Effect: Your character has standing, credentials, authority or respect within an organization, group, company or social body. He might have an official position or title, or might simply be revered and honored within the group and therefore accorded a degree of authority. Your character might be a company vice president, a police sergeant or lieutenant, an army corporal or a nurse at a hospital. Or he could be a lowly member of the group whom everyone likes or who has won some acclaim and is allowed more standing than he is officially entitled.
Each acquisition of this Merit is dedicated to one type of authority, whether in an organization, society or circle. Examples include police, media, gangs, cults, banks, a university and a hospital. In order to have authority in more than one venue, you need to purchase this Merit multiple times, each trait with its own dots. Thus, your character might have Status (Police) •, Status (Gangs) •• and Status (Bureaucracy) •• each acquired separately at character creation or during play. You would need to explain how he reconciles all this authority in the setting. The aforementioned character might be a dirty police sergeant who has paid his dues in civil elections and gained some recognition among city officials.
Status represents the privileges and liberties that your character is authorized to take within the confines and definitions of his group. Increasing dots reflect increasing clout. A cop with Status 1 can enter the suspect lockup and interrogation rooms, while a cop with Status 4 can enter the evidence locker without supervision or get involved in a crime-scene investigation without specifically being called in.
The phrase within the confines and definitions of his group is emphasized above because Status operates exclusively through official channels. A surgeon might have one patient seen or operated on before another, because that's within the official confines of his authority. Exceeding the confines of authority or proper channels transcends the limits of the Status Merit. Going above and beyond - to ask for favors rather than give orders or to requisition an official request- enters the realm of the Allies Merit or controlling Assets. So, a police detective who gets a lower-ranking officer to investigate a case may do so with Status. That request is conducted through proper channels. Meanwhile, a police detective who asks another officer to overlook some evidence or to delay an investigation does so with Allies or an Asset. The favor is asked outside official channels.
While Status might allow your character to give orders to underlings, the Merit doesn't automatically get results. Subordinates or co-workers might resent their assignments, dislike your character or have personal agendas that interfere with your character's needs. Efforts to get things done through official channels still call for Manipulation + Intimidation, Persuasion or Socialize rolls, whichever Skill is appropriate to the request, circumstances and your character's standing within the organization. Bonus dice equal your character's Status dots. Penalties might apply if your character browbeats someone (- 1), uses threats (-2), skirts the limits of his authority (-2) or exceeds his authority (-3 to -5).
Notes:
* Influence and Status are separate, but complimentary ideas. Influence is city-wide and involves multiple facets of society. If you have access to a Medicine 5 Asset, that does not mean you have access to the Status benefits of Health. However, you may be able to leverage your Assets to gain Status within an organization. Furthermore, Assets have limited access to the benefits outlined below. As a result, you can hand off some Status actions to Assets if they have some standing in an organization.
* Status represents your Status within one organization. For example, if you have Status in Church, then it is Status within one denomination (Catholic for example), and is NOT Status within all churches/religions.
* Gaining and losing Status will always be situational and based in plot. There are upper limits to every organization and there can only be so many higher level organizations in the area (for example, there may only be 2 or 3 major religions in an area, 5 major television stations, and 3 police departments (one in DC, one in Baltimore and one in Annapolis).
