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Social Influence

Social Interactions can be more impactful than might be anticipated. In addition to other effects, successful Social Interactions performed on a human or an enemy add Influence to the Target. Conversely, successful opposing Social Interactions can remove Influence. With enough Influence, an Unaffected character can become Moved, Swayed, or Persuaded.

Social Influence progresses in slightly different ways depending on if you are playing Flesh or Breath. Flesh only tracks degrees of Influence, which can be resolved more quickly. Breath tracks Influence points and adds more nuance to the results.

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Persuaded
Swayed+ Persuaded | 12-14 Influence
Swayed Swayed | 7-11 Influence
Moved Moved | 3-6 Influence
Unaffected Unaffected | 0-2 Influence
Moved Moved | 3-6 Influence
Swayed  Swayed | 7-11 Influence
Swayed+ Persuaded | 12-14 Influence
Persuaded

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In Flesh, Social Influence is measured in degrees as shown above. Swayed+ is the same as Swayed, but provides an extra degree before reaching Persuaded.

As characters attempt to influence other characters, Successes will either progress the influenced character toward becoming Persuaded or reduce their level of persuasion in the other direction.

In Flesh a Persuaded character requires a Superb Success made with a Bane:3 to reduce them back to Swayed. A Success will not affect a Persuaded character.

Success

  • progresses or reduces one degree in the spectrum

Superb Success

  • progresses or reduces two degrees in the spectrum

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In Breath, degrees of Social Influence are determined using an accumulated numeric total of Influence. Influence. Interactions either increase the total Influence or reduce Influence accumulated by opponents.

A successful Social Interaction adds or subtracts 0, 1, or 2 Influence depending on whether the Interaction was a Minor Success, a Success, or an Superb Success respectively. Each uncanceled 12 on a die in the Interaction causes 1 more Influence to be gained or subtracted if the Interaction is at least a Minor Success. However, a Minor Success cannot add or remove more than 1 Influence and a Success cannot add or remove more than 3 Influence. Superb Successes have no maximum limit. Characters can accumulate not more than 14 Influence.

In Breath a Persuaded character must be reduced to 7 Influence before being considered Swayed and then brought to 0 Influence  to be considered Unaffected. All Social Interactions working to reduce the Influence are made with a Bane:3 while the character is Persuaded.

Moved 

While Moved, a character becomes more vulnerable to further Influence in that direction.

  • if Influence is gained from an Interaction, increase the total gained by 1

  • any Influence caused by this character is reduced by 1

Swayed 

While Swayed, friendly Social Interactions targeting the character or made by the character will suffer.

  • Bane:1 to friendly Social Interactions targeting the character

  • Bane:1 to Social Interactions made by the character

  • Bane:2 to Self-Targeted Social Interactions made by the character

 Persuaded

Once a character is Persuaded, they will need significant positive influence or time away from further negative influence to recover. The precise details of how they will behave while Persuaded are determined by the Host's discretion.

  • Bane:3 to friendly Social Interactions targeting the character

  • the character cannot make Social Interactions that resist or conflict what they are Persuaded of

  • Flesh - requires a Superb Success with Bane:3 to reduce the character to Swayed

  • Breath - requires reduction to 7 Influence with all Interactions suffering Bane:3 to become Swayed and requires reduction to 0 Influence before then moving from Swayed to Unaffected 

Social Influence between holy and unholy elohim during War or Parley can often be tracked as one total. However, when influencing humans or when trying to influence an elohim in a very specific direction, Influence for that goal should be tracked as a separate total. As such, a character may have different Influence levels relating to different desires or situations.

Influence and Allies

Allies that are generally in agreement have no need to change each other's mind, but can strengthen their shared stance, buffering each other from opposing Influence. Sometimes the Host may choose to allow allies to buffer against future opposing Influence, especially when Affirm Interactions are involved. This should be allowed as part of intentional roleplaying when the situation seems appropriate and not as part of regularly exploiting rules to maximize advantages. The Host will also determine how strongly buffered the characters can be.

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