Primacy
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
| Primacy | |
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| Influence | |
| Assets | |
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Loyalty Protection Agents | |
| Social Primacy | |
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Coerce Rally | |
| Physical Primacy | |
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Attack Defend | |
| Investigative Primacy | |
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Actions Assets | |
| These are heavily modified rules from Damnation City. The systems presented here should be the primary reference. |
In Primacy, the core gameplay is largely unchanged. A Primacy character can do anything an ordinary Vampire character can do if she’s willing to expose herself to physical harm by going out into the World of Darkness and doing things herself. Stories in which the characters do things themselves are, therefore, played as typical Vampire stories between Primacy turns.
When “pulled back” to the level of lofty politics and manipulations, Primacy play has a few distinct changes from regular Vampire play. For one, a Primacy character’s Attributes are used a bit liberally. The assumption is that masters lead their Assets by example. Thus, a vampire with great Composure has Assets that gain confidence from her grace under pressure and draw on her Composure when taking action on her behalf. A vampire with great Stamina has Assets that learn to suffer and endure by pushing themselves harder with the knowledge (and fear) of what they may be forced to suffer if they do not.
- In Primacy play, when the characters aren’t venturing forth into the world to conspire or battle, a whole night’s worth of activities are resolved in one turn. This is called, simply enough, a Primacy turn. In a Primacy turn, “Instant” actions take one turn and thus one whole night. See the following sample actions for detailed examples. No Primacy actions are taken on nights when the characters are participating directly in stories.
- Actions during Primacy turns are communicated to the Storyteller in secret. Write the action on a piece of paper and slip it to the Storyteller. Thus, one player may target another player’s character with his action and maintain the secrecy of his schemes.
- A player may take a single action during each Primacy turn. These actions encompass a whole night’s business, though, so a player’s descriptions of her character’s actions don’t involve a dash behind cover or a bit to the neck but a whole scene. (Movement isn’t a part of Primacy turns; travel to and from destinations is included in the action.) To maintain secrecy, however, a player may leave such descriptions up to the Storyteller.
Acting remotely through mortal pawns is imprecise. Primacy actions pair one of the vampire’s Attributes with an Asset’s rating (also called an Asset Skill). At this level of abstraction, equipment is not a factor — it’s included as part of the Asset’s dots.
Only a few basic actions are possible on a Primacy turn unless the particular needs of a story open up new avenues of action. The core actions of a Primacy turn focus on gaining or denying avenues of influence and, of course, the pursuit of Vitae. The following section describes the core Primacy actions.
Contents |
Primacy Turns
- One turn represents a real week. Therefore, there are 4 Primacy Turns per month.
- Primacy Turns represent time and effort. Therefore, Primacy Turns replace a Scene slot. This means that if a character is already in five Scenes, they cannot take any Primacy Actions, and cannot enter a fifth Scene during the week that their Primacy Action is being taken.
Primacy Actions
| Action | Added to Attribute for Dice Pool |
| Attack | Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry |
| Coerce | Intimidation, Persuasion, or Subterfuge |
| Defend | Asset Rating |
| Investigate (Action or Asset) | Any applicable. Investigation, Politics, Stealth, Empathy, Socialize, and Streetwise for investigation are good fits. Also, Firearms Assets can ask around about other gunmen, and Academics Assets ask questions at a University function, etc. |
| Rally | Asset Rating |
Attack an Asset
The build up to death represents close calls, failed executions, and minor injuries — a hit man makes it into the Asset’s house but fails to close the deal, for example. Eventually, every target is caught and killed unless the masters pulling the strings intervene.
When Assets attack other combative Assets (i.e., Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry Assets), the action is contested rather than extended. Whichever Asset gets the most successes reduces the dots of the opposing Asset by one. Protected Assets may reflexively force a contested roll as described here.
- Dice Pool: Intelligence or Presence + Brawl/Firearms/Weaponry Asset
- Select a single Attribute and a single Asset Skill. A character without an appropriate Asset cannot attack.
- Action: Extended, possibly contested (if target has Protection). Each roll represents one night’s attack. The target number of successes equals the target Asset’s dots + the master’s Stamina or Composure plus any modifiers from Protection. When the target number is reached, the target Asset is killed (and removed from play).
Defend an Asset
This represents the vampire healing or bolstering the Asset after an attack. “Calm down, James,” the master soothes over the phone. “If you keep your head, we can find this bastard and put him down.”
- Dice Pool: Intelligence/Presence + Asset’s Rating.
- Action: Instant. Each success reduces the current successes accumulated to kill the target Asset by one to a minimum of zero.
Coerce an Asset
When an Asset is contested by a target with Loyalty, it may itself be coerced by the target’s master. An Asset sent to coerce can be lured away by another master this way.
- Dice Pool: Strength/Manipulation + Intimidation/ Persuasion/Subterfuge Asset (Select a single Attribute and a single Asset Skill. A character without an appropriate Asset attempts the action with the Attribute dice alone.)
