Carpe Noctum Influence Rules

Assets, Contacts, Influence, and Resources
Contacts and Resources
Contacts and Resources function exactly as detailed in LoTN:R and Dark Epics. *Please note this now means that Contacts can be used for the Watch and Trace Actions.*

Assets
Assets are your worldly possessions. There are two basic categories of assets. One is a personal asset which you hold that has some monetary value and use, e.g. a car or a house. The second is commercial assets or controlling interest in a business, which give you a regular return on your investment.

Your commercial assets produce income. The amount that you receive is based on two things. One your initial investment and your finance ability level. Your base return is 10% and for every level of Finance ability that you have, you gain an additional 5% return on your investments to a maximum of 35% personal return. You may also work together with other characters to have a larger return. For every character that works with you that has at least one Finance ability, add another 5%. Note that any character that works with you has full access to the investments. Characters who submit business plans and other plans that should stimulate business will be given the opportunity to throw tests for up to an additional 15% return depending on how good their ideas are or they may simply be given a additional percent return.

An exception to the standard rules is when you buy control of a business. To control a business you must own either 51% or you must hold a controlling percentage of the business, whichever is higher. This enables you to use the business independently of any influence that might control it. Though it does not mean that you gain any additional financial return, merely the ability to use or take whatever the business does.

Starting Assets
Your character starts with a haven and personal assets, cash in hand, equal to all of your influence set to RAISE CAPITAL for one year. For example, my starting character has Underworld Level 3. I would have starting assets of $520,000. Ghouls starting capital is equal to three games of RAISE CAPITAL.

Influence
Influence inherently can't be stolen or willed posthumously to other characters. A character's Influence does continue to exist after a character dies, and can be taken over by other characters after his death. A character can give another character a free Trace Action on his Influence by introducing them to it. This allows the other character to attempt to take the Influence after your characters death. Influence(s) can be given to others, turned over IC between games.
A PC can start with only one Level 5 Influence, and then only with ST approval and a pre-written background; the rest of a starting PC's influences must be of a 4 or lower Level.

Influences have Actions and Abilities. Influence Actions are defined as Block, Boost, Combine, Conceal, Defend, Follow, Raise Capital, Steal, Stealth, Trace, and Watch. Influence Abilities are innate tasks that you can have your influence perform for you. These abilities are outlined in a separate section below. Influence Actions and Abilities spent on endeavors return at the beginning of the game after they are spent.

Influence Limits
You are limited to a number of influence levels equal to all of your traits (Physical, Mental, Social), plus an additional level for every point in the leadership ability. If you hit your influence limit, you will be given a month to rectify the situation before your influences will begin spinning out of control and the Storytellers will fix the problem for you.
· All characters will be allowed to purchase up one Level Six in one category (with Storyteller approval).
· There are a limited number of Level Six influences in the city.
· The (Ventrue only) Paragon Merit will allow a player to have two Level Six influences.

Gaining Influence
To gain more influence, you must spend experience. Each level of influence costs an experience point. After spending the experience point it takes two times the level purchased in games before you can use the influence. The exception is a level one influence, which can be bought at any time pending ST approval. You may spend experience to reduce the time between levels by two games per experience point spent. However you must always wait at least one game before you can purchase another level.

EXAMPLE: You have a level 2 Street and purchase a level 3 Street. It will take six games before you can use your level 3 Street. You can spend three experience points to cut your wait down to a single game.

Gifted and Stolen
Occasionally you will be given or will steal influence from another character. If this happens, you will not immediately gain possession of the influence. If you do not already have that type of influence you will immediately gain one level. Every two games after that you will get the next level, up to the maximum that you were given and influence limits at no experience cost. If you already possess levels of that category of influence, you will be allowed to burn levels of the new influence as if they were experience points to reduce time requirements.

EXAMPLE: You already possess a Level Two Street and someone gives you a Level Five Street. You will immediately gain a Level Three Street and may burn one of the levels to get Level Four Street at the next game. You may then burn another level to gain Level Five Street at the next game.

ACTIONSNote: Your Influence Actions must be submitted to the ST's in order for it to happen. These are the guidelines, but by no means are the limitations, use your imagination, if it sounds plausible, I'll bite...
Block
You can use your Influence to prevent Influence endeavors from taking place for that game. You may also Block a specific character's influence, disrupting their actions. However you must have a Trace to Block a specific individuals influence. Any action may be blocked, provided that your Influence level is at least equal to the endeavor's level. The Block's effective level is the total number of levels spent toward it. A Block will affect all attempts at the selected endeavor during that game; anyone attempting the Blocked action in the city will not succeed unless they have added enough levels of Boost to the endeavor. Multiple Blocks against the same endeavor type are not cumulative in effect. If more than one Block is put in place on the same endeavor, only the highest level will be used when calculating the success of those attempting the endeavor.

