Primer: Primacy

[West]

Primacy

Okay, since this is starting, I'm going to start a thread with a walk-thru.

Opt-In
Primacy is going to be opt-in for Vampire. That basically means you're not exposed/attackable if you don't want to be, but you also can't take any Primacy Actions. So the people who want to play can, and the people that don't want to, don't have to. NPCs are auto Opt-In. So understand there's a degree of risk.

Declare Assets
Assets can be Allies, Fame, Resources, Retainers, Sites, and Status (in Spheres). These are Merits that you leverage for you Primacy play. Now a couple of considerations:
- Assets declared are at-risk. Even if you're not using them, they can be Investigated, Coerced, and Attacked through Primacy Actions.
- Assets determine Influence. The more Assets you have 'on the board', the more Influence you have. Take a read on how Influence is calculated and how it can be spent.
- Assets are limited to a number equal to Willpower + Advantage. So let's say Foo has WP 1 and BP 3. He can control up to 4 assets. Maybe that's a single Asset, or four Assets.
So there's some pros and cons to how many Assets you want to declare, and their values.

Now here's where it gets a little convoluted.
- Primacy Actions are rolled with a dice pool equal you your character's relevant Attribute + the Asset (merit) rating. This simulates a combination of how well you motivate your Asset and how effective that Asset is.
- You assign a Skill to an Asset when you activate/declare it. This isn't your character's skill -- it's a skill represented by what the Asset does and it's Merit rating.

So let's say Foo has Allies 3 (Criminals):
- Foo declares that Allies is an Asset
- Foo decides they're a biker gang and use the Brawl Skill mostly
- Foo now has a Brawl Asset with a rating of 3
- Foo can now take "Attack An Asset" Primacy Actions rolling (Foo's INT or PRE) + 3 (Allies Merit rating).

Review the Primacy Actions Carefully
Each Primacy Action uses different Skills. You can't change an Assets Skill, so whatever you activate them as is going to determine what you can/cannot do. If Foo wanted to Investigate, he can't -- his Asset is a Brawl Asset. So give some thought to how you want to play your Primacy game. Physical Assets can be Attacked, Mental/Social assets can be Coerced.

The Quick Start
1. Figure out what Primacy Actions you want to do, and the relevant Skill.
2. Decide how many Assets you want to activate, which merits you want to use, and what skills they're going to be assigned.
3. Primacy Turns = 1 week and cost 1 Scene slot.
4. Dice pools = Character Skill + Merit Rating

Please feel free to ask questions. I know this is a bit convoluted, and I want us to have fun with this, if this is what you/your characters are interested in. Our first few go-rounds are going to be 'slow pitch', so don't worry about me coming out swinging and dropping the hammer/attacking your Assets until we've all gotten comfortable with the system.

[Cerberus]

Ahh, thanks for this West . I've been reading up on Primacy lately and was interested in getting invovled in it in the future. The Assets part in RAW isnt well written and the above clears it up for me.

I assume Assets are declared in character sheet page?

[West]

Yes indeed!

[Vassagon]

Can Assets be declared beyond the range of Willpower + Advantage? I only ask because the Influence table seems to suggest that Assets ratings can be increased as high as 55, while Willpower + Advantage seems to cap out around 20 depending on the venue.

If so, I assume Controlled Assets would be used for Primacy Actions while others only serve to bolster Influence while simultaneously acting as Primacy liabilities. Or is "Controlled Assets" a flexible property that changes depending on the current Primacy goals/actions?

Let's say I have WP4 and BP1. I have purchased Resources 4 and bought a Site 4 with it. Would I only be able to declare one of these as a Primacy Asset? Would I be able to declare both as Assets but can only take advantage of one of these for Primacy Actions? Is this a fixed property chosen when the Assets are declared?

[West]

Assets are limited to a number equal to Willpower + Advantage. So let's say Foo has WP 1 and BP 3. He can control 4 assets. Maybe that's a single 4 dot Asset, or four 1 dot Assets.

The WP+ADV limit is on the total number of Assets, not their totaled values. If you have WP6+BP3 you can have up to 9 different Assets, each of which has their own rating.

Let's say I have WP4 and BP1. I have purchased Resources 4 and bought a Site 4 with it. Would I only be able to declare one of these as a Primacy Asset?
No, you could declare them both as well as three more Assets (4+1-2=3)

I think your other questions are predicated on that core misunderstanding? Unless I'm misunderstanding your questions?

[Vassagon]

Whoa, yeah, that's very different than what I thought. I misunderstood the relationship in that example, thinking that the 'single 4 dot Asset' was based on the value of the cap. So with WP+Adv total of 4 you could have four 4-dot Assets within your control?

[West]

You know, I just figured it out. Why you inferred what you did. Looking at my quote above, I see that I accidentally totaled 4 with the dots. Total accident -- I was just trying to demonstrate that you could choose how many you activated. Derp! I'll take credit for that misunderstanding, sorry.

And yes, you could have 4 Assets, each of any rating. Then these totaled ratings determine Influence.

/me bounces back up to first post to change example