- Action: Extended, possible contest (if target has Loyalty). Each roll represents one night’s coercion. The target number of successes equals the target Asset’s dots + the master’s Resolve or Composure plus any modifiers from Loyalty. When the target number is reached, the targeted Asset moves into the coercing vampire’s service and becomes one of her Assets.
Rally an Asset
This represents the vampire beating the Asset down or convincing it to stay loyal. “If you take his money, if you read his letters, if you look in eyes, if you humor him just a little,” the master says with his hands around James’ throat, “I will find you and eat the marrow from your bones. Do you hear me, James?”
- Dice Pool: Strength/Manipulation + Asset’s Rating.
- Action: Instant. Each success reduces the current coercion successes accumulated against the Asset to a minimum of zero.
Investigate an Action
This action is like a perception dice pool in street-level play except that it represents the vampire’s ability to glean information through any of her minions out in the world. As such, Assets tied to any Skill are potentially eligible for this dice pool. Investigation, Politics, Stealth, Empathy, Socialize, and Streetwise are viable choices for virtually any situation while Assets associated with the particular investigation are also good fits — Firearms Assets ask around about other gunmen, and Academics Assets ask questions at a University function.
- Dice Pool: Wits/Manipulation + Asset (Select a single Attribute and a single Asset Skill.)
- Action: Extended. Each roll represents one Primacy Turn of investigations. Success reveals the master behind the attack or courtship of the character’s Asset. The target number of successes required is equal to the attacking Asset’s dots plus the Influence dots of the master.
- The difference in Influence dots between the investigator and the attacker penalizes the investigator’s dice pool. Kindred who operate closer to the same level are more aware of each other’s existence.
- Every roll made by the attacking Kindred in his efforts to kill or coerce the character’s Asset adds one die to the investigator’s dice pool. More nights of attempted murder leave more evidence. More secret meetings and incriminating photos leave more signs behind.
- Once the target number of successes is achieved, the Asset used to attack and the vampire pulling its strings are revealed.
- Example: Dante’s B&E expert has had his throat slit. He was Dante’s man for smash-and-grab jobs, so any number of other lords might want him dead, but Dante wants to know who in particular. What’s scary is that this happened without any warning, so Dante knows it’s someone with clout. He has Angela, the Weaponry Asset he’d send to cut someone’s throat, ask around. Dante’s dice pool is therefore Manipulation 3 + Weaponry 3 + the number of rolls made to execute Dante’s Larceny Asset (1) = 7 dice.
- The Storyteller knows it was one of her own characters, Sycorax, who had Dante’s thief killed. Sycorax sent one of her five-dot Weaponry Assets, and Sycorax has eights of Influence, so the target number for Dante’s investigation is 13. The difference between Dante’s Influence (3) and Sycorax’s Influence (8) is five, so Dante’s dice pool, down to two dice, is penalized by five dice. The Storyteller decides to make the first roll of Dante’s investigation in secret. It nets 1 success.
- When Dante’s player makes the next roll and finds out his dice pool is being penalized by five dice, he hesitates. Dante sees that his Asset’s investigation isn’t turning up much, and Dante puts this together with the short work made of his thief and realizes that he’s up against a major player in the Danse Macabre. Even if he called in some favors (that is, spent two Influence points for two automatic successes), he’d be out of his league. If he wants to find out what’s going on and protect himself, he’ll have to find another important Kindred to ally himself with.
Investigate an Asset
This action is like a perception dice pool in street-level play except that it represents the vampire’s ability to glean information through any of her minions out in the world. As such, Assets tied to any Skill are potentially eligible for this dice pool (as mentioned earlier).
A specific Asset Skill must be targeted for investigation. Once the target number of successes is reached, the Asset is revealed to the investigator (though the revealed Asset’s master does not know it). Additional Assets of the same Skill can be revealed by continuing the action and accumulating additional successes equal to the next highest Asset’s rating and so on.
- Example: Marco Fernandez wants to know if Konrad Roth has any Firearms Assets. He undertakes this Action, discovering that Konrad has Strippers with Machine Guns (Allies - Entertainment). This is, of course, a fictitious example. Konrad's strippers use katanas.
- Dice Pool: Wits/Manipulation + Asset (Select a single Attribute and a single Asset Skill.)
- Action: Extended. Each roll represents Primacy Turn investigations. The target number of successes required is equal to the Asset’s dots plus the Influence dots of the Kindred master.
- The rating of the target Kindred’s best Stealth or Subterfuge Asset penalizes the investigator’s dice pool.
- Success reveals the rating and description of one Asset in the control of the target Kindred.
- A failed roll at any point during this process does not end the investigation, but it does alert the targeted Kindred that “someone’s been asking questions.” If the target Kindred wants to know who, he must “Investigate an Action” as described previously.
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