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St. Lawrence, Maine

Sunday, April 19th, 2015

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The shattered corpse of a dormant city slowly stirs as life seeps back into it. It is a place where seeds of redemption now take root while a timeless struggle for supremacy begins anew. Beneath the rotted shell of the city, under the desperation and despair, lurks untapped power. Multiple factions of Kindred (and others) vie for control, and that power impatiently waits for those ambitious enough to grasp it. Welcome to St. Lawrence by Night

We are currently at maximum player population and will not be accepting additional players into the game until further notice.



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Status and How it Works
Topic Started: Jan 12 2018, 04:55 AM (4 Views)
TheStranger
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So this game had a Status mechanic previously. Forget that existed because we have a new system for it. Weren't here for the original? Don't worry about it. The following is an explanation of what Status means, how it works, and why you should care.

For the purposes of this game, Status is a background which represents your standing in one (or more) of various Kindred communities. As with all backgrounds, you can buy it at character creation, but not later on with XP. Also like other backgrounds, you will gain or lose Status through gameplay via the decisions you make and the actions you take. The Storyteller will let you know if and when your Statuses change. It no longer involves a lot of math to figure out, and it certainly doesn't happen only at Court. Pretty simple, right? So let's add another layer of complexity to this.

Unlike most other character traits, this one ranges from -5 to +5. By default, your Status with all Kindred factions starts at 0 (neutral) unless you have some mitigating circumstances (such as taking dots in the Status background at character creation). A positive Status rating means that the particular faction you have positive Status with regards you favorably. The higher the number, the higher regard you are held in. Conversely, the lower your Status is (down to -5), the more contempt you are held in by that particular faction. So lets say you have the following Statuses:

Camarilla 3
Anarchs 1
Sabbat -2

This means you are well respected by the Camarilla, you have a minor positive reputation with the Anarchs, and the Sabbat considers you fairly offensive to their sensibilities. Again, nothing terribly complicated there.



Status is represented by these -5 to 5 number ratings, but it is made up of epithets which describe you, some positive, some negative. These are descriptors which members of the various factions assign to you. These represent your reputation with them and how they typically perceive you. After all, perception is reality. Each epithet is worth either +1 or -1. Also note, just because one faction sees you as Dashing doesn't mean they all do: Status epithets are faction-specific and do not apply universally to your other Statuses. So let's go a little deeper, shall we? Let's say this is what you have for Statuses:

Camarilla (3): Respectable, Fearless, Dedicated

Anarchs (1): Brave, Level-Headed, Untrustworthy

Sabbat (-2): Uncooperative, Hostile


Camarilla Status is 3 because you have 3 positive epithets and 0 negative (1 + 1 + 1 = 3). Sabbat Status is -2 because you have 2 negative epithets and 0 positive (-1 - 1 = -2). Anarch Status is 1 because you have 2 positive and 1 negative epithets (1 + 1 - 1 = 1).


Before we go any further, let's discuss the context of each Status.

Statuses that refer to a sect (Camarilla, Anarch, Sabbat) refer specifically to the sect as it exists in St. Lawrence. The scale of our game is such that most characters will not be well known enough outside of the city (nor will the plot take place very often in such an outside venue) to warrant tracking Status with sects as they exist outside of St. Lawrence. This means that when you talk about your Camarilla Status rating, you are talking about your rating with the local Camarilla court of the city and the members of the Ivory Tower who live there, not the Camarilla as it exists globally.

Clan Status is a little different, however. Since the Kindred population is somewhat limited in terms of clan demographics (meaning there might be only 1 or 2 members of your or any other clan in the entire game, maybe even including you), making clan Status apply to just the clan members who are active in St. Lawrence wouldn't mean much. So in the case of clan Statuses (you can have one with each individual clan, potentially), these actually do refer to the clan as a whole in the global context. The idea here is that if you are a staunch enemy of the Tremere, Tremere all over the world might at least know your name and know to keep an eye on you. Or perhaps you crossed the Ventrue so badly that they've made it a point that you should be snubbed whenever possible. Likewise, perhaps you've been a powerful ally for the Lasombra over time, and the larger organization of the Magisters recognizes your usefulness to their communal causes.

In the case of independent clans who don't belong to a larger sect (such as the Followers of Set or the Giovanni), they have no sect of their own to gain/lose Status in, though they can still certainly gain or lose Status with other sects. And of course, they can always gain and lose Status with their own and other clans.

When purchasing ranks of Status during character creation, you may spend Freebie points to gain Status with a particular sect at a rate of 1 Freebie per dot. Likewise, you may spend Freebie points to gain Status with a particular clan at a rate of 1 Freebie per dot.


You may not begin the game with more than 2 dots of Status in any single sect or clan, though there is no limitation as to how many dots of various Status you may cumulatively purchase.



So we know that you want high positive numbers for your Statuses, but why do you want that? From a role playing perspective, having a higher Status with a faction means that its members look more favorably on you. This means that if you are speaking to someone who has a high Status in your particular clan or sect, you might use that as a guide to shape how your character would behave toward them. In most cases, a positive Status would generally suggest that your character would react positively toward that character, but that may not be the case necessarily. For instance, what if you character is jealous of the other character's high Status? Maybe it would be polite or proper to regard them highly, but you still might be compelled to snub or insult them, or perhaps to move against them outright somehow. High Status is not a guarantee of respect, but it is a good guideline for how the factions as wholes regard the character in question. One would hope, whoever, that if you have positive Status with a particular faction, the members of that faction are likely to be more friendly or at least deferential toward you. A Status of 0 means on the whole, they have no strong feelings about you one way or the other, generally speaking. The Storyteller should take such things into account when it comes to NPC interactions, but as with player characters, high Status is not a guarantee of amicability, nor is open hostility always a foregone conclusion with every member of a faction with which you have negative Status.


Mechanically, Status affects certain dice rolls. When you are trying to influence members of a faction (in any number of various ways) and think that your reputation might aid or hinder you in the effort, add dice to your dice pool equal to your Status rating with that faction (yes, negative Status subtracts dice). Need to convince the Ventrue to help fund your art project? Roll Charisma + Expression to state your case eloquently, and don't forget to add 2 dice because you have 2 Status with Clan Ventrue because they think you are Beautiful and Talented. Need the Anarchs to stop attacking your prostitution operations by reminding them what happened to the last guy who crossed you? Roll Manipulation + Intimidation, but subtract 1 die because you have -1 Status with the Anarchs because of that Anarch coterie you accidentally ousted during a raid against the Sabbat.



So Status is important for you, sure, as it helps you get things done. Also keep in mind that it's a good thing to be on good terms with other people who have positive Status of their own. Does the local Harpy owe you a boon? Chances are he or she has some decent Status with various groups, so that boon you have is probably pretty valuable. Meanwhile, Joe Schmuck owes you a boon, but he has terribly low Status with more than a few groups. Maybe Joe's boon isn't worth as much as the Harpy's boon in this case.


This is a game about interactions of all types, and while you can't be all things to all people, the Status that others wield might well be a tool for you to utilize if you are adept enough to navigate yourself into such an arrangement. Maybe you don't need any Status of your own at all to get things done. Maybe you just need to know the right people who DO have such things? And who said Social-primary characters were weak in this style of game?



This system is drastically simplified compared to the old LARP-based one, shares many of the same system components as the rest of our game (you know, like dice), and should serve to add a fun complexity to the social aspect of the game, all while emphasizing the importance of choice and consequence, which is truly the basis of any dramatic system.
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