Ziost - Crown of the Sith Empire

Influence

Influence is a system that measures how respected and influential an individual within the Ziost social circles. The wealthy, powerful, and elite indulge in nightly parties and symposiums to play politics and flex their power. Influence is mostly a currency, the more influence one has the more they can engage in the games of power and wealth.

Influence is gained through events and player actions and spent to attend influential meetings or parties or other items such as special Talents or getting access to equipment. Influence cannot be exchanged for straight currency; the wealthy and powerful of Ziost see that as gauche and of low culture. Influence can also be used to sway the results of the Dark Council challenge, once per game per player.

Influence is used to attend elite social gatherings; parties, galas, salons, etc. There will be four main social gatherings during the game though there may be other unannounced events. The events will be listed before game start along with their Influence cost and themes.

Every social gathering has a theme and a guest list; some parties are open all while others are more exclusive. A player can spend an extra 5 Influence on top of the normal cost to gain entry to the event or they can attempt a Daunting Deception or Charm check against 2 purple and 2 red dice, daunting difficulty with two dice upgraded.

Influence will be doled in increments of 5 and spent in Increments of 5, every player will begin with a set amount of Influence, the max being 10 points. Non-Imperial characters and Droids will begin with 0 Influence as they have no connection to Imperial society usually meaning they are Unaligned. Imperial characters will begin with 5 Influence, and Sith will start with 10 Influence. If the character is Human or Pureblood Sith, there is no adjustment to Influence, if they are any other species reduce starting Influence by 5 to a minimum of 0.

There is a maximum amount of Influence, 75 is the cap not including starting Influence, that can be earned in game and each Major Social Event except the first one will cost 5 Influence to attend, with a potential to earn 10 to 15 Influence per event. Just participating in the party event will allow the player to break even. The first party will have the potential to earn 5 Influence due to it having no cost. Missing a social event reduces that player’s Influence by 5 to a minimum of 0.

Once per game a player can spend 55 Influence to grant a Candidate for the Dark Council 1 point in the race to become Dark Councilor, this can include themselves, and they can only benefit from this option a maximum of three times. Other uses of Influence are as follows; for 50 Influence one can gain the talent Secrets of the Sith, immediately increasing Force Rating by 1, they can spend 45 Influence for Imperial Conditioning which increases any one Characteristic by 1 to a maximum of 6, and for 20 Influence they can gain the Talent Imperial Training to increase any one skill by 1 up to a maximum of 5. There are other uses of Influence, including for gear as well but no option to exchange Influence for Credits.

Any Influence not spent by the end of Day 10 is lost as Day 11 will be wrap up. Influence spent will go into affect the next game day.

Influence can be spent as currency during the game most uses of Influence take effect on the following game day, unless otherwise noted. Any excess Influence at the end of Day 10 is lost, this will take effect in the last approximately 24 hours of Day 10.

Influence is spent and gained in increments of 5.

Uses of Influence

• Applied Influence – 5 Influence: The player has two options here, they can use the 5 influence to get up to 3 items that cost a total of 1000 total credits up to rarity 6, these items cannot be Restricted. Or they can spend 5 Influence in an event to gain a boost die to a single roll, this can be done once in any event, this latter usage takes effect right away.
• Power Manifested – 10 Influence: The player can spend the Influence to upgrade any one roll in a thread once, including events. This can only be done once in a thread and takes effect immediately.
• Powerful Friends – 10 Influence: The player can reduce their Suspicion by 15 points due to their Influence.
• Influential Allies – 15 Influence: The player can make a powerful ally or patron, including a Dark Council member, this person will think favorably of the player and may even aid them. This will last at least through the end of the game, unless player actions make it unfeasible.
• Imperial Training – 20 Influence: The player can increase any one skill by one up to a maximum of five.
• Imperial Conditioning – 45 Influence: The player can increase any one characteristic by one up to a maximum of six.
• Secrets of the Sith – 50 Influence: The character can increase their Force Rating by one, this can only be purchased by players that are already Force Sensitive, meaning they have a Force rating of one or higher.
• The Emperor’s Ear – 55 Influence: This can only be purchased once per game, the player can instantly increase a Dark Council aspirants points by one for the Dark Council race, an aspirant can only gain this bonus up to three times. This goes into effect immediately.

Game of Chairs

Each Candidate for the Council Seat will have a chance to earn Council points; these are what will be used to calculate who gets a seat on the Dark Council. There is a minimum to even be considered by the Emperor and the Dark Council and that means the Candidate must accrue at least 5 Council points or they are removed from consideration, with extreme violence. The player dies on Day 10 at the hands of the Emperor's Wrath for wasting the time of the Emperor.

Every candidate must choose a current member of the Dark Council as a sponsor, and yes Dark Council members may sponsor more than one Sith candidate, because nothing is ever simple with the Sith. This Sponsor grants the Candidate 1 Council point to start, meaning all Candidates begin with 1 Council point. Completing each of the Challenges will grant the Candidate up to 3 points if they succeed. This means there are a total of 11 points that can be earned through the Challenges for a total of 12 Council points.

There are three challenges and then the Dark Council’s input, for a total of 11 council points possible. There is a mastery of the Dark Side, Mastery of Knowledge, and the Mastery of War; each of these challenges is broken up into three stages with the first stage being mandatory. Each stage will earn the Aspirant 1 point if successful, there are no breaks between stages and they must be done in order but stages 2 and 3 are optional.

Stages 2 and 3 are much more dangerous and perhaps even lethal and once started must be completed. The player can choose how much danger they wish to expose themselves to. Death is a possibility in the higher stages of the challenges and the Mastery of War allows a champion for the later stages after Stage 1.

On day 9 the Council will have their chance to have their input and will vote on each candidate, if a Candidate gets a majority of yes votes they earn 2 more Council points. Each vote is separate as the Candidate presents themselves before the Council, during Imperial Court.

On day 10 the points are tallied the highest two point totals will get the seats and then can decide on what is to be done with the other qualifying candidates, death is the most expected outcome. If a candidate is within one point of another then they will be allowed to duel to the Death, if more than one Candidate is within one point of another then all will be forced to duel each other in an order determined by the Emperor, i.e. random. This continues until there are only two qualified candidates.

GM's Note: The NPC Aspirants will always get 1 point in the Challenges for full transparency and to lighten my GMing load.

Support Staff

Every Sith tries to show themselves as personally invincible, the truth is far more mundane that those Sith that choose to involve themselves in the politics of the Empire especially at the level of Dark Councilor usually has many followers and subordinates to handle their affairs from bodyguards and apprentices to slaves and servants. This is no different for those aspiring to the title and this means every Aspirant has taken time to muster some support of an organization or faction with the Empire to support their cause.

In game terms this means each Aspirant will begin with an additional Powerbase to any they already possess. This Powerbase should be something that somehow contributes or supports Imperial society, government, or culture; they support the Aspirant but their loyalty is not unto death, though they will do what they can to support the Sith short of that or treasonous acts.

In addition each Aspirant should list three important individuals from their life or powerbases; these can be done in their private folders privately but they should provide a brief explanation o f who and why these people are important to the character. Locations can work as well but the player should provide at least two people on their list.

Non-Aspirants are welcome to provide these lists as well, but this is mandatory for Aspirants.