The Ghost/It's Connections or Nothing

The Variant in a Nutshell: Contacts and Influence are both horribly broken backgrounds, especially if the GM allows them to be taken at 5 dots at char gen. Either or both can derail entire plots effortlessly and both are not something that GMs should allow casually, but they are actually SUGGESTED for players to take. This rules change fixes that by replacing both of them with Connections for ALL characters, not just DBs and Sids.

The Base Rules

In basic exalted Solars get contacts and influence, two separate backgrounds, but with a nigh universal scope at high levels. The Dragon Blooded meanwhile, who are supposed to be the social butterfly's and established order of the setting get over 20 separate backgrounds which combine the two over a drastically narrowed focus.

The Problem

I don't know who at white wolf said "Let's give the social outcasts of the setting who are supposed to be hunted ruthlessly by nearly everyone the strongest social connections backgrounds!" but whoever it was ought to be slapped. Contacts makes a lot of sense: right up until you start trying to abuse it, as players always will, and then you realize it is BROKEN. (Not that some other backgrounds aren't but in most cases it's a case of too weak, not too strong.) Think about it: how does an anathema from Chiaroscuro know who to talk to in Great Forks? For one thing he may not even speak the language! But OH NO: if he has contacts 5 he can find someone who knows something about what he wants to know about in Great Forks, some tiny village in the far threshold that has never been visited by outsiders for 300 years, the court of a Raksha, or the Imperial City! Sure, in theory the ST is supposed to 'adjudicate' these kinds of things but what about when you have a bunch of Ludus players? You need to make it abundantly clear to them that they cannot pull that kind of stunt, that the RULES wont let them pull that kind of stunt. That's where this change comes in.

Meanwhile Influence is bad for both similar and opposite reasons: On the one hand it is so broad and vague that it ether dominates the game or is a meaningless background: both of which will lead to angry and resentful players. Just to add insult to injury having enough of it to be useful calls down the Wyld Hunt on your head, and by association that of all the other players. This is capitol B Bad...

The Goals

So, we have two backgrounds, one of which is incredibly prone to abuse and the other of which is so inconsistent that you cant feel safe taking it, what to do? We need to make it so that you can get a sense of what your character is capable of with only a few questions to the ST and consulting one or two books so you can know what you are getting into at char gen and plan your character secure in the knowledge that their purchases of backgrounds are not useless.

The New Rules

Well, the authors of the game have already solved this one: combine them into ONE background with a more limited focus, so you KNOW what it can and cannot do in most situations by asking the ST a few probing questions! Instead of Contacts and Influence characters can purchase Connections out of the Dragon Blooded book with a few easy modifications: Instead of "Connections: Thousand Scales" you purchase "Connections: Great Forks Administration" or instead of "Connections: Immaculate Order" you buy "Connections: Brides of Alhat". That's all you need to do to button up this hole: people want contacts and influence they buy it place by place, type by type. This has the added benefit of making it easy to hand out non XP related rewards: instead of XP for completing a story goal they gain a dot of Connections, they perhaps just made friends with the constable, or the mayor now owes them. It also give you a huge sink for the ton upon ton of unspendable XP that mortals get as they age: not so unspendable when you can have dozens of connections backgrounds at 3 XP per dot!