Spheres of Influence

[TheAntiSummit]

In a campaign I will be running that I have already mentioned in the "Plots, Places"..." forum, PCs will be members of a secret organization whose membership has been drawn from all the powerful factions in a city. I want to give them a measure of their sway in their particular faction called sphere of influence. I know that this can be roleplayed but i would like to also have a mechanic to handle the randomness of this sort of thing.

Example: A PC is a member of the city guard. The council needs to insert one of their own into the palace to help a prisoner of the palace break free. The guard PC would try and use his sphere of influence in the city guard or the military or whatever his official sphere of influence was to make this happen. He might call in a favor and get himself transfered to the entrance that the organization will be using so he can let them in, or convince a guard friend to turn a blind eye or however else he could think of using his sphere of influence.

My questions is how would you implement this? Should it be a skill? A Value that increases with level? A pool of points that the PCs draw from whenever they need to use their sphere? How can i make this useful to all players in equal measure without unbalancing it?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'd keep it simple. In general higher level = more respect = more power.

For more detailed reactions (such as getting a favor from your allies), I'd do it as a Diplomacy or Profession check (Profession works well because a lot of classes get it as a class skill).

 

[Tonguez]

IMC Influence = Level + Cha mod (so a Lv 2 Guard Cha 14 has Influence = 4)

Influence points can then be added to whatever skill checks are required (Diplomacy, Bluff, Gather Info) to get what the PC wants

 

[alsih2o]

+2, +4, +6 or +8 in all diplo, gather info, bluff, intimidate yada yada depending on rank in the organization, rank of person being skilled and level of risk, with modifiers for preparation and successful disguise, etc checks.

so, with a good disguise check and a higher rank and fairly risk free you would get +8.

against a superior, and with small risk you only get +2. which might be offset by other interaction mods.

OR

just consider everyone in their SOI as one step friendlier on the npc attitude chart than they normally would be