Influence

[Dracos]

It's been a while?  How's that working in the real world?

Do we assign influence level of points to the other side and borrow influence back?  Or do we just borrow influence?

Dracos

[Bjorn]

Brian can correct me if I get something wrong, but... X points of Influence can be spent to bring across X CP from your other-self.

[*] Skills and powers can be brough across and will stack with your skills and powers in your current-self (e.g. if you have +1 OCV with swords, and your other-self has +2 OCV with swords, if you spend 6 CP to bring across the sword skills you will now have +3 OCV).

[*] You can bring across equipment.

[*] You can also bring across stats, but stats either do not stack (if you have 10 STR, and your other-self has 24 STR, you have to pay to bring across 24 STR, not just 14), or you can only bring across enough points to go up to the highest value of the stat in either self (i.e., if you have 18 DEX, and your other-self has, say, 15, then you cannot spend Influence to bring across DEX, since you already have the highest score for DEX of either you or your other-self).  I think it's the latter rule that applies, but Brian will need to confirm this.  Note that the first rule implies the second, as well: it's just a question of how many CP you'll need to spend to get to the maximum stat.

[*] The Influence score that applies here is Earth/Reality entry in the Influence Table (that is, the Influence related to the Earth Dream, for when you are in Reality) (plus possibly the General/Reality (of which everyone except maybe Hal has 0 -- Brian will have to confirm this, too).  I have 30 CP of Earth/Reality Influence at the moment, meaning I can borrow up to 30 CP of skills/stats/powers from my other-self (but I won't, because he sucks).
[/list]

All of this is subject to a major condition: when you borrow something via Influence, you are denying this thing to your other-self.  In practice, this means that the GM gets to decide what you can spend your Influence on, as there are going to be times that your other-self will not want to give up whatever it is you want to borrow.  So, for example, in the current moment, Rez' other-self isn't using his Dive For Cover skills (meaning Rez can use Influence to bring them across), because he is kicking ass with his Ancestral Buster Sword and has no need for puny coward moves (which in turn means that Rez will not be allowed to borrow either the Ancestral Buster Sword or the sword skills).

[Brian]

Pretty much.  However:

[*]You only need to pay for the difference in stats; Ie., if human Drac has 13 STR, and BarbariDrac has 25 STR, Drac can then pay 12 points to go to STR 25 -- assuming that Barbarian-King-Dracos is willing to go without his very useful armor-hauling-strength.  Which he might be at some times, but since time in the dream flows at differing rates, this isn't always going to be an option.

[*]Unless you are a Dreamer, anything you pull from a Dream into Reality costs double.  Normal transfer rates apply within the Dreaming proper, or when pulling powers from Reality into Dreams (no disbelief tax on power-imports).

[*]You can buy influence up at any time you've got CP -- 1 CP per 2 influence.  (You may also earn temporary influence if you've got skills/powers that your otherselves want to borrow -- more on this later.)[/list]
And ... Hal currently has 50 Dreaming/Reality influence (of questionable use at this exact moment -- development to come).

The other use of Dream-powers is that you can buy them as your own powers (paying the normal cost for powers) or use them as justification to develop similar powers of your own devising.

Hopefully you can all see what my intent with the Influence system was and how it should work ideally, though it may take, erm, some cludging.  Generally, check with me if it's not clear here, as it may be a special case.

[Bjorn]

Pretty much.  However:

[*]Unless you are a Dreamer, anything you pull from a Dream into Reality costs double.  Normal transfer rates apply within the Dreaming proper, or when pulling powers from Reality into Dreams (no disbelief tax on power-imports).
[/list]

Okay, point of clarification for character sheets and the like.  Currently, the Influence Table is set up with two columns, one headed Dream and one headed Reality, with the latter being half the value of the former -- so I, for example, for the Earth Dream row, have 61 under Dream and 30 under Reality.  I think this is the inclusion of what you're talking about here.  Or, in other words, I can currently borrow 30 CP worth of stuff from my Earth-self, and not just 15 CP?

Couple more clarification points: When we buy Influence, do we specify which Dream we're attaching the Influence to?  And can General Dream Influence be used to supplement specific Dream Influence?  Does "Hal earns double Influence" refer to the fact that the above-mentioned "no halving for pulling Dream into Reality," or does he also get to 4 points of Influence for every 1 CP spent?  (Asking the latter because I think I might have misunderstood things when I made up Hal's sheet. >.< )

[Brian]

Okay, point of clarification for character sheets and the like.  Currently, the Influence Table is set up with two columns, one headed Dream and one headed Reality, with the latter being half the value of the former -- so I, for example, for the Earth Dream row, have 61 under Dream and 30 under Reality.  I think this is the inclusion of what you're talking about here.  Or, in other words, I can currently borrow 30 CP worth of stuff from my Earth-self, and not just 15 CP?

