Pooling Backgrounds
Optional Rule
Some Backgrounds lend themselves to joint ownership. Specifically, the members of a coterie may choose to pool their individual stores of Allies, Contacts, Domain, Herd, Influence, Resources, and Retainers.
In the end, most vampires end up following personal goals over the course of their unlives. Pooled Backgrounds are a great way for young Kindred to gain an initial advantage as neonates in the World of Darkness, but they quickly become outdated or even liabilities as the Kindred formerly attached to them pursue their own, private agendas.
The Anchor
You and the other players choose one Background as the anchor that holds the shared assets together. For example, this Background might be Domain, with the physical place the characters claim as their haven and for hunting, which also acts as a meeting ground for the mortals they deal with, a repository for their wealth, and so on. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve in this role, however: Herd might be this coterie’s key to sustenance and stability.
No Background pool can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If the Background is damaged by events during play or between sessions, other assets drift away from the characters’ control, and it takes effort to win them back.
Any character contributing to the pool may pull his stake out at any time. The dislocations guarantee some damage: The character gets back one dot less than he put in.
Example: The members of the Bloody Sunday coterie build their Background pool around Domain. The physical territory of a ruined church and its economically depressed environs give them the opportunity to interact with down-and-out members of their squalid neighborhood and a ragged group of mortals who fear the creepy squatters in the old church. They put a total of four dots into the Domain pool. Members of the coterie also spend three points on pooled Resources and three points on pooled Influence.
Then things go awry. A Sabbat incursion leads to the arrival of a trouble-shooting Archon, and in the city’s paranoia, another coterie mistakes Bloody Sunday for a Sabbat pack and sets the church on fire. The Domain rating drops from 4 to 2. Nobody comes to a burned-down church to score, so the coterie’s drug-related Resources also drops to 2. With the church slated for demolition (after a particularly harrowing encounter, the coterie barely avoided the fire marshal discovering that they made their haven there), the coterie’s pooled Influence also falls from 3 to 2 as they fight the zoning and demolition permits through proxies.
Sustained effort by Bloody Sunday can repair the damage. Many options are available, from having the church declared a local historical site and thus exempt from demolition “pending repairs” — to taking a tricky political path and trying to achieve satisfaction from the mistaken coterie (or overzealous Archon…).
As the Anchor Background rating rises again, so do the ratings of those anchored to it, as a result of storytelling directed toward the goals of improving lost Backgrounds.
Using Pooled Backgrounds
Under normal circumstances, a coterie can’t change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new Anchor Background. While it may choose to abandon a certain Background asset over the course of a chronicle (and thus free itself of the limitations of the pooled Backgrounds in question), the fact that Backgrounds change value only as a result of the story’s events means that the coterie must acquire new Backgrounds in that manner, rather than through freebie or experience points.
Pooled Backgrounds are shared resources; essentially the coterie’s communal property. Anyone who contributes to the pool (no matter how much he contributes) has equal access to it. Even if the character donates to only one of the pool’s associated Backgrounds, he still has equal access to it. Not everyone can use the pool simultaneously, though. A Herd pool of seven dots can grant access only to the same, finite number of vessels. Just how those points are split up depends on the circumstances and agreements between the characters.
Example: Four players decide that their characters are forming a Background pool. Their anchor is Resources (the thriving blood doll trade among jaded elders), and they wish to get dots in Contacts (from the elders themselves), Domain (recognition of sovereign hunting grounds from the elders for whom they’re providing fresh vessels), and Retainers (a few lackeys who can move about by day). Jeff contributes three dots of Resources; Michelle contributes another two dots of Resources and two of Domain; Joe contributes another two dots of Retainers, two to Contacts, and one to Domain. Finally, Kelley — who is short on dots — contributes only one dot of Retainers. This makes the pool Resources 5, Contacts 2, Domain 3, Retainers 3. All the players can have their characters tap this pool equally, even Kelley, who contributed only a single dot.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, players can agree to place individual access limits on shared Backgrounds, to reflect any agreements their characters have made with one another. Sometimes being the Kindred who contributed fewer Backgrounds than the others comes with its own considerations.