Trace Utility Bills
Identify other members of the organization
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Fake a birth certificate or driver’s license
Disconnect a single small residence’s utilities
Close a small road or park
Get Public Aid ($250)
•••
Fake a death certificate, passport or green card
Close a public school for a day
Shut down a minor business on a violation
Get insight into other local bureaucracies
••••
initiate a phone tap
Fake land deeds
Initiate a department-wide investigation
•••••
Start, stop, or alter a city-wide program or policy
Shut down a big business on a violation
Rezone areas
Destroy records of a person on a city or county level
Contact cultists and make use of common practices in the cult
Know some of the more visible cult figures
Cult members will let you stay with them (no guarantee of protection from sunlight)
Open an ear for rumors amongst the cult
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Know and contact some of the more obscure cult figures
Access resources for learning new rituals and rites relevant to your cult
You can convince a cultist to commit a Morality 7 or 8 sin in the name of the cult*
•••
You can convince a cultist to commit a Morality 5 or 6 sin in the name of the cult*
Milk impressionable wannabes for bucks ($250)
Get insight into other local cults
••••
Have a word in almost all aspects of cult operation
You may have access to a licensed professional (private eye, building contractor), but you must ask in character, and your ST has right of refusal
You can influence the beliefs of cult members (*cough*brainwashing*cough*)
•••••
Control a single medium-sized cult
You can convince a cultist to commit a Morality 3 or 4 sin in the name of the cult*
Learn about major transactions and financial events
Raise capital ($1,000)
Learn about general economic trends
Learn real motivations for many financial actions of others
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Trace an unsecured small account
Raise capital to purchase a small business (single, small store)
•••
Purchase a large business (a few small branches or a single large store or service)
Get insight into other local financial institutions
••••
Manipulate local banking (delay deposits, some credit rating alterations
Ruin a small business
•••••
Control an aspect of city-wide banking (shut off ATMs, arrange a bank “holiday”)
Ruin a large business
Purchase a major company
Locate minor contraband (knives, small-time drugs, petty gambling, scalped tickets)
Open an ear for word on the street
Identify most gang members and know their turfs and hangouts
••
Obtain pistols, serious drugs, stolen cars
Live mostly without fear on the underside of society
Keep a contact or two in most aspects of street life
Get muscle to rough someone up
•••
Obtain a rifle, shotgun or SMG
Arrange a minor “hit”
Meet someone in “the Family”
Get insight into other local gangs
••••
make white-collar crime connections
Prove that crime pays (and score $1,000)
Have a word in almost all aspects of gang operations
•••••
Arrange gang-land assassinations
Hire a demolition man or firebug
Supply local drug needs
Control a single medium-sized gang
Access a person’s health records
Fake vaccination records and the like
Use public functions of health centers at your leisure
Get a single Vitae of human blood
Identify most hospital employees
••
Access some medical research records
Have minor lab work done
Get a copy of a coroner’s report
Write prescriptions or have one written for you
•••
Corrupt results of tests or inspections
Alter medical records
Instigate minor quarantines
Gain access to restricted areas such as crime and accident scenes
Get insight into other local hospitals
••••
Completely rewrite medical records
Abuse grants for personal use ($250)
Have minor medical research performed on a subject
Institute large-scale quarantines
Shut down businesses for “health code violations”
•••••
Have special research projects performed
Have people institutionalized or released
Learn what is trendy
Obtain hard-to-get tickets for shows
Learn about concerts, shows, or plays well before they are made public
Identify socialites in your circle
••
Track most local celebrities and luminaries
Be a local voice in the entertainment field
Borrow idle cash from rich friends ($1,000)
•••
Crush promising careers
Hobnob well above your station
Get insight into other local social circles
••••
You are treated as a minor celebrity
•••••
Get a brief appearance on a talk show that’s not about to be canceled for you or someone else
Ruin a new club, gallery, festival, or other posh gathering
Get free representation for minor cases
Identify legal figures in your court system
••
Avoid bail for some charges
Have minor charges dropped
•••
Manipulate legal procedures (minor wills and contracts, court dates)
Access public or court funds ($250)
Get representation in most court cases
Get insight into other court systems
••••
Issue subpoenas
Tie up court cases
Have most legal charges dropped
Cancel or arrange parole
•••••
Close down all but the most serious investigations
Have deportation proceedings held against someone
Learn Police procedures
Hear police information and rumors
Avoid traffic tickets
Can carry a firearm
Identify employees within local police
••
Have license plates checked
Avoid minor violations
Get “inside information”
•••
Get copies of an investigation report
Have police hassle, detain, or harass someone
Find bureau secrets
Get insight into other police districts
••••
Access confiscated weapons or contraband
have some serious charges dropped
Start an investigation
Get money, either from the evidence room, or as an appropriation ($1,000)
•••••
Institute major investigations
Arrange setups
Instigate bureau investigations
Have officers fired
Know what goes where, when and why
Travel locally quickly and freely
Know employees of transportation business
••
Track an unwary target if he uses public transportation
Arrange safe passage (or at least concealed) from mundane threats (robbery, terrorism sunlight, etc.)
•••
Seriously hamper an individual’s ability to travel
Avoid most supernatural dangers when traveling (such as Lupines)
Get insight into other transportation businesses
••••
Shut down one form of transportation (bus lines, ships, planes, trains, etc.) temporarily
Route money your way ($500)
•••••
Reroute major modes of travel
Smuggle with impunity
Know layout and policy of local schools
Have access to low-level university resources
Get records up to the high school level Know faculty, staff and some of the student body
••
Know a contact or two with useful knowledge or Skills
Have minor access to facilities
Fake high school records
Obtain college records
•••
Call in faculty favors
Cancel a class
Fix grades
Discredit a student
Get insight into other universities
••••
Organize student protests and rallies
Discredit faculty members