Influence

From Edge of Darkness Wiki

Influence is a new Advantage similar to Blood Potency or Gnosis. Unlike these Advantages, however, Influence rises and falls rapidly through play and does not inevitably drive the character who has it towards a grim end. Unlike Status Merits, Influence is not completely beneficial. Having five dots in Covenant Status is great — it makes you the Bishop and makes your role in vampire society clear. Reaching the peak of Influence makes you a target for those below you because your power is a threat to theirs.

Influence is a multifaceted trait that impacts play in many different ways. For the most part, its mechanisms build on the rules you already know. As a unique property of Primacy, however, Influence interacts with actions that are only taken at this scale of play. The Influence Advantage is a tool for managing great power and intrigue. Rather than presume that the players of cunning undead masterminds must be political geniuses themselves, Influence assumes a level of capability on the part of the characters and spares the players too much detail. Influence is a common language that makes it easy for casual players to interact in a complex game world. It reveals the stakes of actions, the wages of success, and the costs of failure. It just makes things easier.

Influence is not a mini-game. Given nothing but dice and non-dramatized actions, Influence is extremely easy to gain. Primacy play assumes that the Danse Macabre provides an endless cast of antagonists to oppose and challenge the characters on their way to the top and to provoke the conflicts and setbacks that drama requires. If all the characters do is roll dice to gain Influence points and win Assets, they can make it to the heights of power in a few weeks. But that’s not dramatic. It’s not horrific. It’s not a story.

A character's Influence is determined by totaling all of their Assets' ratings.

Influence Points

Like Willpower, Influence is made up of both dots and points. Influence points — also called Juice, in the lingo of politics — are spent and restored during play. Spend Juice to:

• Gain a single automatic success on a single contested or extended Primacy Action. You may spend multiple Influence points at once in this way. (This may represent pulling in favors or pressuring Assets to act.)
• Grant a success to another character’s Primacy Action as above. But what will you ask for in return?
• Make use of more than one Asset at once.
• Activate an Agent for one chapter.

Total dot ratings of all Assets* (Allies, Retainers, Status, Fame, Sites, Resources)	Influence	Number of Assets which can be Protected
10	1	1
15	2	1
20	3	2
25	4	2
30	5	3
35	6	3
40	7	4
45	8	4
50	9	5
55	10	5

• Retainers are only counted for levels ● through ●●●●. Retainers at ●●●●● should be designated as an Asset or Agent. If they are an Agent, they are not counted. If they are an Asset, then they may be counted.
• Status is only counted when it exists in the Spheres of Influence. Faction Status (City, Covenant, etc) is not counted.

See Also Agents • Assets • Influence • Primacy • Resources