Upper Limits
By pooling points, a coterie can get Backgrounds that surpass the normal five-dot limit. This arrangement is normal, and it reflects the advantages of cooperation. A group can secure a larger domain or maintain a larger network of allies and contacts than a single vampire can. There is no absolute upper limit on the level to which a pooled Background can rise, but things can get downright ludicrous if you aren’t careful. It’s usually best for the Storyteller to impose a 10-dot limit on the Anchor Background (and thus on all others).
The Storyteller should also take into consideration the scaling of Backgrounds, increasing their reliability rather than their quantitative value as the ratings escalate among the coterie. For example, if an average player group of four players each contributes a single dot or two to a shared Resources pool of 6, the effect shouldn’t be that they’re collectively the world’s secret Kindred billionaires, but rather that they’re of more modest means, and that those means are more difficult to wrest from them by other jealous vampires. This is a question of balancing player expectations with elements of the story, so be sure to set some guidelines for what the shared Backgrounds actually represent before the chronicle begins.
Also in W20 p. 142 — text differs from V20 (67%)
Some Backgrounds can relate to the pack, rather than the individual werewolves. Specifically, the members of a pack may choose to pool their individual Allies, Contacts, Fate, Kinfolk, and Resources. Totem as a Background already applies to the pack rather than an individual character, thus is not a candidate for pooling.
A character can draw on a pooled Background even if that Background is normally restricted for her tribe.
The Anchor
The players should choose one Background as the anchor that links their characters’ shared assets together. For example, the players of a pack of Glass Walkers might
choose Resources, with the money and property placed in joint ownership to the pack explaining how the pack can access skilled people, connect to Kinfolk around the world, and even serve their destiny as a pack of moneyed werewolves. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve as an anchor: packs with grand Fates often find their destinies include other people and resources.
No pooled Background can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If that Background is damaged by events during play or in downtime, the other assets drift out of the pack’s control, and it takes effort to win them back.
Any character contributing to a pool may withdraw his stake at any time, but extracting personal assets from a pack causes some damage and bruises relationships: he gets back one less dot than he put in.
Example: The members of the Irregulars build their shared Background pool around the pack’s Allies: a group of ex-squaddies and political agitators in London who can put them in touch with a people in almost every field, and through whom the Irregulars can call on Kinfolk for assistance. They put a total of five dots into the Allies pool. Members of the pack add four points of pooled Contacts, and two points of pooled Kinfolk.
A pack of Black Spiral Dancers wants to make life difficult for the pack, and slaughters the people the Garou relied on for help. Their Allies rating drops from 5 to 3. With so many people dead, the Irregulars can’t get in touch with many of their old Contacts, so that Background also drops from 4 to 3. Fortunately, the Black Spiral Dancers didn’t kill anyone who knew about the Kinfolk, so that pooled rating doesn’t change.
Sustained effort by the Irregulars to help people out and forge new alliances and friendships in new areas can repair the damage. Who knows who their new friends will be able to introduce them to?
As the Anchor Background rating rises again, so do the ratings of those anchored to it, as a result of storytelling directed toward the goals of improving the lost Backgrounds.
Under normal circumstances, a pack can’t change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new one. While it may choose to abandon the assets represented by a given Background over the course of a chronicle, and thus free itself from the limitations of the backgrounds pooled to that Anchor, the fact that most Backgrounds can change value only as a result of the story’s events means that the pack must acquire new Backgrounds in this manner. The only exception among pooled Backgrounds is Fate, and even then experience points should be used to improve it when discovering more about what the world has in store for the pack.
While some werewolves want to pursue their personal goals, the majority pull together and act as a pack against any hardships. It can be hard for a pack to accept pooling their Backgrounds when they don’t necessarily know or trust one another, but as time moves on, most packs see the utility in holding assets as a pack rather than an individual. It makes sense on a fundamental level — the pack, not the werewolf, is the fundamental unit of Garou society.
