Anarch Rep

What is it?

Anarchs pride themselves on being above the petty social games of the Camarilla or the savage infighting of the Sabbat, where wars spanning centuries have been waged about perceived slights against one’s good name and a single scandal or defeat can spell the end of a centuries-old Kindred.

However, this is not to say that Anarchs don’t play games of their own regarding standing within the Movement and the respect of their peers; they just go about it a bit differently than their fellow Kindred do.

Unlike the sects, an Anarch’s Reputation is not based on position, rites or generation - indeed, even a ghoul can have a Reputation among the Anarchs. Rather, revolutionaries gain or lose Reputation by their deeds alone, as judged by their comrades-in-arms.

In an abstract sense, this should mean that merit and personal achievement on the part of dedicated revolutionaries are rewarded without the vicious trappings of conventional status games.

In practice, however, it means that some Anarchs spend as much time building and defending their Reputations as many sect members spend pursuing Status in the eyes of their peers. They become like inner-city gang lords who mock the country clubs and society snobbery of the city’s elite, only to turn around and viciously destroy those who offer them even the slightest hint of disrespect.

Or as one Anarch sage wryly noted: “A lot of the neonates keep using a high school metaphor that depicts us as the rebels and outsiders pitted against the fashionable Camarilla in-crowd or the tough Sabbat jocks. They forget that even the outcasts still have a pecking order.”

Seeing only the possible gains that come from carving out their own niches, these Anarchs fail to realise that they are perpetuating the same power games they claim to despise, selling out their principles for the sake of a name that inspires respect.

Make no mistake, however - even Anarchs who pursue such good standing with their peers recognise that it is still fundamentally different from the more rigid and codified systems of the sects. When your approval rests in the hands of the mob, however sympathetic that mob may generally be, you’re standing on thin ice, and Anarchs concerned with their Reputations are well aware of it.

While an Anarch’s Reputation may carry throughout the Movement and inspire fear or respect in revolutionaries across the country, individuals still suffer no penalty whatsoever for ignoring it except whatever punishment the Anarch can bring down on the upstart. In other words, a Reputation is worth as much pull as the audience wants to give it, so canny Anarchs don’t try to ride Reputation alone, or they risk losing it quickly. It’s a simple truth: If you abuse your Reputation, you will lose it.

How can I use this shit?

Anarchs can use Reputation Traits in all the same ways as Camarilla or Sabbat Status - Reputation can be added to Social Challenges, loaned as a favour, etc.

There are some differences though.

• First, other Anarchs suffer no penalty for ignoring Reputation use in a challenge, save whatever punishment the character with Reputation can levy for disrespecting her standing in the Movement. (Few dedicated revolutionaries take such slights against their good names lightly, so would-be upstarts beware.)
• Second, Anarch Reputation Traits never apply against Camarilla or Sabbat vampires, just as Status in those sects never applies against the Anarchs.
• Third, although an Anarch with greater Reputation is more likely to be believed than one with less in a casual setting, Reputation is not the final factor that decides whose word is accepted as it is in the sects. All Anarchs are considered equal in the eyes of their fellows regarding disciplinary proceedings or criminal accusations, or at least, if there is corruption in the process, it doesn't lie at the Reputation stage of the proceedings.
• Finally, among the anarchs, clan standing or the whims of hoary old elders do not determine Reputation, but rather recognition by one’s fellow Anarchs for what a character has achieved (or failed to achieve). A full-fledged Anarch gathering must be under way, and a character other than the one seeking newfound respect (or deserving censure) must first propose that the selected character gain or

lose the Trait in question. All it takes to award or remove a Reputation Trait is then a majority vote of the Anarchs present at any particular gathering, not including the character in question.

• • The voting process is simple - on a count of three, each character with the "Committed" Trait holds thumbs up for “yes,” thumbs down for “no” or a plain fist for “abstain”. Majority wins.

What Rep traits are there?

Words of Anarch reputation are hardly set in stone...