So… INFLUENCES… you love em, you hate em, but here's how I'm going to handle them from now on:

If you have any levels (aka dots) in an Influence, you'll see them on your character sheet under the “Backgrounds” area. If you'd like a new copy of your character sheet, I can send it to you in text, pdf, or Excel 2010 (let me know which version you need).

These Influence “dots” (each dot represents a level of Influence) represent your ability to bend the mortal world to your will. For every “dot”, you get more control over that aspect of the mortal world. Here is a general example of what each level of an Influence will give you the ability to do:

EXAMPLE: Bob the Ventrue has 5 levels (dots) in the “Bureaucracy” Influence. Here is what he is able to do with each level:

• 1 = Trace utility bills
• 2 = Fake a birth certificate or driver's license; disconnect utilities at a single small residence; close a small road or park (not a highway or a national park); or get around $250 in public aid.
• 3 = Fake a death certificate, passport, or green card; close a public school for a single day; shut down a minor business on a violation.
• 4 = Initiate a phone tap; fake land deeds; initiate a department-wide investigation.
• 5 = Start, stop or alter a city-wide program or policy; shut down a big business on a violation; rezone areas; obliterate records of a person on a city or county level.

Let's say Bob has an enemy who owns a pawn shop. Bob's enemy (let's call him Pete) insulted him at the last Gathering and now Bob wants some revenge. Pete owns a small factory on the outskirts of town, which is how he earns his spending money. Bob decides to ATTACK Pete's business, and so he uses his Bureaucracy influence to do so. Here is how Bob's player would write up this downtime action:

“Bob, still seething over Pete's insults, ATTACKS Pete's factory by way of shutting it down over a violation.”

Pete's player would then be notified that one of his Influences (in this case, Industry) has been Attacked, and he can choose to ignore the Attack (in which case he'll lose a dot of Influence in that area) or attempt to BLOCK the Attack using an equal level of Industry Influence. Here's how this downtime would go:

ST: “Pete's Industry Influence has been Attacked at Level 5. Your factory has been shut down over a violation.” Pete: “I will BLOCK that Attack using Industry at Level 5. My managerial staff will document their compliance and force the local zoning board to allow the factory to reopen.”

Nifty how that works, huh? Now, if you have these Influences, you do need to Maintain them in order to keep them on your sheet. When you make contacts with local politicians (Politics Influence), social butterflies (High Society), and the like, you can't just ignore those people for months on end and expect them to still give a damn what happens to you. It's easy to upkeep any Influence. Just send your ST a quick one-line note that explains what you're doing to keep in touch with each of your Influences (not each level, each type…for instance if you have High Society 3 and Church 2, you only have to send me 2 sentences: one for High Society and one for Church). These upkeep sentences can be as simple as: Player: “Keeping in touch with High Society in order to upkeep my Influence in that area” To: Player: “I attend a benefit dinner for the American Lung Association, and I take the head of the local Rotary Club with me as my date.”

WHAT HAPPENS IF I DON'T UPKEEP MY INFLUENCES?

It's simple. If you don't upkeep your Influences at least one time every month, you will start losing dots (levels) of Influence each month. One dot per month left unkept. This is a complete loss, and you won't be given an XP refund to spend on other things. If you lose it, you lose it completely. If your influences are attacked by other players, and you can't or don't block the attacks, you'll lose a dot for every attack.

On the bright side, you can only have an influence attacked once per month by any given player. However…this means if you piss off the entire game, you're likely to have that same influence attacked once that month by EVERY player in the game…which could easily lead to a quick loss of an entire Influence!

It's entirely up to you, the players, how much Influence will affect our game. If we only have one player playing the Influences game, the rest of you are going to quickly find that he or she is able to do all sorts of horrible things to the rest of you, and not a single one of you will be able to trace it back to him/her This could be loads of fun for the one player who's playing the Influence game (especially if they have Industry 5 and Bureaucracy 5, and they decide to have the County bulldoze your haven some day while you lay sleeping. Surprise! Buttsex! GNC! (Generate New Character)

I hope you all have loads of fun stabbing each other in the back with this in between games *grin* PM me if you have any questions about how this works, I know I can sometimes be a bit vague.

OH one more thing! For those who write exceptionally creative and/or detailed influence upkeeps, I tend to give away FREE DOTS for that. That's like free XP.

So, you want your character to live in a house instead of hiding out in a cave or his mom's basement? Awesome! Here's your chance to show off!

There is a new custom background available known as Havens.

For the following Background traits, the same XP rules apply as all other Backgrounds (1xp = 1 dot/level):

Haven Location:

• 1 = Near a bus stop that has an occasional night-time pick up
• 2 = Near a decently-busy bar or a restaurant that remains open late at night
• 3 = Near a single nightclub
• 4 = Near a busy area of town, such as a crossroads where several 24-hour fast food joints and gas stations converge
• 5 = Near several busy nightclubs, 24-hour fast food joints, and night-time tourist attractions (the streets are always crowded here, day or night)

Haven Size:

• 1 = A secure closet somewhere
• 2 = A small apartment
• 3 = A large apartment
• 4 = A single-family sized home
• 5 = A mansion

Haven Security:

• 1 = You have a padlock on the door.
• 2 = Locks on all doors and windows.
• 3 = There are locks on all doors and windows, and an audible alarm hooked up to the door
• 4 = ADT or Brinks in-home security with 24-hour monitoring (including Fire and EMS)
• 5 = ADT/Brinks in-home security premium package, 24-hour monitoring (+ Fire/EMS), armed security guards on the premises, and attack dogs patrolling the grounds.

There may be more Haven Backgrounds added at a later date, if there is any demand for them, such as Haven Library (where you can bring your friends to learn the Lores you've collected, without having to put in the downtime scenes or the RP work to teach it to them). If anyone thinks of anything they'd like to see, let me know!

- Mel