Latest revision as of 01:18, 6 April 2010

Gothic Lolita Bureaucracy Tree

• Greedy Lolita Merchant (1/1)

• Bureaucracy Insight of the Lolita (1/1)
  • Confusing Lolita Bureaucracy (2/2)
    • Absolute Gothic Lolita Bureaucracy (3/3)
      • Persistent Loli Bureaucracy Augmentation (4/4)
        • Reality Revision: Mistress of Marionettes (6/6)
• Socio-Economical Embarrassment Technique (1/2)
  • Cut the Crap (2/2, also requires Bureaucracy Insight of the Lolita)
    • Impossibly Irrefutable Droning Speech (4/2)
  • Skeletons in the Closet (2/2)
    • Installment of Secrecy Method (3/2)
      • The Devil’s Contract (4/2)
    • More Coal to the Flame (3/2)
      • Pointing Finger of Blame (5/3)
        • I Rule With a Silk Glove and a Leather Whip (5/4, also requires Impossibly Irrefutable Droning Speech)

Greedy Lolita Merchant

• Cost: None (1 mote)
• Duration: Permanent/Instant
• Type: Special
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 1
• Minimum Moe: 1
• Prerequisite Charms: None

Only a fool would try to cheat the Lolitas. This Charm grants them a perfect awareness and insight to estimate the quality and condition of anything. This awareness gives one bonus success on any price haggling if her bargaining opponent is honest (and using Charisma) and three bonus successes if the opponent is dishonest (and using Manipulation).

Also, whenever she enters a town/community, by reflexively spending a mote of Moe and succeeding in a Wits + Bureaucracy roll, the Gothic Lolita immediately determines what is and isn’t for safe, legally (and illegally, if the Gothic Lolita has a least a dot in Larceny), and where to find it. She also gains a sense of current market trends in that community.

Reality Revision: Mistress of Marionettes

• Cost: 15 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 6
• Minimum Moe: 6
• Prerequisite Charms: Persistent Loli Bureaucracy Augmentation

Like a puppeteer, the Gothic Lolita controls an entire organization, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. Even if nobody is even aware of her presence, she rules from the shadows, looking after her assets with the care of a mother cat and the severity of a black widow. Even if she wants to destroy the organization from within, she finds it as easy a plucking out a leaf.

There’s no limit to the geographical and demographical size of the organization. She could even control the Scarlet Empire, if she can make the roll. She rolls Manipulation + Bureaucracy, and so does the player of the highest ranked member of the organization. Both the Gothic Lolita and her opponent add their permanent Moe in automatic successes to the roll. If the Lolita succeeds, the organization is under her control. As simple as that. Of course, it is up to the Storyteller to describe the Gothic Lolita’s gradual rise to absolute power, as discrete or blatantly obvious as the Gothic Lolita’s player desires.

From that moment on, the execution of this Charm is mostly by roleplaying. However, the following are some mechanical effects the Gothic Lolita can benefit from while this Charm is in effect:

• She has complete control of the corruption and efficiency of her organization. When she wants it to work, it works wonders; when she wants it to go down the gutter, it does. She can, at will assign an efficiency bonus or a corruption penalty to all actions of the organization. The maximum bonus/penalty that can be assigned is the Gothic Lolita’s Intelligence + Bureaucracy.
• She can control the incomes and outcomes of individual members of the organization, herself included, by manipulating the profits or losses made by the individual. All business dealings turn a profit/loss to the target of up to (the Gothic Lolita’s Moe x 10) percent.
• She may freely spread rumors and truths throughout the organization, as the Charm Pointing Finger of Blame, or she could achieve the exact opposite effect.

Other advantages, mechanical or dramatic, are up to the Storyteller.

When the Gothic Lolita ends the Charm, she has one last option. She may make another contested Manipulation + Bureaucracy roll against the leader of the organization. If the Lolita succeeds, she can make the choice of permanently imposing a massive compulsion that makes the organization work either a perfectly honest fashion or to be swallowed in a spiral of corruption beyond redemption.

