Alea Iacta Est

As a backdrop to the character plays, Five Great Houses will use the following influence mechanic to keep track of off-camera power.

Influence is mostly similar to the background of the same name from the core rules. It doesn't use quite the same scale, but crucially the total amount of influence available in the city is fixed. While there remains unclaimed influence you need only hatch suitable schemes against mortals, but eventually you will have to go up against other Cainites in order to take their influence from them.

Influence comes in four kinds:

• Noble influence represents power over the courts and landholdings of London and beyond. It is sought after by the Lasombra, the Tzimisce and the Ventrue.
• Religious influence generally holds sway over the more worldly aspects of the Church, but on some level also appeals to those of a true spiritual bent. The Toreador compete with the Lasombra for religious influence.
• Commercial influence affects merchants and money-lenders. The Tremere and the Ventrue dabble in such things alongside their main concerns.
• Supernatural influence represents those unusual things beyond mortal or vampiric society. The Toreador are a poor challenge to the Tremere's virtual monopoly on such things.

In London at the beginning of the thirteenth century, these things are not in balance. The ratio of available influence 'points', and the clans with a 'major' or 'minor' interest in gaining them, are as follows:

Amassing Influence:

There will probably be 1000 points of influence available. By providing many points I will be able to make smaller awards so that players can more rapidly see the effects of their actions. Starting characters will receive a modest allotment, somewhere around 20-25 for the childe of one of the Companions, 10 otherwise. The starting points must be chosen from the influences mentioned as clan concerns: if all the points are gone, tough luck.

I haven't yet decided whether outsiders (those not of the five lineages) will have initial influence; probably not. They will have to gain it during play, a task which will be that much harder without a supportive clan. Major campaign events, such as a concerted effort by a number of influential PCs, may be able to change the amount of available influence or the balance between the types.

Counting Influence:

Although they have no direct mechanical effect, you may want to measure your progress against other characters with the following totals:

• Obviously, your character's personal influence score.
• Influential childer reflect well on their sire. Keep track of a Bloodline influence score by adding the influence of all your childer (excluding any from whom you are estranged) to your own.
• Finally, the total influence of all the members of each clan (provided they still recognise and are recognised by the clan) provides a quick measure as to how each faction is getting on.

I will probably be keeping league tables of these scores on the web somewhere as the game proceeds. Note that it doesn't correspond directly to anything the characters can discern; they'll just have to work it out for themselves.