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Post by The One Rob on Apr 12, 2010 23:28:56 GMT -8
With the change in the city, influences have completely revamped. Those that have influences, and want to keep them, need to submit a write-up on how you do so. Reference bybloodandoil.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gen&action=display&thread=472 for information on what is going on currently in the city/world. Two people have started this process, those people being Chip, and Angel.
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Post by The One Rob on Apr 12, 2010 23:32:37 GMT -8
Due to recent questions about how to get successful influence actions going in the city, I've written up some examples that can be used as a guide. It is to be noted, that the way these actions are written up is only one of several ways to make an action successful, and some actions may or may not succeed based on opposing actions by other players or narrator characters.
Here are some sample simple growths to give an example of how to use one influence to grow another.
Using my High Society contacts, I start having them invite minor politicians to their social gatherings, include them in some of the more notable fundraisers (free of charge, of course), all the while bending their ear and getting their input on local events, get them used to listening to my agents, and get them indebted to us. High Society 3 to grow Politics to 1
Using some local street gangs as a front, I start financing some local criminals, pointing them towards targets of my choosing and taking a percentage. Finance 3 to grow Underworld to 1 Street 2 to stealth the Finance action
An example of some actions that could happen over a couple of game periods below. (Faster through better stories and DT actions possibly)
I know people have been growing Finance recently, so I am going to try to see whats going on. Using my Police and Legal contacts, I get a wire tapping order to start snooping on some phone calls and email corrospondance from the local investment companies. Police 2, and Legel 2 for a Watch action on Finance Growth. (The above would be resolved by the staff and they would compare your Watch against any Stealth that anyone growing Finance would be doing, if you are successfull you would be told how many individuals are growing Finance that period, but you would NOT know whom was growing them. Lets say you are told that you noticed 1 person growing finance that period)
Using the information about the growth that happened last week I want to find out who owns the Influence that grew last period, I am going to have my Finance people run an Audit of the last few months transactions, while my Underworld contacts dig into where the money is really going, and who owns who in those offices, while my Police continue tapping the lines to forewarn of any trouble. Underworld 4 to Trance the influence growth (This action competes against any opposing Stealth, just like the Watch above) Finance 3 Police 1 to Stealth my Trace (This will help conceal the action from anyone who is Watching the influence, whether it's the origional owner or another interested party. In the above example the staff would again resolve your action based on any other factors that might interfere with it, and report the results back to you, lets say you have broken through any competing stealth actions, and you get the information that point to these individuals reporting to Bishop Faye)
I have my Underworld friends start intimidating the accountants that have been directing money to Bishop Faye's people, or stealing records if opprotunity presents itself. While this is happening, I'm going to shift the financial Audit to directly be investigating Faye's Finance people, and start the process of a lawsuit against the organizations and key individuals involved. Underworld 4 and Legal 2 to attack Bishop Faye's Finance influence. Finance 3 to Stealth the attack
Knowing Bishop Faye is almost certainly going to be investigating who just attacked her, I am going to have my Finance poeple keep tabs on whats going on with the remenants of her Finance influence, see what they do in the near future. Finacne 3 to Follow Faye's Finance influence
And durring the same period as the above, I have decided to circle the wagons and just try to weather any reaction shit-storm coming my way. Have my Underworld lay low for a couple weeks, keep out of trouble and keep a minimum of business going to keep from attracting attention. Underworld 4, Defend Underworld
Have the police that are friendly to me keep it clean, no bribes for awhile, no risky busts, no planting evadence. Just keep their heads down. Police 2, defend police
Have my legal people go through their records, shred anything that they shouldn't have and make sure all of their paperwork is in order. Legal 2, defend Legal
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Post by The One Rob on Apr 12, 2010 23:33:15 GMT -8
Below are some examples of a DT scenes that could help build influences if you currently do not have any. These scenes are all RPed out (either in person, by phone, or by email/board
posting), since the results are going to be based on how well you interact with the NPC's during the action. These actions are usually slower to show results, carry some risk of bumping into anthers influence, or depending on the action, outright risk to the player making them, though the latter is usually small unless poor choices, or abysmal luck play a part. There is a reason Vampires use pawns to do most of their dirty work.
Joe decides he needs some influence in Detroit to help him make his mark, so he decides to take a few weeks of DT's to build some up. Being somewhat intilectual, he figures he will start with what comes naturally for him, University.
