Game Rules

Influence:
Influence represents the sway you have in a certain area. Influence availability is up to ST
approval. The list of influence is:
  • Bureaucracy
  • Espionage
  • Finance
  • Health
  • High-Society
  • Industry
  • Legal
  • Media
  • Military
  • Occult
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Street
  • Transportation
  • Underworld
  • University

For The ST'S

Influence is mostly used by any noble class player and as such, it is not uncommon for say, 5
players to all have Legal 5, Underworld 5, and Military 5 at the same time. Trying to limit this from
happening is foolish and highly idiotic considering the galaxy is part of the game. However, there
are ways to limit influence without taking away from the fun. One way is that should anyone have
specific influence like Underworld (Black Sun) x5 and is either A) not of that faction or 5)
someone else has it; then it is ok to limit the person or as an ST, demand a write up. Another
thing that all ST's need to consider, including myself, is that the class Noble, as their class
bonus, are aloud to start off with 5 in any and all influence that they can buy at creation. Nobles
for the most part do not interfere with the rest of the game unless it benefits them, and as such,
normally do not do anything other than influence uses. In the grand scheme of things this is ok
as if a noble wishes to do so, it will take them longer to round out their character and upon doing
this, does not make them invincible. Two nobles can easily crush any one, so the game of
politics and influence is never lost as nobles can be the most vicious when eliminating another
player.

Games that wish to limit the possible chaos from influence should choose one ST to be in
charge of handling it from all players. Less problems of multiple ST's trying to keep up with it.

As a note, any other class, except a noble, can not start off with more of one type of influence
equal to their starting reputation +1. Meaning, no other player but a noble can start with 5 dots in
a single type of influence, as the max reputation any player can have is 3. (Faction gives +1,
Fame and Infamy each give +1 but players can only have one or the other, or they can buy them
for 5xp or build points each at creation. Players can not buy 3 for 15xp then pick up fame and a
faction.

How to Get More Influence

Anyone can get any kind of influence at any time unless it goes against the character concept,
their faction, or the ST's of a game has decided to not deal with that specific kind of influence.
The easiest and most efficient way of gaining it is to roleplay for as many dots as you wish of
whatever kind of influence you would like to have. Players should never roleplay for more than
one dot of any one influence during a single game. Example; I roleplay for 1 point of underworld,
and 1 point of street and have to wait till next game to try and roleplay for the next dots in each.
Sometimes the wait has to be longer depending on the scenario. Another way is to have
influence given to a player in which case they own it, or to grow your influence to give a point to a
player. This will be explained in a bit. There are other ways but influence will not always save you,
only help you.

Influence Limitations

People have told me that influences in Star Wars is too powerful and needs to be controlled. The
problem is not that it is out of control, but that there is a limit and not many people pay attention,
including ST's. When a player makes a character, they need to decide where their place of birth
or home planet is. The is where all their influence is based unless other wise decided. On that
planet and only that planet, their influence operates at normal. All other planets in the same
parsec; IE: the galaxy ranges from parsec 0 - 9; the influence operates at as if the had one less
in each type of influence and each parsec in either direction has the same effect to a minimum of
1 in each. Should a player have a reputation of at least 1, then their influences operate at normal
in the same parsec as their home planet. Should a player have more than 1 influence then his
influence operates as normal at his choice of an adjacent parsec. Example, my influence is
based on my home planet in parsec 5, and i have a reputation of 3. My influence operates as
normal in parsec 5 and i choose to have it operate as normal in parsec 4 and 3, as i push my
influence towards the core worlds. At parsec 2 and 6, my influence operate at a -1 and so forth
the farther the parsec. The only other limitation to influence is specific influences like; Military
Imperial should not be giving to rebel players unless they have a reason and or wrote it up for an
ST. Also, there should not be specific influences of certain factions like Military House Noble.
This does not exist but they do have High Society House Noble. ST's as well as players should
be responsible with what they choose/allow.
The advantage of having specific kinds of influence is that you can get more done of that type
than you would with generic; however, specific influence uses are easier to track than generic.

Influence Actions

Grow; Hide; Steal; Attack; Defend; Combine

Grow: When a player has at least 1 point of an influence, they can opt to let it grow. What this
does is the influence is no longer allowed to be used by the player as it is expanding on its own
at a rate of 1 point per 6 weeks. The player does not gain the influence until the growth is
finished, nor are they required to spend XP for what they grow. Should a player remove an
influence from growing, they gain whatever they hard earned up to that point, and can not put it
back on grow ever again.

Hide: Players sometimes do not like the idea of losing their influence and can choice to hide it. It
takes a full month, or 2 game sessions for an influence to hide. When an influence is hidden,
they can not be used, attacked, or stolen. They also can not be traced back to their owner. Should
an influence be removed from being hidden, it can then be traced, attacked, stolen and used. To
hide it a against require the same wait period as the first time. Now, a hidden influence can be
used to attack, steal, or just used without having to worry about an influence that was defending.
Think of it as a sneak attack.

Defend: Whenever an influence is set on defend, any action taken against that influence or which
ever influence it is defending, has its difficulty increased equal to the amount thats defending.
Example; CJ puts his 3 Legal influence on defend. Anyone trying anything against his legal
influence must bid 3 extra influence traits to a total of 6. Same would be if he made his 3 Legal
defend his 3 Church. Also, defending influence can not be used for anything else until it is taken
off of defend

Attack: Whenever a player attacks another players influence, the result is a permanent loss of
influence. In order to destroy a single point of influence, the opposing player must be bidding at
least double the mount of attacking influence as the player has thats being attacked. If
successful, you destroy one point of the influence. If you have triple the amount, you destroy a
second point of influence and so forth on. Should an attack fail and the influence was being
defended, the player is aloud a simple chop of his targeted influence vs. The attacking influence
to see if they discover what kind of influence was being used, but not who.

Steal: Whenever any player steals another players influence, The result is a permanent loss of
influence from The target player, and a permanent gain for The opposing player. Any influence
stolen can not be used till The next game session or 2 weeks later. In order to steal a single
point of influence, The player must be bidding at least double The amount of influence as The
player that is The victim. No more than 1 point may be stolen per attempt. If The influence that
was stolen was being defended, and The result was a failure, The person who was targeted will
know what was used to try and steal his influence but not who.

Combine: When players need to send influence to aid another influence, this is done by
combining. For every point of influence that is sent, two must be combined. Essentially, to send 5
point of influence to aid in an attack, The player must actually spend 10.


Last Notes On Influences

Now, i know some people are wondering why can't we do alot of actions that other larps allow
their's to do. The answer is that with so many different kinds of influences and so many ways to
specialize in them, there is no need for all The other type of actions when you can have specific
type of influences to do such actions.

Also, The noble feat Call In Favor can be used on any influence, without stopping their action,
unless it is on grow.