Using Pooled Backgrounds
Pooled Backgrounds represent the pack’s communal property. Anyone who contributes to any aspect of the pool has equal access to the full resources. Even a character who donates only one dot of Contacts still has equal access to all the Backgrounds in the pool. Not everyone can use the pool at the same time. A pool of seven Allies represents the same seven people. Who is available to help which members of the pack depends on circumstances and agreements among the pack. Drawing on a pack’s Fate has certain limitations that go beyond this; see the Background’s description on p. 137 for more information.
Example: Four Glass Walkers form a pool around their shared Resources — their investments and the property and assets of their wholly-owned corporation. They wish to get dots of Contacts (people in the business world), Allies (specialists each werewolf has met in her travels), and Fate (the pack is prophesied to shake the Garou Nation from a pillar of wealth). Beth contributes three dots of Resources and one of Contacts; Danny adds two dots of Allies and one dot of Resources; Laura can contribute two dots of Resources and three dots of Fate; Chuck is short on dots, but can contribute a dot of Fate and a dot of Contacts. This makes the pool Resources 6, Allies 2, Contacts 2, Fate 4 (with a pack Fate limit of 3, and a personal Fate limit of 1). Everyone can tap this pool equally: Chuck can draw on all the pack’s Resources if necessary, while Beth and Danny can both draw on the pack’s Fate for their own ends — despite not having any Fate of their own.
Some packs may agree to place an individual access limit on shared Backgrounds, to reflect any agreements between the packmates, at the Storyteller’s discretion. These arrangements are more common among young packs who do not yet trust one another.
Upper Limits
Packs can get Backgrounds that surpass the normal five-dot limit through pooling their points. This is normal, and reflects the many advantages of a pack working together — a pack can keep in touch with more people, or maintain tighter control over a range of investments than one werewolf can. Pooled Backgrounds don’t have any absolute upper limit, but things get outright bizarre if
Also in M20 p. 302, M20 p. 303 — M20 text (Technocratic teams and mystic circles)
Cooperation benefits everyone. A team of Technocratic operatives – or, at the Storyteller’s discretion, a tight circle of like-minded mystics – can pool certain Background Traits and then share them with the group as a whole. In the case of Technocracy ops, that’s a fairly standard procedure; for mystic mages, the group must have a common purpose and a very close connection with one another – say, a witches’ coven, an Etherite lab-group, a hacker society, and so forth. The following Backgrounds can be shared within a single group: Allies, Backup, Influence, Laboratory, Library, Mentor, Node, Patron, Resources, Requisitions, Spies and Wonder. Other backgrounds are too individual to be shared this way. Although mystic mages can pool their Background points toward a common Chantry, Technocratic agents are specifically prohibited from doing so. When you’re part of that Union, you go where they tell you to go, belong to the group they tell you to belong to, and don’t even think of establishing your own base of control. In story terms, the members of the group agree to hold certain assets in common. The group’s leader determines who gets what and when, then takes the necessary steps to secure that Background for his group. In game terms:
• The players pool their Background points and then put them into certain Backgrounds that each member of the group can use. These Backgrounds are then listed as Group Assets or Shared Resources on the character sheet of each member of that group.
• If a member of that group quits, dies, or falls out of favor with the group, her Background points are withdrawn from the group’s total. She, in turn, loses access to the Group Asset Backgrounds, assuming she’s alive to use them. The other members either lose those points permanently or replace them with new points of their own.
• Individual characters may keep a few Background points aside for personal use. If nothing else, each mage in that group should have a point or two in the Avatar/ Genius Background.
• When the group’s leader requisitions new gear for his team, the chances of success are based on the team’s relationship to its superiors. A hotshot pack of malcontents will have a harder time getting gear than an efficient strike force. The pool may come from membership in a larger group.
• If a specific member of the team tries to “borrow” a Background (see below), that player makes the roll. Failure, however, might affect the team as a whole, which might get the offending agent thrown under the bus for the sake of the group.
• If the group members want to purchase a high-level Background (see Background Ratings Over Five, above), they may do so if the Storyteller agrees. All the points get totaled up, and that Background becomes group property. A team that assembles some really large assets, though, may attract unwanted attention, especially if they belong to the Technocracy. Members of the Union should always remember their place in the greater whole, and vast Resources (other than money among Syndicate operatives) might reflect an unmutual attitude.