Influence Guidelines
Guidelines to allies / influence levels with descriptions for use.
Bureaucracy
Governmental and business offices, paper and electronics records, licences, utilities; the creation and cutting of red tape.
- Trace Utility bills
- Fake a birth certificate/driver's license; Disconnect a small residence; close a small road/park; get public aid ($500)
- Fake a death certificate/passport/green-card; close a school for a day; shut down a small business on a minor violation
- Initiate a phone tap; fake land deeds; initiate department wide investigation
- Start/stop/alter city wide program/policy; shut down big business on a violation; rezone area's; obliterate records of a person in a city area
- Initiate a major public works program (a large park or office complex); Completely dominate all aspects of the city's bureaucracy within a city block; Prevent emergency services such as fire protection from responding to a major disaster
- Stop, start, or alter a state or regional program or policy; Force an entire neighbourhood to build as you see fit; Collect taxes ($1,000)
- Build or destroy small towns or suburbs; Control an entire city district; Rewrite policy on a state or regional level
- Have a major building condemned and destroyed on short notice; Build monuments or stadiums
- Completely control the mayor's office; Rebuild the city as you see fit
Church
The non-secular world; organised religion of all faiths.
- Identify most secular members, pass as a member of the clergy, peruse general church records (baptism/marriage/burial/etc)
- Identify higher church members, track regular church members, suspend lay members
- Open/close a single church, find average church hunter, dip into collection plate ($500), access private information and archives of a church
- Discredit/suspend high level church members, manipulate regional branches of a church
- Organise major protests, access ancient church lore/knowledge
- Identify a church member with true faith, stage a "miraculous" event that gains un-official approval from the church
- Excommunicate a lay member of the church, have a church marriage anulled/dissolved, find an experienced church hunter
- Pose as a Bishop/other major regional figure, nominate a member of the clergy for elevation, stage a "miracle" that gains official recognition from the church
- Create/destroy a major cathedral/temple in your city, exert minor influence of nationwide church policy, have a member of the clergy excommunicated
- Exert major influence over nationwide church policy, discover secrets of the modern inquisition
Finance
All things monetary; banks, investment firms, brokers.
- Learn about major transaction/financial events, raise capital ($2,000), learn general economic trends, learn real motivations of transaction
- Trace an unsecured small account, raise capital to purchase a small business, raise capital ($4,000)
- Purchase a large business, raise capital ($8,000)
- Manipulate local banking (delay deposits, alter credit rating), ruin a small business, raise capital ($16,000)
- Control an aspect of city wide banking (shut off ATM's, arrange bank holiday), ruin a large business, purchase a major company, raise capital ($32,000)
- Obliterate all savings and credit for one person (destroy one level of resources, control the price of a minor commodity, perform insider trading ($10,000)
- Exert minor influence over local stock prices, purchase a nationwide corporation
- Control the price of a major commodity, cause inflation/depression for a regional area
- Siphon off all profits from a minor corporation ($100,000), own a major nationwide corporation, exert major influence of local stock prices
- Create a local stock market crash, influence nationwide economic trends, make someone an instant millionaire ($1,000,000)
Health
Hospitals, blood banks, doctors, pharmacies, morgues.
- Access a person's health records, fake vaccination records and the like, use public functions of health centres at your leisure, get a blood trait
- Access some medical research records, have minor lab work done, get a copy of a coroner's report, instigate minor quarantines
- Corrupt results of tests or inspections, alter medical records
- Acquire a body, completely rewrite medical records, abuse grants ($500), have minor medical research performed on a subject, institute large scale quarantines, shut down business on health code violations
- Have special research performed, have people institutionalised or released
- Cause a major shortage of blood in an area, prevent ambulances from responding
- Contaminate the whole blood supply of a minor hospital, locate supplies of minor infectious disease (flu)
- Cause a major shortage of one type of medicine, perform major/illegal experimentation on a large number of patients, shut down a small hospital permanently
- Contaminate the blood supply for an entire city, shut down a major hospital permanently, locate samples of major infectious disease (anthrax)
- Shut down all medical care in a city for a day, direct genetic engineering projects
High Society
Culture and subculture, fame, fashion, trendsetting.
