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====== Influence Endeavors and Modifiers ======
 

In addition to the actions listed on the Influence charts in the various Mind’s Eye Theatre source books, characters may perform the additional endeavors listed here. It is important to note that Influence can generally only affect other Influences of the same type. A character can use his Street Influence to aggress another player’s Street Influence, but he would have a hard time getting it to interact with a player’s High Society Influence successfully.

Influences endeavors can be broken down into five (5) types:

===== ATTACK =====
**ATTACK** – Destroy another's Influence.

===== DEFENSE =====
**BLOCK** – BLOCK specific endeavor.

**DEFEND** – DEFEND against ATTACK.

===== HIDE =====
**CONCEAL** – Hide from TRACE.

**STEALTH** – Hide vs. FOLLOW and WATCH.

===== SPY =====
**FOLLOW** – One person's specific influence.

**TRACE** – Find who owns an Influence.

**WATCH** – Specific Influence use in the city.

===== MISC =====
**BOOST** – Add "unneeded" traits to overcome BLOCK.

**COMBINE** – Add to another’s Influence.

**GROWTH** – Increase Influence level.


===== ATTACK =====
You can **ATTACK** another’s Influence with your own, provided you have previously **TRACE**d the target Influence. To **ATTACK**, you assign a number of Influence Traits, and that number becomes the level of the **ATTACK** endeavor. If the level exceeds the victim’s Influence level, the victim drops a level of her Influence at the end of the month. Traits banked for **GROWTH** are lost as well, even if they would have given the victim a new, higher level Influence at the beginning of the next month.

//Mechanics Example: Scott and Wade both have Media Influence, at levels five and two respectively. Scott Traced Wade’s Influence successfully last month, and he desires to make an Attack upon it this month. He spends four Traits on the endeavor, meaning that the Attack’s level is four. Since the level of Scott’s Attack is greater than the level of Wade’s Media Influence, Wade will only have a level-one Media to work with next month. If Wade had been spending Traits for Growth, and had accumulated three or more, he would immediately apply three of them to bring it back to level two.//

//Descriptive Example: When Scott made his character, he decided that his Media Influence would be represented by his control over various media moguls through Blood Bonding and the use of Dominate. To Attack Wade’s Influence, Scott performed the necessary prerequisite of succeeding in a Trace on it. Having done so, Scott discovered that Wade’s Media Influence was represented by his control over one of the city’s major newspapers. When writing an explanation of the Attack endeavor for the Storyteller, Scott describes influencing his media mogul thralls to have their networks broadcast a television news story about Wade’s newspaper. The television news story highlights the paper’s “long history of poorly researched news articles” and describes a number of incidents in which the paper was forced to print retractions. The television news story goes on to rate the various other papers in the city, giving them a far more favorable rating than Wade’s paper.  When the Storyteller looks at the Influence numbers and decides that Scott’s Attack is successful, he informs both Scott and Wade of the resulting decline in the paper’s circulation, which represents Wade’s Media Influence dropping to level one at the beginning of the next month.//

===== BLOCK =====
You can use your Influence to prevent Influence endeavors from taking place for that month. Any action from the other source books may be blocked, provided that your Influence level is at least equal to the endeavor’s level on the chart. The **BLOCK**’s effective level is the total number actions spent toward it. A **BLOCK** will affect all attempts at the selected endeavor during that month; anyone attempting the **BLOCK**ed action in the city will not succeed unless they have added enough levels of **BOOST** to the endeavor. Multiple **BLOCK**s against the same endeavor type are not cumulative in effect. If more than one **BLOCK** is put in place on the same endeavor, use only the highest level when calculating the success of those attempting the endeavor.

//Mechanics Example: Jana has four levels of Legal Influence. Because she is capable of arranging a parole, she is therefore able to put a Block on that endeavor type as well. She decides to spend two of her Legal Influence Traits to create a level two Block. Anyone wishing to arrange a parole in the city that month must spend two or more additional Influence Traits into Boost in order to be successful.//

//Descriptive Example: When Jana made her character, she decided that an extensive network of judges, lawyers and corrections facility officials who are accepting bribes from her would represent her Legal Influence. Now that one of Jana’s character’s enemies has just been arrested, she doesn’t want anyone to arrange for his parole. When writing an explanation of the Block endeavor for the Storyteller, Jana describes bribing members of the parole board to stop proceedings, or at least delay them until the end of the month.//

===== BOOST =====
**BOOST** is simply a term used to describe spending additional unneeded Influence Traits to perform an endeavor, just in case someone has put up a **BLOCK** that needs to be overcome. If the Traits spent into **BOOST** equal 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 month.