Socio-Economical Embarassment Technique

• Cost: 1 mote per die
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Re-Useless
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 1
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: None

With a swift infusion of Moe, the target’s mind is confused by her own doubts and insecurities, temporarily weakening her effectiveness in a critical moment. For every mote spent, the target loses one die from a single Bureaucracy roll. This Charm cannot reduce a victim’s dice pool lower than her Moe, however. Socio-Economical Embarrassment Technique can be invoked any time after an appropriate action has been declared but before dice are rolled. The Gothic Lolita can even setup the targeted roll, such as by asking a pointed question in a meeting.

Cut the Crap

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Re-Useless
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 2
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Bureaucracy Insight of the Lolita, Socio-Economical Embarassment Technique

By speaking brusquely and projecting a supernatural aura of menace, a Gothic Lolita with this Charm can put an abrupt end to the drawn-out process of debate. The targeted argument ends within moments with the best resolution that the Exalt could have achieved with continued discussion. For example, a character could use this Charm to derive the best price from a merchant, saving minutes or perhaps even hours of haggling. This isn’t a perfect “final word” Charm. If the final answer would be no regardless of what the Lolita might say or argue, then the answer remains no. This Charm simply brings the matter to a conclusion instantly.

Impossible Irrefutable Droning Speech

• Cost: 3 motes
• Duration: One minute
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 4
• Minimum Endurance: 1
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Cut the Crap

The Gothic Lolita begins her speech, so droning and emotionless that her audience finds it difficult to follow her. Those who manage are confronted by such powerful arguments (regardless of whether they’re true or not) that they find it hard to counter her arguments. The speech lasts for an entire minute, in which the Lolita doesn’t even stop to breathe. The Gothic Lolita’s player makes her Bureaucracy or Performance roll as normal, but all rivals add the Gothic Lolita’s Moe to the difficulty of their counterarguments.

Skeletons in the Closet

• Cost: 2 motes
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 2
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Socio-Economical Embarassment Technique

With this Charm, a Gothic Lolita can perceive corrupt officials and bureaucrats or gauge a “clean” official’s susceptibility to corruption. Her player rolls Perception + Bureaucracy, against a difficulty of the target’s Moe score. A simple success allows the Lolita sense whether the target has ever engaged in corruption or not. With three successes, the character can measure the depth of the target’s corruption or her overall vulnerability to such. With five successes, the Gothic Lolita gains a vague sense of the target’s offenses or hints of how best to corrupt her.

Installment of Secrecy Method

• Cost: 5 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 3
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Skeletons in the Closet

The Gothic Lolita instills a sense of fear, stress and nervousness within an organization. Nobody dares say a stray word in fear of the consequences. Even if their intention is to protect the bureau with their silence, it only makes things worse. Needless to say, outsiders are seeing with mistrust and subtly kept in check. The difficulty of rolls to gain access to the bureau’s records increases by the Gothic Lolita’s Moe. Gaining information by talking to the members is plainly impossible, and the whole organization is simply impervious to corruption and bribes.

The Devil's Contract

• Cost: 5 or 10 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 4
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Installment of Secrecy Method

The bureaucratic world revolves around contracts. Whether they are verbal or written, and whether they include indecipherable documents or kissing within a magical circle, Gothic Lolitas know how to trick others to come out with the best possible benefits. This Charm increases the difficulty for a character to discover hidden traps in a contract or to be able to locate hidden defects in merchandize the character is offering for sale. In all cases, the tricks or traps must be reasonably subtle. This Charm will not cause someone to sign a contract to sell themselves instantly into slavery when they think they are signing a contract to purchase a villa, nor will it cause a character to overlook the fact that the horse she is buying only has three legs.