- Learn what is trendy, obtain hard to get show tickets, learn about concerts/shows/plays before they're made public
- Track most celebrities/luminaries, be a local voice in the entertainment field, borrow cash from rich friends ($2000)
- Crush promising careers, hobnob well above your station
- Minor celebrity status
- Get a brief appearance on TV, ruin a new club/gallery/festival/etc
- Own a small and influential gallery/theatre, give someone his or her 15 minutes of fame (create one level of fame for the session)
- Bring a major travelling concert/play to the city, destroy the career of a minor celebrity (destroy a level of fame), appoint anyone as a member of the city's elite social circle
- Make someone a minor celebrity (create one level of fame), become a major celebrity (grant yourself 2 levels of fame), own a large gallery/theatre in the city
- Make someone a major celebrity (create two levels of fame), influence nationwide fashion trends
- Destroy a major celebrity's career (destroy 2 levels of fame)
Industry
The business of making things; manufactures, factories, unions, trades.
- Learn about industrial projects/movements
- Have minor projects performed, dip into union funds or embezzle cash ($500), arrange small accidents or sabotage
- Organise minor strikes, appropriate machinery for a short time
- Close down or revitalise a small plant
- Manipulate large local industry
- Attract a major heavy industry to the area, illegally dump large amounts of toxic waste
- Siphon off company profits ($5,000), eliminate/start a union in any company
- Arrange a major ecological disaster, fatally sabotage a major construction project
- Own a heavy industry/construction firm in the area, cause a major strike
- Fatally sabotage an entire product of heavy industry/machinery, influence nationwide labour movements
Legal
Judges, lawyers, law firms, courtrooms.
- Get free representation for minor cases
- Avoid bail for some charges, have minor charges dropped
- Manipulate legal procedures (wills/contracts/court dates), access public/court funds ($500), get representation in most major cases
- Issue subpoenas, tie up court cases, have most charges dropped, cancel/arrange parole
- Close down all but the most serious investigations, have deportation proceedings held against someone
- Bring any investigation short of a grand jury to a halt, force a guilty verdict on a misdemeanour trial
- Appoint a state judge, have a lawyer disbarred
- Successfully sue anyone for major damages (destroy 1 level of resources), force guilty verdicts in felony trials
- Control one of the members of the Supreme Court, appoint/fire the city's Attorney General
- Force a guilty verdict on a major/sensational felony trial, rewrite local state laws as you want
Media
Local sources of news and advertising; newspapers, television, radio, magazines, internet.
- Learn about breaking stories early, submit small articles
- Suppress (but not stop) small articles/reports, get hold of investigative reporting information
- Initiate news investigations/reports, get project funding and waste it ($500)
- Ground stories/projects
- Broadcast fake stories (local only), kill small articles/reports completely
- Submit headline news successfully, cause a minor media outlet to begin an investigation
- Destroy a minor newspaper/tv station, write small nationwide stories successfully, manufacture a major scandal (destroy one level of fame)
- Cause a major media outlet to begin an investigation, kill nationwide stories before they hit the ground
- Broadcast fake regional stories, destroy a major newspaper/tv station
- Create a fake major national news story, create a news blackout over a whole city
Occult
Secret and fringe groups (cults), libraries, experts and shops specialising in the paranormal.
- Contact and make use of common occult groups/practices, know some of the more visible occult figures
- Know some of the more obscure occult figures, access resources for most rituals/rites
- Access vital/rare components, milk impressionable for cash ($500), access occult tomes and writings, research a basic ritual from your sect
- Gain access to a medium sized cult following, can confirm the existence of other supernaturals, research an intermediate ritual from your sect
- Know general vicinity of certain supernaturals and possibly contact them, research an advanced ritual from your sect, access minor magic items
- Create your own basic ritual, found a local cult (grant one level of allies), learn truthful lore concerning lupines/changelings
- Create our own intermediate ritual, access major magical items, learn truthful lore concerning wraiths/spirits
- Create your own advanced ritual, found a regional cult (grant two levels of allies), locate and bring a specific hedge mage/medium to you
- Access legendary magical items, locate and bring a specific lupine/changeling to you
- Locate an entire copy of book of nod or true lair of a methuselah
Police
Law enforcement personnel, gaols, prisons, and police stations.
- Learn police procedures, hear police information/rumours, avoid traffic tickets
- Have license plates checked, avoid minor violations, get "inside information"
- Get copies of investigation reports, have police hassle/detain/harass someone, find bureau secrets
- Access confiscated weapons/contraband, have some serious charges dropped, start an investigation, get money from evidence room or as appropriation ($500)
- Institute major investigations, arrange set-ups, instigate bureau investigations, have officers fired
- Control one aspect of a large city precinct (homicide/dispatch), appropriate contraband or drugs from the evidence room
- Call SWAT raids, have free access to police facilities, have the crime lab lose evidence
- Completely control the police department of a suburb/small town, have people extradited across state lines
- Have police chiefs fired
- Complete control of a large city's police network
Political
Elected officials, politicians, mayors, city council, state offices, legislation.