This is correct.

Couple more clarification points: When we buy Influence, do we specify which Dream we're attaching the Influence to?  And can General Dream Influence be used to supplement specific Dream Influence?  Does "Hal earns double Influence" refer to the fact that the above-mentioned "no halving for pulling Dream into Reality," or does he also get to 4 points of Influence for every 1 CP spent?  (Asking the latter because I think I might have misunderstood things when I made up Hal's sheet. >.< )

Uh ... let me try and remember.  So the way that it works is when you get general influence, it's 1 CP per two points.  With purchasing influence for a specific dream (in this instance, Earth), you get 1 influence for it, and 1 general (you cannot raise subdream influence without also gaining standard influence.  This is to keep you from accidentally flinging your makeup into the far reaches of the cosmos, thus feeding the Enemy).  To get 2 Influence in the Earth Dream, you would need to spend 2 CP.  And you would also gain 2 regular influence.

[Dracos]

Okay, there's been a considerable amount of rumormongering and passing so, jotting down my understanding after a long talk with brian on it here for general reference.

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While in the Real World:

You have several pools of influence that are dedicated to either general or specific dreams and are defined in the REALITY column.

 Influence can be bought at 1 cp per 2 general influence while in the real world.

 The general pool can be used towards any dream's cp.  It can also be used to pull abilities out of the aether, via training with the brothers of Morpheus in your sleep.  That mainly is important to Halbarad, who has tremendous amounts he can use in that way.

 These pools for dreams are always 1/2 their dream size to represent the difficulty of pulling from them, excepting for Hal who gets them full as a dreamer.  They can only be used  towards that specific dream and with GM approval that the other character is willing to give them up for a bit.

You default have access to all skills and powers on your real world character sheet and need to buy access with influence to anything else.  Influence points can be used to borrow skills or powers or equipment or physical capabilities.  

If physical capabilities, you pay the difference, not the total (e.g. going from 10 dex to 15 dex costs 15 points, not 45 points).  They do not stack.  Everything that is not physical capabilities DO stack (So you can draw sword skill from 3 dreams and have it stack)

While in a Dream:

You have several pools of influence defined in the DREAM column.

Influence in dreams can be  bought at a rate of 1 cp per 1 influence in that dream and 1 influence in general.  The purchase in general adds to both columns (So if you were 5 and 0, you'd move to 6 and 1).

General: Can be applied to either real world or this current dream.  It cannot be applied to other dreams.

Current Dream: Can be applied to either real world or this current dream.  Cannot be applied to other dreams.

Other dreams: Can be applied at 1/4 value to things in its dream.  So if you wanted a 10 cp ability from the earth dream, it would cost 40 earth dream influence.  Basically, exactly like drawing said powers in the real world, despite it apparently being even farther away. =)  I'm not entirely sure I have this one right.

You default have access to all skills on your dream world character sheet and nothing else (no powers).  These points can be used to borrow skills or powers or equipment or physical stats and also need to be spent to use the powers available within the dream.  

If physical capabilities, you pay the difference, not the total (e.g. going from 10 dex to 15 dex costs 15 points, not 45 points).  They do not stack.  Everything that is not physical capabilities DO stack (So you can draw sword skill from 3 dreams and have it stack)

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I think that covers everything.  If I'm missing something, let me know so I can edit it and have one clean post with it.

[Brian]

That's correct, with a minor adjustment.

The halving penalty on imports is levied twice when going from Earth-Reality-Fire (for example).  I may not have been clear about this.

[Bjorn]

For clarification, following a discussion with Brian:

What you don't need to spend Influence on:

The skills of whatever body you're currently in.

The stats of whatever body you're currently in.

The powers of your base-self, when you're in your base-self.

What you DO need to spend Influence on:

The skills of any other body.

The stats of any other body.

The powers of your base-self, when you're not in your base-self.

The powers of any other body, regardless of what body you're in.
[/list]

So for me to use the Summon power of the Witch Doctor, I have to spend 9 Influence, regardless of the fact that I'm actually in the Witch Doctor's body at the moment.