From SuspireWiki

Okay so you've got the basics down, you hope. Here's a little more detailed "help guide" that's more going to focus on the various systems that might take up some of your time, and is in your benefit to understand. I'll break it down into sections for the major ones: "Allies", "Domain (and Fiefs)", "Sites". This guide pretty much assumes you have read TBNGE and are at least vaguely familiar with the systems in question through reading them on the House Rules page. If you haven't done either, you should probably do so before continuing on. This guide is to help you learn tips and tricks of the system, so if you're looking for basic understanding of these systems this guide probably isn't going to help you.

Contents 1 Allies 1.1 The First Thing You Need To Know 1.2 Combine to the Highest Level 1.3 Attack & Defend 1.4 Contacts + Allies = Win 1.5 Sucker Uses 1.6 Combine with Other Systems 2 Domain (and Fiefs) 2.1 The First Thing You Need to Know 2.2 Fiefs 2.3 Get a Partner 3 Sites

Allies

The First Thing You Need To Know

You need to understand the different uses and what their advantages and limitations are:

• Standard uses are capable of everything, growth, regeneration (meaning they refresh), can be used secretly, etcetera.
  • Pro: These are the best allies, as they are personal and can do every single use.
  • Cons: Require Growth, which can be slowed by other characters. Limited on level maximums depending on what other characters have Allies.
• Fief uses are capable of everything that Standard uses are capable of, except they cannot be used secretly and only go up to Level 2. Fief gives you 1 use per level.
  • Pro: These are second-best to the Standard allies.
  • Cons: They require having the Fief merit, which can be tricky at times to obtain, depending on the place and characters in-game.
• Ascendancy uses are capable of everything that Fief uses are capable of (as well as can't be used secretly), except they never refresh after being used, and you only gain them again if your clan/covenant gains ascendancy/contender benefits again. You generally wind up with 2 uses of a type, which is considered Level 1.
  • Pro: You can use them for almost anything.
  • Cons: It requires your clan or covenant to be Ascendant or Contender. Sometimes that’s a bitch to obtain.
• Retainer uses are used by a Retainer first off, which makes them vulnerable. Retainers get 1 use of a type per level (similar to Domain). They, however, cannot aid someone in the Growth action or be used secretly. Furthermore, they are considered an extension of you (which is both bad and good as I'll explain in a bit in the Attack/Defend section), this is important to remember.
  • Pro: Retainers have their own downtime and don’t require Growth to expand (only XP invested in the levels), they are not a part of the level maximums that Standard allies are limited to.
  • Cons: Retainers are very exposed and do not have any refunds issued to them in the event that they lose merits.

Combine to the Highest Level

This is common sense for most folks, but a lot of people don't realize it, it is smarter to save your highest level allies' uses. Meaning, you should always, always, always (unless you're for some reason trying to hide your stuff) combine uses with your lowest allies stuff first and only use 1 use of your highest allies. This way, you get a better dice pool almost every time.

For example, say you have the following for Media:

• Standard: 3/6 (which means you have Level 3)
• Retainer: 1/1 (which means a retainer you have has Media at Level 1, though this can be misleading if you have multiple retainers with similar ally types)
• Fief: 2/2 (which means you have Level 2 Media Allies)
• Ascendancy: 1/2 (which means you have Level 1)

Obviously out of the group, your "highest" ally would come from Standard, since you have Level 3 there. Any uses you wanted to do, for the most part, should probably be done by combining the majority of the uses to that Standard ally, and only using 1 use from there. I'll give you another example based on the example uses/levels you have above:

Say you'd like to do the following use: Alter (but not stop) large news reports. It's a level 2, non-bolded use of Media allies. Sure you got the uses to just roll it outright with your Fief uses, but that's not really efficient. What is efficient though is looking at what you have and what you know the "best" allies are. Right now, your weakest uses will come from that Retainer 1/1. So, in this case, you should combine that 1 use from your retainer and use 1 use from your Standard allies.

Why not Ascendancy in the above example? Well, Ascendancy uses are "worth" more as uses. They're still Level 1, sure, but Ascendancy uses don't refresh and they can be used to combine to people for Growth. Retainer allies refresh and they can't be used for growth.

Attack & Defend

Attacks don't really need any fanfare, and neither do Defends really. So you're probably wondering, why this section? Well, it's important to realize that, in case for some reason you missed it the first time: Defends do not stack! Put your highest one up and chill. Now the real reason for this section is to point out a small, but important aspect of the Attack/Defend part of Allies: Retainers.

See, it doesn't really matter how many retainers a person has, they can only attack you once a week on a particular Ally Type even if it comes from themselves personally, or from their Retainers. That is because in Allies (and in other things, which will be explained later...) NPC Retainers are considered an extension of their Domitor. That means they fall under the rules for only one attack may be made by them once per week, but more importantly it means any Defends put up by you will apply to both you and your Retainers. It is not uncommon for people to combine uses to have a badass Defend.