I start perusing the University Library, looking for students and TA's working on papers that I have an interest/knowledge about, strike up a conversation about the topic and eventually try to get introduced to the professor. Having first hand knowledge of the affair should make things a bit easier, though I will take pains to speak as if I had a fist hand account from a journal, or letters to a spouse. As we get more intimate in our gatherings, perhaps a discussion over dinner, I will bring a vintage bottle of wine from the region, perhaps a Vitae du Joe '39. This should help smooth the way for the next few future gatherings, where perhaps they bring a few work friends, who also partake in my special blend. Once I have a few of them blood bound, I will ease back out of the gatherings, claiming work for the reason, but still make an appearance every now and then, or personal visits to keep in touch. Grow University to 1
As you will note in the above, no disciplines were used at all, simply planning and the power of the blood bond to seal the deal over a few nights/weeks. Obviously, such care takes a bit more time, the above action probably happened over the course of about a month at least but anyone can start to build influence with similar actions. A more forceful action could drastically shorten the time, but would consequently heighten the risk of failure.
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Post by The One Rob on Apr 13, 2010 0:18:31 GMT -8
So, say you want to secure your haven a bit, don't feel that the hole in the wall apartment is offering quite enough for you to sleep safely, or heck, you just want some fancier diggs to bring the ladies home too, before of course you turn them into snacks. Well, here is an example of how to do it with influences or resources. As always, there could be other ways of securing the same sort of work, but the key here is you have to do SOMETHING other then just conceptualize it.
This will be a several stage example, showing how things could be done a few different ways.
Lets use Mikey here as an example.
Mikey has been a sabbat vamp for a couple years, but he just finally moved out of mom and dads place in Chicago and down here to Detroit to join with the big boys.
Mikey's first nights here aren't so bad, he rents some shithole house from some shitface for a moderate amount of green (as a "basic" haven, it doesn't cost anything, and he can just write it up saying he has it) however after a couple of weeks, he starts to notice a trend of Cainites going missing durring the week, and he's getting a bit nervous. So he decides he needs to beef up security.
First off, since he's new in town and doesn't have any real resources or influences to speak off, he decides to start simple. He uses his mad skills (survival) to lay some simple tripwire/sharpened stake traps to make things interesting for anyone that breaks in.
Taking it to the next level, he uses some more refined skills (security) to rig some electronic alarms and cameras around, so he can have some warning if something comes to get him. He takes the alarm off the mailbox after the fourth time getting woken up by the mailman.
With this he sleeps a little safer at day knowing he has at least some rudimentary security.
A few months go by, and Mikey has been in town long enough to make some friends, as well as step on a few toes. Figuring better safe then sorry, he decides to move out of his little hole in the wall house and move to a new, shiny apartment. Probably keep his shithole for a backup.
Mikey decides to go all out for this one, and he's owed some favors, so he decides to live the nice life for awhile. He uses resources 4 to buy a luxury condo near downtown, industry 2 to have it rebuilt to his needs, such as the secure panic room he has installed, which will also be his sleeping chamber. Knowing he's a bit larger of a target in such a swanky place, he also decides to use underworld 3 to have some more...lethal security put in place. A couple of hidden shotgun traps near the front door for one, and a state of the art security system that with hidden cameras throughout the condo as well as one near the elevator and stairs in the main building. These cameras all feed into the panic room.
Now Mikey has a fairly well secured luxury haven, it's not Fort Nox, but it's not bad either.
A year has gone by, and Mikey's become a bit of a hot topic, he accidentally got his entire pack killed. He swears it was an accident. Of course, no one cares if it was an accident, and everyone is gunning for him now.
Mikey knows his little condo isn't going to stand up to a massive assault, and he knows he didn't do anything to really hide it either, so he's not going back, EVER. Still, he has a few friends in low, AND high places that owe him bigtime, so he's going to cash in. He spends the next day or two in the old house that he kept as a backup while making calls.
Mikey calls in a big one here, he spends his Underworld 5 to get a mob safehouse to take him in, no questions asked. He spends transportation 3 to hire a limo service to pick him up from a local hotel and drop him off so he doesn't stand out and no one takes note of him. He spends the next few weeks dominating the staff and guards into basically treating him as if he was just one of the crew, culminating with securing blood bonds on the vast majority of them.
Mikey now has a fairly secure, and secret haven.
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