The 10-mote version of this Charm works when the Gothic Lolita is deciding the terms of the contract (which possibly includes the write-up of a document). The Lolita rolls her Bureaucracy rating. Each success adds 1 to the difficulty of the Wits + Bureaucracy roll needed to discover the contract’s problems and subtle “small words”. The difficulty always increases at least by 1, even if the player rolls no successes. The 5-mote version works in-the-field. This version always increases the difficulty of the Wits + Bureaucracy roll by 1. This Charm has no effect on the Intelligence + Bureaucracy roll the character’s player can use to attempt to further conceal such problems. As a result, the most subtle of the hidden problems become almost impossible to find, while problems that are more obvious are simple slightly less easy to spot. This Charm only works on a single target. If several people are examining the item or contract when the character uses the 5-mote version, then the character must use it on each of them separately.

More Coal to the Flame

• Cost: 4 motes
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 3
• Minimum Moe: 2
• Prerequisite Charms: Skeletons in the Closet

With the right words whispered to the proper ears, the Lolita sows the seeds of discord, mistrust and infighting in an organization, effectively slowing the development of a project. She rolls Intelligence or Manipulation + Bureaucracy, adding her Moe in automatic successes. If the person responsible for this project wishes a speedy resolution, have that person roll Intelligence + Bureaucracy, subtracting the successes obtained from the Gothic Lolita’s.

If the Gothic Lolita succeeds, the Charm multiplies the remaining time required for the target organization to begin that project by (the Lolita’s Moe + 1). It is always increased to at least (her Moe) hours. If the project has already begun, this Charm increases the difficulty of all rolls to make progress by the Gothic Lolita’s Moe.

Aside from the mechanical effects of this Charm, the very evolution of its effect can become of great importance. Tempers flare, growing mistrust leads to outright hostility and factionalism; the bureau steadily grinds to a halt and implodes under the weight of indolence and excess. Few organizations of mortals can withstand more than a month of this Charm without utterly disintegrating.

Pointing Finger of Blame

• Cost: 10 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Instant
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 5
• Minimum Moe: 3
• Prerequisite Charms: More Coal to the Flame

This is an improvement to More Coal to the Flame. As such, it needs this Charm to be active before it can be used. Aside from the normal effect of More Coal to the Flame, the Gothic Lolita may now focus the discord against a specific leader of the organization. Even if there is no actual coup or assassination attempt (though there might well be), the concomitant treachery and distrust makes all but the most tyrannical despot utterly ineffective. The victim’s orders are twisted or disregarded by his subordinates, while overall morale drops to an all-time low. It is unlikely that any mortal leader can last more than a month with a hierarchy that hates and mistrusts him. Whether he’s just pushed out of office or stabbed to death in a dark alley depends much on the character can nature of the victim’s subordinates and the type of organization. Ironically, true tyrants have little to fear from this Charm, as they already know how to retain authority in the face of negative popular opinion.

I Rule With a Silk Glove and a Leather Whip

• Cost: 12 motes, 1 Willpower
• Duration: Indefinite
• Type: Speech
• Minimum Bureaucracy: 5
• Minimum Moe: 4
• Prerequisite Charms: Impossibly Irrefutable Droning Speech, Pointing Finger of Blame

As the name of the Charm states, the Gothic Lolita rules with the delicacy of velvet and the harshness of brambles. She enchants her own authority to sow fear and discourage rebellion. The character must have some recognized leadership position in order to use this Charm, although the type and scope of leadership doesn’t matter. While this Charm is active, no one with a Willpower score lower than the Gothic Lolita’s can bring herself to consider disobedience, let alone participate in outright rebellion.

Individuals with a Willpower rating equal to the Gothic Lolita’s Willpower may act against the despot, but their players suffer a difficulty increase of the Gothic Lolita’s Moe on all Social rolls to rally others to the cause. Characters whose Willpower exceeds the Gothic Lolita’s are immune to this Charm, as are all magical beings. Also, this Charm only affects members of the hierarchy over which the Exalt presides.

Comments

I would suggest the size of the thing being taken over should probably figure into the difficulty of using Mistress of Marionettes. Is the efficiency and corruption bonus bonus dice/penalty dice? Overall, lots of good charms. --JohnBiles