Boost
Boost is simply a term used to describe spending additional unneeded Influence Actions to perform an endeavor, just in case someone has put up a Block that needs to be overcome. If the Actions spent into Boost equal or exceed the level of the Block, the action is successful. The Block does not go away if one action beats it, though. It can still be effective against any additional attempts at that endeavor in that game.

Combine
Combine allows you to aid the Influence endeavor of another character. No action can be attempted by a character who doesn't have the required Influence level. For every two Actions that you spend on Combine, the character you are helping gains one action to use toward his endeavor. Influence borrowed through the Allies and Mentor Backgrounds are also subject to this rule. A character can spend no more than 20 Actions toward a single endeavor in any given game, including all actions spent for modifications such as Combine.

Conceal
Conceal can be used to hide your Influence from uses of Trace. The number of actions spent toward Conceal generates that game's Conceal level, which you pit against attempts to Trace it. A successful conceal will invalididate previous Trace's against it.

Defend
You use the Defend endeavor when you fear that someone is going to Block your Influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of Actions as the level of the defense. The level of any Block directed at that Influence must exceed the Defend level plus the level of your Influence in order to be successful.

Follow
If you want to keep an eye on what someone is doing with his Influence, you can attempt to Follow them with your own. Follow is similar to Watch, except that it only keeps a lookout for actions performed by a single Influence. To Follow someone's Influence, you must have a successful Trace on it already. To use Follow, assign a number of Actions to establish the level of the endeavor. The Follow endeavor will reveal all activities performed by the targeted Influence, less any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of Stealth.

Raise Capital
A powerful Action. This can be used to get funds. The rates at which you can obtain cash are listed below. Take the amount at which your influence is first listed, then count up to the level you have. Thus a Level 1 Finance gives you $10,000 per game, but a Level 4 Finance gives you $100,000 a game.

Steal
Influences can not be taken away from you during your un-life. However they can be stolen on Final Death or because of you have had no communication with your Influence for a period of two games. To steal you must have completed a successful Trace Action on the Influences that you are attempting to steal. When you steal someone's influences you must win or tie a simple test for each level of the influence that you are stealing.

Stealth
Stealth is added to endeavors to counter the use of Follow and Watch. If the number of Actions spent to add Stealth to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the Follow or Watch, the endeavor is remains undetected. Stealth can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to Block, Follow, Trace or Watch.

Trace
You can use this endeavor to establish the identity of a character whose Influence you have come into contact with. You cannot simply guess that a character has an Influence in a particular category and then attempt to Trace it. You must first have come into contact with it in one of the several ways. This can be accomplished by noticing one of the target's endeavors with the use of Watch, by stopping one of the target's endeavors with a Block, or by having one your own endeavors stopped by the target's use of Block. Additionally, if someone ever loans you Influence Actions with Combine, you can Trace them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in great detail about his Influence (i.e., agrees to let you Trace it), you can perform the Trace. The total actions spent on the Trace define its level. If the level of this Trace exceeds the highest level of Conceal or Stealth put up to guard the Influence that game, the Trace is successful. Success tells you the Influence owner's identity, and whether their Influence level is higher than your own or not. It also gives you a general description of the Influence.
Using Trace is specific to one city. Therefore, if a character has Influence of the same type in more than one city, your Trace only tells you about the Influence in the city you are searching. If you have succeeded in a Trace on an Influence, you may not simply relay that information to someone else. The information is too complex for them to relay to their own Influence contacts without them actually performing a Trace themselves. If you have performed a successful Trace, you can relay enough information for someone else to perform a Trace with his or her own Influence.

Watch
You use Watch when you want to notice a certain Influence action in a city from the chart listed in the sourcebooks. Your Influence must be of sufficient level to perform that action before you can Watch it. A Watch will let you know when and how often the action is attempted in the city for that game, and you will even discover uses of the action that occurred earlier in the same game before the Watch was instituted. The total number of Actions spent on the Watch define its level. You can also use Watch to look for the following endeavors: Block, Follow (only those targeted at you), and Watch.

All Influence Abilities are based on how many total levels you have going to it, though they can be from separate sources.