**Mechanics Example:**// Mathew has used a Trait of his Health Influence put a level one Block on getting mortal blood. Sue attempts to acquire a Blood Trait using a Trait of her level-four Health Influence. When the Storyteller informs her that she is not successful because of a Block, Sue tries it again, this time adding her last two Traits into Boost, thereby raising the cost of her second attempt to three Health Influence Traits. Since the level of the Boost is at least equal to the level of the Block, Sue is successful, and she acquires the Blood Trait.//

**Descriptive Example:**// When Sue made her character, she decided that ownership of a small, private clinic would represent her Health Influence. She uses her clout to have a small amount of blood delivered to her while she is off-site. She finds out that there is a major shortage of blood in the city and that her request for whole blood isn’t prioritized highly enough to acquire it (thanks to Mathew’s Block). Sue’s second attempt is backed by an urgent request from two of her clinic’s doctors, who falsely claim to need the whole blood for an emergency surgery. This time, the request is granted.//

===== COMBINE =====
**COMBINE** allows you to aid the Influence endeavor of another character. No action on the Mind’s Eye Theatre source book charts can be attempted by a character who doesn’t have the required Influence level according to that chart. For every two Traits that you spend on **COMBINE**, the character you are helping gains one action to use toward his endeavor. Influence borrowed through the [[allies|Allies]] and [[mentor|Mentor]] [[backgrounds|Backgrounds]] are also subject to this rule. A character can spend no more than 20 Traits toward a single endeavor in any given month, including all actions spent for modifications such as **COMBINE**.

//Mechanics Example: Corey has four levels of Political Influence. He wants to enact some minor legislation in the city, which would cost him all four of his Political Influence Traits for the month. Corey has already used a Political Influence Trait this month, so he doesn’t have enough. He asks a friend to Combine her Political Influence with his. Cynthia has only two levels, but she loans them both to Corey. Since the number of Traits loaned is effectively halved when using Combine, Corey nets only one extra Political Influence Trait for the month, but that’s all he needs to enact the minor legislation.//

//Descriptive Example: When Corey made his character, he decided that blood bonding the city’s mayor would represent his Political Influence. Since he’d already had the mayor ask the city council for a small favor this month, he knows that getting him to push for the minor legislation would be straining the mayor’s authority. Corey asks his ally Cynthia to help him with the endeavor, using Combine. Cynthia manipulates a member of the city council through regular uses of Dominate, and she has this council member propose the minor legislation. With the issue on the table, the mayor can throw his full support into it without burdening his relationship with the council.//

===== CONCEAL =====
**CONCEAL** can be used to hide your Influence from uses of **TRACE**. The number of actions spent toward **CONCEAL** generates that month’s **CONCEAL** level, which you pit against attempts to **TRACE** it.

//Mechanics Example: Jess has heard a rumor that Tim is going to Trace his University Influence. He spends all four of his University Traits to generate a level four Conceal over them. For three months in a row, he continues to spend his four Traits on Conceal. On the fourth month, Jess hopes that Tim has lost interest in his University Influence, and goes back to using it for Growth.//

//Descriptive Example: When Jess created his character, he decided that his University Influence would be represented by the sway he has gained by providing major contributions to the local universities in the past few years. Now that he fears that Tim will be able to follow the paper trail of his donations (Tim’s Trace), Jess quickly uses his clout to convince the universities that the records of his donations and other dealings should be suppressed for the time being.// 

The table below gives a rough reference for how many levels of influence are needed to combine for a given target action:

|Target Level|Influences Required|
|2|2 level x1|
|3|2 level x2, 4 level x1|
|4|2 level x3, 4 level x2, 8 level x1|
|5|2 level x4, 4 level x3, 8 level x2, 16 level x1|
|6|2 level x5, 4 level x4, 8 level x3, 16 level x2, 32 level x1|
|7|2 level x6, 4 level x5, 8 level x4, 16 level x3, 32 level x2, 64 level x1|



===== 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 Traits as the level of the defense. The level of any **ATTACK**s directed at that Influence must exceed the DEFEND level plus the level of your Influence in order to be successful.