If you're serious about your allies'n, you should really always have a Defend up. Sure, it takes awhile for uses to come back, but really, it's more of a hassle to try and re-growth two weeks after getting jacked (or worse, rebuy your retainers stuff with XP!), but on top of that, you might even wind up with a reflexive Exceptional trace if you do get attacked and have pre-emptive Defends up (ps. Traces are hard to get exceptionals on!). It's pretty much win-win.

Contacts + Allies = Win

People look at contacts usually and go... "what a waste of time". That's because they don't realize how valuable information can be in-character. A lot of times, it's possible to gather a bunch of information, put it together and realize long before most people realize what a group of characters are doing. Contacts gives up to the minute Allies uses. Some of the times boons can be extorted (or coaxed, I guess), attempts towards gaining special retainers that would give an enemy character a leg up can be blocked ahead of time, or storylines can be forged just by keeping a close eye on a contact for an ally type you have a vested interest in.

Contacts are good. People who don't take advantage of their use and utility when heavily vested in the Allies game are pretty much suckers!

Sucker Uses

Some people think some of the Investigative Actions are kind of "sucker" uses. Sometimes they are, but sometimes they are not. If you're trying to creep or look for more information without drawing a lot of attention, these uses are pretty valuable to you. It isn't really doing yourself justice if you haven't familiarized yourself with the uses and tried to think of ways they might be useful to you.

Combine with Other Systems

As you might have seen lucita in #ooc say, combining A + B to get C is sometimes the best way to get things ridiculously cheap, or ridiculously fast, or... well... a hell of a lot more easily than normal. Let's give a very quick example for combining of systems for you:

Let's say this is your allies set for Society:

• Standard: 2/2
• Retainer: 1/1
• Ascendancy: 2/2

Which means you've got straight up Level 1's down the board. Now, you know (because you have read the allies rules...) that you only need 4 total uses to roll for this use: Temporary influx of ready cash. (Gain 2 Expense Dots on a regular success, 5 on an exceptional) which is a Level 4 non-bolded Society use. It's pretty good on it's own, we all agree. However, there's some ways we can make this use, even with a -4 to your base pool, wind up hella badass. Let me take you through just a real quick off the top of my head method to making this use better.

You have your four uses, choose whichever method is going to give you the best base pool. Let's say, for sake of argument, that your Retainer has the best base pool with the -4 penalty that you know you're going to have. How can you make this better? Well, here's some ideas:

• Canyon Club's Site benefit: The Beautiful People. You spend all your time among the most fashionable, well-known and beautiful people in Las Vegas. As such, Striking Looks does not give anyone a bonus to their rolls when dealing with you. To you, beautiful is just... normal. You, however, know how to show off your good looks without even trying. If you have the Striking Looks merit, you gain an additional +2 dice to any rolls you make involving that merit. A roll that involves high Society, Media or news outlets can be done with a bonus of +3 dice and 9-again once per week (on each), as if you were some sort of celebrity.
  • Well, look at that. Maybe now you have a better pool than your retainer with that potential current total of Base Pool +1, with 9-again? Better yet, your Retainer can utilize your Site benefit, so you might not even need to worry about a Humanity penalty.
• South Las Vegas' UNLV Fief, Level 2: Now that you’ve had time to truly integrate yourself in the campus culture, and you know what faculty gossip is going around (even if you didn’t particularly care to do so) you have also picked up the tips and tricks of professors and higher-level students in their level of efficiency in handling affairs. This manifests in allowing you to perform a Rote Action on any mundane downtime-consuming roll once per week.
  • Still worried about succeeding? A Rote action is the bomb. Seriously. You roll like normal, and any dice that weren't successes on your first roll, you get to roll over and add any successes you get to your first roll. It's good!

See? This is just an example of something you can do just by looking at things in an overall method, rather than just straight up and down. Poke around, think of ways you can combine stuff and for sure you will wind up ahead.

Suuuure, it takes a little more effort, but doesn't it pay off in the long run? And besides, even if you run into a little hiccup, like someone wanting to tithe you for a Fief, or someone battling with you over a Site, you can still turn it into IC roleplay and storylines. Maybe you can work out a deal with someone for that site so they don't contest you? Maybe you can cut in your tithe dewd to some little profit to continue unmolested. I mean, hey, that's part of playing the game and earning allies (of the character sort) and even potentially enemies.

Domain (and Fiefs)

The First Thing You Need to Know

Domain, for whatever reason, is generally an overlooked aspect of integral character development. It is a something that elevates your character above others in a particular territory. There are good hunting grounds, the best is obviously the Rack which can make a Domain desirable. There is low-cost housing which can make a Domain desirable. And there are multitudes of other things, such as Fiefs or Sites within a territory, too, that also make a territory desirable. The part that is the most obvious is almost always the only part paid attention to.