- Minor lobbying, identify real platforms of politicians/parties, be in the known
- Meet small-time politicians, garner inside information on processes/laws/etc, use slush fund/fund raiser ($500)
- Sway or alter political projects (local parks/construction/etc)
- Enact minor legislation, dash careers of minor politicians
- Get your candidate a minor office, enact encompassing legislation
- Enact major legislation on the local level, get your candidate into a major office
- Destroy a career of a major politician
- Get your candidate into a major federal office, enact minor nationwide legislation
- Embezzle taxpayer money ($10,000), engineer a major political scandal
- Give major support to a national political candidate, propose major national legislation
Street
Homeless people, street gangs, un-organised crime.
- Open an ear for the word on the street, identify most gangs and their turf/habits
- Live mostly without fear of the underside of society, keep a contact in most aspects of street life, access small time contraband
- Get insight into other areas of influence, arrange some services off street people/gangs, get pistols/uncommon melee weapons
- Mobilise groups of homeless, pan-handle ($500), get hold of a rifle/smg/shotgun, have a word in almost all aspects of gang operations
- Control a single medium sized gang, arrange protests by street people
- Completely dominate all aspects of a housing/slum project, mark a specific person for harassment in down-town
- Locate exotic weaponry (bombs/sniper rifle), start a small riot
- Completely dominate all aspects of a down-town neighbourhood, control a large gang
- Locate unique or customised weaponry, mark a specific person who enters down-town for death
- Completely dominate all aspects of a down-town of a major city, start a major city wide riot
Transport
By land, lake, or air; cabs, buses, hire-cars, free-ways, tolls, trains, shipping, airports.
- Know what goes where/when/why, travel locally quickly and freely
- Track an unwary target if he uses public transport, arrange safe passage (or concealed) from mundane threats
- Seriously hamper an individual's ability to travel, avoid most supernatural dangers when travelling
- Shut down one form of transportation temporarily, route money your way ($1000)
- Reroute major modes of travel, smuggle with impunity
- Bar a person from entering or leaving the city by public transport, attract a major transportation outlet to your city
- Halt all public transport and cargo shipping to a small town, siphon off profits from transport firm ($5000)
- Bar a specific type of cargo from entering/leaving the city, isolate a small town from any form of transportation
- Cause a major transportation disaster, destroy a major transportation outlet, completely dominate one aspect of regional transportation (trucking/shipping/air)
- Prevent anyone from leaving/entering a city by all forms of transportation, bar all cargo from entering/leaving a major city
Underworld
Organised crime; prostitution, arms, gambling, fraud, extortion, auto theft.
- Locate minor contraband
- Obtain pistols/serious drugs/stolen cars, hire muscle to rough someone up, fence stolen loot, prove that crime pays ($2000)
- Obtain rifle/shotgun/smg, arrange a minor hit, meet someone in the family
- Make white collar crime connections
- Arrange gangland assassinations, hire demolition man/firebug, supply local drug needs
- Locate exotic weaponry (bombs/sniper rifle), contract a professional hit
- Launder money ($5000), supply the drug needs of a large city
- Control the head of a small crime family, locate unique or customised weaponry
- Put a price on anyone's head, start a mob war
- Control the head of a large crime family, stage a public assassination/terrorist act/shooting spree (and get away with it)
University
Higher education, schools, universities, research, professors, lecturers, students.
- Know layout/policy of local schools, access low level university resources, get up-to high school records
- Know a contact or two with useful knowledge/abilities, have minor access to facilities, fake high school records, obtain college records
- Call in faculty favours, cancel a class, fix grades, discredit a student
- Organise student protests/rallies, discredit faculty members
- Falsify an undergraduate degree
- Falsify a graduate degree, create a college class of your choice, discredit the head of a college department
- Falsify a Ph.D, know a contact or two with high levels of ability or esoteric knowledge, discredit the dean of a college
- Appoint the dean of a college, funnel university fund your way ($1000)
- Direct an entire university department to research a specific problem, have a research assistant attached to your service indefinitely (grant one level of allies)
- Destroy/discredit an entire college