Influence
You have pull in the mortal community, whether through wealth, prestige, political office, blackmail, or supernatural manipulation. Kindred with high Influence can sway, and in rare cases even control, the politics and society of their city, especially the police and city bureaucracy. By default, Influence applies most within one group or region of your city. Groups can be large, even diffuse: organized crime, media, religion, the police, city government, etc. Regions should be larger than neighborhoods or all but the largest individual domains: Brooklyn, the Rive Gauche, the South Side, the Ginza, etc. Your Influence applies to the city as a whole at one dot less than it does within your group or region. Using local Influence in another city in the same area, state, or province might be possible at an additional one-dot penalty, and so on. So, a vampire might be Powerful (••••) in Hollywood, Entrenched (•••) everywhere in Los Angeles, merely Influential (••) in San Diego or San Francisco, and just Well-Connected (•) in Chicago or New York. The Storyteller may require you to use Influence in place of a Trait in some dice pools, particularly Social tests attempting to sway minor bureaucrats or the equivalent in your group. This Background helps you have an “abandoned” building demolished (or preserved), not start global wars. If the Storyteller wants to run a game of globe-spanning masterminds, they may recalibrate Influence to potentially apply nationally (••••) or even globally (•••••).
• | Well-connected: guaranteed a respectful hearing. |
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• • | Influential: People want to do you favors. |
• • • | Entrenched: Mortal power-brokers and factions hesitate to oppose you. |
• • • • | Powerful: Without a good reason to do otherwise, functionaries and foot soldiers obey. |
• • • • • | Dominant: Lesser figures try to figure out what you want and do it first. |