply.
Motivation
While the Allies merit runs as written in the God Machine Chronicles, players frequently have difficulties identifying who their allies should be. How specific are they supposed to be - Allies (Media), Allies (Newspapers), or Allies (Kingsmouth Examiner)? What are they capable of doing? Without a publicly available standard, different players get substantially different value out of the same merit. More information is provided here to address that issue.
Allies and Retainers are meant to deepen and broaden your character's reach and abilities, but the OSS system is fundamentally designed to increase roleplay, not to decrease it. Requiem for Kingsmouth is designed to be a living, vibrant world, in which there is always something new happening. This provides plots on multiple levels - great over-arching plots like GenuCorp or Task Force: Valkyrie, and small, local plots that impact only a small handful of players. These mini-plots give substance to a character's off-screen hours, give them something to talk about that elevates things from "talking heads" or "barroom" RP, and provides reasons to bargain with other characters for their assistance. None of these aims are served by mini-plots that are discovered and solved by NPCs, with only a single player ever knowing about them. Basically, it becomes a lot of work for the storytellers with practically no pay-off in roleplay! Consequently, while Influence can make it vastly easier to achieve a goal, they do not obviate the need for PC involvement.
Action
- Action: Simple
- Time: 1 hour per favor level, halved (round up)
- Dicepool: None if Allies aren't pushed or risk exhaustion (see below); Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies Level - the Favor Level otherwise
- Command: +request (Allies)=Allies (Group and level) to do (task).
- Modifiers: Sites, Resource Points, Influence
- Teamwork: No
Quantity
Everything you ask an Ally to do is a favor. Your Allies can get away with one favor at each level up to their rating. Thus Police Allies 4 could fulfill one level one, two level two, and a single level four favor each month, by trading their level three favor for a second level two.
You can spend 1 Juice to regain a spent favor of any level (see Influence).
Level
Allies may PUSH and go beyond their means by up to two levels per favor. Thus a level 3 favor could be used to get the effects of a level 5 favor. You must convince your Ally with a Manipulation + Persuasion + Ally level diceroll, - the level of the favor. If this roll fails, your Ally refuses to do the favor, and you lose the lowest level favor you have available. If this results in a success, you may combine favors, paying your expended favor, and either a level one or two favor (or a higher level favor if a level one or two isn't available), to gain your enhanced favor. (Thus to get a level 6 favor you could use a level 5 favor and a level 1 favor, or a level 4 favor and a level 2 favor.) If this results in an exceptional success, you gain the favor at the higher level with only the single expenditure. In all cases, the action taken by your allies results in a number of Teamwork dice equal to your allies level, not the level of the favor.
Pushing your Allies will draw the attention of other PCs, and risk exposing themselves, which might lead to their being fired (and consequently no longer useful to you). Mechanically, this is the same as if every other Mastermind player had successfully investigated your precious mortals in that area (see Assets -> Investigate / Attack).
Allies become EXHAUSTED by being pushed beyond their means. If you lack the favors to call in, you may still attempt to call in favors, by making rolls of Manipulation + Persuasion + Allies Level - the Favor Level, as above. Any time you would be required to pay a favor and you cannot do so, your effective allies level drops by one. These exhausted levels return at 1 per month.
Upkeep
Allies require 1 Downtime hour per level per month. Additionally, you need to specify a method of control (blood, time, money, or threats), which involves additional upkeep costs. See Assets for more information.
=Restrictions
Favors can be illegal by that group's standards. Anything that would get a person into trouble with their group for doing it is considered an 'illegal' action. For example, you can get your Underworld allies to rat out one of their own, even though being a snitch risks getting them an up-close and personal look at the Fiducci's retirement package.
=Duration
Persistent effects that you get via Allies last for one month only. For example, if you recruit a secret special Police force unit, the unit will disband after one month unless you call in another favor to keep it going.