But, what about that "Noticable Activity" bit? It straight up tells you when people are doing enough of something to trip your Domain Activity automatic watch, but most people just ignore it. Why? That really really makes no sense! Let's put it into perspective. Say you're growing up and you've claimed a basketball court for you and your friends. You play basketball on that court every night if you can, and you pretty much know who comes and goes, and people have made deals to use a basket after you and your friends get done playing with school or whatever. Now, there's some people you know hanging around, crouched over in the corner, but you're not sure what they're doing. Doesn't that make you curious? It probably should, assuming you've got any interest in the things going on around your place. So, why not show the same sort of interest when you see various things going on in your territory? You never know what sort of Storylines you can manifest just by paying attention to the little details and asking certain characters, "Hey, what's up with you in my territory? Whatcha doing?"

Fiefs

If you've looked at the Domain system, you know about Fiefs. You also know Fiefs are little bits of awesome that you can get a bonus die for allies types and special benefits off of too. You don't? Well, you're looking at this little write up prematurely. You should go find out what they are. Now, assuming you do, here's the skinny on a couple things you should know.

1. Fiefs should not be rolled secretly. I mean, really, there's not really any reason for you to take the -2 dice penalty on rolling a Fief. Why? Because when you buy it, anyone that does a Domain check anyway is going to see your shit, so it's sort of like doing a secret allies use and then blocking a trace of that use right afterwards. I mean, you're going to get caught doing that sort of obvious shit, so don't do it here either.
2. Fiefs should be used to supplement, not replace, not done beforehand. In general, if you've struck out randomly with a Fief that's in an area you want to get in, but aren't yet, you're doing it wrong. You'd think it were common sense, but you'd be surprised how many people buy random Fiefs with "plans to use for..." and then never use it. If you aren't going to use a Fief, and you don't need it to buy Domain, there is no reason for you to have it. You're doing yourself an injustice. Buy Fiefs only when you know you're going to use them.
3. Domain 2 or Fiefs in a Domain at 2? A lot of people have asked this question. There’s not really a good answer to it. The best way is to break down the options you have and let you decide what is best for your character on an individual basis.

• Domain allows you to have all of the Fief Benefits in a domain (equal to the Domain level you have), and any checks and uses apply to the whole domain. It also gives you the bonus dice of +Domain on social rolls, it’s your turf. But, you don’t get the Fief allies.
• Fief gives you all of the benefits of a domain, on a smaller level, and you get allies. It gives you extra uses which you can use towards domain actions, or if you have Domain, can combine with Domain. You usually wind up spending more XP than you would with Domain 1 and 2, as there’s 2+ fiefs in each domain, but you can get multiple Allies potentially up to Level 2 which really are nearly invulnerable to harm (if someone attacks your allies that you only have with Fief, and succeed, you just lose uses. They regain as if you simply failed an allies roll).

Get a Partner

It's tough to manage 2 uses per week, especially when every other week you should be throwing up a Defend of some kind, and still have an active view of a territory. On top of that, you sometimes actually need to make shit difficult for someone in your territory. The best way to do this is for your character to have a back-up person. It's tricky, especially if they turn on you, but still yet, a second is invaluable to proper domain management. Get one and share the load. You should be running a domain Check (1 use) at the very least once a week. You obviously need a Defend (1+ uses). Sometimes you have to do a Road Block or Attack (1 use) on somebody. Sometimes you should probably even have a Watch for Poachers up (2 uses). You can do the math here, you need some extra uses!

Sites

Sites are one of our newer systems and tend to sometimes be very heavily used, and other times not at all used. There’s a couple reasons for this, but usually the main reason is: people don’t really think about them. But they cost no XP, only downtime! There are some things you should know, though, before you dive into the Sites game with other characters.

1. Other characters know when you are poking around a Site.
2. Each Site is a part of a Fief. Sometimes Fiefs are claimed. Sometimes claimees of Fiefs/Domains do not want you f’ing with their stuff for free. Sometimes other characters do not want you f’ing with their claim.

Now that you understand that, here’s some ideas for playing the Site game.

1. Feint. Find out what sites certain characters roll on, then fake-roll on them to trigger you on the “Other individuals at this site:” list. Only a single roll will accomplish this goal, but unless they investigate successes on a Site with that system, they won’t know how many successes you have. Then, you roll like a mad-man on the Site you want the most.
2. Block someone’s pool at a Site. This is a nasty way to hurt a potentially large pool against you, there is a semi-permanent method of doing this (through allies), and a more temporary one (through Domain and Fief). Levying dice pools on people tends to hurt them rather badly, especially if they have a poor pool to begin with, but with lots of Downtime to waste so they’re able to spam-roll win at a Site. Spam rolling 2 dice doesn’t work out so well!
3. Make a claim with a territory holder, make them do your dirty work. This is purely IC manuevering! Work out a deal with a character for claim to a Site and if they accept the deal, they are (in theory...) bound to defend your claim so long as your character is paying it’s debt.