//Mechanics Example: Eric fears that someone is going to attack his Underworld Influence this month, so he puts up a defense to protect it. He assigns three of his four Underworld Traits to the defense. An incoming Attack must now be level eight or higher to affect his Influence.//

//Descriptive Example: When Eric made his character, he decided that his Underworld Influence would be represented by his control of the Lasciano Family, a major organized crime syndicate. Fearing an Attack, Eric writes a description of his Defend endeavor, detailing how he is having all of the family members lay low for a while, out of the sight of other crime families and the authorities.//

===== 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 Traits 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**.

//Mechanics Example: Jean successfully used her level-three Occult Influence to perform a Trace on Toby’s Occult Influence several months ago. This month, Jean is curious as to what Toby is up to, so she spends all three Traits of Occult Influence to Follow Toby’s Occult activities. She finds out that Toby attempted to acquire a minor magical item. If Toby had put three or more levels of Stealth on that endeavor, Jean would not have been able to detect it.//

//Descriptive Example: When creating her character, Jean decided that her level-three Occult Influence would be represented by her hold over a couple of millennium cults dedicated to the research of mystical writings and prophecies. With the successful Trace, Jean discovered that Toby’s Occult Influence is represented by his sway over an organized group of “psychics” whose clientele are powerful and wealthy VIPs in the city. When Jean writes down her Influence activities for the Storyteller, she describes how she will have the leaders of her cults direct their followers to research groups of “psychics” in the city, specifically the group that Toby controls.//

===== GROWTH =====
__To raise one of your Influences to the next level, you must spend a number of Traits equal to three times your current level.__ In general, you can gain a new level in an Influence once every three months, provided you are using your Influence for nothing else. Unlike other endeavors, Traits spent for **GROWTH** can be banked from month to month. When you bank Traits thus, they accumulate until you reach the number required for an increase. If you meet the number of Traits required to increase to the next level, the Influence level improves by one at the end of the month.

//Mechanics Example: Cheyana has three levels of Street Influence, meaning she would need nine Traits spent to get to level four. In one month, she spends two of her three Traits on Growth (two banked). In the next month, she spends two more Traits on Growth (four banked). In the month following that, she spends all three Traits on Growth (seven banked). In the fourth month, Cheyana spends two more Traits on Growth, meeting the requirement to achieve level four. At the end of the month, her Street Influence improves by one. Cheyana could have grown her Street Influence a little faster if she had spent all of her actions on Growth each month.//

//Descriptive Example: Cheyana decided when she made her character that a network of informants consisting of gang members, homeless people and prostitutes would represent her Street Influence. When writing a description of her Growth activities for the Storyteller, Cheyana describes encouraging her contacts in several gangs to push for mergers with other gangs across the city. The next month, she describes organizing the homeless people into small “communities” for safer living, which draws more homeless people into the area to spy for her. The month following, Cheyana describes convincing the prostitutes that sometimes report to her to recruit more prostitutes to her cause. In the fourth month, she describes working with the gangs again to direct their spare time toward more high-profit activities such as the buying and selling of guns and other contraband. Now that Cheyana has strengthened her contacts enough to warrant an increase in her Influence, the Storyteller agrees to raise her Street to level four at the end of the month.//

===== STEALTH =====
**STEALTH** is added to endeavors to counter the use of **FOLLOW** and **WATCH**. If the number of Traits 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 **ATTACK**, **BLOCK**, **FOLLOW**, **GROWTH** or **WATCH**.

//Mechanics Example: Donny wishes to use his Finance Influence to raise the capital to purchase a small business. Doing so would normally only require two of his five Finance Influence Traits, but because Donny doesn’t want anyone else to know what he’s up to, he throws in the other three Traits for Stealth. If someone had instituted a Watch of level three or less to notice that activity in the city, she would not detect Donny’s sneaky acquisition of the capital. If the observer had put up a Watch of level four or higher, Donny’s stealth would not have hidden him from her prying eyes.//

//Descriptive Example: When Donny made his character, he decided to have his Finance Influence be represented by his controlling interest in a large acquisitions company. When writing out his Influence activities for the Storyteller, Donny describes the added Stealth as using a large network of dummy corporations through which to move the money so that it could not be tracked back to him through his acquisitions company.//

===== 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 suffering an **ATTACK** from the target’s Influence, 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 Traits 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 month, 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 and the ability to spend Traits to **ATTACK** it. 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 for his or her Influence to make an **ATTACK** on. 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.

