Post by Storyteller on Jan 10, 2016 5:23:54 GMT
Watch
You use WATCH when you want to notice a certain influence action in a city from the chart listed in the source books. 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 levels 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.
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, by having one of your own endeavors stopped by the target's use of BLOCK, or by having your influence Attacked by theirs. Additionally, if someone ever COBINEs their influence actions with yours, you can TRACE them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in great detail about his/her 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 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.
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, unless any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of STEALTH.
Attack
You can ATTACK another's influence with your own, provided that you have a TRACE on the target influence. To ATTACK, you assign a number of influence action levels, and that number becomes the level of the ATTACK endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim's DEFEND level, the victim loses a level of his or her influence and any traits set to GROW.
ATTACK requires an explanation as to how ATTACK is being deployed. Attacked influence may be GROWN again for 0 xps, although this takes time.
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 individual's 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 in a BOOST action 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/Loan
COMBINE allows you to aid the influence endeavor of another character.
To be able to perform a certain level of ability with your COMBINE, the players Combining must produce double the levels of influence needed to accomplish an ability one level lower than the ability they are aiming for. The influence contributed to a COMBINE for such purposes, needs to already is in two units of the equivalent lower level (i.e. two level x 3 influences can combine to achieve level x 4 ability, but six levels x 1 influences cannot)
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 invalidate previous TRACES against it.
Defend
You use the DEFEND endeavor when you fear that someone is going to ATTACK your influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of actions as the level of the DEFEND. The level of any ATTACK directed at that influence must exceed the DEFEND level in order to be successful.
Grow
To raise an influence with GROW you need to earn 3 times the amount of GROW points as the influence level you are currently at. So if you want to GROW an influence to level 2, you need to earn 3 GROW points because you are at level 1. You can earn 1 point per influence level used for GROW, and points carry over from cycle to cycle until you reach the maximum amount of GROW points for that level, then the whole thing starts over again.
GROW requires that the player explain how the character is Growing their influence. This is because you earn GROW points depending on whether or not the character is doing something for their influences to make them more powerful. So you may not actually receive all the points for levels spent if what the character is doing is not actually enough. Thus, Growing becomes more difficult for the higher levels of influence.
For example, Sally has a level 3 influence. To fully GROW to level 4 she will need 9 GROW points. She uses 2 levels on GROW during her first cycle. Her explanation about what she's doing earns her a total of 2 GROW points, which gives her a total of 2 out of 9 GROW points. (If she used all 3 levels of her influence, she could have earned a total of 3.) She will repeat this process until she can get to 9 points. To get to level 5, the process will start again, except she'll need to get to 12 GROW points.
Stealth
STEALTH is added to endeavors to counter the use of FOLLOW and WATCH. If the number of action levels spent to add STEALTH to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the FOLLOW or WATCH, the endeavor remains undetected. STEALTH can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to BLOCK, FOLLOW, TRACE or WATCH.
Steal
Influences can be stolen on 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 get one level of their influence automatically if you do not have any in that sector. You must win or tie a simple test for every other level of the influence that you are stealing. On a win, you gain that level of influence automatically. On ties, you will gain that influence at a rate of one level per game. On losses, you fail to steal the influence.
You use WATCH when you want to notice a certain influence action in a city from the chart listed in the source books. 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 levels 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.
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, by having one of your own endeavors stopped by the target's use of BLOCK, or by having your influence Attacked by theirs. Additionally, if someone ever COBINEs their influence actions with yours, you can TRACE them. Finally, if the target ever tells you in great detail about his/her 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 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.
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, unless any activities hidden with an equal or higher level of STEALTH.
Attack
You can ATTACK another's influence with your own, provided that you have a TRACE on the target influence. To ATTACK, you assign a number of influence action levels, and that number becomes the level of the ATTACK endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim's DEFEND level, the victim loses a level of his or her influence and any traits set to GROW.
ATTACK requires an explanation as to how ATTACK is being deployed. Attacked influence may be GROWN again for 0 xps, although this takes time.
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 individual's 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 in a BOOST action 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/Loan
COMBINE allows you to aid the influence endeavor of another character.
To be able to perform a certain level of ability with your COMBINE, the players Combining must produce double the levels of influence needed to accomplish an ability one level lower than the ability they are aiming for. The influence contributed to a COMBINE for such purposes, needs to already is in two units of the equivalent lower level (i.e. two level x 3 influences can combine to achieve level x 4 ability, but six levels x 1 influences cannot)
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 invalidate previous TRACES against it.
Defend
You use the DEFEND endeavor when you fear that someone is going to ATTACK your influence. To employ this special endeavor, assign a number of actions as the level of the DEFEND. The level of any ATTACK directed at that influence must exceed the DEFEND level in order to be successful.
Grow
To raise an influence with GROW you need to earn 3 times the amount of GROW points as the influence level you are currently at. So if you want to GROW an influence to level 2, you need to earn 3 GROW points because you are at level 1. You can earn 1 point per influence level used for GROW, and points carry over from cycle to cycle until you reach the maximum amount of GROW points for that level, then the whole thing starts over again.
GROW requires that the player explain how the character is Growing their influence. This is because you earn GROW points depending on whether or not the character is doing something for their influences to make them more powerful. So you may not actually receive all the points for levels spent if what the character is doing is not actually enough. Thus, Growing becomes more difficult for the higher levels of influence.
For example, Sally has a level 3 influence. To fully GROW to level 4 she will need 9 GROW points. She uses 2 levels on GROW during her first cycle. Her explanation about what she's doing earns her a total of 2 GROW points, which gives her a total of 2 out of 9 GROW points. (If she used all 3 levels of her influence, she could have earned a total of 3.) She will repeat this process until she can get to 9 points. To get to level 5, the process will start again, except she'll need to get to 12 GROW points.
Stealth
STEALTH is added to endeavors to counter the use of FOLLOW and WATCH. If the number of action levels spent to add STEALTH to an endeavor equals or exceeds the level of the FOLLOW or WATCH, the endeavor remains undetected. STEALTH can be applied to any of the actions on the charts, as well as to BLOCK, FOLLOW, TRACE or WATCH.
Steal
Influences can be stolen on 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 get one level of their influence automatically if you do not have any in that sector. You must win or tie a simple test for every other level of the influence that you are stealing. On a win, you gain that level of influence automatically. On ties, you will gain that influence at a rate of one level per game. On losses, you fail to steal the influence.