Pact Descendants

This is a pact created between Characters. A Pact is a special type of Group Descendant that the Character has joined. It is used to represent Guild memberships and even the sharing of experience and treasure that takes place in most adventuring groups. Using pacts requires a look at the Sway table.

A Pact is a Group Incarna Descendant, that is owned by every member. Anyone who has purchased the Pact is a member of the Pact. As new members join the cost to join the Pact will increase, but the die also increase. Older members get the upgraded Pact for Free! The Boon of the Pact Descendant and the effects they have should be calculated as follows.

• Pacts are a special type of Descendant (which adds to the cost to create them 5 Yarn, 16 Chi or 32 Sway)
• Pact should have a Boon equal to the Yarn required for the most powerful member (so any Pact involving Solos must be at least Boon 6).
• Increase the Boon at least equal to the total number of Members Double Reduced. So 101 members adds 5 to the Boon.
• Referees should note that, like other Descendants, Pacts can vary in normal purchase cost based on how common membership is (and how old the Pact is).
  

  Commonality or age	Cost modified
  Very Common / very old (e.g. Beggar’s Guild / Citizenship)	Base Cost Reduced x2
  Common / old (e.g. High-Fantasy Mage Guild / Franchise Employee / Party Pact)	Base Cost x2
  Uncommon / Brand new / Secretive (E.g. Hacker collective / Thieves guild)	Base Cost x3
  Rare / Just starting up / Very secretive (E.g. Mage School/ Illuminati)	Base Cost Value

  The cost of an Elven Mage joining the Elf Species and Mage Guild Pacts would be much cheaper in a Fantasy world (Base Cost Reduced x2 or Base Cost x2) with an established Elven Culture than in a Gritty Cyberpunk universe (Base Cost x3 or even Base Cost Value). In some games the kindly Referee may grant Characters Level 1 membership of their Nation/Species Pact for free, overly kind Referees may even increase these free Levels for narrative reasons (making the characters nobles or company executives for example).

Additional details about the Pact Descendants that isn’t the cost.

• The Pact has a number of Levels equal to the Yarn cost of the Total Membership +1. So a Pact of 101 members would have 6 Levels. It is normal to join the Pact at Level 1. The Leader will have the highest Level possible (in this case Level 6).

• Members of a Pact MUST have a Pact Requirement Umbral or a Pact Handicap (Duty, Devotion, Confined or Taboo Handicaps are common) equal to the Boon of the Pact Reduced plus the Level they are at. This Handicap does not reduce the cost of the Descendant.

• Pacts do not become Trophies, Monoliths, or Artefacts, nor can they become Dark Matter. Instead as you pay in Sway, Chi or Yarn you move up the organisation.
  

  Each level costs the Base purchase cost for the Pact Descendant multiplied by the Level that you are buying, so ×2 to buy Level 2. Referees will usually require at least an Ordeal be passed to win the chance to purchase that new Level, some may wish to create a Story, or even an Arc, where the chance to purchase the level (and some Sway towards the cost) is the final Gain. It is worth noting that you can also be knocked out of a Level by people below buying up, the oldest member at that level is usually knocked down a level. Losing a level in this way will return the Sway that you spent less that Sway reduced. So when Guido buys himself onto the council with 100 Sway whoever he knocks out gets (100-16=) 84 Sway back.

• Pacts are used for modelling organisations such as Guilds, Companies, Nations, Species, and Corporations as well as secret societies and traditional adventuring parties. The Pact can be rolled just like any other Descendant, adding to rolls that are to do with the Pact.
  

  When used in this way, Pacts are exactly like normal Skill Descendants. Referees may allow Pacts to add Nimbeds and Umbrals to their Annexes. It is suggested that to keep costing simple any Nimbeds are balanced by the Umbrals present. But otherwise the cost can be modified up by a Nimbed Boon or Down by an Umbral Boon. Referees must have final say in the presence of these Umbrals and Nimbeds on Pacts.

• The Level of the Pact you have achieved, and the type of Character you have, restricts how often and how much Sway you take as a share. The time between payments (and the Sway type of the payment) is governed by your Type. Look up the type on the Sway Table. Grunts are paid in Sway, Mercari in Chi and Solos in Yarn. The amount of Sway gained from the Pact is equal to a roll of that Boon’s dice (or the average) multiplied by the Reduced Level of the Pact that you are at. So halved at level 1, normal at level 2-4, x2 at level 5-7, x3 for levels 8-11, x4 for levels 12-15, x5 for level 16-20, and so on.

• You can borrow Sway from your Pact anytime you like, but you will not get paid by the Pact until you pay the loan back. The number of Levels of the pact govern the maximum amount of Sway that can be borrowed (as Yarn on the Sway Table), multiplied by the Level that you are at. So a 16 Level Pact can lend 184 Sway to any member at level 1 and the Leader of this Pact would be able to borrow 2,944 Sway.

Party Pacts

A common use for a Pact descendant is for the Party to create a Pact amongst themselves. This use is called a Party Pact, and can be used by a Referee as one side of a Plot Conflict for a Plot daemon (So be aware that by creating the Pact you are handing the Referee a stick, but that’s true of any Pact really). Party Pacts become a good source of downtime Sway gathering, but may cause jealousy between members of the party at differing levels. For these reasons you might want to think carefully about who should be allowed to claim membership of the Party Pact, and whether anyone will in fact be allowed to raise to level 2 (or 3 or even 4 for a larger party). A simple Party Pact for 4 Mercari would have a Boon of (Mercari=4 + 4 double reduced =0.5)= 5 1d3(2) and 2 Levels. It would Cost 42 Chi or 84 Sway to join the Pact.