//Mechanics Example: Pauline has a level-four Police Influence. Recently her attempt to access confiscated weapons was stopped by Carl’s level-two Block. Having established contact, Pauline decides to Trace the influence. The next month, she spends all four Traits to Trace. Carl, who has level-five Police Influence, is spending two Traits to Block again this month, and because he fears others will Trace him, he puts his remaining three Traits into Conceal. As the level of Pauline’s Trace more than equals the level of Carl’s Conceal, Pauline discovers that the Influence that blocked her endeavor last month belongs to Carl. She discovers its general description (defined by Carl when he created his character) and that its level is higher than hers.//

//Descriptive Example: When Pauline made her character, she decided that her bribery and blackmail of the members of the local precinct would represent her Police Influence. To make a Trace, Pauline writes up her Influences activities for the Storyteller as simply having every one of her contacts poke around until they discover who tightened the security on the confiscated weapons lock-up. After all, the police are supposed to be practiced investigators, right?//

===== 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 month, and you will even discover uses of the action that occurred earlier in the same month before the **WATCH** was instituted. The total number of Traits spent on the **WATCH** define its level. You can also use **WATCH** to look for the following endeavors: **ATTACK**, **BLOCK**, **FOLLOW** (only those targeted at you), **GROWTH** and **WATCH**.

//Mechanics Example: Mark decides to spend one of his five Church Influence Traits into a Watch this month. He decides to Watch for individuals attempting to contact church-associated hunter groups. Because Mark is paranoid, he decides to put up a level-two Watch on the Watch activity to see if anyone else is doing the same thing. Mark’s Watch for individuals attempting to contact church-associated hunter groups doesn’t get him anything. His second Watch (the one on the Watch endeavor) notices his own Watch of course, and discovers that someone has put up a Watch to notice anyone attempting to peruse general church records.//  

//Descriptive Example: Mark decided when he created his character to have his Church Influence be represented by an extensive network of blackmail against highly placed members of the local churches. When writing up his activities for the Storyteller, Mark describes how his blackmailed network of priests, deacons and elders are going on “crusades” within their various churches to discover any corrupting Influences that might be at work. They are using their authority to persuade other impressionable church members to report any suspicious activities or requests to them immediately.//

===== WHEN TO RESOLVE ACTIONS =====
For the purpose of these rules, Influence Traits spent on endeavors return at the beginning of the month after they are spent. The Storyteller may desire to extend this time for large games that run less often than once a month. Either way, this period of time should remain constant, giving all of the players the same opportunity to employ their Influences on a regular basis.  Attack, Follow, Growth, Trace and Watch endeavors should only be resolved at the end of the month. This limit gives everyone a chance to put up levels of Conceal, Defense and Watch, and it lets the Storyteller take everyone’s Influence actions into account so that he can produce better descriptive results of each person’s endeavors.

===== THE SCOPE OF INFLUENCES =====
As stated previously, an Influence can only affect Influence from the same category. In very rare circumstances, the Storyteller may allow Influences from one category to assist endeavors in another, but only in the same city. In this case, each action is spent as though it was only half of an action. In this way, it is even possible for you to simulate the effects of Combine by loaning Influence to yourself from another category. This type of cross-category Influence use should be rare, and it should be regulated strictly lest it become a common thing. You may have Influences in multiple cities (subject to local Storyteller approval), which are considered to be entirely separate Influences even if they are of the same category.

===== GAMES IN MORE THAN ONE CITY =====
Some endeavors on the Influence charts state that they can affect an area larger than a city, but this can be difficult to run for large-scale games. In a network game, you will need to clear an Influence action or endeavor that is intended to affect another city with the Storyteller from the member chronicle who presides over the city you are trying to affect. If you wish to attempt an endeavor in a city other than the one in which your Influence is located, you may attempt to do so, but each action is effectively halved. If you wish to affect a city on another continent, then each Trait you spend functions as one quarter of a Trait.
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