Background Dots

[Webmonkey]

WEBMONKEY NOTE: All of these background clarifications are now on the core website at www.emeraldcitychronicles.com in the Build Hub>5. Creation House Rules>Finishing Touches section.

[Shah-Khohr of Ventrue]

Question!

It seems like NPCs no longer have a gradient on what they are. Like, they have a set point value. In the past, players were able to buy up backgrounds slowly, like growing their Ally from one to two and so on. Is this still the case? Or do you have to spend this on one shot?

[Hephaestus]

For Contacts/Allies you must buy their complete value at once, first as a Contact, representing their willingness to take your calls and deal fairly with you, then by paying the difference in cost to upgrade them to an Ally, once you've earned their trust.

Its still a graded representation of your relationship to that NPC, but with two stages instead of five. This allows a clearer understanding on the players' part on where they stand with the NPC, as well as a more consistent representation by the staff running them. Contact and Ally are much more clearly defined than some nebulous 1-5 scale. At least now they are.

[Wit]

So, reading above. and pulling off the updated information of the site
1 Point:Neonate, Well-placed ghoul
2 Points:Ancilla, Rising star,
3 Points:Average Primogen, Well placed ancillas, Average Court Positions
4 Points:Harpies, Exceptional Primogen, Seneschals, Sherrifs, Regents
5 Points:Leader of a city such as a Bishop or a Prince, Lords, or well-placed elders such as Archons

So to have a Primogen, Seneschal, Harpy ect as an ally, you must first have them as a 4 Point contact, then 4 point ally (8(Contact)+15(ally)=23xp?). That said, its 8 xp in one drop to get the contact 4, and then once ST's agree that they like you, 15 xp to get the ally.

If nothing else, this overall doubles the cost of Allies for all levels.

Do you need to have contact of what ever level is "correct" to connect to a mentor as well?

[Skir]

Allies cost the same as they always have. Contacts are 1x current, and Allies are 2x current, so there will be a natural difference in the exp cost at whatever level.

For instance, take Strauss, the Tremere Primogen of Los Angeles.

He is a level 3 Contact. You've had a dealing with him that went well and you wish to buy him as a Contact to maintain the relationship. That's 2+1+2=5 exp.

Later on, you do something horrible for him that Tremeres like and you earn his trust and respect. You can upgrade him to an Ally.
A 3 point Ally normally costs 3+2+3=8 exp. However, since you already have him as a Contact, you just pay the difference, 3 exp.

It's also worth noting that there are some cases where you skip the Contact phase all together. If someone were to roll down to LA and just stake and blood bind Strauss on their first meeting, that would be justification to just pay the 8 and buy him as an Ally right away, though story repercussions abound.


Two other things. Some characters are too powerful to fit on the 1-5 scale. Justicars, Red Listers, Methuselahs, etc are either going to be level 6 or level 7 characters and cannot be purchased by PCs (except maybe with Paragon). You can still meet these characters, and they might still give you the time of day on occassion or even do you a favor, but you are beneath their notice for a relationship like a true friendship or allegience.

Mentors do not work like this, and you can have a Prince somewhere offer to teach you Potence just the same as a Neonate would. The amount of dots indicate how much they are teaching you and the scale of the task they are preparing you for with that training. This is the only way to get a level 6 or level 7 character on your sheet, but mentors will not in of themselves offer direct or even indirect assistance unless it specifically conforms to their own plans and desires. You can, however, ask your Mentor for advice or even trivial favors (like please send me the components for the ritual you just taught me), and you can expect them to at least KNOW about what your character is going through, so they can choose to help if they truly wish it.

[Wit]

Ah thank you!
Some times I need to see the numbers in practice to have them make sense