Influence System

Influence System:
Parties have influence in different sectors. The level of Influence will determine how easy it is to effect that sector and get things done. Actually getting things done requires the spending of PIP's.
Table of Influence effects:

Level Pip Discount Loss of Influence per game
10 50% 10%
9 40% 10%
8 35% 10%
7 30% 10%
6 25% 10%
5 20% 10%
4 15% 10%
3 10% 0%
2 5% 0%
1 0% 0%
0 Cannot effect Sector 0%

Additionally your Party's influence in a Sector dictates how much information you can get out of that Sector and thus how many rumours members of that Party will receive.

There is no limit to the number of Sectors that a single group can be in charge of. E.g. The Mechanists can be in control of 3 Sectors; the Free Thinkers in charge of 5 and the Entropists in charge of 1 at the same time.
Only 1 group will be able to have Level 10 control in a given Sector at any time. When another group reaches Level 9 control they will be informed who is actually in control of the Sector: when you have that much Influence you can find things out that are usually well hidden.

Earning Influence Points

You can Generate influence for your Party in a Sector by enacting the downtime action listed under that name in General Actions

Your effectiveness is based on your skills in the Expression skill tree. Oratory will generate some Influence instantly; Writing generates slightly more over a few downtimes; and Art generates the most Influence over the longest period.
Cognitive Science: Politics also increases your ability to generate Influence.

To give you a vague time scale: a character with Lvl 1 Expression will be able to increase a Sectors level from 0 to 1 in approximately 15 downtime actions.

To get things done in a sector costs PIPs. This does not take any weeks and can be a variety of things from getting a bomb placed on a bus, to getting a batch of drugs stolen. Exactly what you ask for will determine the PIP cost.