Action and Quantity
With Status, you can initiate as many actions as you want, without any dicerolls necessary. Good for you! If you are accessing Status via a Retainer, you must spend Downtime to apprise your Retainer of the situation and give them instructions. This costs hours equal to half the level of the action you want them to take, rounded up. (So instigating a level 3 action takes two hours of your Downtime.)
Level
You can only initiate actions that are up to your level of Status.
Upkeep
Maintaining your Status requires 4 Downtime hours per level of Status per month.
=Restrictions
Status can be used to take legal actions that are part of the status' realm of influence. You cannot quarantine an area with health status unless there is reasonable expectation of an actual health outbreak. You cannot order the apprehension of an individual unless they are actually implicated in a crime.
=Duration
Persistent effects that you get via Status last indefinitely.
Contacts will automatically inform you of any activation of Allies and Status in their specified field. You can also use a level 1 favor from your Allies to gather information in that sector for the rest of the month. If you have Status in an area, you are your own Contacts.
You can hide what you are doing even from those with Contacts by adding one level to the task.
Bureaucracy
(e.g. City Hall, Post Office, Edison Electric, Apollo Communications)
You can manage various government agencies and bureaus. By dealing with social programs and public servants, you can spin 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.
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 (1 resource point).
Level 3: Create false identification documents, 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; create false identities supported by paperwork; 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: Create whole false identities that would fool even trained professionals; 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
(Specific denomination of organized religion, e.g. Jewish, Methodist, Unitarian)
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 mainstream religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto or Buddhism (fringe or alternative groups, such as Scientology, are considered Occult). 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.
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 (1 resource point).
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 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.
Education
Institutions of learning and research are the purview of the University Influence. Access to the halls of learning can grant any number of resources, from ancient languages to research assistance 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 ivy-covered buildings. Sadly, since the flood of 1967 there have been no tertiary education facilities in Kingsmouth.
Level 1: Access to scholarly journals and 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, find out what research projects are in progress locally, get keys to some buildings.
Level 3: Get an expert to spend time researching for you, find out who is in the control group of a study, get something past an ethics committee, get 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.
Level 5: Falsify an undergraduate degree, get the run of research facilities, call a halt to a research project, access rare books.
Finance
(e.g. Investment firms, brokers, specific bank)
Manipulating markets, stock reports and investments is a hobby of many Kindred, 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. CEOs, bankers, stockbrokers, bank tellers, yes-men, financiers and loan agents are found among such work.
Level 1: Receive a loan (25 resource points - payback 30 RP), 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 4 resource points in cash.
Level 2: Receive a loan (50 RP - payback 60 RP), trace unsecured bank accounts, identify a person's collateral properties, get an insider stock tip (allows to get 30-40% return within one month on an RP investment).
Level 3: Receive a loan (100 RP - payback 120 RP), create a secure bank account, access ATM camera tapes, get copies of someone's signature.
Level 4: Receive a loan (500 RP - payback 600 RP), delay deposits; credit alterations, interfere with specific stock transactions, cause an IRS/SEC audit or investigation.
Level 5: Receive a loan (1,000 RP - payback 1,200 RP), control an aspect of city-wide banking ("No more loans, except for redheads"), stop an IRS/SEC audit or investigation, foreclose on a small business.
Level 6: Receive a loan (5,000 RP - payback 6,000 RP), manipulate local banking, stop loans, seize accounts, shut down medium-size businesses, send out repo men.
Level 7: Receive a loan (10,000 RP - payback 12,000 RP), shut down major banks, buy any famous thing (illegal, can be sold for up to 8,000 RP), have anything imported or built, take over any NPC corporation in the Domain.
Loans have to be repayed over the course of 1 year, with 1/12 of the total amount / month.
Health
(e.g. Miskatonic Hospital, Congregational Hospital, Arkham Mental Health Center, the Morgue)
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 to further their studies. Furthermore, maintaining the Masquerade often calls for alteration of medical records or faking of particular diseases; some Kindred 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 found in this field.
Level 1: Gain 2 blood, 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, 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, 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, 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 (1 resource point).
Level 5: Gain 50 blood, 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, 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, shut down all area medical facilities, institutionalize VIP's, quarantine the domain, have everyone in the Congressional district named Smith lobotomized.
Vitae can be gained from blood with a ratio of 1 : BP*2. So your BP 2 vamp would need 4 blood to gain 1 Vitae. Blood can be stored for 6 weeks in a normal fridge.
High Society
(e.g. Entertainment, Wealthy Elite, Specific Country Club)
The glitterati at the top of society move in circles of wealth and elegance. Many Kindred 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 High Society Influence turns a vampire into a debonair darling of the most exclusive social circles. Among these circles, one finds dilettantes, artists of almost any stripe, old money families, models, rock stars, sports figures and jet-setters.
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 1), 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, Social tests for more).
Industry
(e.g. Construction, Mining, Manufacture, Research)
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 Influence 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.
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 (2 resource points).
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
(e.g. Judges, Lawyers, Courthouse)
Since many of the operations that Kindred undertake are at least marginally illegal, a good amount of sway over judges and lawyers is indispensable. Those Kindred who dabble in law often pull strings in the courts to make sure that the questionable practices of Kindred 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, District Attorneys, 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, access public or court funds (1 resource point).
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
(e.g. Kingsmouth Examiner, Arkham Gazette, Kingsmouth Community Television, WARK Broadcasting Company)
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 DJs, editors of all varieties, reporters, cameramen, photographers, broadcasters and bloggers at your disposal. At Storyteller 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 (1 resource point).
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.
Occult
(Specific groups, e.g. Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Demon Handlers)
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 their 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. Cult leaders, alternative religious groups, charlatans, occultists, and a few more dangerous elements can be found here.
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...). Know the Lovecraftian history of a site or location.
Level 2: Acquire uncommon ritual components (alchemically pure metals, specifically prepared woods, century old finger bones etc.), learn about new trends in the Golden Dawn, be aware of what 'secret cults' are active in the local area. Separate Lovecraft from truth.
Level 3: Acquire uncommon ritual components (objects gotten under very specific astrological/magical conditions, a "true" mandrake, etc...), occult tomes, and writings, manipulate a local cult, get a loremaster to answer a question. Know the truth behind Lovecraftian legend.
Level 4: Know where to find certain supernatural entities, get in contact with true practitioners of Numina or people with supernatural powers, get the low-down on the actual spirit world,
Level 5: Access minor magic items, meet with a demon/mage/specter, identify specific members of secret cults.
Level 6: Get local occult practitioners to do Domain-wide rituals, acquire minor magic items, access the Goblin Market.
Level 7: Get occult experts to come from afar to trade secrets, acquire any occult tome not actually in the Vatican, acquire powerful magical items, influence membership and trends of local secret cults.
Police
(e.g. Cops, Police Station, Kingsmouth Jail)
“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 opponent 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 make 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 (4 resource points).
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.
Politics
(e.g. Mayor, City Commissioner, City Council)
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 in 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 (4 resource points).
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
(e.g. Homeless, Gangs, Criminals)
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 buskers, 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, add your Allies dots to rolls to cross territories.
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
(e.g. Airport, Kingsmouth Cab Company, MBTA, Smugglers)
Most Kindred 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 wastelands in between. Getting access to special supplies and services can also take a measure of Transportation. All 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/bus driver/airport employee, 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 (2 resource points).
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
(e.g. The Mafia, The Irish Mob, drug dealers)
The world of crime offers lucrative possibilities to strong-willed or subtle leaders. Guns, money, drugs and vice — such delicious pastimes can be led by anyone talented or simply vicious enough to take them. Underworld Influence lets you call on such favors for all manner of illegal dealings, and its ranks are filled by the Mafia, La Cosa Nostra, drug dealers, bookies, Yakuza, tongs, hitmen, fences and criminal gangs.
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 (4 resource points).
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; have a couple guys shadow someone for weeks equal to your underworld allies.
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.